Liberal Individualism And The American Welfare System

The United States is often referred to as a ‘reluctant welfare state.’ There are various reasons for this description. One of the primary reasons for this is the differences and diversity of the political parties which are the motivating forces that control government. The Liberal Party, for instance supports government safety nets and social service programs for those in need. “Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all.” ("Studentnews," 2006) They believe it is the responsibility of government to ensure that the needs of all citizens are met, and to intervene to solve problems. The responsibility of government is to alleviate social ills, to protect civil liberties and sustain individual

Can a single mother of three working full time for minimum wage afford to pay ' by herself ' for food, clothing, transportation, childcare, occupational training and medical care? Without government aid, the obvious answer is no. Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), as described by Robert Kuttner, is a government aid program designed 'to help all of the working poor rise out of poverty.' It includes tuition reimbursements, wage supplements, and above all, childcare? (Kuttner). It creates a more equal opportunity for those at a disadvantage to improve themselves and their situation. TANF, 'which limits the time families can remain on welfare, appears to be a smashing success' (Cohn). First, if eligibility were to become stricter, seeking

The current (US) welfare reform consists of more than cash payment that the poor US citizen could bank on. There is a monthly payment that each poor person received in spite of their ability to work. The main people who received this payment were both mothers and children. Moreover, the payment does not have time limit and those people could not remain on the welfare for the rest of their live.

Changes within the welfare system as a result of policy shifts and by new thinking, more generally in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have had many methods, but the one that seemed most important, was that welfare recipients were required to do much more to justify their income support payments than before. The foundation of this new idea is that income support programs should allow individuals to maximise their participation in work. Due to the general shift in welfare administration, the number of activity test requirements an individual in Australia must meet in order to receive unemployment benefits, has expanded significantly since the early 1990s. This complex, overly bureaucratic process means that disadvantaged individuals cannot access the income support payments they require.

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

The purpose of Medicare was to provide federal aid to the elderly for medical expenses regardless if they were on welfare or not. Medicaid was created to give medical assistance to welfare recipients and other poverty-stricken people. Another thing that the Johnson administration did in attempt to conquer poverty was the Economic Opportunity act of 1964. The purpose of this act was not only to expand old programs, but to introduce new ones that will help. In an address to congress in 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson affirms that this act would benefit underprivileged Americans continue their education and develop skills that will help them find good jobs and eventually escape from poverty (Doc B). President Johnson was dedicated to abolishing segregation within schools, the workplace and in public. The United States still had a lot to do to deal with racial and gender inequality issues. As Stokely Carmichael said in “What We Want” on September 22nd 1966, African-American families were enduring issues such as unemployment, starvation and murder. However, despite these hardships,

The greatest impetus, however, for the political movement away from the entitlement credo was the perceived wide-spread abuse of the welfare system. The “Welfare Cadillac and Mink Coat” motifs were used so often that they became part of the pantheon of “Urban Legends”. Faced with public outcries and indignation, the Federal Government completely overhauled the welfare system in 1996. However, even with the 1996 overhaul, the welfare system is often perceived as being abused. The questions become:

During the nation’s time of grief, Johnson’s civil rights bill passed—a bill quite similar to that of Kennedy, but more powerful; this act outlawed all public racial discrimination, such as within jobs, schools, and the general community. Also passed in 1964 was Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act. Johnson intended to “give almost half a million underprivileged young Americans the opportunity to develop skills, continue education, and find useful work” in addition to the opportunity to “carry out their plans” and “break through particular barriers which bar their escape from poverty” (Document B). Johnson clearly paid substantial attention to the needs of US citizens, as seen through his consideration for poverty. He focused on providing for and protecting vulnerable and impoverished groups of people and was wary of the country’s health care and its “mounting costs” (Document

What would happen if the government made changes to the welfare system? There are approximately 110,489,000 of Americans on welfare. Many people benefit from what the system has to offer: food stamps, housing, health insurance, day care, and unemployment. Taxpayers often argue that the individuals who benefit from the system, abuse the system; however, this is not entirely true. Many of the people who receive benefits really and truly need the help. Even though some people believe welfare should be reformed, welfare should not be reformed because 40% of single mothers are poor, some elderly people do not have a support system, and college students can not afford to take extra loans.

As part of president Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society”, which focused on improving the quality of life among all Americans, he initiated the War on Poverty during the 1960s. The War on Poverty was built by using government funding to improve poverty-stricken areas of the country and to start “...a new food stamp program, giving poor people greater choice in obtaining food, and rent supplements that provided alternatives to public housing projects for some poor families.(Roark, Pg.936). Johnson also focused in improving education for children and also job training for adults. In addition, two major programs were produced after The War on Poverty was established, which were Medicare and Medicaid. These programs helped

During the 1960s, government expansion was the question of the century. According to the U.S. Census, the poverty level of the United States consisted of almost a quarter of the country. The concern for the U.S. poverty level overwhelmed the nation and political parties, sending Democratic Lyndon Johnson and Republican Ronald Reagan scrambling for a solution to this ongoing issue that has been without resolution since the depression. Despite the opposing parties common goal to spearhead the nation’s economic success of decreasing poverty, and attempting to provide equality for all, the plans to achieve such success were vastly different. This plan left the U.S. with a choice between a strategic plan of smaller government or government expansion. This obligated Ronald Reagan to challenge the role of expanding government by clarifying his new role as a Republican, proclaiming the nation’s insecurities in the democratic plan of expansion, and bringing light to the true evidence of the U.S. vulnerability with seeking more government funded programs.

Welfare has been a safety net for many Americans, when the alternative for them is going without food and shelter. Over the years, the government has provided income for the unemployed, food assistance for the hungry, and health care for the poor. The federal government in the nineteenth century started to provide minimal benefits for the poor. During the twentieth century the United States federal government established a more substantial welfare system to help Americans when they most needed it. In 1996, welfare reform occurred under President Bill Clinton and it significantly changed the structure of welfare. Social Security has gone through significant change from FDR’s signing of the program into law to President George W. Bush’s

Cedric Johnson examines and rejects the concept of extraordinary, myth under the class that was pivotal to the defeat of the welfare state in the United States, particularly influential in shaping a market-oriented reconstruction of New Orleans. Moynihan believes that black poverty is rooted in culture rather than economic structures that affect the working class in general and has cast a long shadow over the number of Americans who think of inequality. Johnson examines how the spread of conservative ideology has affected the working lives of the new Europeans. In addition, he briefly reviews the Cold War origins of the lower-class myth, the belief that chronic urban poverty is the result of a distinct and different culture of the poor. Despite

Welfare was accepted as a success and continued for almost sixty years. In the 1990’s Americans began to question the effectiveness of the government welfare system. In 1992, President Bill Clinton took office. One of his main problems to address while in office was the corrupted welfare system. After four years of brainstorming and planning, the United States Government decided upon how to eliminate the corrupted members of society from collecting government welfare.

New right is the post-war collectivist approach to welfare endured largely in place for decades and was not totally challenged or questioned until the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1979.The view of this government was that the state must play as small a role as soon as possible in welfare provision. Also they believed that welfare should be mainly seen as the responsibility of the individual and their family. The New Right observed state support as intrusive and supporting a dependency culture.Mrs Thatcher and her government thought welfare state produced a society in which individuals depended on state benefits other than planning for the future and taking responsibility for their own needs and those of their families.