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No crime before welfare? I've heard plenty of stories dating back to biblical times (wasn't the 'Good Samaritan' a story about a mugging?) that describe criminal events borne out of poverty. Meanwhile, I think the first welfare state was set up by a Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen in Germany, sometime between 1871 and 1890.
So yes, if you want to see it like that, welfare could be described as a bribe. I don't really see a problem with that. It's cheaper to pay off a welfare payment than it is to employ and equip a policeman.
Of course, you need a balance - and always need a mixture of the two (support and supression), which, from what I understand, is the system you have there.
If we could live in a world of full employment, and equal opportunity, and all, that would be wonderful, but we don't live in that dream world and we never will.
So choose; welfare, with the downside being a proportion of lazy parasites, or no welfare, and expect gun toting desperados. Because without one, you get the other.
Both systems have their ups and downs. I suppose you could say that at least the people who take the law (and whatever else they can get hold of) into their own hands are at least showing a bit of initiative, eh?
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