This is the greatest piece ever written on the subject. Nothing is even close:
https://mises.org/library/how-welfare-state-corrupted-sweden"The problem is that the welfare state was created and it would dramatically change people's lives and affect their morality in a fundamental way. The welfare state might have been a successful project if people had continued to have the pride and morality to supply for themselves and only seek support if really in need. That is, adding a welfare state could possibly work in a ceteris paribus world, which is what the welfare state really presumes. But the world is ever-changing, and the welfare state therefore requires people to be stronger and morally superior to people in societies lacking a welfare state.
This knowledge, however, was not yet acquired — and still isn't. Instead, they took the state of things, such as their personal pride in work and family, as natural; from that perspective it must have looked like a good deal. All they had to do, they were told, was leave the politics (and a little power) to the politicians. This argument, I'm sorry to report, still seems valid to the Swedish populace; Swedes generally welcome proposals to hand over more power to politicians and they even tend to ask for higher taxes.
Decent morality is long gone. It was completely destroyed in little more than two generations — through public welfare benefits and the concept of welfare rights."
