Read the first link, have to wait till I get home on the second. Needless to say; that first link is VERY interesting (thank you). It should be pointed out that (and appears prominently) the Puritan church was very important in helping to make these laws; you can tell that by how close these laws were to Biblical principles (e.g., worthy, unworthy, etc.). It's a shame that we have gotten away from these Biblical principles and now pay in high taxes to those that are able, unaccountable, and will not work.
I look forward to your response to my other posts/questions.
Agreed, although as one of the articles points out the poor houses that were intended for the unworthy ended up being populated mostly by the worthy.
And our biggest problem right now is the stupid government policies that have offshored our industries and resulted in a dramatic increase in the unemployed.
We need to bring back American industry and put those willing to work back to work. Only then does it make sense to focus on dividing the remainder between those who can work and those who can't.
I do think it makes sense to have some kind of intervention for those that can but won't work. And we need to beef up fraud stings for those that collect benefits but are not illegible.