What Is Welfare In America

The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader of a real problem, media misrepresentation, and to try to have the reader change the way the think, feel, and perceive the poor. She gives examples of encounters she has had that are a result of the damaging depiction and conveys to the reader why those thoughts are wrong by using her own personal experiences. She mentions that before entering college she never thought about social class. However, the comments from both other students and her professors about poverty were alarming to her. Other people viewed the poor as, “shiftless, mindless, lazy, dishonest, and unworthy” indigents. Hook opposes that stereotypical image of the poor, referring back to being taught in a “culture of poverty,” the values to be intelligent, honest, and hard-working. She uses these personal experiences to her advantage by showing she has had an inside look at poverty.

Poverty effected many individual families around the world for many years, and it wasn’t until 1935, The Social Security Act was passed, therefore assisting many families in need. The effects of poverty is an extraordinarily obscure social experience, and the finding those causes is very similar. As a result, sociologists considered other theories of poverty, such as the journey of the middle class, employers, from the cities into the suburbs. The government has taken many steps over the years to put an end to or decrease welfare assistance. Although, the welfare system is extremely important to millions of people, it has been an underlying problem for many others causing idleness and laziness. There are many pros and cons to

Examining welfare in the United States it always seems to be a complex and controversial subject. Welfare is directed at various aspects of public policy such as economics, education/training, culture diversity, taxation, incentives, actualization as well as the actual role of the government. The paper will commence by briefly discussing the idea of state welfare system, the origin, development, purpose, and specific view on the way welfare system has undergone changes from the error of Depression. This therefore brings us to the importance of having knowledge on the implication of the 1988 Family Support Act (FSA), the attitude change and policy concerning welfare, as well as the most recent way of focusing to the finding methods of training, retraining or educating individuals in welfare for them to get gainful employment especially those who move to the corporate world.

In order to more clearly understand the severity of poverty in our nation, we must first look back to the source of the issue. With the start of The Great Depression in the 1920s, economic downturn was at it’s worst. After the Stock Market Crash of 1929, millions of investors on Wall Street were uprooted. This caused consumer spending to drastically decline over the next several years. With this decrease in consumer spending, nearly 15 million Americans were laid off and half of the country’s banks failed. President

The American welfare system is fundamentally flawed, and the US Government should take the steps necessary to reform and repair it. In particular, government assistance and handouts only cause the US to fall deeper into debt, and the lack of working citizens weakens the economy. Government assistance exists in many forms, some of which include TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), SNAP (electronic benefits card/EBT or food stamps), housing assistance, unemployment benefits, Obama phones, government-funded healthcare, such as Medicare, and various tax credits (federalsafetynet.com). More importantly, the system doesn’t encourage, provide motivation or offer incentive

Poverty is present in today’s U.S. social system. For example, as Lesser states in the Clearinghouse Review, “Forty-six million Americans live in poverty” (1). Lesser then goes on to say how forty-six million Americans living in poverty correlates to almost one in every three single-parent families is poor (1). This is a daunting fact as it applies to today’s economic context with “rising unemployment rates and mortgage crises driving more individuals and families to seek the support of a cash-strapped social welfare structure” (Grijalva 1). With this in mind, many legislators are discussing the topic of poverty in the political realm. In order to tally the score of representatives the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law conducted its sixth annual Poverty Scorecard. “The 2012 Poverty Scorecard grades the voting record of every U.S. senator and representative on the most important poverty-related votes in 2012” (Lesser 1). The 2012 votes covered a range of topics such as budget and tax, food and nutrition, health care, housing, and many more (1). The results of the 2012 Poverty

Have you ever thought that welfare should not be a part of our daily lives? If so, here are some reasons why they should be a part of our country, in America we live in country where a fair amount of people depend on financial assistance. Some people feel like others take advantage of this system because they do not use the assistance for the right reasons. Welfare should be given to those who work for the money or who truly needs the assistance. There are different types of welfare that people can receive such as: Cash Aid, Food Stamps, and Medical. However, it is very easy to apply for the assistance and to receive it. People do not necessarily have to work to be on these programs. Welfare should be a part of our daily lives because it

America’s welfare policy is viewed as residual structure to welfare in which we provide the least amount of benefits for safety for Americans in our country. Furthermore we believe all people have the ability to enhance their situation by using the free market and private and voluntary organizations ( Karger & Stoesz, 2014). Compared to Sweden who uses the corporatist approach which has a strong alliance among government, labor, and business, together have decided to come up with an agreement on social welfare (Karger & Stoesz, 2014). However the US lacks a coherent, coordinated social welfare policy, most likely the result of conflict between democrats and republicans, which makes it more inefficient than elsewhere. Although Sweden is

Everyone has their own opinion about the welfare system in the United States. Some feel it is well-designed and other find it to be valueless. Some say it is an excuse for “the lazy” to not have to contribute to society, and use it as a source of income. Some even say the program isn’t utilized in the manner in which it was meant when established. Regardless of opinions, the welfare system was established to help those in a time of need. The United States, “The land of opportunity”, is simply trying to help give those less fortunate the opportunity to succeed. In the following paragraphs we will discuss the history of the welfare system; why it was created; and how the conflict theory impacts it.

While it has proven to be difficult to end poverty in America, Peter Edelman is optimistic. In his book So Rich, So Poor Edelman makes a call to action. There are four prominent ideas that underpin Edelman’s reasoning throughout the book: (1) More people must understand why poverty is still so prevalent in America; (2) extreme poverty must be taken into consideration as a shocking 6 million Americans’ sole income was food stamps in 2011. This fact alone creates a sense of urgency that drives Edelman; (3) increasing income inequality should be treated as a moral issue; and (4) bold political action will be required if substantive progress will be made in alleviating poverty.

Various research have been conducted surrounding the effects of welfare on families and individuals. Welfare may not seem like a big deal in America, but we are spending millions of taxpayer dollars on welfare a year. The many programs inside welfare do have some benefits as well as shortcomings. Education declines and work incentives are just some of the major issues that surface from being on welfare. Although advocates of welfare believe it is supporting the poor, the programs within welfare are decreasing the positive numbers of education and work while raising questions of whether or not reform has been beneficial. Welfare reform has been an issue since the 1970s (Moffitt 2015). Regardless of the new programs put into place, the wanted

Historically government of the United States always made an attempt to provide support to its people, especially those struggling. One-way government support its people is by providing welfare. Webster dictionary defines welfare as “money paid by the government to those who are in need of financial assistance, are unable to work, or whose circumstances mean the income they require for basic needs is in excess of their salary.” Welfare was established under the President Franklin D. Roosevelt, by Social Security Act of 1935, and administered by individual states and territories for the government to help poverty. President Roosevelt implemented this program because of the Great Depression. When the Great Depression

Social welfare programs are when society organizes efforts to meet some human needs. In the United States social welfare philosophies have changed throughout the years, and support for social welfare has gone both ways.

Surprisingly, Jill and Troy, who identify as a liberal and a conservative respectively, have similar ideas about the welfare system. Both stated that while useful to help people get on their feet, they feel people who are on #7 welfare, or the government system in place to help support people who live under the poverty line, are more likely to abuse the system (Kerbo 2012). This idea sounds very similar to the #8 Culture-of-Poverty Theory, stating that the poor are faced with certain problems, which attributes to their lifestyle, which in turn creates more problems (Kerbo 2012). I feel that this applies because the Culture-of-Poverty Theory is a generalization about how those living below the poverty line deal with their problems and the characteristics of those in poverty. Jennifer, on the other hand, believes it is difficult to abuse welfare, and that it is used more for people who really need it, which is more like the #9 Situational View of Poverty, which argues that behavior changes because they are poor (Kerbo 2012). This is a more positive view of poverty, as it gives those in poverty the benefit of the doubt, seeing the circumstances as the main reason for the lifestyle those in poverty live. These ideas of poverty tie back into each of their views of the American Dream and its

The pinpoint cause of poverty is challenging to find. People who live well off and are above the poverty line may be quick to assume that laziness, addiction, and the typical stereotypes are the causes of poverty. Barbara Ehrenreich, a well known writer on social issues, brings attention to the stereotypical ideology at her time, that “poverty was caused, not by low wages or a lack of jobs, but by bad attitudes and faulty lifestyles” (17). Ehrenreich is emphasizing the fact that statements like the one listed, often influence readers to paint inaccurate mental pictures of poverty that continue to shine light on the ideology of stereotypes being the pinpoint cause to poverty. However, there are many other causes that are often overshadowed, leaving some individuals to believe that poverty was wrongfully placed upon them. Examples would include: high rates of unemployment, low paying jobs, race, and health complications. Which are all out of one’s ability to control. There is no control over a lack of jobs and high rates of unemployment, nor the amount of inadequate wages the working poor receive. Greg Kaufmann, an advisor for the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Half in Ten campaign, complicates matters further when he writes, “Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying less than $34,000 a year: 50 percent. Jobs in the U.S. [were] paying below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually: 25 percent” (33). Acknowledging Kaufmann’s fact, the amount received for a family of four is fairly close to the yearly salary of a high school graduate, which means, receiving that kind of pay for one man may seem challenging, now imagine caring for the needs of four individuals. To make matters worse, certain families receive that amount of money and carry the burden of paying for