Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Goldwater blames the welfare state for causing societal collapse similar to ancient Rome.
In plain terms
He thinks the welfare state will ruin civilization like Rome.
What can you take from it?
Welfare policies are sometimes linked to long-term societal decline.

Where it applies

  • policy debates
  • historical analysis
  • economic warnings

Putting it to work

  • opposing welfare expansion
  • citing history
  • warning voters

Questions to consider

  • Does welfare always lead to collapse?
  • Are historical analogies reliable?

Another view

The comparison to Rome is speculative and lacks direct evidence.

More from Barry Goldwater

  1. American business has just forgotten the importance of selling.

    Permalink to quote #16
  2. For the past twenty-five years the apostles of the welfare state, some Republicans, some Democrat, have been busy transforming that stern old gentleman with th…

    Permalink to quote #18
  3. After one of his long-winded harangues I suggested he had probably been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. He responded by saying that I would have been a gr…

    Permalink to quote #15

Related quotes

  1. American militarism today is an unintended byproduct of the reaction to the 1960s and Vietnam.

    Andrew BacevichAndrew Bacevich quote #1
  2. Our foreign policy was an improvisation. Like Schacht's financial policy, it lacked foresight. The Nazis kept talking about a thousand-year Reich, but they cou…

    Paul SchmidtPaul Schmidt quote #3
  3. End welfare as we know it.

    Bill ClintonBill Clinton quote #3