Welfare Reform : A New Era Of Social And Economic Inequality

In America today, just over ten million people are on unemployment insurance, one hundred and ten million people are on welfare, and the total government spending annually is around one hundred and thirty billion dollars (Welfare Statistics). The welfare state is a political system based on the proposition that the government has the individual responsibility to ensure that the minimum standard of living is met for all citizens. Specifically, in the matters of health care, public education, employment, and social security, the welfare state assumes all responsibility. According to John Rawls, “In a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests. The only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one; analogously, an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice“(Rawls). In the 1840s, Otto Von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of Germany, was the father of the modern welfare state. He built the program to win over the support of the working middle class in Germany and ultimately reduce the outflow of immigrants to the U.S., where welfare did not exist (Welfare State). In the United States, not all companies provided workers with benefits, thus the workers appealed to the government, giving rise to the first form of welfare capitalism.

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.

Welfare is a government program that provides food, money, housing, medical care, and other things people need in order to survive. These programs are designed to help elderly, children, disabled individuals who cannot support their families on their current income. In order to qualify for assistance the individual’s income must be below the poverty line. There are about sixty assistance programs, however most people receive help though Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps and Temporary Assistance of Needy Families also known as TNAF. I would like to reform welfare because welfare has become a way of life for some its recipients and has created a culture of dependency. The welfare reform system’s objective should be designed to get

The welfare system of the United States of America is viewed as one of the more frugal systems when compared to other worldwide industrial economies. When asking why the United States displays such drastic differences in the way it handles poverty it is important to take into account the history of the systems’ development among other aspects including how the United States differs culturally from those nations and the impacts of its’ operations within its’ political institutions. In the United States, the cause of a weak welfare state whose redistributive policies neglect the poor cannot be pinned on one factor in particular, but the main fault may lie in the

I would not expand the social welfare programs, I believe if we would expand the welfare program we would just be enabling more people. Why should they work or go school to better themselves to try and pull themselves out of poverty. When they can live off the government for free. I personally have a very good friend that has a PHD in Physcholge, she says why I should work when I can stay home with my son. We get free food, we get our gas bill paid, and our electric is paid for. She has free insurance, her son has free insurance. She even get a car allowance from the government so she can so they can have transportation. Since she can prove that she is not working she does not have to pay back her student loans.

Up to the 1970s housing policy was an integral part of the classic welfare state

I could easily compare my social commentary essay—discussing the topic of welfare— to a Thursday. This essay was the most time consuming and by far gave me the most anxiety. Thursday gives me the same emotions. It is only one day away from Friday, which means the only thing on my mind is the weekend. As much as I want to slack off like some of the Americans on welfare, the school atmosphere doesn’t allow me to, so I am forced to feel the anxiety of school, rather than the excitement of the weekend.

The poor are everywhere it seems. They are on the street corner, in the local 7 Eleven, and in the plaza. Sometimes I get sick of them and even angry with them when they pester me for money. I ask myself, "Is the best way to deal with poor, to give them money from my pocket?" It's obvious that other people have given them money from their pockets at different times. If no one had ever given them money, then these people wouldn't be standing here asking for money. The fact is, many poor people ask for money because they know they can get money that way. For most of the last 70 years our government has indirectly given the poor money from our pockets, through taxes and welfare. Not surprisingly, people have

Poverty is a rampant domestic issue, of that there is no doubt. According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 2015, “there were 43.1 million people in poverty” (Proctor). However, the causes of poverty and how they should be remedied are points of serious contention in the political world. When the divide falls between liberals and conservatives, the left and the right, both sides have their own very different ideologies.

government is to have as small a part in the lives of its citizens as possible.

This study will assess the ability of the Private Rented Sector (PRS) taking on the responsibility of housing homeless people especially families, as the number of homeless families in the UK is on an increase.

Britain is known for its welfare state. The word first appeared during World War II. According to Rodney (1999), welfare State through politics and administration modifies market forces in at least three directions. First, by ensuring individuals and families a minimum income

The purpose of this essay is to look at the long history of the Welfare State in Britain and the evolving social, economic and political changes in society today, as well as the birth of the Welfare State after the Second World War which was the turning point (watershed) in British History. The freshly appointed Labour government by then took on the job of setting up a ‘welfare state’ that would systematically deal with the ‘five giant evils’ proposed by William Beveridge in a report, which later became known as the Beveridge report. The British welfare state, if it is to be defined, it is generally incorporated

As technology continues to increase and jobs continue to go overseas, the United States must decide what direction the welfare system should take. As they exist today, welfare systems are an evolution of the thoughts laid out in the 19th and 20th centuries. Before the Industrial Revolution, the responsibility of helping the poor was mainly given to the churches or local

The question set is so broad that I shall have to be selective. I shall conduct my answer in relation to the British Welfare State. Before we can successfully understand the function of the Welfare State we must first be clear of its definition. Although I recognise that Britain has a long history of providing forms of welfare to its citizens though relief like the poor-law between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, I intend to look at the post-war history of the Welfare State. I shall then move on to looking at the main provisions that the British Welfare State makes and how it works in a constantly changing society. I shall focus on the intimate relationship between the Welfare State and