No, taxes were to be paid for war, then infrastructure. It's only recently that taxes have been diverted to social welfare. I think the jury is still early on whether that will build civilization or result in its demise.
Capitalism combined with the current money system creates a class of humans that cannot work and receive a living wage even if they wanted. It's the failures of capitalism and zero lower bound fiat that created the need of social welfare. The idea that social welfare is the cause of problems is completely absurd. It's just one of the hundreds of symptoms of a handful of core problems.
For example, Germany is conducting an import deficit policy, meaning it is exporting more to Greece than it is importing from Greece leading to money flowing out of Greece. The capitalist answer is that the entire Greek population should move to Germany because that is where the jobs are. It's not just Greece, it also applies to every country that is poorer than Greece. We then get to enjoy the benefit of blaming the other nation for committing band aid policies like social welfare. Haha, they are so stupid, right?
I can list more second or third order effects of a broken monetary system but you will probably think that the demise will stem from the symptoms.
> The capitalist answer is that the entire Greek population should move to Germany because that is where the jobs are.
No, the capitalist answer would be to lower wages and costs by devaluing the currency and thus bringing in investment and jobs but that is impossible because Greece joined the EU and Euro. Greece's elite benefits from the EU slush fund and their money's value protected by the Euro but it's not so good for the country as a whole.
