Politics and Poverty Essay

It is this division of thinking between the Democrats and the Republicans that contributes to the United States being considered a reluctant welfare state. Throughout history there have been shifts in power between the two parties. This transfer of power greatly impacts the rise and fall of our social service programs and policies.

Welfare is a greatly debatable topic in the United States , for more than 52.2 million Americans are currently on the welfare system. Many of them take advantage of this government benefit. The government believes that welfare helps and aids the citizens of the U.S, yet what most people do is take advantage of tax payers money. I disagree with welfare for the reason that people abuse and become dependent on the system.

Welfare has been an arguable topic throughout United States history (“Brief”). Some people agree with it and others do not like it at all. Welfare did not exist until the 1930s during The Great Depression (“Brief”). With millions of people unemployed, Franklin D. Roosevelt developed the welfare system to help these people during the Great Depression (“Brief”). After the Great Depression was over,, the government came up with new programs to help assist the welfare program and help more people in poverty (“Brief”). Some of those programs were Medicaid, public housing, food stamps, and Supplemental Security programs (“Brief”). Theses programs helped and hurt the country at the same time (“Brief”). By having these programs, many people would not look for jobs because they knew they were better off living on welfare (“Brief”).

Welfare started as a temporary response to the economic crash in the 1930s. Its primary goal was to provide cushioning to the families who lost the ability to be self-sufficient during the Great Depression. Yet, as America slowly rose back to becoming prosperous and wealthy, a significant chunk of America's population stayed below in the transitioning social system. The welfare system started to become counterproductive to the government so that, in the 1990s, Clinton hastily came up with legislation to end welfare, more famously known as the Welfare Reform Act of 1996. This road that Clinton led ended in a downfall as more people than ever before are now dependent on the federal government for food, housing, and income. Our current welfare reform may need another reform before welfare can truly end.

More than 800 million people in the world are malnourished, 777 million of them are from the developing world (Raphel, S., 2014). Poverty is an issue that must be addressed to the population loud and clear or everyone will end up suffering. There are many families trying to survive and live from paycheck to paycheck. Unfortunately, there are some families that are unable to support himself or herself or any family member. One important key issue of poverty in the United States is inequality. Many Americans blame the poor people for their own fate but you should never judge a book by its cover. There can be many reasons why an individual or families end up in poverty. For example, low wage jobs, discrimination and social inequality, vulnerability to natural disasters, war and political instability. Another big issue we face today is child poverty. This is a very critical issue because these young children are our future. If we let these children live in poverty, there is a higher chance they will drop out of school, look for work in order to support their family, or give up in life.

Welfare, enacted by one of the greatest presidents of the United States’s existence, Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, is an effective and useful means to assist American families in need. Throughout history, welfare has proven to help people get back on their feet and into society. Despite the system’s many useful benefits, like most attributes in this world, welfare has kinks in the system. In fact, welfare has yet to be perfected, even though it was established in the year of 1935 and is still in use today. The system may never be perfected, but it can be improved. There are many different thoughts and ideas pertaining to how welfare should change. Some believe it should be eliminated entirely. In doing so, many people all across the nation would be harmed in financial and mental manners. How can welfare be reformed? Is it even possible? The answer is absolutely. It must be reformed, and many would agree on the matter. It is, however, a sensitive and controversial topic to most. Political parties tend to take interest in the discussion of welfare reform, as well. The typical, left-wing Democrat wishes to give more to welfare users, while the standard right-wing Republican would like to decrease what is given to Americans. If everything has its imperfections, why should welfare be reformed? Why not leave it the way it is and let the government figure out the fine print? There are those that take this sort of stance on welfare reform, and there are some that believe differently.

When most people think of the average welfare recipient they most likely imagine someone who is a slacker; unambitious and one who is not a hard worker, someone who lazes around waiting until their welfare check comes in so that they can spend it all on whatever frivolous thing they want, and wait until the next check arrives. Sometimes people think of a mother and her children in a poor neighborhood, who wants more money to spend on expensive clothes and electronics, so she gets her welfare checks and buys the expensive yet unnecessary items without using the money to get out of a bad financial situation, contented to live this way without working towards anything better. Nobody would be in support of a system that gives undeserving people their own tax money. However, that is not what welfare looks like. Welfare looks like overworked parents who are doing the best they can, but still don’t have enough to put a meal on the table. Welfare looks like people afraid to lose their homes and willing to do almost anything to just keep living. Welfare looks like the mentally disabled, who despite trying their hardest, need more help. This is what welfare looks like; people in need who strive to live a better life. Welfare helps families in need not only by giving them money but by aiding them with every aspect of their lives such as food, shelter, and more to improve the quality of their life.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, welfare is defined as “a government program for poor or unemployed people that helps pay for their food, housing, medical costs, etc.” (Dictionary) Some of these programs include; Food Stamps, Medicaid, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Head Start, Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Work Study.

Welfare is made for people who have been hard on there luck. The idea that the government gives assistants in order for recipients to become financially stable in order to improve the economic statis works very well in theory. Welfare can be looked at in two different ways. One of these ways is that welfare should be used as a temporary source in order to supplement an existing paycheck until you can make ends meet. The other way is to completely get a person of out of poverty and to become apart of the working society.

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.

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was enacted in order to change the current welfare policy at the time. This welfare policy that existed was originally meant to provide financial assistance as well as decent healthcare coverage during times of economic hardship (Kaestner, 2004). This policy was implemented as a way to help hundreds of thousands of families overcome financial hurdles. However, the idea behind the reforming of welfare was to avoid the stereotypical individuals that lived off of welfare to continue doing so. Evidence existed that concluded that people who lived off of government welfare assistance were actually allowing this system to destroy their desire to work and sustain themselves (Rector & Marshall, 2013). Welfare was seen as a detrimental part of the government and it was viewed as feeding into a lazy and poorly disciplined class of individuals. Welfare's initial intention was to aid widows who had children to support, but in a matter of decades the entire welfare system converted from being a safety net for individuals in dire times of need, to a support system for able-bodied men who lacked motivation to find employment and sustain themselves and their families (Rector & Marshall, 2013). The Welfare Reform Act came as a way to remedy these problems. Stipulations were put on those applying to receive welfare benefits. Limits were enacted that would reduce the amount of time that people could receive the benefits in order to speed up their

No matter how liberal or conservative, all politicians agree that welfare costs could be greatly reduced if abuse and fraud were eliminated. Welfare was first introduced in the 20’s as a program to help people get through the depression. The government created many public works jobs to employ the thousands that lost their jobs. At the time it was a great program but seventy-five years

In the United States there are “over 100 million people receiving some form of federal welfare” (Munoz#7). The purpose of creating the welfare system was to provide aid to those families with “little to no income” (article 1). Back in 1996 Clinton passed the welfare reform act; allowing state full control of the welfare system. The Welfare Reform Act was to help steer welfare

There seems to be an increase in poverty in the United States and there are so many theories behind why this might be a problem. It seems as if Society as a whole wants to blame this social “condition” on Society itself. I believe that the problem of poverty lies within the actual individuals that are experiencing poverty. There are a few reasons why people experience poverty. They are as follows: One, the liberal welfare programs that were started in the 1960’s, two, individuals lack the characteristic of power and individuality, three, anti-social behavior and the idea that poverty passes from one generation to the next.

Many different programs were created, all of which were designed to provide Americans jobs, give temporary aid to the needy, and in a broad sense just get America out of the Great Depression. Welfare was implemented to provide temporary aid to the needy so that they could use such capital to get back on his/her feet and continue with a productive life (“Fix Welfare”).