Welfare spending appears to be one of the largest of the targets that George Osborne has hit – alongside many other forms of government spending. But the fact is that we have to cut our spending if we are to survive and everyone has to share the pain. Unfortunately, there are too many people who have, over the past thirteen years, been encouraged to consider that the state will look after them whatever. In reality, the welfare state was established to provide security for those who cannot provide for themselves, not to become an alternative source of income for those who will not (as opposed to cannot) work.
While it is incumbent on any civilised society to look after those who cannot provide for themselves, building up an underclass of people who have no experience of work is not only bad for them, it is bad for society as a whole; and the economy needs everyone who can, to join in and work in order to generate tax revenue to help us out of the mess more than a decade of profligate spending has got us into as a country.
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