Argumentative Essay On Social Welfare

From the conservative side, social welfare is a necessary evil for extreme circumstances, but the more far left attitude towards social welfare, one where the state and market operate hand in hand, as opposed to being as estranged as possible, is not necessarily as catastrophic as might be expected by Americans. The current European economic crisis, besides the collapse of the Soviet Union, is often pointed to as the premier example of how government involvement in markets is catastrophic. However, it is not necessarily the case that welfare spending caused the collapse (Krugman, 2012). The welfare states were criticized for slower economic growth, but their abundance of social safety nets also helped to slow down the recession (Bennhold, 2009). It has not been proven that what Americans consider an excess of social welfare is as deleterious to the society and economy as is assumed.

Whether or not social welfare should exist is not a productive question. Undoubtedly the state holds a certain level of obligation to its citizens, especially when there is a situation that is catastrophic to livelihoods. How, when, for how long, and under what circumstances should social welfare be implemented is the real argument that should take