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The Utterly Horrifying English Welfare State
Townhall.com ^ | April 29, 2012 | Daniel J. Mitchell

Posted on 04/29/2012 7:23:42 AM PDT by Kaslin

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To: Kaslin

I watched a TV show about gypsies and one of the couples was in England. The wife living a trailer with her baby. She got tired of that lifestyle and bang, the next time you see here she is in a pretty nice apartment and is telling the show producer where her big screen telly was going to hang.. I mean how does that work? “Hello UK Public Services I want a free apartment for me and my kid. Thank you”


21 posted on 04/29/2012 9:29:17 AM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Kaslin

The UK is a perfect audio-visual aid for the kind of socialist welfare state Ubama and the rats want for the US. The welfare crowd is, after all, the Democrat Party “base”. Why wouldn’t the rats want their voter base to be as large as possible? This ain’t rocket surgery.


22 posted on 04/29/2012 9:35:40 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Kaslin; All
This article discussing conditions in the United Kingdom remind us that "Ideas Have Consequences" (Weaver). Whether those ideas are in place in the society in the late 1700's or in 2012, when implemented, they have predictable results for those who wish to study and understand them.

Obama and his fellow "redistributionists" don't point that out, for to do so would reveal the scam such politicians run on uninformed citizens. Europe now presents an example of consequences of such thinking, just as it did in the 1700's and 1800's.

The problem with today's Administration in America is that they studied and are devoted to the the ideas of Marx, Lenin, and Keynes when they should have been reading Adam Smith and America's founders. Had they digested the ideas which made America a place of freedom, opportunity, prosperity and plenty, they would know that "the Wealth of Nations" results from the efforts of innovative individuals, as they go about meeting the needs of others, unburdened by coercive planners and choosers of winners and losers.

Coercive "taking" power, when wielded against the citizenry by either the government alone (taxing), or in combination with another power (unions), is destructive of freedom and prosperity and leads to envy, greed, and want.

The following statement by Sir Winston Churchill, upon leaving office as Prime Minister in 1945, was prophetic for Great Britain, and as it turns out, the United States and the world:

"I do not believe in the power of the State to plan and enforce. No matter how numerous are the committees they set up or the ever-growing hordes of officials they employ or the severity of the punishments they inflict or threaten, they can't approach the high level of internal economic production achieved under free enterprise. Personal initiative, competitive selection, and profit motive corrected by failure and the infinite processes of good housekeeping and personal ingenuity, these constitute the life of a free society. It is this vital creative impulse that I deeply fear the doctrines and policies of the socialist government has destroyed. Nothing that they can plan and order and rush around enforcing will take its place. They have broken the main spring and until we get a new one, the watch wil not go. Set the people free. Get out of the way and let them make the best of themselves. I am sure that this policy of equalizing misery and organizing society--instead of allowing diligence, self-interest and ingenuity to produce abundance--has only to be prolonged to kill this British Island stone dead."

In the early days of America's experiment in liberty, its Founders warned of oppressive taxation by those elected to represent the people. Under their "People's" Constitution, the people were left free, and the government was limited.

While Europe struggled with oppressive government intervention, the genius Founders of America recognized enduring truths about human nature, the human tendency to abuse power, and the possibilities of liberty for individuals. Richard Frothingham's 1872 "History of the Rise of the Republic of the United States," Page 14, contained the following footnote item on the condition of citizens of France:

"Footnote 1. M. de Champagny (Dublin Review, April, 1868) says of France, 'We were and are unable to go from Paris to Neuilly; or dine more than twenty together; or have in our portmanteau three copies of the same tract; or lend a book to a friend: or put a patch of mortar on our own house, if it stands in the street; or kill a partridge; or plant a tree near the road-side; or take coal out of our own land: or teach three or four children to read, . .. without permission from the civil government.'"

Clearly the government of France at that 1868 date laid an oppressive regulatory and tax burden on citizens, robbing them of their Creator-endowed liberty and enjoyment thereof. Frothingham observed that such coercive power constituted "a noble form robbed of its lifegiving spirit."

Thomas Jefferson warned Americans:

"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39

Note Jefferson's very last thought here. He declares that when government taxing and debt have reached certain levels, in order for individuals to survive, then their chosen "employment" becomes "hiring ourselves to rivet their (the government's) chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." Might that account for why it is government employment levels which have risen at such great rates in the past 2 years?

Ahhh, guess that's what you call "redistributing" wealth! In Jefferson's words, it's called "rivet(ing) chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."

23 posted on 04/29/2012 9:43:05 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: gattaca

That’s why the GOP primary voters voted for Romney, followed by Santorum (for the Evangelical bloc). They were both big-government, nanny-state guys, little different from Obama, except for their self-serving and often recently “discovered” conservative social positions.

Sadly, that seems to be what Americans want.


24 posted on 04/29/2012 10:16:21 AM PDT by livius
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To: GOPJ

I knew a woman in California who got SSI because she said that working gave her a headache.


25 posted on 04/29/2012 10:18:55 AM PDT by livius
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To: livius

Life gives me a headache. I wonder if I can get SSI.


26 posted on 04/29/2012 10:20:29 AM PDT by beandog (All Aboard the Choo Choo Train to Crazy Town)
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To: Kaslin
Great post, Kaslin!
We should have a post that tells/instructs current and future conservative governors how to break/reduce the dependency on govt services.

Maybe they need some advice from real conservatives!

27 posted on 04/29/2012 10:27:08 AM PDT by TheCause ("that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States")
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To: livius

I have to wonder how that’s done. When I had back problems so bad I couldn’t even breathe without it hurting, and had dizzy spells so bad I couldn’t talk straight, I gave in and tried to apply for disability benefits. I was rejected because I “wasn’t disabled enough”.


28 posted on 04/29/2012 10:59:06 AM PDT by Ellendra ("It's astounding how often people mistake their own stupidity for a lack of fairness." --Thunt)
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To: loveliberty2

Re: Jefferson’s thoughts

The irony is that President Jefferson is well known for mismanaging his personal finances.

His advice is still sound.


29 posted on 04/29/2012 11:14:51 AM PDT by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: Kaslin

Subsidizing poverty gets you more poverty.


30 posted on 04/29/2012 1:28:51 PM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: GOPJ

“Dependent ones are bankrupting the SS system for the elderly who paid into it, undermining it for those who really are disabled, and destroying it for those who are currently paying into it.”

Very true. There is a couple living next to my in-laws in their 40’s with two children. They haven’t worked in 10 years due to disabilities and proudly tell everyone they are on social security disability. His muscle condition prevents him from holding a job but he is able to climb up on his roof, tend a garden, and ride a tractor.


31 posted on 04/29/2012 3:00:41 PM PDT by Soul of the South
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To: GOPJ

“Dependent ones are bankrupting the SS system for the elderly who paid into it, undermining it for those who really are disabled, and destroying it for those who are currently paying into it.”

Very true. There is a couple living next to my in-laws in their 40’s with two children. They haven’t worked in 10 years due to disabilities and proudly tell everyone they are on social security disability. His muscle condition prevents him from holding a job but he is able to climb up on his roof, tend a garden, and ride a tractor.


32 posted on 04/29/2012 3:04:30 PM PDT by Soul of the South
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To: Kaslin

The UK is not alone: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2875196/posts


33 posted on 04/29/2012 4:34:32 PM PDT by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a damned+morally destitute sinner,+trust Him to forgive+save you,+live....)
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To: Ellendra

I think it basically depended on the caseworker. CA had many caseworkers who felt that their job was to get everybody on SSI. They’d now be hanging out with the Occupy crowd.


34 posted on 04/29/2012 4:42:22 PM PDT by livius
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To: Soul of the South

We had a couple in their 50s here who got in a dispute with a neighbor and during the course of it, someone mentioned that they both lived on disability. They were both former schoolteachers who had lived here about 5 years, and did nothing but get into disputes with the city or with their neighbors for “disturbing their peace.”

However, in the course of this particular dispute, it emerged that they jogged on the beach every day, had a sailboat and sailed it with no problem, traveled all over the world, etc. They immediately announced that their disabilities were not visible, but I think they blew it, because the last I heard of them, an investigation had been opened. I sure hope they get the max, have to repay every dime and even go to jail.

There are people who actually need assistance, and these self-obsessed, unscrupulous jerks are essentially taking money from the people who need it.


35 posted on 04/29/2012 4:48:58 PM PDT by livius
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To: Stosh

In this very white state SSDI is known as white man’s welfare.

I cannot begin to tell you how many people have been eased into nonproductivity here. I think more are at home than are working.

Me? I teach my kids to not earn a lot and to barter and grow food so they wont have to support these losers.


36 posted on 04/29/2012 4:58:37 PM PDT by Chickensoup (In the 20th century 200 million people were killed by their own governments.)
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To: livius

“There are people who actually need assistance, and these self-obsessed, unscrupulous jerks are essentially taking money from the people who need it.”

Unfortunately it is to the advantage of the current administration to expand the rolls of the disabled geometrically. It makes people dependent so they vote Democrat. It also takes them out of the unemployment statistics. If they are collecting disability they aren’t reported as unemployed so the unemployment rate goes down. This is a huge welfare boondoggle positioned as disability and is driving the social security to insolvency quicker than it would go otherwise. No doubt the ultimate goal here is to get to means testing social security quicker so those who have paid in for 30-40 years and saved will not get benefits and those who have developed disabilities at an early age and not paid in will get full benefits.

Isn’t socialism great!


37 posted on 04/29/2012 5:50:20 PM PDT by Soul of the South
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To: Chickensoup

“Me? I teach my kids to not earn a lot and to barter and grow food so they wont have to support these losers.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

There are plans afoot to try to make that kind of thing illegal and impossible.


38 posted on 04/29/2012 5:57:04 PM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: Kaslin

The “rich” are the real ‘Working class.’

Poor are the Leisure class....


39 posted on 04/29/2012 6:19:31 PM PDT by 4Liberty (88% of Americans are NON-UNION. We value honest, peaceful Free trade-NOT protectionist CARTELS)
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To: RipSawyer
There are plans afoot to try to make that kind of thing illegal and impossible.

Barter to avoid taxation already is illegal.

40 posted on 04/30/2012 3:32:27 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Queeg Olbermann: Ahh, but the strawberries that's... that's where I had them.)
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