“The dole was there because it made the emperor more popular” and that is the same reason it exists today. Charitable social policies exist primarily to buy votes. Take Head Start as one of many, many examples of failed programs: http://nypost.com/2010/01/28/head-start-a-tragic-waste-of-money/. $166 billion wasted on a program that is demonstrably no help. It seems to be a dismal failure, but continues to exist, because it sounds good and gets votes. The reason why there are so many seemingly failed government programs, is because those programs that are still around are “successful” in the sense that they bought votes for their political proponents. It is like evolutionary biology. Programs that buy votes for politicians “survive”, because politicians who support those programs get voted into office. Programs that don’t buy votes for politicians don’t survive, because there is no one in office to support them.
“The dole was there because it made the emperor more popular” and that is the same reason it exists today. Charitable social policies exist primarily to buy votes. Take Head Start as one of many, many examples of failed programs: http://nypost.com/2010/01/28/head-start-a-tragic-waste-of-money/. $166 billion wasted on a program that is demonstrably no help. It seems to be a dismal failure, but continues to exist, because it sounds good and gets votes. The reason why there are so many seemingly failed government programs, is because those programs that are still around are “successful” in the sense that they bought votes for their political proponents. It is like evolutionary biology. Programs that buy votes for politicians “survive”, because politicians who support those programs get voted into office. Programs that don’t buy votes for politicians don’t survive, because there is no one in office to support them.