All welfare typically does is create parasites. Not everyone is created equal. Some of us are more evolved and desire to make something of ourselves.
The vast majority is dependent on the machinery that powers the farms, the fertilizers and the transportation of tools and food.
Make something of oneself in society, is merely to acquire some job or title that has high social standing and receives high income. The social system is nothing more than a game. And what it asks often is patience and effort for insufficient reward.
Throughout all of history we've not been able to eliminate the disease of aging or grant the ability for true self-sufficiency independent of society or effort.
Now technology has reached a point where we may be able to grant true self sufficiency and eliminate aging, but insufficient funds are allocated towards such research.
Basically the only ones truly seeking to make something truly worthy, are the transhumans, and they require massive technological advances to make their dreams a reality.
The rest are merely playing who wants to be top ape in the social game. Acquire a few luxuries, a high number in the bank account, high social standing, while their bodies wither away and they inevitably lose it all.
Full automation for everybody is a pipe dream. There will always be a need for people to repair computers and robots. We're not here to find some kind of utopia for everyone, our purpose is individual and in my belief it goes beyond the physical world.
Synthetic biology is the key to generating machines that self-repair and do not suffer from aging. We can combine the traits of all the domains of life, and traits never before seen.
You can imagine that a synthetic humanoid born with the instinct to serve and obey, fond of repetitive tedious tasks, but with intellect equal or superior to a human will make human labor obsolete.
Good luck finding a way to keep the low level people from reproducing.
They say fertility rates may soon be affected at large, as male sperm counts are dropping in numbers and quality on a global scale decade after decade. Perhaps it is coincidence, or perhaps the elite are slowly implementing their desire for reducing the population.
If you need to go through multiple expensive fertility assistance trials to conceive, you effectively regulate reproduction by putting a high price on the act of reproduction.