Welfare

Welfare...
Is it a legitimate function of the government to take away the wealth that YOU created and hand it over to someone that's done nothing to earn it? Should those that achieve be punished by being forced to pay the way for those that didn't?

Discuss...

The major problem of welfare is that in the end it is a method of control.  The people who are on welfare typically become dependent and forget how to fend for themselves.  Politicians that support welfare are typically using it as a method of indirect vote buying.  Because welfare is handled by government, all a politician need to do is say "vote for me and I'll ensure your "free" money!"  Since the people on welfare have become reliant upon welfare to continue to live, they typically WILL vote for said politician.  Those same politicians will also use this strategy against their opponents as well.  In order to take votes from their opponents, they simply will say, "If you vote for him, he'll take away your welfare and make you starve!"

The next problem is that if a welfare system grows too large, it'll slowly destroy production.  This is similiar to how communism slowly destroys production.  Simply put, as people who have worked hard to earn their living continue to see their money given to those who have chosen to not work for a living, they start to think to themselves, "Why should I work so hard to make money when I could just as easily go on welfare like that guy?"  So that guy chooses to go onto welfare.  Wash, rinse and repeat.  Soon you have a domino effect of the productive members of society giving up and going into welfare.  GNP goes to hell and the country collapses.  Who cares though, right, because the politicians who supported welfare simply leeched all the money off the top of the welfare plan and probably skipped into another country.

This is one of the reason why social and communist ideals just do not work.