the.com/welfare
the safety net everyone mocks until they're falling, then suddenly it's brilliant policy
means Government or institutional support — money, food, healthcare — given to people in need; more broadly, the general well-being and prosperity of a person or group.
from A medieval Englishing of two plain old words smashed together: 'wel' (well, as in faring well) and 'fare' (to travel, get on, manage) — the same 'fare' that survives in 'farewell' (literally 'travel well') and in a 'fare' you pay to journey. So 'welfare' first just meant the state of doing well, faring nicely through life. Only in the 20th century did it harden into the bureaucratic sense of state-provided aid.
- royal roots
- England's Poor Laws funded relief starting in 1601
- farm payouts
- U.S. spends billions yearly subsidizing wealthy agribusiness too
- war origin
- German welfare state began with Bismarck, an anti-socialist
- fraud myth
- actual welfare fraud rates sit near one percent
- word twist
- originally meant simply faring well, a cheerful goodbye
universal credit — uk welfare system consolidating 6 benefits, launched 2013, covers 5.8 million people