One only needs a basic grasp of history to see the pattern.  The state expands, always under the guise of necessity, always in response to some manufactured crisis.  Once expanded, it never retracts.  As Robert Higgs pointed out with the ratchet effect, every intervention leaves behind a permanent residue of control.  The welfare state is no exception.  What began as a so-called safety net has become a web of dependence, entangling generation after generation in a system designed not to uplift, but to subjugate.

There is no debate that hardship exists.  There are people who struggle, people who suffer.  The political class has no interest in alleviating this suffering—only in managing it.  The welfare state is not about helping the poor, it’s about controlling them.  Every handout comes with a leash.  Every benefit tightens the grip.  Welfare creates dependency, erodes self-reliance, and ensures the existence of a permanent underclass.  Why would those in power ever want that underclass to disappear?  If the people became independent, the politicians would lose their captive audience.  A free man has no need for a master.

The deception is as obvious as it is insidious.  The welfare state is funded not by generosity, but by force.  Property is seized from the productive to subsidize the dependent.  If an individual attempted such a scheme, we would call it theft.  When the state does it, it’s called “social justice.” Unlike voluntary charity, which encourages virtue and self-sufficiency, state welfare breeds entitlement and complacency.

The rot goes deeper.  The welfare state doesn’t merely redistribute wealth, it redistributes values.  The principles of hard work, responsibility, and independence are systematically eroded, replaced by a culture of entitlement and stagnation.  The family unit, once the foundation of civilization, is undermined by policies that disincentivize marriage and fatherhood.  Personal ambition is suffocated by perverse incentives that reward idleness.

This arrangement can’t last forever.  A society that punishes productivity and rewards dependency will eventually collapse under its own contradictions.  Wealth is not infinite.  A state that consumes more than it produces is a parasite that will ultimately devour its host.  And when the system begins to fail—as it always does—those in power will not blame the welfare state itself.  No, they will call for more intervention, more spending, more control.  The failure of their policies will be used to justify even greater oppression.

So, what is the solution?  Étienne de La Boétie understood it centuries ago, “Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed.” The welfare state survives not because it is necessary, but because people accept its false promises.  It has no power beyond the consent of those who rely on it.  Remove that consent—reject the system—and the entire structure crumbles.  Freedom is not something granted by rulers.  It’s something seized by those with the courage to walk away from their golden cage.

Reference

Robert Higgs; Delusions of Power