Welfare?

Eduardo Porter of the New York Times wrote an opinionated article about our welfare system in the States. In his article, he lists his opinions and beliefs about it. He believes that there's a lot of stereotypes about welfare. Some of the things included:

• Welfare encourages bad behavior
• Poor people only buy things like alcohol & drugs
• Reduces work
• Single mom are one group that are on it (Welfare Queens)
• The recipients are lazy 
• It only teaches that money can be handed to them easily
• It's not really effective
• It's easily taken advantage of

Reagan was against poor people using welfare programs to escape their poverty. He believed that they abused the programs and were just waiting for their check in the mail but never went out to try to find a source of income. Two presidents later Bill Clinton would go on to propose an act known as PRWORA (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act) in 1996. This was a component added to the welfare legislation so it would encourage welfare recipients to go out and seek employment. Clinton said this was, "the end to welfare as we know it." Obviously, both these guys, even though they share many different views, tried to come up with solutions that would prevent many of the needy to stop using welfare as relief.


I agree with the views these men have on welfare. I can see where welfare could possibly be a victim of abuse. If people are only use welfare money just so they can go buy a pack of cigarettes or some alcohol, then they are not using it the way it was intended to be used. I agree that people who are applying for government assistance need to go through background checks or drug tests so we can find out if the recipient will actually use it for help or just to help it's habit for drugs or alcohol. I can also see where people will sign up for it just because they might be a little "lazy" to actually go find another job, but that could be a small portion of recipients. Some people actually do need the help in order to feed their kids or put clothes on their back, so the idea of assistance shouldn't be eliminated from society just because a small group of receivers of welfare take advantage of the system. We all need help and the people that really need help should get some!