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In a discussion of the ways to form a welfare state, Wikipedia declares:

"According to the first model the state is primarily concerned with directing the resources to 'the people most in need.' This requires a tight bureaucratic control over the people concerned, with a maximum of interference in their lives to establish who are 'in need' and minimize cheating. The unintended result is that there is a sharp divide between the receivers and the producers of social welfare, between 'us' and 'them', the producers tending to dismiss the whole idea of social welfare because they will not receive anything of it. This model is dominant in the US."

Ironically enough, Abraham Lincoln (as noted at welfarestate.com) saw that "sharp divide" clearly and understood the inevitable result that the United States is now facing:

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. The money powers preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me & the financial institutions at the rear, the latter is my greatest foe. Corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed." - Abraham Lincoln, letter to William Elkins, Nov 21, 1864 (after the passage of the debt causing National Bank Act [June 3, 1864])

Wake up, America!

- Ed Smith