In late 2015, Dr Adam Perkins published his book called ‘The Welfare Trait’. The main crux of his argument was that each generation who is supported by the welfare state becomes more work-shy. He also argued that the welfare state increased the number of children born to households where neither parent works. His solution is to change the welfare state to limit the number of children that each non-working household has.

His book caused quite a storm when it was first released. Some people argued that it was crudely-disguised eugenics, others argued that those who were dismissing it were refusing to face the facts. Over time, more and more criticisms of and problems with Perkins’ work have come to light (e.g. basic statistical errors and incorrect conclusions from papers). Below is a collection of some (but not all) of the criticisms levelled at Perkins’ book.

https://storify.com/PsychologyBrief/criticisms-of-adam-perkins-and-the-welfare-trait

References:
Storify. (2016). Criticisms of Adam Perkins and ‘The Welfare Trait’ (with images, tweets) · PsychologyBrief. [online] Available at: https://storify.com/PsychologyBrief/criticisms-of-adam-perkins-and-the-welfare-trait [Accessed 11 Mar. 2016].