Trying to determine how many in the United States receive some type of government assistance I found this estimate on the internet that it includes 68 million of the people in the U.S. It did not say what year that was but indicated it was 21.3 percent of the people in the U.S. The information did not say if these figures included the millions of illegal immigrants who receive welfare benefits. The figures did not indicate who provided them so they may be suspect. It seems strange 21.3 percent of the population are unable to support themselves. Is this normal from a historical standpoint? If so how did people survive before our welfare state began? Or does this indicate welfare is not providing basic needs but the desire of welfare promotors to make everybody equal?
The Federal Government considers SSI, VA Service and non service related disabilities and Aid For Dependent Children as Welfare. It does not consider Food Stamps, state medical assistance, unemployment benefits and workers compensation as public assistance. Why does not federal government bureaucrats declare all benefits non welfare. That way they could say we had conquered poverty and no one was on welfare.
Welfare is a 700 billion dollar industry. How would you ever dismantle an industry where so many feed at the trough? Ronald Reagan said,” we should measure welfare success by how many leave welfare, not by how by how many are added.”
Authors of the book, Human Cost of Welfare, Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers interviewed many welfare recipients and came to this conclusion. “Not only does our welfare system fail to offer opportunities for advancement or improvement, but it traps individuals and families in the very poverty it is designed to eliminate.” This reminds me of the old adage, “give a man a fish and he will have one meal. Teach him to fish and he will have food for a lifetime.”
Welfare benefits is an anti-work program. When a recipient starts earning money the welfare benefits stop so many take the attitude why work? According to an article by Patrick Hagan and Robert Bector in an article entitled How Welfare harms kids when past and future recipients on AFDC are combined the average length of stay is 13 years. Research by Congressional Budget Office Director June O’Neill shows that increasing the time a child spends on welfare may reduce the child’s IQ by 20%. According to their article the more welfare received by a boy’s family during his childhood the lower the boy’s income will be as an adult. June ONeil also shows that a 50 per cent increase in monthly AFDC and food stamps results in a 43 percent increase in illegitimate births within a state.
Here is what a child raised on welfare can look forward to according to How Welfare Harms Kids. It triples the level of behavioral and emotional problems among children. It nearly triples the level of teen age sexual activity. Doubles the probability a young woman will have children out of wedlock. It doubles the probability a boy will become a threat to society, engage in criminal activity and wind up in fail.
Radicals are always claiming it is unfair for the middle and upper class to have what the lower class is denied. They call it economic justice. What about the middle class woman who must work to help support the family and have to pay for day care and also are taxed to support someone who gets to stay home with their Children. What is fair about that?
Welfare discourages the formation of families. Boy friend could get married and support his wife and children. Or boyfriend could move in with girl friend and live in an apartment paid for by taxpayers and eat food supplied by taxpayers. That is an incentive not to get married. Before someone writes and tells me the mother cannot get welfare if she is living with her boyfriend. I will explain how that works. I once reported to the social worker that a welfare recipient was living with her boy friend. The social worker asked the recipient if she was living with her boyfriend and she said no. As was explained to me the policy of the social service department is if a person denies boyfriend is living in they are required to believe them.
The ills of the world could be solved by people returning to God. But we know that is not going to happen because more and more people are rejecting God. It is unfortunate because God’s commandments are designed to bring us happiness. He said it is not good for man to be alone which means being married. There are many scriptures dealing with how we treat our spouse, children, parents or other people. If everyone treated others they way we want to be treated what a positive effect that would make on billions of people. Every study I have seen involving families have shown that children who grow up in a home with a father and mother fare much better than those who do not. Our welfare system does not teach people to fish. A welfare system that does not teach people to fish needs to be disbanded.
This is a blog for conservatives and people of faith.