Social Welfare : The United States

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness— these were the unalienable rights our forefathers bestowed upon our new nation when drafting the Declaration of Independence; what a far cry from independent our nation has become. Our forefathers guaranteed life and freedom, and the pursuit of happiness; happiness was not a guarantee, but set forth as a challenge for every individual to define and actively pursue for themselves. Surely, when our forefathers declared independence from an oppressive and overbearing king they did not intend for the American Government to become a maternal state that coddles its citizens. Sadly, we have become just that: a nation of citizens dependent upon our government for everything from putting food in our stomachs, to saving money for our retirement.

The basic principles of the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601 were “local investigation and administration of relief, work as a component of all assistance, and categorization of the poor into three groups: the able-bodied poor, the impotent poor, and dependent children” (Day & Schiele, 2013, p. 104). Basically, creating a welfare system to help assist the poor, implementing programs to get people working, and categorizing the poor as worthy or unworthy poor. Examples of this in the present social welfare system are TANF, unemployment insurance, Social Security, SSI, and SDI. Within the TANF and unemployment program, there is a job search requirement to encourage people to find work. Also, much like the Elizabethan Poor Laws, people are categorized to receive specific benefits based on whether they can work or not, like SSI, which is for people who are currently unable to work because of old age or disability.

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

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.

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

Despite previous efforts to provide assistance to the poor, the Elizabethan Poor Law was the first national policy enacted to do so. This law required parish governments to tax households and distribute aid to the “deserving” poor. Those that were considered deserving of aid were people unable to work due to disability or old age. This corresponds to today’s Supplemental Security Income program. This is also a national, or better currently known as federal, policy that is designed to provide assistance to people with little income. It, too, determines those that are deserving of assistance as people who are elderly or who have a disability.

In 1935, Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act which, among other things, provided for the financial, medical, and material needs of the poor (Komisar 125,128). Since then, there have many additions and reforms to the bill, none of which has served to quell the controversy surrounding the effectiveness of the welfare system in the United States. The main concerns of the distribution of welfare dollars and resources can be answered by the questions ?Who gets assistance?? and ?How much do they receive??. The U.S. welfare system is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, which attempts to answer these questions through a system of minimum incomes, government-calculated poverty levels, number of children, health problems, and many other criteria. This complicated system leads to one of the critiques of the welfare system?that it is too large and inefficient. President Lyndon Johnson declared a ?War on Poverty? in 1964 designed to alleviate the burden of the poor and established the Food Stamp program the next year (Patterson 139). In 1996, a major welfare reform bill was passed that placed time limits on welfare assistance, required able participants to actively seek employment, and implemented additional services for the needy (Patterson 217).

Prior to the Poor Law Amendment Act there was the Elizabethan Poor Law 1601 which was more generous towards the poor. It was becoming impossible for the government to sustain this law due to the growing costs. Statistics show that in 1802 the expenditure on poor relief was costing the government £4,078,000, this figure continued to

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”).

A lot of people committed petty crimes so that they would be deported to the colonies as convicts rather then go to these poor houses, as that still offered more hope of a better future. Free health care was also subordinated to these poor laws, with a person having to be declared a pauper to be able to receive it at an infirmary. So while there was a form of welfare that could be used as a last resort under the poor laws a person had to give up a lot of his rights, his social status, and his hope of a better future to be able to partake in this rudimentary and most basic form of welfare. The importance of these poor laws on the future lay in the fact of how repulsive they were and how the working classed revulsion of these laws led to them demanding a much fairer system.

During Colonial times Social Welfare needs were met primarily through mutual aid. The majority of people lived in farming communities. People in these communities lived in extended families. People generally worked together to support each other. If a person had a problem their families and communities reached out to help. Only rarely were there people who did not get their needs met by their families. In that event,

As opposed to public benefits or employment insurance, these laws were called Poor Laws because they were intended to a raise the standard of living of the destitute poor, sickly, and the unemployed able bodied. The end result of the intervention was public relief, but, both eras utilized different methods in distributing the needed assistance. During the 17th-19th centuries, Christian parishes were generally regarded as the appropriate location for respite, so the government awarded them the duty of allotting relief to those in need. However the able bodied unemployed were provided with relief but it was conditional on working in workhouses. Work houses were institutions to provide temporary but menial employment for the able-bodied poor.

The Poor Law was introduced because it was too much money to pay to look after the poor, so in hopes to take the poor off the streets and to stop money going to the poor the government introduced the law in 1834. The law was also put in place to embolden the poor to get back into work and support themselves, There was a law before 1834 called the "Old Poor Law" this was found to be insufficient because there was nothing in place to help the poor because even though they set up workhouses for the poor they didn't offer accommodation for the poor. There was an act passed in 1795 called "The Speenhamland System" which allowed employers to pay their workers exceptionally low wages during these years the middle and the upper classes were getting more angry because they were the ones paying for the poor who would avoid not going to or do any work.

Social control is a very interesting theory. This theory can cause people to think it don't make sense. The theory have known by people to have a problem to force some to assume that all public policy makers are evil. Theory can have social construction According to (Segal ,2016) people create a shared reality. We attribute various characteristic to groups. For example, we may believe stereotypes that "all men are strong" or " all women are nurturers." These views are reinforced through values and beliefs, and then passed on to others through stories, language, and interpretations. What do you think?

Although there are individuals who abuse the system, government subsidies are essential to combating poverty. I believe the system could use some adjustments, but overall the programs in place are very helpful to society and numerous families.