In article >,
"Gill Smith" > wrote:


> That's what annoys me about the welfare state: wholesale encouragement
> of fecklessness.

Welfare is a safety net. It is not designed to encourage people to be
deadbeats. A lot of people have spent a lot of time and energy trying
to figure out ways to make it strictly a safety net. It cannot be done,
without spending more money than it would cost just to hand it out to
everyone who meets certain qualifications. In addition, in California,
where I live, almost all "welfare" is AFDC (Aid to Families with
Dependent Children). In other words, you can only get "welfare" for the
children. Obviously, they give the money to the parent(s), since
children are not competent to manage the money. Whether it actually
gets used only for the children is impossible to determine. There is
some "welfare" for adults, like food stamps. I believe that there are
other programs designed to make adults more employable.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA