Welfare Essay Research Paper Welfare it is

Welfare Essay, Research Paper

.Welfare, it is on just about everyone.s’ mind, whether it is Medicare or the Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which is also called the AFDC. Some believe there is too much and others think there is too little. As the years go by, the need for welfare reform increases..(Sara) Welfare is constantly being taken advantage of, and it needs to be reformed to solve this problem. Welfare in its current state is a tremendous drain on our economy. With reform, we can keep our economy on the rise for longer amounts of time. The main problem that Welfare causes is that it gives money to people who haven.t performed any work for it. This is bad for our economy because it devalues the money that is in circulation. Society must advocate a policy like Social Darwinism, because we cannot kill off the weak, but at the same time they must work for their keep. We should severely limit the benefits paid out through Welfare.

Welfare uses, or should we say, misuses billions of dollars per year. This money could be better spent on tax breaks, government-funded job training centers, and help for our ailing Social Security system. When it was originally conceived during a time of economic distress, the welfare program supplied aid to those in need. .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..(Anonymous) Welfare programs should show the poor they must learn to fish for themselves if recipients are to eventually work for their sustenance. .In 1994 alone, 34 million people received some 140 billion dollars in Medicaid benefits. Food stamps that are used by low-income families, buys food items and work just like money. In 1994, 27 million people used food stamps costing the federal government 24 billion dollars..(Sara) 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 spending what was then an unparalleled amount of federal funds for a variety of programs to help the poor. .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..(Anonymous) This is ironic because 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. Researchers have concluded that Welfare handouts have decreased the recipients. willingness to work, and often it is the recipients. negative attitude towards work rather than a lack of available jobs, which is responsible for their unemployment. Without shorter time limits on aid, there is little chance 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.

The problems with the current Welfare system, if it is left untouched, are the same problems we face today, only they will become worse and with greater numbers. The problem with the Welfare system, as stated above, is the fact that often women have children in order to receive public assistance. Also it has been documented that some corrupt doctors overcharge Medicaid patients because the government is picking up the check. However, in most hospitals when Medicaid is used the hospital gets less money to help the patient than they would normally get from a paying patient. Also if high-tech equipment is needed to treat a Medicaid patient it might cost more money to use the equipment than the hospital receives from the government. This system has many flaws and there is a potential for many more problems in the future if it isn.t corrected. Spending on welfare would have to increase greatly to eliminate poverty, and many people believe the cost is already too high. This means that the only intelligent course of action is to set strict time limits on the Welfare system, and to limit the benefits paid out. There is an inherent danger when cutting benefits to people who base their survival on those benefits. The first few generations will reject the new system and they will struggle to get on their feet, but this is necessary in order to produce a new breed of hard-working lower-class Americans. Not everyone can start out at the top, but the beauty of our country is that everyone is supposed to be able to start out with enough to survive, and with hard work they can succeed and raise their standard of living.

An example can be made of how faulty our current welfare system is by giving statistics of an average family on welfare, and the benefits that they are eligible to receive. A poverty line is set, and this line is an a