"Do you really think moving away from social democracy with a market economy will eradicate the Special Brew elite and Accident & Emergency frequent flyers' club?"

No I don't Ian, I think there will always be those who don't wish to participate in whatever the societal norm is supposed to be. Perhaps such individuals are too individualistic in nature or perhaps they are simply fucked-up in some way, or maybe they reject the "have more, be better" aspirations of most people. Who knows, but there will always be those who won't dance to the tune of social conformity, whatever tune that may be, and so end up (either by design or default) living on the edge of approved societal norms.

I'm unsure if it is still the case in the Netherlands, but one scheme the Dutch implemented which seemed highly pragmatic to me, was to allow those who wished to 'opt-out' to do so on the understanding that they would receive basic state benefits in return for not accepting any paid work for five years. No need to sign on or otherwise go cap in hand to the benefit office. My understanding of this scheme was that it was based on the notion that any vigorous economy results in a percentage of it's population necessarily being unemployed? But that's something I'm no informed position to argue one way or the other.