Social Darwinism and Social Welfare in the United States The interplay and relationship between Social Darwinism and Social Welfare in the United States typify the nation’s struggle to make the best of a capitalist society, while at the same time correcting pitfalls. Social Darwinism in our capitalist society compares wealth with fitness, but historically, unregulated markets given the false sanction of natural law have proven out that Darwinist economic competition has a destructive side for society. The role of raw power, the frequency of failure and the spirit of want has out of necessity, fostered a fiscal and monetary policy defined as social welfare, in order to conserve some commitment and core of resistance to the corrosive impact of market power on the nation’s social bonds. Social welfare emerged out of the fray, a public drive to provide the salve of predictability in the private sector. Both of these instruments of American society are in interconnected and independent. In order to comprehend the present state of these two forces, it is necessary to analyze more completely the meanings of Social Darwinism and Social Welfare. Every since Charles Darwin published the Origin of the Species in 1859, social scientists have attempted to explain human behavior as a product of natural selection. In the 19th century, Social Darwinism held that history was about the “survival of the fittest” and “superior” social groups were evolutionary more fit to rule the world. Social Darwinism was at the heart of many pernicious theories of the past century, including scientific racism and eugenics (Goldfield, et al, 1998, p. 721). Social Welfare, as a government program designed to support broad groups of people, began in Germany in 1883 (Martin, 1972, p. 37). By the 1930's most of worlds’ industrial nations had government sanctioned, comprehensive social welfare programs, a...
