i suppose the first question is are welfare costs really expanding to that great of an extent? and if so why?
To be honest Im not to sure that there is much business welfare, and even the middle class welfare is not so cut and dried.
My thoughts tend to be against it, but this discussion has been held before and there have been some good arguments for it put forward.
The real issue is not so much the cost in dollars, but the effect it has in stimulating spending, which after all is the basis of a sound economy.
You could also throw in the political ideology of how much the government should be involved in stimulating economic growth.
Weather its simply the scale of our economy or it is a general thing i dont know, but i do believe that government spending is vital to the Australian economy, something highlighted by the fact that, except for under the Howard government, nearly every time the government, of whatever persuasion, recorded a budget surplus, we slipped into recession soon after.
The howard government avoided this due to them being the highest taxing governement in our history, thanks to the GST, and record private sector debt driving not just ours, but the world economy.
And when this huge public sector debt eventually caused economies to collapse around the world, it was government spending, in the stimulus package, that helped us avoid a recession. we did go close, but those quarters of negative growth were only small negatives and we avoided the pain than many other countries felt.
Does paying someone who earns 150k a substantial paternal leave handout really do much to add stimulus to spending? unlikely.
But those on 50-60k? yeah it probably does. It also enables more people to breed, which our pyramid scheme, growth based economy needs in the long term.
Should we be spending so much money on a Disability scheme.?
I suppose that comes down to whether you believe in the dog eat dog nature of capitalism and screw anyone unlucky enough to be unable to compete,that we are all individuals competing against each other and the concept of society is dirt, or weather you believe that as a society we collectively should look after the vulnerable.
And then there is the unemployed, the dole bludgers. the easy target of right wing media to use to whip the lowest common denominator into a feeding frenzy. The real irony is that many want to label welfare as some sort of socialist drain on our resources, yet most truly socialist countries do not (or did not) have such schemes. if you wanted bread on the table you worked for it. if you got inured and couldn't do your job anymore, you were given a different job that you could do.
Stuff me, that turned out longer than i planned.
