>>6652
Number 1: The military.
First order, then civilization, then liberty, and then maybe gibs if you are prosperous enough to spare it.
The military keeps order in the first instance, and then protects the country from outside and inside dissolution of the country.
2: The justice system and the police.
This comes under civilization, because wants a basic might makes right style order is established, you need formal rules that reflect the will of the populace, and fuck over any aberrations and criminals.
In the UK, we are losing a lot of freedoms, but relatively speaking, it's still a developed country where the populace like being free. Classical liberalism has a rich history in the UK.
By enforcing a reasonable property rights regime with low red tape, and having an extremely wide range of social freedoms, our government has defended our liberty from alternative hypothetical governments and itself (I'm not being satirical. That's literally how government works. All other theories are nonsense.)
3: Disability Living Allowance and other freebies.
This is one of my favorite. This is gibs for me. Even though my body is healthy, as a child I was diagnosed with aspergers.
Even though I probably could have got a job ages ago, I now sort of defraud the state to stay home and shitpost all day. My mummy gets carer's allowance even though I live in a separate accommodation.
I think this is worth it because I'm too lazy and not smart enough to get a high paying job, so I am in a welfare trap. If I went and worked in a supermarket, I would be miserable and would probably earn less.
I think it's worth it, but there are costs. I think Corbyn would go too far and kill the goose laying the golden eggs.
Even though I am a NEET I applaud the capitalists for the bountiful booty they bestow upon me through the implicit social contract and tax laws. I also applaud our extremely market liberal property rights regime that enables wealth and innovation to be generated by the private sector to begin with. The government could give me all the money in the world, but without the goods to support it, it would be useless.
But on balance, it's nice to have gibs. I'm afraid of the Conservatives, and am trying to try to try to learn programming before I wake up and find they are taking away my gibs.
Weirdly, I learned from their Manifesto that UKIP would actually raise my DLA. I thought they were all Thatcherite and stuff. Oh well, I didn't vote.
4: NHS.
On the one hand, you have to wait and the hospitals have a funding crisis nowadays. On the other, for almost 70 years we've had healthcare free at the point of use.
On balance, it has been worth it, even if we can no longer have it without finally privatizing parts of it. I mean, it was set up during the post-war boom when America was helping rebuild the world, and who knows, maybe the Keynesians got that broken window fallacy fallacy right, after all.
Even so, the NHS should cut costs by refusing to treat smokers, alcoholics, and fatties, and I don't mind paying for drugs to treat non life threatening conditions. We also use antibiotics too freely and are creating rapid bacterial resistance.
Still, on balance, as a member of the genetically inferior white trash underclass, I am glad that the NHS in some form exists, even if it could be both more streamlined and more effective.
5: Public funding of higher ed.
I went to a Nun's charity for free gibs, and managed to go back to college (high school) as an "adult", but the state also did affirmative action for me so that I got more time on exams, and I also got free money for food. I still only got an E in maths, but I got an A in economics so its okay.
Some say that there is a lot of useless crap taught in higher ed, but there is also STEM, and we need smart people who aren't me to learn it so they can enslave us all with robots in the future.