People always forget the more practical reason for welfare spending. Without it when someone is out of work they cease to be a consumer, spending no money on goods and services, leading companies to generate less profit, leading to those companies laying people off to save cash and keep shareholders and whatnot happy, leading to more people out of work, leading to the vicious cycle that led to people in Germany burning cash to keep warm because it was totally worthless after WWI. It's not something the government just does for the sake of doing something nice. A good bit of welfare spending is not optional for a strong economy.
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