FREE ESSAY ON WELFARE FLAWS

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.