Quote

Welfare culture is bad not just because, as in Europe, it's bankrupting the state, but because it enfeebles the citizenry, it erodes self-reliance and resourcefulness.

Mark Steyn

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Mark Steyn
Age: 64
Born: 1959
Born: December 8
Film Critic
Journalist
Music Critic
Pundit
Writer
City of Toronto
Erodes
Culture
Resourcefulness
States
Erode
Self
Citizenry
Reliance
Welfare
Europe
Bankrupting
State

More quotes by Mark Steyn

Image
I believe Western culture - rule of law, universal suffrage, etc. - is preferable to Arab culture: that's why there are millions of Muslims in Scandinavia, and four Scandinavians in Syria. Follow the traffic. I support immigration, but with assimilation.
Mark Steyn
Image
There is no conceivable amount of money worth telling the world that you were beaten up by Liza Minnelli.
Mark Steyn
Image
The trouble with the social-democratic state is that, when government does too much, nobody else does much of anything.
Mark Steyn
Image
It is surely only a matter of time before some federal judge finds the Constitution unconstitutional.
Mark Steyn
Image
The law functions as formal embodiment of a moral code, not as free-standing substitute for it.
Mark Steyn
Image
Once a fellow's enjoying the fruits of government health care and all the rest, he couldn't give a hoot about the general societal interest he's got his, and if it's going to bankrupt the state a generation hence, well, as long as they can keep the checks coming till he's dead, it's fine by him.
Mark Steyn
Image
But a society that has nothing to die for has nothing to live for . . .
Mark Steyn
Image
Every power grab is the new base camp for the next power grab.
Mark Steyn
Image
We immigrants can sometimes sound a little hysterical about this because we come from places that have tried this and we know where it leads. Anybody who's lived in countries with socialized health care knows that it becomes the dominant political issue.
Mark Steyn
Image
For states in demographic decline with ever more lavish social programs, the question is a simple one: Can they get real? Can they grow up before they grow old? If not, then they'll end their days in societies dominated by people with a very different worldview.
Mark Steyn
Image
The essence of a government health care system - for people who have never lived under it and don't know - is waiting, waiting, waiting. You wait for everything. You wait for years for operations that are routine in America.
Mark Steyn
Image
If the IMF is correct (a big if), China will be the planet's No.1 economy by 2016. That means whoever's elected in November next year will be the last president of the United States to preside over the world's dominant economic power.
Mark Steyn
Image
In Britain, everything is policed except crime.
Mark Steyn
Image
For Al Gore and Paul Ehrlich and Co., whatever the problem, the solution is always the same. Whether it's global cooling, global warming, or overpopulation, we need bigger government, more regulation, higher taxes, and a massive transfer of power from the citizens to some unelected self-perpetuating crisis lobby.
Mark Steyn
Image
Unchecked, government social programs are a security threat because they weaken the ultimate line of defense: the free-born citizen whose responsibilities are not subcontracted to the government.
Mark Steyn
Image
For Americans, the quickest way to understand modern Britain is to look at what LBJ's Great Society did to the black family and imagine it applied to the general population.
Mark Steyn
Image
Question: How much do you have to invest in the future before you've spent it and no longer have one?
Mark Steyn
Image
To expect the government to save you is to be a bystander in your own fate.
Mark Steyn
Image
A big chunk of Western civilization, consciously or otherwise, has given the impression that it's dying to surrender to somebody, anybody. Reasonably enough, Islam figures: Hey, why not us?
Mark Steyn
Image
How do you 'invest in the future'? By borrowing $188 million every hour. That's what the Government of the United States is doing. It's spending one-fifth of a billion dollars it doesn't have every hour of every day of every week - all for your future!
Mark Steyn