With typical nostalgia, he argued that, in 'the old days', public assistance was intended as a temporary substitute for self-provision, and was therefore 'meant to safeguard only a certain minimum'. Now, in contrast, public services were becoming the rule, 'often with the hardly veiled intention of meeting maximal, or indeed, luxury standards'. Posing what was then a 'heretical question', Röpke wondered if it would be better if the welfare state were abolished, 'except for an indispensable minimum', and the money saved directed to nongovernmental social services.

Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, loc. 214