It was during “President Franklin D. Roosevelt[s]” (“Welfare Information) term when welfare was first introduced to America. Welfare is a program that supports many people in America. It can be in many different forms. Some get school lunch programs, or cash assistance, or receive it because of mental and physical problems. Welfare is supposed to be there for assistance with bills, but some American’s abuse the welfare system. It has been shown that “hundreds of billions of public and private dollars are spent annually on efforts to assist the poor” (Rodgers 3). If they can live and get by with just welfare why would they get off and actually get a job? If we do not fix the welfare problem now, the United States will go bankrupt from having to pay people who are not contributing. For the year 2011, the spending for welfare is $953 billion (Bradley). A lot of Americans believe that “the best way to reduce poverty is simply to abolish all welfare programs” (Rodgers 71).The solution to people abusing welfare is to end welfare completely, and the government will do this by passing a law that says all welfare and its programs should be eliminated immediately.
People on welfare are causing more problems for American’s than people know. This is a problem for America because it is costing millions of dollars and “people idled by poverty reduce the overall productivity of the workforce, lower tax revenues, and reduce the nation’s ability to compete in the global economy” (Rodgers 4). People on welfare are only hurting America’s economy and making it worse. Instead of money going into education or fixing America’s infrastructure it is going towards welfare programs that encourage people to stay on welfare and not get an actual job. The “Black and Hispanic Americans suffer particularly high rates of poverty” (Rodgers 4). Part of these groups live in the cities, and end up on welfare because they drop out of school and join gangs or deal drugs. The schools in cities are not as great as they should be and students do not feel inclined to attend school because it “sucks” so bad. Also, some of their parents already do these activities and they have seen that their families are doing just fine and believe that they can live off welfare for life. Some may find it easier to sit back and play video games and go shopping all day and get free money off it. There are some programs that require you to get a job and/or do training. But how many people actually do that? Can the government really control and enforce that people follow those rules? Maybe the government can control it a little bit, but can it make sure that all the people on these programs are doing what they are supposed to?
Welfare has not done so much good “because of their design, only rarely did Americas complicated and increasingly expensive programs helped the poor to go off welfare and become self-reliant and economically secure” (Rodgers 4-5). So not only are people staying on welfare as long as possible, they are not getting anywhere in life. They sit around and take in free money for doing absolutely nothing. They have no desire to become self reliant or economically secure, they do not care to do that because they already feel economically secure by getting paid from the government. And by doing this the government is encouraging people on welfare to stay there. If they are letting these people get a steady income most would rather continue to get paid from that than go get a job that pays less than what the government has being giving them.
Studies have shown that “many people identified as poor never receive welfare, or benefit only from programs such as the school lunch program for poor and low-income families” (Rodgers 67). If none of these families are getting the benefits where is all the money going? Not to mention, “hardly anyone likes welfare the way it is” (Epstein 74), and if no one likes it why should it be there? America spends so much money on welfare yet this quote is saying many people do not receive aid. Then one must ask where is the money going? Welfare is such a huge cost to America’s economy and yet it seems to not be helping anyone.
Recipients of welfare would say that they are not abusing welfare. They think they need it to survive, to pay rent and buy food etc. Also, the people who are on welfare because of being laid off from a job or being mentally or physically disabled need work to survive. The people who just got laid off should use welfare while they need it but when they regain another job, they should take themselves off welfare. If they do not, they would be abusing the welfare system. People who have disabilities and need welfare can stay on it.
The author of Working at the Margins was “studying” people on welfare and he said “the men and women I came to know lacked neither the motivation to access training and obtain employment nor the skills required to function competently on the job” (Riemer 7). He is saying the people he met that were on welfare were very motivated to get training and get jobs. Of course he only “studied” 37 people and there are way more than 37 people on welfare. Not all of them want to find a real job and get off welfare and not all of them want to stay on welfare and live off of it. The “training programs and workplaces encourage and support a move from unemployment to unsubsidized work” (Riemer 7). So the welfare programs that get them into training or even jobs encourage people to get the job, keep it, and stay off welfare. This is a perfect example that “there is no evidence that people receiving welfare are "lazy” (Tanner). People on welfare do try and find work and try hard at getting off welfare. If all these people must find jobs and actually work it would boost the economy and they would no longer be in poverty. Some people believe that “welfare is a necessary civic contribution providing a [protection] against scientists own failures” (Epstein 74). They believe that some people do try hard to get jobs and sometimes people get laid off and cannot do anything about it, and that is why they are on welfare.
However, not everyone on welfare tries to get a job. Most understand that they will get paid more through welfare than through a real job. Yes, many people may be motivated to get jobs, but how long does that last? Once they have seen how easy it is to live and get by with welfare why would someone be motivated to get a job? True that some people on welfare are not lazy, but the ones who abuse it and use it for other reasons then they are supposed to may be considered lazy. Instead of getting a job with a steady income they are getting paid “for free” to do what they want with the money.
The Solution: Ending all aspects of welfare except for the disabled.
As stated earlier, the solution to welfare is to end all programs except for the ones that support disabled people. These people really need welfare assistance because most of them have no chance of getting a real job. If this is done all of the funding and money that goes to welfare programs will go towards other programs such as education, or subsidizing small businesses so they can hire more people . If we put the money towards education, it would boost more jobs because more teachers will be needed, and once there are more teachers, they will be spending more money elsewhere which will cause businesses to hire more employees. So ending welfare completely is the best solution because it would end up creating more jobs and boosting America’s economy again. To the citizens who believe that this is the wrong solution, they should think of what the benefits are to this solution. People would have real jobs again and making money to reach their “American Dream”.
People who receive welfare now will most likely not agree with this solution. They will wonder what they are supposed to do with no income or help for food for the family. These people will think it is completely unfair to suddenly take away all their money and income. They will not agree with it and probably try suing the government. The people will say they need it to survive, and pay bills etc. It has been said that welfare reform raises issues in the cases of race, class, and sex (Weaver 2). This meaning that some races, lower class, and specific genders feel that welfare is biased against them. It is common sense that specific races and the lower class citizens are the main ones on welfare. Because these races are the main population in urban communities, they are not getting the greatest schooling, which leads to their families and themselves being on welfare.
Many other things have been done to try and fix the welfare problem. New programs, new rules to follow on programs, etc have been changed to try and make Americas poverty rate go down. But all it has done is raise the poverty level because now more people want to “be on welfare because they don’t want to work, or … continue to have children out of wedlock in order to stay on the dole” (Riemer 2). People do many things to keep themselves on welfare and will do anything to stay on it.
The difficulties with this solution are it is going to be hard to stop almost all programs at once and create jobs right away for the people who were on welfare. It will most likely take a decent amount of time to get that done. Yes, some may say that it will cause more poverty but in the long run it will create more jobs and people can feel independent again. This is a better solution than just reforming the existing programs because it has been seen that reforming welfare “since 1973, poverty has actually increased, despite the continued growth in social welfare spending” (Tanner). So obviously the changing of the programs is really not doing any good for the people on them.
The Implementation: Voters will vote to pass a bill that agrees with this solution.
The plan to end welfare is simple; completely cut funding to it by 2025. Not everyone will be taken off welfare right away. It will take its time to make sure everyone gets a job. Instead of the funds going to welfare it would go to subsidized small businesses, and to educate people who were taken off welfare. The government would pay for people who were on welfare that need a GED still. The funds would also go towards making it easier to get college loans, this way more people could afford college and more people could end up getting better paid jobs. The money towards small businesses would allow for them to hire on more people, which creates more jobs and would result in more jobs in other areas of the field. To educate people, we would have to start at making sure they all have a GED. They all need to be at the same level so we can prepare them for higher education. Once we have gotten them to a graduated high school level, we will teach them general necessary skills to work on the job, such as being responsible, on time, committed, etc. Next the part of it being easier to obtain college loans would kick in and the people could get into college and find a career path they want to follow.
Congress will carry out this plan by passing a bill that says by 2025 all welfare spending should be going towards education and subsidized businesses. Congress will get this bill to pass by asking voters to vote for it and make so much advertisement for it that it will get the voters attention and they will all think it is a good idea. If the majority of the population agrees with it, then senate will want to vote to pass it. If the voters do not agree with this change than that would cause major problems because the idea would fall through and we would still be stuck in a horrible economy.
Some of the issues with the implementation are that liberals are not going to like this idea at all. Most liberals are in favor of keeping welfare and helping the poor. Also many Americans are not going to agree with giving the money to small businesses. That is already a problem in today’s politics. People may say that this plan will not work because all those people will be even worse off than they were when they were on welfare. Yes, this is true, but in the long run with more money going towards education and creating jobs this will end up being a good plan.
Conclusion
Ending welfare would be a beneficial solution because it would help people become more independent. Because the welfare system is not doing much good, the failed system should not be preserved or reformed, but eliminated (Tanner). What is the point of having a system if is not doing anyone good? The solution will work well because it will lead to many other great things not only for the people who move off welfare but also for America as a whole. This solution was chosen because the funds can be utilized better in other areas of America’s economy such as education and funding more jobs. The problem of welfare needs to be solved because so many people on it, abuse it way too much and often. Abuse happens so often because it is free money, and what person would not want free money these days? It is easier to receive free money instead of working hard for it. Americans need to vote for this bill to pass so we can make this solution work. The only way we can do this is if the American voters agree and make it happen in congress, which can then send it to the president to sign. To solve the problem the way that is stated above is the way to do it because this solution will lead to more positive outcomes than any other solution.
Works Cited
Bradley, Katherine. "Expanding the Failed War on Poverty: Obama's 2011 Budget Increases Welfare Spending to Historic Levels." Heritage Foundation. (2010): n. page. Web. 28 Nov. 2011.
Epstein, William. Welfare In America. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. Print.
Riemer, Frances. Working at the Margins Moving off Welfare in America. New York: State University of New York Press, 2001. Print.
Rodgers, Jr., Harrell. American Poverty In A New Era Of Reform. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000. Print.
"The History of Welfare." Welfare Information. Welfareinfo.org, 2011. Web. 4 Dec 2011.
Weaver, R. Ending Welfare as We Know It. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2000. Print.
"Welfare Should Be Eliminated" by Michael Tanner. Welfare. Charles P. Cozic and Paul A. Winters, Eds. Opposing Viewpoints® Series. Greenhaven Press, 1997. Excerpted from Michael Tanner, "Ending Welfare as We Know It," Cato Policy Analysis, July 7, 1994. Reprinted by permission of the Cato Institute.
Wolf, Richard. "How Welfare Reform Changed America." USATODAY [California] 18 07 2006, n. pag. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. .
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