Welfare Essay Research Paper Welfare has been

Welfare Essay, Research Paper

Welfare has been a social issue since 1936, which was when Welfare was introduced to the United States. Welfare soon expanded through out the 1960?s and 70?s. Welfare does not only exist in the United Sates, it also exists in many other nations as well. Our welfare program may not even be as good as other nations. The reason for this is the United States practices individualistic capitalism which is where the government emphasizes the importance of an individual rather than a group or community. While other countries such as Germany are known to have a communitarian capitalism. Germany is known to have a very good welfare system due to this. This is necessarily not a bad thing, because the average person benefits from this type of system, even though it does hurt the lower class at times. Welfare is such an important issue because for some people it is their only means for survival.

There are many different views on welfare. Some people believe that welfare should be abolished as a whole, because it is only for lazy people who are not willing to work for their money, while others believe that is the only hope for people who are not capable of finding a steady job to raise their families. There are many misconceptions on welfare, and about the people who are on it. Yes, in some cases the rumors might be true, but for the most part they are overly exaggerated. Welfare is one of those sensitive topics that is difficult to take a certain stand on. The reason for this is because like many other thing it depends on the situation. For instance last week I heard about some guy who was on welfare, and he was living in a luxuries townhouse driving a Mercedes. At times like this people may think welfare is just there for people to take their tax money and abuse it. While on the other hand if were to know of a single mother working two jobs and trying to raise three kids on her own, you would wonder why she is not getting helped. In this case you would be willing to spare those few extra dollars you have to help the needy.

The main concern about welfare is not that we should have it, but who gets it, how much do they get, and when do we cut them off government aid. Every thing about Welfare changed in August of 1996 when President Clinton had his own vision of what welfare should be. The new program is called (TANF) Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, which replaced (AFDC) Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Under this new law each state is now responsible for implementing their own welfare programs. From then on Welfare and government aided money has become more difficult to receive. Families under the poverty levels have felt the hit after the changing of these policies. The Clinton administration claims to have cut down on welfare due to the economies growth. It is true that many people are better off now than they were before due to the booming economy, but at the same time people who desperately need money to eat and put clothes on their families back are not getting it.

How much money do we want to spend on helping others is what it comes down to. Welfare is basically about giving the poor a little boost till they can get on their own feet again. It is not to be abused or used as a means for primary salary. The countries main concern obviously is the amount of money that is being poured out into welfare. The Total Federal spending on Welfare and other government aids such as Food Stamps are about 13.8 Billion dollars, which comes out to be about one hundred and fifty six dollars for each American Taxpayer. So it is understandable why it plays such a big role in our economy.

There are many myths about who?s on welfare. Most people would think that the majority of recipients of welfare are either black or Hispanic. This is false, actually white people make up 38.9% of welfare recipients, while 37.2% black, and17.8 are Hispanics. The reason for this misconception is because many blacks and Hispanics live in the city, therefore it seems as though they are they only ones who are poor, while white people are spread out all over the place. Many people live in the middle of nowhere and live in trailer homes.

The Clinton Administration keeps on going on about how since he has come into office and proposed this new welfare program in 1996, welfare has gone down, and the economy is greater than ever. True, the economy is doing great but what they forget to mention is that it is even harder to get welfare so of course lees people are receiving it. The welfare numbers going down has nothing to do with the economy being so good. As the famous saying goes the rich become richer and poor become poorer. That?s what they forgot to mention.

Another misconception about the people on welfare is that they have huge families and that they keep on having kids. In some cases it may be true, but for the most part it is false. The Average Family size is 2.9 people. The average monthly benefit for a family of three is $373. As you can see that is not an income, it is just there to put food on the table. I?m not saying it should be increased, because it shouldn?t. I just believe that there is a misconception that people believe that you can live off welfare with out working. The only thing you can do on $373 is eat to survive, which is why we have welfare. This leads me to another point. Three fourths of the people on we