Janskeet said:A little bit of socialism goes a long way in this counrty. You people frown on socialism like we shouldn't have any, but I think it helps the econemy because it keeps the poor and middle class afloat. Without the help of wellfare, social security, these people would be either living on the streets or even more conservative and not play a role in our econemy. By giving them a piece of the pie so to speak we make our econemy stronger. It's not like people get a comfrable life on wellfare. Doesn't it pay people like $400 a month for an individual?
Keeping anything "afloat" does not help the economy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost
Basic economics and basic common sense should tell you that not all investments are equal and that not all investments lead to a positive gain. It's not that difficult to understand.
In terms of comfort, yes, people are not meant to get comfortable on welfare and yet a lot of people are too self destructive to actually care about their discomfort enough to change (it's a bad investment to bail people out when they're destroying themselves). Even then, people have ways to get lots of money on Welfare; depending upon the State you live in, what programs a person is eligible for, and whether or not fraud is going on, a person can get a lot of money from welfare (and in the case of people with shitty life goals, that's a big problem).
As far as efficiency is concerned, most of the time people will take better care of themselves if they do what they need to do on their own (and take the tough consequences of life on directly). In the few rare cases when people do need help, the government does a terrible job of truly helping people's needs (it more often creates more problems than it helps). Before the modern welfare state, poverty was handled much better by private altruism. And, let's not forget that needless government employees suck up the vast majority of every dollar spent on the poor (unlike a private charities which are insanely efficient by comparison). Lastly, wherever the government has supposedly taken on the job of helping the poor, people tend to be much less involved with directly helping others and donating resources to the poor because they either believe that taxes are all they need be concerned with (studies clearly show that Democrat-run states are less giving) or are on welfare themselves (and don't give a shit about other people). Rich people and poor people should be concerned with helping everyone in need regardless of arbitrary designations of status and socialists generally don't seem to understand that.
The main reason for apposing socialism, however, is because it's NOT the governments job to take money from one person and give it to another without any common benefit. That is an act of theft by definition. It's just legalized theft committed by tyrannical majority rule. Populists who think they're doing some great act of compassion by advocating the stealing of people's money should be ashamed of themselves. They have no right to legislate morality like that. The ethical powers of government are very clear and related to the fact that it has the monopoly on force in society. That power should never be abused because we're envious of someone else's wealth or success. If you believe you know how someone else's money can be spent better for the sake of mankind, then you should first gain some self respect and honor by creating some wealth of your own to give away (and thus not waste other people's money on your worthless ideas).
I'm not a person of wealth by any means. In fact, in the situation I've been in for the last few years, I'm virtually certain I would have qualified and still would qualify for welfare. I have no health or dental insurrance and haven't used any such services in years and could probably use the ample amounts of government assistance available here in Minnesota. Welfare is a disgusting notion, however. All of the people in this country who work hard and do the right thing should not have government punish their productivity for the sake of our nation's control freaks; just because they desire to feel better about themselves by looking down on the "greedy" people they're supposedly punishing is no valid justification. I have too much respect for myself to take such an illegitimate form of "help" and believe that other people should too.