“The first national pension legislation for widows was a Continental Congress resolution of August 24, 1780, which offered the prospect of half pay for 7 years to widows and orphans of officers who met the requirements included in the terms of the resolution of May 15, 1778.”
http://vagensearch.com/AmericanRevolution/Pensions.html
Thank you.
What I object to are “New Deal” programs. And “Great Society” programs. And “War on Poverty”, PPACA, etc ad nauseum.
Individual responsibility has been supplanted by government and corporate paternalism. The lure of compassion has led to paying able bodied adults to not work, while foreigners invade and fill those jobs at illegal wages. These things have fostered weak people and a weak country.
But the main point is that communitarianism opens avenues of attack on foundations of society. Homosexual demands for “marriage” are just one example. Demands that religious groups pay for contraception/ abortifacients are another. Communitarianism requires that every group be equal, or it is “unfair”. This allows small groups to wield the power of law to mold society.