When welfare stifles progress

I recently visited London to see friends and relatives and had a great time - especially shopping on Oxford street and having lunch at an amazing french restaurant near London bridge. I had the BEST crepe outside of Paris. My overall conclusion - London's a fabulous city to visit but not so great to live.

Partly because its ridiculously expensive, but primarily because it doesn't look like there is much upward mobility for low-income people. Immigrant communities in particular appear concentrated in low-income communities (esp. East London) and you don't see many non-whites in professional careers. There are probably many reasons for why this is the case, and I don't want to simplify the issue, but I want to make an observation about what I see as one of the key root causes - the overly generous UK welfare system.

I'll use Somali immigrants/refugees in the UK as an example. Many of the Somali Brits I encountered either dropped out of University or did not bother going to University at all. Most had low-wage jobs such as bus drivers or store clerks, or were completely unemployed. I was scratching my head - trying to figure out how they can live in such an expensive city with little or no revenue. 

Then I discovered that the UK welfare system is exceptionally robust, especially when compared to the American system. Almost every Somali family I encountered lived in government provided housing, and the families appeared dependent on this. Based on the small sample size I interacted with during my visit, I got the sense British Somalis are not seeking out higher education or good jobs because they feel comfortable with their quality of life under government support. This is sad for many reasons, especially because it will lead to a generations of young people who will never achieve their potential, educationally or professionally. 

I strongly believe governments should provide welfare for those in need because no developed nation should have citizens starving or left homeless. And besides, what are taxes for if not to provide services for the people! However making sure people sufficiently work for their betterment is also important, its what makes us human, and too much government support stifles this initiative.

A key public policy puzzle facing all developed governments is how to provide assistance to those who need it, but not create dependency or complacency. From what I saw, the UK is far from finding the right balance. While I disagree with most of the conservative party's platform, I hope David Cameron's administration will make strategic policy changes to cut down some of the overly generous assistance packages, while being careful not to harm families that rely on essential services. At the same time, more efforts should be made by the government to enable immigrants and other low-income people to achieve higher education, since that is the key towards more productive futures.