The Roman Welfare System

The origins of the concept of social welfare are undetermined, however, during the 1800’s, the United States began establishing and reforming social welfare programs funded by the American tax dollars to assist the poor, disabled, and elderly. As time has progressed, more and more citizens have become dependent on social welfare, causing its virtuous purpose to become muddled amongst a sea of outstretched hands. The Italians knew what they were talking about; public money is like holy water, many see it as an unalienable and natural right bestowed upon them by God. But like public money, as the pool of holy water sits

Unemployment in the Roman Empire created serious challenges. Slave owners did not have to pay for workman and got alot of money. Small farm owners had to pay for workman and ran out of business. Unemployed lived on the streets and were given grain from the government. The economy was greatly affected by the government buying all of this grain and they weren’t able to pay for other important things because of this. People had no money and had to live on the streets and many crimes occurred, the sewage system was filled with human waste from all of the homeless and people started to move away. Unemployment was a big problem in the Roman Empire.

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”).

Some policies and institutions of the Roman Republic were useful to help them succeed in conquering first Italy and then the Mediterranean world. Before of the institution of the republic, the romans were a monarchy since their beginning and they were basically a pastoral people. Rome suffer several changes and improvements under the control of the Etruscan kings. The Etruscan were civilization settled north of Rome in Etruria, and they once had control over almost all the Italic peninsula. The Etruscans influences in Rome were profound, they transformed Rome from a pastoral community to a city (91). The Etruscan built the street and roads that help the development of temples, markets, shops, streets, and houses. They basically brought urbanization to Rome. It is fairly to say that the Rome republic was a fusion between the elements of the Etruscan civilization and the Rome elements. The combination of the different political institutions and policies made the Romans succeed in their conquest territories.

This "discovery" or exposure of poverty made some people nervous. This brought about thoughts of race and class status, gender, and citizenship to name a few. This new emerging of a "poor class" created fear in people that the patriarchal society would fall. For American's the incline of the urban poor meant the decline of their society, which is what ultimately made the 'old world' undesirable. The idea of a poor class was the complete opposite of what this "new world" what supposed to be like. Nicknamed milk and honey, this was supposed to be the land of opportunity and wealth, however it wasn't turning out as planned.

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

Rome was an amazing civilization that had help from the Etruscans and the Greeks in creating its culture. But did they meet the common good though? Rome has somewhat met the common good. The reason for this is, they did well at meeting the common good in providing public services and by preparing for common defence, but when it comes to promoting rule of law they didn’t do so well. The reason they didn’t do well is because they wouldn’t give fair punishments.

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

The Roman Republic was a “democratic” republic, which allowed first citizens to vote, and to choose their governors in the senate (Hence, their consuls). However, it was a nation ruled by its aristocracy, and, consequently, the entire Republic`s power was concentrated in a few individuals. Furthermore, the Senate was controlled by Patricians, which directed the government by using wealth to buy control and power over the decisions of the senate and the consuls. This situation aroused the inconformity of the people; as result, a civil war took place in the Republic (destroying it), and then the Roman Empire was born.

As Rome became independent from the Etruscan ruling, its government walked away from having a monarch and transformed into a Republic as a way to avoid the tyranny that many times comes with an absolute autocrat. Rigorous precautions were taken from the start in order to keep the power balanced. Moreover, the structure of the government was meant to be resilient to bad judgment. The structure of the Roman Republic with its government and law provided for a more just system.

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”).

One of the main motivating factors behind this desire towards a welfare state was the universal hatred of the so called "Poor laws." These were a series of laws governing aid (feeding, education, and health) to the poorest of society. The first passed in 1598 and not until 1948 did the last one of them get eliminated. The basic idea behind these laws

By working in secrecy and spreading the ideas right under the nose of the Franquists, the political parties created a sentiment of hope in society. However, oppression was still a major obstacle for them. Major laws imposed from the government were threats to those who had being involved with the republic (Fraser 485). Traditional customs, language, symbols and anything related to Catalan culture were banned from the public view. As a consequence of all the oppression enforced by the government, different political actors and members of the resistance wanted to spread their views and maintain Catalan nationalism. In the everyday life the official language dictated by Franco was Castilian but in the privacy of their homes people still chose

Welfare was created as an amendment to the social security act of 1935 in 1939. Before this many things were being implemented already as a form of welfare. Such as Medicaid, food stamps, and SSI (Supplement Security Income). During this time was the great depression which extremely affected the American economy, causing thousands of people to become unemployed. These established many of the programs that built the way welfare is shaped today such as the AFDC (Aid to Families with Independent Children). Due to these being created there had to organizations and agencies to supervise

The history of social welfare begins during colonization. Although there was not social work, there was some form of public assistance. Public assistance during colonization consisted of Early American Poor Laws. During this time the poor were referred to as “paupers” because they were unemployed and were required to wear P’s so they could be identified. The belief during this time was that it was the relative’s