Quote:That money is still being spent just by different people. Government can not generate income, they make nothing, they sell nothing, they produce nothing, they can only take from one and give to another.

 

If I have $5 and you have $1 then mother takes $1 from me and I now have $4 and you have $2 no extra money has been generated, only redistributed.

 

An argument can be made for welfare as a safety net but not as an economic driving engine.

That would be true if there wasn't a baseline level of spending every person has to sustain his own life. Just because you make $300,000 instead of $30,000 doesn't mean you suddenly spent 10 times as much on basic living needs. That's why it's important to have a base level of welfare to satisfy the basic level of need every person has. 

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