What would happen were a government to phase out Social Security and Welfare Services over 10 years and replace them with government-reviewed charities?

We'd then be able to donate to causes that we cared about. We'd also want those causes to focus on delivering services, so they would have free access to government accounting services to help them keep their books in order.

Since the charities would have increasing cash flows over time, the incentive for people to abuse the system would also rise. The penalties for defrauding charities would need to be enforced (e.g. Madoff), and the government accounting review would help catch nascent fraud.

The rise of the mega-foundation ( Bill Gates + Warren Buffett ) means we can give easily on a global level in addition to the local causes we care about. With this world-wide reach of giving, we can direct help where we think it's needed.

Which seems a lot better than the current situation. Granted, we should also reduce the amount of war we conduct (say to zero) because wars are expensive in more ways than one.