Thread...
I was contemplating welfare and its disastrous effects in contrast with private charity.
Rome had issues with the public grain dole from its inception as a subsidized and price-fixed grain purchase and storage program in the republican era, which even though it was financed by tax increases, saw a precipitous increases in demand as all price-ceiling schemes do. Once it was implemented corruption set in and was frequently a topic of reform but not abolishment by politicians.
Sulla as dictator abolished it, but it was brought back before 90 BC. Politicians quickly learned that they could win support with the populous of Rome and thus power with offices like Tribune thus giving them sway over the frequently seen street mobs of the late republic. It took dictators like Sulla and Julius Ceasar to remove or reduce the dole in one way or another.
