Plunder: An American Way of Life

What he calls handouts, I call entitlements for some of these areas. Entitlements are not the dirty word that some would say it is. You pay into a system for a benefit (e.g., Medicare), you’re entitled to get it. Same thing for Social Security. As for other things like food stamps and such, what exactly would we do otherwise? Let poverty take in even more people and families? More people living under bridges and overpasses?
Medicaid may have its problems, and it does, but for the poor and disabled, what alternatives are there? Place all disabled and mentally challenged back in group homes? Not on your life. There was enough abuse, neglect, and worse that occurred there in the past. Medicaid now helps those people live in the community where they belong.
Yes, there are those that abuse the system, but I would say those are few. The majority of recipients are just getting by.
There’s an old proverb by Thomas Reid in 1778 who stated:
“In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest.”
In other words, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. If the USA, as a nation of a lot of different people, is the chain, then all of us have should be concerned about the welfare of poorer citizens needing benefits, as they might be viewed as our weakest link.

Just read this in another thread in RP last week.
It is still a quality article, though.