ben, I don't consider welfare cheating to be the biggest concern, but rather the attitude that a welfare state creates in that a whole society becomes less responsible for their own situation as individuals, and that it creates situations where people get to make choices between what is the moral or ethical thing to do and what is the most lucractive. By that I mean people choosing to remain on welfare because the extra money they would receive by taking employment is not worth the effort, clearly the system has failed. Terrorist organisations and welfare organisations are probably vying for the minds of the same group of people, those who have no direction in life, and nothing to lose. The best defence against terrorism is to give the ordinary person a stake in the society they are part of, and a chance to become a contributor rather than a victim. You rarely find those who have worked to accumulate assets and elevate themselves off the bottom, working to destroy it all. To me the greater the demand for welfare, the easier it will be for any group intent on destabilising our society to find followers.
