Thomas Sowell explains simply the essence of the welfare/crony state

As we’ve said before we certainly recognize that life can be very hard. Bad luck can and often does happen. There are times when people need help. How this help is administered is an important question however. The US safety net is inefficient and often counter productive. We should think carefully about how a safety net for the truly disadvantaged can work without the massive bureaucratic infrastructure of the welfare industrial complex.

As for what Sowell has to say here it is true for many traditional welfare programs, yes – once people become addicted to a government check they will almost always vote for more government (and checks), but it is at least equally true for CORPORATE welfare. Crony companies and the employees within the companies also become addicted taxpayer dollars doled out by government. As such these companies, think Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Monsanto, GM, GE, also seek to expand government at taxpayer expense. They want their welfare too. And corporate welfare is at least as big as regular welfare.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/