Welfare cuts: Cameron’s problem is that people are nicer than he thinks | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian:

Indeed, this is every politician’s problem. It’s also every socialist’s and conservative’s problem, which is to say that it is the problem with everyone who believes in The State. For they believe the majority of people to be so uncaring that they cannot be trusted to voluntarily fund education for children, health care for the sick, and support for the vulnerable. They believe people to be so lacking in intelligence that they do not know how to act in their own best interest, and so must have money extracted from them under the threat of violence and ‘solutions’ forced upon them. If the majority of people are so selfish and unintelligent that they cannot be trusted to act peacefully and caringly in society, then why do we let them vote? Surely this is madness. Why give them any power? If the majority of people aren’t uncaring and do know what’s best for them in their own circumstances, then what need to coerce, threaten and force them?