Things I believe about the welfare state:
1. There is an inherent tension between certain aspects of human nature and capitalism.
2. The welfare system exists, in part, to help manage this tension.
3. All major entitlement programs, when you look under the skin, have a common structure.
4. This structure generally bundles together features designed to achieve several separable goals.
5. Recognizing the facts of contemporary political economy, we should unbundle and modernize these programs.
I try to flesh out these ideas in a long article in the magazine, now available at NRO.