Welfare State And Dependency: An Inevitable Consequence - Essay Example

They believe that the presence of state is the same as the presence of government and are convinced that, with welfare state, they will have stability and better growth prospects than otherwise. Those who promote the benefits of the welfare state idea are confident that dependency arguments do not have any logic, and welfare states lead citizens towards better life, economic and social wellbeing. In reality, the welfare state concept has its advantages and drawbacks, and dependency is the brightest sign that unwise utilization of welfare resources makes citizens and business too relaxed, reduces their self-reliance and confidence, and turns welfare into one of the major sources of stability and growth for thousands of people.

Welfare dependency has become one of the most popular objects of policy analyses. In U.S. politics, the word ‘dependency’ has become one of the determining characteristics of policy development and implementation (Fraser & Gordon 1994). Since the beginning of the 1980s, researchers have claimed welfare states to be a major source of dependencies, mainly social dependencies, for their citizens (Fraser & Gordon 1994). . Dozens of companies, including large automobile conglomerates, applied for state support to avoid bankruptcy (Hornberger 2008).

It was rather pathetic to see the executives of multinational enterprises crawling to Congress on their knees and looking for financial support (Hornberger 2008). The financial crisis exposed the overall deficiency of welfare state and its damaging effects on individual and companies’ self-reliance. Today, any attempt to remove any social benefits in the developed world will necessarily lead to public hysteria. Citizens are so used to get their benefits on time that even slightest changes in the system of welfare are likely to cause the line of opposition.

Europe has witnessed a series of strikes in response to the proposed government spending cuts. For example, in Spain, students and teachers went into the streets to express their disagreement with the proposed cuts in education spending at the state level (Leasca 2012). These examples are too numerous to be cited in this short paper. It is clear that, in a welfare state, citizens lose the sight of importance of being a citizen and the role which every citizen must play in the development of the entire state.

In welfare states, citizens do not realize that they need to contribute to society, in order to survive (Heffer 2012). Citizens in welfare states are so dependent on state benefits that they prefer striking to productive transformations. They would rather go outside to shout their claims against government, instead of trying to change the system and make it work for their own benefit. Certainly, not everyone agrees that welfare states do lead to dependencies. Those who advocate for the presence of welfare