The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

265HENRY HAZLITTWelfarismGoneBOTH SOCIAL SECURITY· and unemploymentcompensation. were proposedin large part on the argumentof Franklin D. Roosevelt andothers in 1935 that they would enablethe government to "quit thisbusiness of relief."Though all the social "insurance"programs he asked for wereenacted, together with a score ofothers, and though all of these supplementaryor "substitute" programshave been constantly enlarged,direct relief, instead ofshowing any tendency to diminish,has increased beyond anythingdreamed of in 1935.Henry Hazlitt is well known to FREEMAN readersas author, 'columnist, editor, lecturer, andpractitioner of freedom. This article will appearas a chapter in a forthcoming book, TheConque8t 01 Poverty, to be published byArlington House.The number of welfare reCIpIentsin New York City alonejumped from 328,000 in 1960 to1,280,000 in October, 1971 (exceedingthe total population of Baltimore)and was still growing. OnMarch 10, 1971, the U. S. Departmentof Health, Education andWelfare reported· that more than10 per cent of the residents of thenation's twenty largest cities wereon welfare. In New York City, Baltimore,St. Louis, and San Francisco,it was one person in seven;and in Boston, one in five. TheMayor of Newark, N. J. told Congresson January 22, 1971 that 30per cent of the population in hiscity was on relief.For the whole country, the numberof people on welfare grew from6,052,000 in 1950 to 7,098,000 in