From Ideas Have Consequences (1948).
The notion that the state somehow bears responsibility for the indigence of the aged is not far removed from that demoralizing supposition that the state is somehow responsible for the criminality of the criminal. I will not deny that the dislocations of capitalism afford some ground for the former….The point here is that no society is healthful which tells its members to take no thought of the morrow because the state underwrites their future. The ability to cultivate providence, which I would interpret literally as foresight, is an opportunity to develop personal worth. A conviction that those who perform the prayer of labor may store up a compensation which cannot be appropriated by the improvident is the soundest incentive to virtuous industry.
I don’t have the time to exegete the quote, but Weaver, as always, challenges our basic assumptions about how to live. Imagine if current political candidates thought this way, or if (shocking) they actually said something like this. If anyone could understand them, they’d never get elected.