From Larwyn’s Links comes this quote regarding dependency:

QOTD: “The combination of the two welfare-policy reversions could be devastating, especially when combined with the Obama-backed massive expansions of food stamps and of eligibility for unemployment insurance. As others (including the American Enterprise Institute) have noted, the Obamite re-invigoration of the welfare state will almost assuredly catch millions of people anew in a “dependency trap” in which it is actually less financially beneficial to work than it is to game the system. Or, at least, that calculation of benefits would apply in the short term and the near horizon; the long-term social pathologies, of course, could be devastating for those who fall into (or willingly hurl themselves into) the dependency trap.” –Quin Hillyer

While it would seem that no one would want to enslave individuals in the welfare state, that is not true of politicians. Democrats especially benefit from the creation of more dependents, as the Democrat Party is perceived as the “caring” and “giving” party, always in favor of increasing entitlements.
Selfish politicians deliberately ruin people’s lives as a means of furthering their own careers. There is nothing noble about dependency and those who deliberately create it to exploit political opportunity are the worst of a shameful profession. Trading benefits for votes is disgusting, demeaning and ultimately destructive to the recipients.
Benjamin Franklin observed long ago:
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
The political trick of exploiting the poor and less informed is a mainstay of politics. The excerpt below is from 1949. Political behavior hasn’t changed over time except in the sense that it has gotten worse.
The welfare states around the world have reached their limits. Economic, financial and social stability are about to be threatened as the battle over non-existing resources takes place. The world has sadly been divided into two camps. The makers (producers) increasingly resent the heavier burdens imposed on them to support the takers. Yet politicians continue to try to convert more makers to takers and lead the takers to believe they deserve what they already receive and more.
Makers shrink while takers grow. It is inevitable that this ends in poverty for all.