"The easy-money gravy train ... "

"As late as 1966 there were only 133 people in the whole of the country receiving an Unemployment Benefit, and 5,000 on Sickness Benefits.
    "Things started to change in the late 1960s.... In 1970 Keith Holyoake’s [National] Government established a Royal Commission into Social Security.Amongst other changes, it recommended what became the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) that came into effect in 1974....
    "Human behaviour always follows incentives, and in 1974 they pointed towards climbing onto the gravy train of 'free' money from the taxpayer. The number of recipients of DPBs rose from 4,000 in 1974 to 56,500 in 1985, to 113,000 in 1998. By the turn of the century, Unemployment Benefits were being paid to 154,000, Sickness Benefits to 33,000, and Invalids’ Benefits to another 50,000. According to one estimate, about 20% of New Zealand’s people of working age were now on a Social Welfare benefit of some kind. A whole industry has formed up around welfare led by the likes of the Child Poverty Action Group and its membership of hopeful social workers and wonky economists. The cost of it all to the taxpayer is through the roof, while the bleats for yet more assistance are deafening. The homilies preached by Savage, Nash and Sir Apirana Ngata about the need to work in order to receive payments had long been forgotten. ...
    "All sorts of additional social problems followed the easy-money gravy train for what was becoming a rapidly ballooning underclass.... Much of [which would be] obvious to anyone thinking seriously about New Zealand’s future. But who is promising to do anything meaningful to turn things around?"

~ Michael Bassett's summary, from his otherwise flawed post 'Dealing with the Underclass'