Does Welfare and Social Engineering Enrich the Soul?

A simple question, does government welfare benefit individuals so they can improve their lives and gain independence and success, or does it just create a new class of people who now, like children, become dependent on the whims of the state?

In the 1930’s Franklin Delano Roosevelt, directing the Government as it dealt with the depression following the stock market crash of 1929, said this in his 1935 State of the Union address. 

“We have undertaken a new order of things; yet we progress to it under the framework and in the spirit and intent of the American Constitution. We have proceeded throughout the Nation a measurable distance on the road toward this new order….We find our population suffering from old inequalities, little changed by vast sporadic remedies. In spite of our efforts and in spite of our talk, we have not weeded out the over privileged and we have not effectively lifted up the underprivileged. Both of these manifestations of injustice have retarded happiness. No wise man has any intention of destroying what is known as the profit motive; because by the profit motive we mean the right by work to earn a decent livelihood for ourselves and for our families.

We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and, to our misfortune, over public affairs as well. In building toward this end we do not destroy ambition, nor do we seek to divide our wealth into equal shares on stated occasions. We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life, is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.”

The President, just as we see today, lays out a grand plan to reshape the financial structure of the country and in so doing redistribute the wealth and provide all with an appropriate share.  He outlines the public works programs to provide government funded work for the unemployed, and sets the framework for the social security program that would be enacted later that year.  Did these programs bring America out of the depression, and can we expect to see similar programs bring us out of today’s depression?  I don’t know the answer, but I wander from my original question.  Do these social engineering efforts lead to happier, more fulfilled individuals who contribute to the success of a democracy, or do they lead to something else?

Perceptions of Self-Esteem in a Welfare-To-Wellness-To-Work Program is an extract of a research project to assess a program to help welfare recipients with their self-esteem and mental health.  It has a very small sample size to draw its conclusions; never the less it says that the program they were studying improved a participant’s self-esteem.  That is not so unusual, but the some of the other data is striking, in this sample they suggest poor self-esteem prevents many low-income families from ever leaving the program.  Mental health and drug dependency issues are also contributors to long-term welfare dependency.  

There are numerous studies that speak to the penalty one pays from a perspective of their personal self-worth, so what is the answer? Do we benefit the individual with government welfare or do we just prolong the suffering?