Books such as How The Other Half Live, Wisconsin Death Trip, and The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible reveal how people strove during earlier times. Life expectancy was much shorter, people died from illnesses that would be relieved within a matter of days with today's medicines, work related injuries and fatalities were far more common and they left people too disabled to work. While age related illnesses were known, they were far less common as people often died before they reached old age. What kept many going was the belief that all that toil was going to be rewarded in some metaphysical paradise - if it hadn't been for that myth many would have died even sooner.
I get what you're saying goph, and to be perfectly honest, I agree.
That said, there was an extremely significant difference in the family dynamic back then as compared to today. In terms of contemporary practice, my opinion is that more people are in the practice of reaching out to gvt for help long before they might seek that assistance from family.... Yes, I get it that the economic conditions of today are very different and can prevent that full scale of help from family being offered, however, I believe that the pendulum has swung so far to the point where the 'gvt assistance option' has morphed into some twisted form of birthright.
In the end and regardless of where you stand on this issue, the fact is that the scope of social services available to any society is entirely a function of the money available in the system... Greece is an interesting example or keep an eye on France in the next number of years. The French are heading down a potentially dangerous road that, depending on a number of variables, have a potentially disastrous outcome for the average Pierre on the street... If this unfortunate possibility arises, all of the good intentions, birthrights and entitlements won't amount to a hill of beans, let alone put any of those beans on the table of those that will desperately need it.
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