Michael Woolcock sent me this excellent quote from Thomas Paine:

When it shall be said in any country in the world, ‘My poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive’—when these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and its government.

Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man