Governments create dependency

Correction:  People who want to control others use government to create dependency

Using government welfare to help those in need by providing government assistance has a long history of creating dependency.

Thomas Sowell says, "You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible."

Sowell makes the case that the politicians who create dependency on government, do so to buy a block of votes to insure wins in future elections.  The escalation of the welfare state started with President Lyndon Johnson.

The Great Society aka the “War on Poverty” was a set of domestic programs launched by President Lyndon B. Johnson, with the stated goal of eliminating poverty and racial injustice through a series of initiatives. Key components included social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start. Food Stamps became a permanent federal program.  These efforts represented a significant expansion of the federal government's role in social welfare shifting it away from local charities.

President Johnson (LBJ) made the food stamp program permanent through the Food Stamp Act of 1964, which was a key part of his "War on Poverty". This act established the program, called SNAP today, as a permanent fixture of the U.S. social safety net and mandated that each state create eligibility standards, with the stated goal of reducing hunger and poverty.

The programs had the opposite effect of reducing poverty. From 1900 to 1960 the percent of Americans in poverty was declining.  That trend ended with LBJ’s new War on Poverty.  The rate at which minorities and the poor escaped poverty dropped after LBJ’s programs went into effect because dependency became the norm. 

You know what works much better? Private charities. Israel Ortega of the Heritage Foundation explains “Where government fails, private charities have thrived, filling an important void. The private sector does a much better job than the government does in truly meeting the needs of the poor.

Poverty, hunger and homelessness are inescapable realities in any society. We shouldn't turn a blind eye to the despair that surrounds us. But rather than instinctively looking to the federal government for help, we should look to the private sector, religious institutions and the generosity of individuals first.”

All government welfare - whether to a business or a mother is paid for by taking money by force from someone who earned it. Taxation is not charity. It is not voluntary. It's not charity to force someone to pay taxes for the poor, it's coercion. 

If the goal of government programs is to help people feed their family, then why does one have to buy a permit to go fishing in Missouri? Why does the government mandate what days you can hunt different game and what caliber bullets you can use and even how many you can have on you when a government agent catches you hunting for food to feed your family?

The federal government shutdown has highlighted that 42 million people use SNAP to buy food at an annual cost of $99.8 billion dollars (2024).  Add in WIC and other USDA nutritional programs and they total 142 billion of the USDA total budget of 200 billion.  That is 71% of the USDA funds.  All paid for by American taxpayers.   

The government should get out of the welfare business and let local charities take care of local folks in need.  But I doubt that will happen.  There are too many votes at stake.