Marx said of the English poor law, that 'poverty is so endemic in Britain, they have made it into an institution'. His criticism stands for relatively (but only relatively) less degrading forms of welfare relief. It seems close to the dependency school's argument that welfare creates institutional dependency, except that Marx sees poverty as prior to the institution.
What he does say is that welfare is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
In message <004b01bf1406$5c6140e0$aee13ecb at rcollins>, rc-am
<rcollins at netlink.com.au> writes
>that's what i thought, from way over here... in fact i thought food stamps
>would generally be registered as a defeat for the working class, since
>they've always been resisted here on such grounds. but i thought i must
>have been missing something.
>
>anyone have a potted history of food stamps in US welfare struggles?
>
>Angela
-- Jim heartfield