What is the greatest threat to America in the 21st century? Terrorism? Wrong, we’ll survive that. It is the endless growth of the welfare state and the accompanying culture of dependency that it creates. William Beach at The Heritage Foundation writes:

Americans have always expressed concern about becoming dependent on government. This is partly because they worry that such dependency will erode the spirit of independence and self-improve­ment. This concern explains why there was such broad support in the 1990s for welfare reform designed to reduce dependency.

However, this concern is also partly explained by the fear that, as citizens become more dependent on government, the very nature of our democracy begins to change. A citizenry that reaches a certain tipping point in dependency on government runs the risk of evolving into a society that demands an ever-expanding government that caters to group self-interests rather than pursuing the public good.

To shine light on this problem, Heritage developed an “Index of Dependency” to see how things have gone year by year since 1962. The Index has climbed steadily, as you can see in their summary table here.

Where can you get a glimpse of what the future might look life if the culture of dependency continues its growth? I am reading a book right now entitled “Life at The Bottom” by Theodore Dalrymple. He is a doctor in the UK who writes firsthand accounts about the mostly white underclass in the UK. The welfare state has largely drained the life out of low income people there and created misery and a breakdown of society.

It is not just the poor that we must worry about. It is every group in society, the middle class and the rich too. And businesses are included. Corporate welfare, such as in the massive aid to corporate farms, is a huge problem too.

America’s greatest challenge of the 21st century is to contain the Welfare State. We had a winning policy of containment to battle communism; now we need a winning policy of containment to battle the welfare state.

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