Sunday 29 May 2011

The corrupting influence of welfarism

Cross-posted at Orphans of Liberty

The Mail is covering the publication by the government of some of the lame excuses people have given when caught fiddling benefits, leading with someone claiming that he was only carrying ladders as therapy for his back. Okay, I can see the humour in that one, but certain other ones stand out from the list, namely:

‘We don’t live together, he just comes each morning to fill up his flask.’

‘He lives in a caravan in the drive. We’re not together.’

‘He does come here every night and leaves in the morning and, although he has no other address, I don’t regard him as living here.’

Here we see the pernicious corrupting influence of welfarism at work, how it encourages the things that it is supposed to be alleviating. In each of the cases above, I surmise the 'benefit cheat' has been claiming that they are living alone, when in fact they are not, because you get more money if you're living alone. In other words, the state is saying to women 'we will pay you more if you have no man in your life (as a little reward for being so helpless)'.

It's one of those bandied-around facts that there no longer any such thing as a 'common law' husband or wife, and yet, when it comes to benefits, there is indeed. Whereas your benefits will not be affected if you take home a different man every night of the week, if it's the same man, you better report it or risk exposure in the Daily Mail.

The implicit incentivisation through welfare of behaviour which is harmful to society has been recognised since the very beginning. Usually in life, you get what you pay for. The Welfare State pays for a dysfunctional, broken-down society. No surprises, then, when this is what we get.

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