Consequences of the welfare state

“The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the expense of everybody else.”

Fredric Bastiat’s words could not have been more relevant right now. With the nation in economic despair, people across the nation are losing their jobs as some businesses are forced to cut costs or shut down. The government’s response to unemployment is to subsidize workers who don’t have jobs with money to help pay their bills. These welfare benefits, though, are only encouraging irresponsible behavior just like the Fannie and Freddie backings did in the housing market and just like most other government interferences in the market do. This video really shows the destructive side of socialism, the side which Bastiat so lucidly points out:

There is 11.5% unemployment in that town, yet this guy can’t find enough workers. It is ridiculous and it is a sad reflection of our society which is driven by the government and its welfare policies. These policies subsidize those that don’t work, hence efficiently taking away the driver to work for many people. Those that do work are taking these lazy people on their backs and supporting them and it will only last so long. As history has shown, the welfare state does not work and this is a large reason why.

Some may claim that this sort of work is not going to be done by business men and people of “higher social status,” but I guarantee that the day they start to starve they will be willing to do any sort of work in order to support themselves and their families. Any human will do what is necessary in order to survive- it is instinct. The government only provides a socially destructive benefit that takes away that instinct and makes people think they are “too good” to do certain jobs. Ironic how the people for equality actually create this sort of class separation, isn’t it?

This nation needs to instill personal responsibility into the people once more by returning to what it used to stand for- small government, freedom, and free markets. It needs to move away from the welfare state. The words of Bastiat ring loudly today, but sadly, if the Obama administration has its way, then his words may be even louder tomorrow.