I'm not an historian or a lawyer so I'm not sure exactly what the founding fathers had in mind or if they even held a consistent view of the question.

However two things seem clear to me.

1) In practice in the US today the "general welfare" clause is interpreted expansively when it suits the purposes of the politicians. This is also supported by the article you link: "To date, the Hamiltonian view of the General Welfare Clause predominates in case law. ".

2) I think that most people throughout the developed world believe that ensuring the general welfare of a country's citizens is an essential function of government. Outside of the US, especially in Europe and democratic Asia this is probably an extremely dominant view. In the US you hear a lot of very vocal people, apparently such as yourself, argue against it, but I think that's a minority view even here.