Should Welfare Be A Welfare?

David Zucchino’s captivating book, Myth of the Welfare Queen, sticks to his journalistic roots and reads like an extended news article as it captures two separate yet interconnected stories of women struggling to get by in Northern Philadelphia. Philadelphia was—and is—an impoverished city in many ways, with huge percentages of the population struggling to get by at or bellow the poverty line. Zucchino spent much of 1995 with woman and families on welfare as it was a time when welfare was a particularly hot topic directly preceding the passing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. Zucchino strove to cut through the stereotypes and misinformation surrounding welfare and those relying on it. In his own words, “this book is the story of

Through interviews with welfare workers and recipients, Hays demonstrates the high costs welfare has had on the moral, economic, physical and mental well-being of poor women and their children due to what she considers to be the conflict between the two opposing aspects of reform: work values and family values. She believes that these conflicting values and the inherent weaknesses in the Act contribute to serious and ongoing problems for welfare recipients.

At a campaign rally in 1976 Ronald Reagan talked about welfare queens and poverty. He said, “She used eighty names, thirty addresses and fifteen telephone numbers to collect food stamps, social security and veteran’s benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands as well as welfare. Her tax free cash income alone has been running 150,000 thousand dollars a year.”The welfare system is full of gender stereotyping. Stereotyping is when we make perceptions on what we make about others. In the past forty years America welfare system has been designed around Reagan’s fake welfare queen (Black, Sprague). This slur has had negative effects for the families on welfare that urgently need support and are struggling. This paper will discuss the lies of the welfare queen and how it originated and its negative effects on African American families and young girls.

In the preamble to the U.S. Constitution is written that the Constitution was ordained to promote the general welfare among other things. Welfare is the delivery of a minimal amount of security and social upkeep for all citizens, sometimes referred to as public aid (Wikipedia). When the great depression hit the country so hard in the 1930s, state found it difficult to support the growing population of its citizens in need of assistance meeting basic needs. It was time for the government to make good on its promise of promoting the general welfare. Since its beginnings in the 1930s the welfare system has affected the lives of millions of Americans, but not without its share of controversy and change.

The clip from Claudine displayed stereotypes that welfare is for single black women who have multiple kids and no husband. Also, in Cinderella Man, if you were a white person receiving welfare it was a disgrace and you were looked down upon or disowned. Holly wood reflects public assistant recipients by making people feel ‘unworthy, undeserving, or like a charity case’. For instance in Cinderella Man, he literally had to beg the ‘worthy’ or rich people for money to help cover the rest of his bills. Recipients may feel dependent on a system that cares nothing for their safety and security. Welfare can reflect recipient view of work. They may feel if they work too hard, they were be forced to be independent and provide everything (food, shelter, affordable home) on own, therefore no longer receiving

Modonna and her daughter Brianna have no money and live in a shelter as their residence. They have tried getting welfare before but have found like most other poor people that it isn't something that's being given out often. Things used to be better, when the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC, authorized in 1935) once ensured cash to anyone who could provide their economic need. However that isn't the case today, the numbers are so low that only two of one hundred Americans receive cash welfare. The 1996 welfare reform known as TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) has only made receiving aid increasingly more difficult and continues to offer aid to even fewer families as time goes

Welfare is a program in the United States that provides economic support to citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. This program was started during the 1930’s to help out the millions of people who were affected by the great depression. By the 1960’s the welfare program was not being used the same and many believed it was being misused. The welfare program in the United States should be abolished because it costs more than it helps, it is a waste of money, it is abused, and because it teaches bad work ethics.

Welfare officially started after the Great Depression in the 1930s. On top of guaranteed cash payments to the poor, monthly benefits were given out to single mothers and children regardless of their ability to work, assets on hand, or personal circumstances. There was also no time limit on the welfare program. Once accepted, people could stay on welfare for their entire lives. In the 1990s, public opinion had turned strongly against the old welfare system. The welfare system included no incentive for recipients to seek employment. More people enrolled in welfare because they wanted the support, rather than needed it. The system was viewed as rewarding, and it made poverty rates and welfare enrollments rise. It was in 1996 that the government realized they needed to make a change.’

When people are working, many think that everything is great and nothing will happen to their good life, but in some cases they are fired out of the blue and don’t have anything to fall back on. It is for instances such as these that welfare needs to be available to people who genuinely need help from the government. Some believe that the government should become more selective in choosing recipients of welfare in order to prevent people from taking advantage of the programs, but the government should remember that many citizens (about 35.4% of the population) depend on government aid such as Medicaid, SNAP, food stamps, etc.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live a life free of worry, knowing that every one of your needs is met? You could relax and enjoy life without the concern of finding employment and earning a paycheck. Well.in the long run, that type of life may not be so wonderful after all! The United States welfare system has become a crutch for a segment of society who needs assistance learning how to provide for themselves and their families, rather than being given another handout. This is a serious issue due to the ever increasing number of people being added to the welfare roll every year and the probability that once receiving welfare, they may never again be self-sufficient. It should be important to every citizen due to the fact that many are being led down a road of dependency and because the United States government currently has a national debt of over eighteen trillion dollars and is estimated to reach over twenty-one trillion by the end of 2015. "Debt Clock." How can we continue to help the neediest of our citizens if the money runs out? Can career training and drug testing possibly assist countless individuals in escaping the government entitlement trap and while doing so help reduce the nation’s debt? Let’s look at the history of the U. S. welfare system.

"Welfare is the statutory procedure or social effort designed to promote the basic physical and material well-being of people in need," according to the dictionary (dictonary.com). Welfare comes in many forms, such as, Medicaid, HUD Homes, Food Stamps, and Supplement Security Income. Some people use one source of Welfare, while others use all.

As of January 2017, the poverty line for one person was $12,060 a year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. When taking into account living expenses like rent, food, gas, health insurance, utilities, hygiene items, etc, we can see that about $1,000 a month definitely couldn’t sustain the average person. But that doesn’t mean they’re trying right? Well evidence shows that they are. According to cbpp.org, most of those on welfare work for at least 30 hours a week, with many working 40 plus hours.

The welfare system first came into action during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployed citizens needed federal assistance to escape the reality of severe poverty. The welfare system supplies families with services such as: food stamps, medicaid, and housing among others. The welfare system has played a vital role in the US, in controlling the amount of poverty to a certain level. Sadly, the system has been abused and taken for granted by citizens across the country. The welfare system was previously controlled by the federal government until 1996; the federal government handed over the responsibility to the states in hope of reducing welfare abuse. However, this change has not prevented folks from scamming the system. The

Welfare should not be reformed because it helps single parents. 40 percent of single mothers are poor, 12 million single parents-mother-headed families are poor (Freeman). Welfare can help keep these single parent families stay stable to be an effective families. 12 million single parents mothers headed families can be reduced to less underachieving families with the assistants of welfare. Also with single parents they never had an significant other.

Those who are obtaining public assistance are in need and most of welfare checks are not collected by African American single mothers. This term is still used in conversations about the welfare state, and minority groups are constantly being portrayed as scammers collecting welfare checks. The Welfare queens are a prime example of both marginalization and intersectionality.