Government Responsibility
Welfare is broken and has been for a long time. Government welfare is an issue today in the United States. Welfare is supposedly given to the unemployed, the impoverished, and the physically unable. Poverty and unemployment is a problem in the U.S., because people foster dependence on welfare benefits, which increases the poverty rate, and the amount of people unemployed. The Government should help the poor, but should not help those who do not need support, and not give as many benefits as they do now. The National Welfare System was created in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. He focused on providing jobs for the large amount of unemployed people. However he supported the idea
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However, there was not a United States National Welfare system until around the 1930’s during the Great Depression. As mentioned before, president Franklin D. Roosevelt created a work relief program in his “New Deal” regime. However, it was not the government giving money to the unemployed like it is today. Back in the 1930’s, the work relief program gave money to many public works programs to provide jobs during the depression. According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, “The states, however, remained mainly responsible for taking care of the so-called "unemployables"; widows, poor children, the elderly poor, and the disabled” (Costly). Even when a national welfare system was created, it was not meant to provide money to those who did not have jobs. The government’s money was given to foundations to provide jobs for citizens, insisting that in order to receive help, they must have a job, contrary to what welfare is like today in the …show more content…
Now known as Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, food stamps are essentially “vouchers used by the government to those on low income, exchangeable for food.” These are benefits given every month, issued on a plastic card to be used like a debit card in convenience stores, grocery stores, and even at some farmer’s markets. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition board, there are about 46.5 million people receiving food stamps in the United States. Some states require the food stamp recipient to be employed or trying to find work before they can receive those food stamps. According to a “Fox and Friends” segment on Fox News, “Indiana will be reinstating rules that will require at least 20 hours of work a week to receive certain benefits such as food stamps” (NorthShore TP). This means that in Indiana, people below the poverty line will have to have worked at least 20 hours that week to receive their government issued benefits, to give an incentive to find a job instead of just taking the handouts with no effort to find work and get off welfare, or get to a point where they do not need food stamps any longer. However, according to Fox News Insider, “more than forty states still do not require welfare recipients to work” (Fox News Insider). This means that these people do not have an incentive to find work to provide for themselves, but just apply for the
Federal Government has the ability to create positive change in many social welfare systems. The support of the government ultimately determines the success of a social welfare program. They play an important role in the decisions of how funds are allocated and the importance of these various vulnerable populations. The federal government is used as a tool, to help implement and support social welfare programs. However, from my own opinion, it is sometimes lacking in the proper support needed in many aspects. This is caused by a plethora of reasons, not to say that the government is completely unsupportive. Yet, there may be a gap in the perception of these social issues. The government puts in place laws, regulations, system structures, and so on. Therefore, because the government are the implementers of how our country is ran, it is their responsibility to be a main facets in the support of the gaps that inevitably occur. Nonetheless, it can be difficult to understand the needs of these population’s and the reality of their hardships. Most in a position of power, such as the federal government, have not experienced the severity of the many situations, that results in individuals needing assistance from these social welfare programs. Moreover, it is essential that there is outreach to these populations. All the same, getting a more realistic view of the life in these contexts. For instance, the time cap of being on assistance throughout one’s
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”).
America spends an annual amount of 131.9 billion dollars on welfare alone (Department of Commerce). So many facts about welfare are overwhelming, such that over 12,800,000 Americans are on the welfare system. The entire social welfare system is in desperate need of a complete reform. In order for a proper reform to ensue, the people of America must combine efforts with the U.S. government to revitalize the current welfare system. This reform would involve answering two important questions. First, how has today’s welfare system strayed from its original state and secondly, how is the system abused by welfare holders in today’s economy?
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.
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 U.S. Congress kicked off welfare reform nationwide last October with the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, heralding a new era in which welfare recipients are required to look for work as a condition of benefits." http://www.detnews.com/1997/newsx/welfare/rules/rules.htm. Originally, the welfare system was created to help poor men, women, and children who are in need of financial and medical assistance. Over the years, welfare has become a way of life for its recipients and has created a culture of dependency. Currently, the government is in the process of reforming the welfare system. The welfare reform system’s objective was to get people off the welfare system and onto the
During the Great Depression of the 1929, people were out of work and could not take care of their families. There were “Hoovervilles” all across the country. They were named after President Hoover. President Hoover did not believe that the government should take care of the people. He felt that if the government stepped in it would take away the people had for themselves. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, was elected President of the United States. He immediately started his first “New Deal”. The government stepped in and helped the people. That is when the Welfare System was born. It started as a way to get the country out of the depression. The depression lasted ten years and the country was changed forever.
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.
Today our welfare programs give out too much money and the systems need to be reformed again. In 1996 The Welfare Reform Act was enacted and it changed the entire program for the better. However, since then, the programs have become abused and need to be reformed again. Many of the people that receive state or federal funding have more luxury items than the average middle class family. The government should check-in on the families that are receiving assistance to make sure they actually need the assistance. The government should also place more stipulations on the various welfare programs in the state. There are several people all across the country that are abusing the system that was put in place to help get people survive in a time of
But today many have seen welfare as not doing anything to benefit the United States. Programs are misusing taxpayers money and now with over 109,631,000 people on welfare, over 34% of the United States population, people are becoming too dependent on welfare and are unable to become independent from government assistance. The current system of welfare is inefficient, corrupt,
Welfare officially started after the Great Depression in the 1930s. On top of guaranteed cash payments to the poor, monthly benefits were given out to single mothers and children regardless of their ability to work, assets on hand, or personal circumstances. There was also no time limit on the welfare program. Once accepted, people could stay on welfare for their entire lives. In the 1990s, public opinion had turned strongly against the old welfare system. The welfare system included no incentive for recipients to seek employment. More people enrolled in welfare because they wanted the support, rather than needed it. The system was viewed as rewarding, and it made poverty rates and welfare enrollments rise. It was in 1996 that the government realized they needed to make a change.’
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
Have you ever really questioned the amount of misusage of the Government aid? If so, did you know that Welfare misuse is more common then any average person may think. According to welfareinfo.org, 434,977 people are currently being aided with finical help with the United States. Which is only this year, it will only increase as the years go by. That isn’t only a lot of money that is being deducted by hard working people, but at least half of it is being misused. The start of what we today know as Welfare was created long before today’s programs we know were created. When looking up the definition of Welfare it is defined as financial support given to people in need. (Dictionary). These programs were created to aid those in need.
United States Government Welfare began in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt thought of this system as an aid for low-income families whose men were off to war, or injured while at war. The welfare system proved to be beneficial early on by giving families temporary aid, just enough to help them accommodate their family’s needs. Fast forward almost 90 years, and it has become apparent that this one once helpful system, has become flawed. Welfare itself and the ideologies it stands on, contains decent fundamentals; furthermore, this system of aid needs only to be reformed to better meet the needs of today’s society.
The Welfare system in the United States began around the 1930s to help those in need. It was created for the unemployed and underemployed to use in helping out with the needs of their families. This original program lasted until 1996, when the federal government stopped the federal aid to all poor and cut welfare to poor women with children.