Welfare pays more than a minimum-wage job in 35 states, creating little incentive for Americans to take entry-level work and likely increasing their long-term dependency on government help. The Clinton administration, with bipartisan support from Congress, passed landmark welfare reform legislation that was supposed to move Americans away from entitlements and into the workforce. However, “welfare benefits continue to outpace the income that most recipients can expect to earn from an entry-level job,” the study authors said. “And the balance between welfare and work may actually have grown worse in recent years.”
This is clearly a huge problem in America. There's nothing wrong with a little help from the government so people can squeeze by, but when welfare benefits continue to outpace an entry level job income, that's when the government needs to put their foot down. Why would anyone be willing to work at an entry level job for less money than what you could collect sitting at home? Like it said in the article, there's very little incentive to work. This is killing America's work ethic.
Without getting into the huge discussion we had today I feel like there definitely must be something done to make welfare a last resort instead of an decent option. My grandparents tell me that in their day, if you were on welfare it was such a shame to your family that you did anything in order to get off of it. It all comes back to the entitlement problem that our society has. We feel entitled to a nice house and a nice car regardless of how hard we work which in my opinion has to change. I'm not saying that people shouldn't get welfare at all but that it should be BARELY enough to live on.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to talk about this topic again without going off on a tangent about the discussion today in class. I think welfare should be looked at as a last resort, but it isn't my place to say how much welfare to give to people.
ReplyDeleteWell in a weird sort of way mary, it IS, or at least your parents'. Taxes fund welfare and as constituents people have the right to elect people whom they think will direct their money in the best possible way.
ReplyDeleteI agree Ben. I think something that wasn't hit hard enough today is the fact that this may not even be an economic problem. It is very likely a social problem. Our society is poisoned with complacency and shamelessness, and I believe this has been pushed by politicians looking to increase people's dependence upon the government (among other factors).