well, playing devil’s advocate — we let it go in the 1800s. Bismarck set up the welfare state in response to the shocking conditions of poverty then.
I’m not very familiar with that, but as a whole, it doesn’t work because it fosters dependency and destroys the motivation to work.
They learned that the hard way with the Common Store system they tried in Jamestown in the early years of this country’s history.
There’s nothing the government can’t ruin once it gets it’s hands on it. When people have to go to a church for help, it comes with accountability. With the government there is none.
The abysmal failure that our public assistance system has become is proof enough that it does NOT work, or that it does not work beyond a very short period of time.
Corruption and fraud creep in pretty quickly when the greedy learn they can get something for nothing.