Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“Rome gave out free grain to its citizens. It began as emergency relief in a time of shortage. It ended as a permanent entitlement, defended by riot whenever a consul tried to touch it. By the late Republic nobody could remember why it existed. It simply had to continue, because it always had. Britain’s welfare state has followed the same arc. It began, in the years after the war, as a safety net for genuine hardship. It has become, for a growing number of claimants, a permanent address. … There is a different principle available, and it has been tested abroad for long enough now to draw conclusions. Help should be temporary by design. Not grudging, not punitive, but genuinely time-limited, aimed at restoring independence rather than administering it away.” (09/02/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-expiry-date-welfare-needs