Welfare Flaws
When it was originally conceived during a time
of economic distress, the welfare
program supplied aid to those in need.
Welfare aid was received primarily by
widowed and divorced mothers, and it
served as a cushion to break their fall
into a different lifestyle, so that
they could get back up on their feet and
walk. However today it has come to
serve as a paycheck for irresponsible and
slothful Americans. Welfare is like
patching a water main with duct tape; you
have to constantly tend to the
problem to keep it in check. Welfare programs
should show the poor they must
learn to fish for themselves if recipients are to
eventually work for their
sustenance. Thus, we must change our welfare system.
In 1935, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt said: "I can now see the end of
public assistance in
America." FDR’s declaration did not come true despite
the expenditure of what
were then unparalleled amounts of Federal funds for a
variety of programs to
help the poor. The sums were intended to give the needy a
boost that would
theoretically enable them to pursue economic success. That
would not work.
Since then, and over the past 25 years, welfare spending
designed to achieve
FDR’s goal has totaled hundreds of billions of dollars.
Since then,
income support to welfare recipients multiplied more than five times
in
constant dollars. (That is, relative to inflation and cost of
living
adjustments.) Since then, the idea of ending public assistance in
America has
become more and more absurd. Since the early days when welfare
(aid for
dependent children) helped widows or divorced women make the
difficult change to
a new socio-economic stratum, it’s major function has
changed. In a Los
Angeles Times poll from 1985, 70 percent of poor women
said it is "almost
always" or "often" true that "poor young women have babies
so they can
collect welfare." Two thirds said that welfare "almost always"
or"often" encourages fathers to avoid family responsibilities. Thus, we can
be
certain that not only does welfare back wrongful births, but recipients
agree it
seems to promote them. This is impractical when we consider that the
public
assistance in large part is meant to be a last resort for remedying
the problems
of out-of-wedlock-births, not creating new ones. We cannot enter
the new
millennium without plans to rid our nation of welfare as it exists
today, and
here’s why: researchers conclude that welfare handouts reduce
the
recipients’ willingness to work: "significant net negative impacts on
labor
supply" they say. Without welfare, often the poor’s negative
attitudes,
rather than a lack of work opportunities is to blame for keeping
them from being
employed. Some studies have shown these to be not being able
to get to work on
time, not paying attention on the job, or working a full
schedule. Little then
is left of their already lacking work ethic and
enthusiasm after most enter
welfare. Without shorter time limits on aid, the
chance is little that
recipients will commit to the same obligations that are
assumed by other
citizens--to try to become self-sufficient through work,
education, and by
practicing good family behavior. Welfare does not help
abolish any problems,
rather, it just tidies them up a bit for the
problematic - at a price too
expensive for our country. During sad economic
times, welfare aid was received
primarily by widowed and divorced mothers,
and it served just as a cushion to
break their fall into a different
lifestyle, so that they could get back up on
their feet and walk. Sadly,
today it has come to serve as a paycheck for
irresponsible and slothful
Americans. Welfare programs should show the poor they
must learn to fish for
themselves if recipients are to eventually work for their
sustenance. Thus,
we must change our welfare
system.