J.K Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, did an interview on the Daily Show recently in which she noted that she was 'the best investment the British government ever made' (referring to her time on the dole). This struck me as particularly apt, and I started to speculate exactly how the American welfare system could be reworked into a 'venture capital' type of system, where net proceeds were tracked in a transparent manner to show that, really, it's ok to help people, because you're actually making money. It's a horrifying statement about a so-called 'Christian nation' (not by me, let me add) that the only way to get people to take care of their neighbours is by showing them that in fact they are getting paid to do it, but if it would help re-frame the debate to something less horrible than what we currently do, it would be totally worth it.