Jacques Delors Quotes

There was no welfare state, and people had to rely mainly on the Poor Law - that was all the state provided. It was very degrading, very humiliating. And there was a means test for receiving poor relief.

In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

The decision is 'trust fund' versus 'no more Medicaid' - and that shouldn't be a tough decision.

You know, I think that the Republicans have made it really clear that they want to end the so-called social safety net from cradle to grave.

What we don't have a right to is healthcare, housing, or handouts. We don't have those rights.

If you throw a welfare state into the middle of a democracy, it’s very hard to get rid of the beast.

What is the alternative to Social Security for those at the lower end of the income distribution whose personal savings by definition are not going to be that high? There really isn’t any.

Even in the United States, 'you have a sort of welfare state, even if you don't want to admit it -- you don't allow people to die on the street.

… some of us even think it is fair to expect a few people to pay more than they need to pay for a given commodity in order that a greater number of people may receive that commodity at a lower price to all.

Guaranteed income schemes can take various forms, but in the simplist the government sends every citizen an annual check in an amount sufficient to keep the worlf from the door when misfortune strikes, but not large enough to satisfy anyone's idea of a good life.

I'd actually call myself pretty much a liberal. A progressive liberal. Because I do think that government is there to be a provider of services for people who cannot provide for themselves.

People like entitlements. That's why we spend so much on them.

I think most Americans believe in a basic social safety net.

The original purpose of the welfare state was to lift people into self-sufficiency, not to create a permanent underclass dependent on taxpayers.

Reforms ensure that everybody benefits and the state generates financial resources to provide for the really deserving.

There was a council house waiting for me when I had Ryan, there was a welfare state. I never put into the system before I took out, I was on income support before I'd even paid a penny of tax.

The Left loves the poor so much it creates more of them every time it gets into power.

There is much in American society which I admire, but I have long held the view that the absence of an effective safety net in that country means that too many needy citizens fall by the wayside. That is not the path that Australia will tread. Nor do we want the burdens of nanny state paternalism that now weigh down many economies in Europe.

The welfare state inhibits the maturation of its young citizens into responsible adults

The best reason to diminish social programs is not to put more money in people's pockets but to put more responsibility in people's pockets.

The modern welfare state, highly touted as soaking the rich to subsidize the poor, does no such thing. In fact, soaking the rich would have disastrous effects, not just for the rich but for the poor and middle classes themselves. For it is the rich who provide a proportionately greater amount of saving, investment capital, entrepreneurial foresight, and financing of technological innovation that has brought the Unites States to by far the highest standard of living - for the mass of the people - of any country in history.

I think the right-wingers have to buddy up to the fact that either the minimum wage has to go up, and people get enough money to live, or you're always going to have people needing government assistance. You can't have it both ways.

Not since the days of slavery have there been so many people who feel entitled to what other people have produced as there are in the modern welfare state, whether in Western Europe or on this side of the Atlantic.

The welfare state may be well-intentioned, but it is a Ponzi scheme

A welfare state is frightened of every poor person who tries to get in and every rich person who tries to get out.