content: Sure, and look what it has led to.  We no longer have some of the problems from the 19th century from before the welfare state, but many of our existing problems can be traced directly to the welfare state itself.  It was an overcorrection.  Sadly, unlike with a free market where businesses adjust or go,out of business allowing such things to self-correct, governmental policy tends to remain in place baking in bad policy for long periods of time.