Comment by rayiner
21 days ago
That’s the steel-man version of (american) conservatism: civic institutions provide the safety net instead of the government.
And in terms of aggregate outcomes, Utah’s results are impressive. The LDS apparently does a better job teaching kids to read than the government here in Maryland.
> Utah achieves great aggregate outcomes even compared to states that spend a lot more money
That's because you're not counting the money the church spends to replace government programs, which in Utah is significant.
Utah has less money to start with, though. It doesn’t have big industries or things like that. Median income is $40,000 versus about $50,000 in Maryland and Massachusetts.
Yeah, but extremely regressive views on equality and women's rights come along with it....
You can get a lot done when you establish regressive control structures for enforcement. Generally speaking, most people usually don't want that trade-off.
>civic institutions provide the safety net instead of the government
Now that the internet has destroyed local community and trust in institutions, what will conservatism do?