Be patient while I try to wrap my mind around it. As I understand it, welfare was supposed to help people who were down on their luck. It pretty much made sense to me. If a guy got fired from his job through no fault of his own, and got evicted, and he was living with his wife and kids and his dog on a pile of furniture on a street corner, and losing weight, and it looked like rain, I reckon that giving him a hand was the decent thing to do. Nobody wants to live with a wet dog.
Pooches are fine, but they're better dry.
OK, I can see coming up with workman's comp to keep him eating more or less regular. If a meteor or a tree branch or a Russian-designed satellite fell on his head and put an end to him, I can see looking after his wife and kids. A civilized society, if we had one, would take care of the lame, halt, crippled, and crazy. I'm for it. But there's welfare and there's welfare.