Welfare. & Your thoughts about it!
 

So does it actually help people?

Or is it just taking money from hard-working Americans?

What IS YOUR OPINION?

It really depends on who it goes to. There are people from bad situations who can't work and need it and there are people who abuse the system. I do think it should be minimized as best as possible so it only goes towards the truly needy.

Although one problem I see with this approach is how do you differentiate between the people who really need welfare and those who are seeking to exploit the system? As someone who is wishing to exploit the welfare system is going to present the case which they believe is most likely to get their desired result. It does not seem so far fetched that they may be able to better present their case than people who are in actual need.

As for my view on the welfare system, I see it as an extremely important part of society. Not only does it provide a safety net for those who have found themselves in hardship, but it also promotes social cohesion and community stability. Case in point it has been observed by many people looking at the 'developing world' that one of the major contributors to riots and instability is the lack of support for those who are put out of work. As desperation causes desperate acts.

I live in a welfare society, and I find it extremely beneficial. I am willing to pay so that people less fortunate than I, can afford to seek medical assistance for themselves and their children. I have also benefited from this myself, in that I grew up in a big family, and I don't think, with all the injuries we all had growing up, that if we lived in a privatised system we would have survived financially.

I believe that for a society to function, people have to take care of each other. And welfare puts that thought into system, and it works. Of course, there will be people who try to cheat and get stuff they aren't entitled to, but there are severe punishments for such exploitations and they are caught eventually. Discrepancies often show up on paper, luckily, and are thus investigated.

I think it is unfair to completely reject welfare systems just because of the few who might be inclined to exploit it.

I think partially it helps people but there are too many out there that take advantage. Then the people who really need some help like the elderly dont get help. You have young welfare unwed mothers that keep having children. They get more per child in assistance. I dont thing they should be able to do this. I think that if they are irresponsible enough to keep having kids so they can avoid working then they should have to do just like people who work get a set amount and no more. If they have more children then they have to try to live on what they already get. I think this would stop alot of women from having more children while on welfare. People who need temporary help should get it but there are women with six kids out there that have never worked. This is not right. If they cant be responsible enough not to keep having kids when they cant support them then how can we expect them to decently raise those children. Take the kids away and mom needs to learn to work and support herself so she raise her own kids if she cant then she shouldnt have them to begin with. Everyone needs help sometimes. But these freeloaders need to go. The children suffer the most from these irresponsible people.

Welfare is incredibly important, but there are some problems with the system. For example, currently there is no need to prove your citizenship to get welfare. That means illegal aliens get onto welfare, without paying taxes. and while that in itself isn't so incredibly bad once or twice, there are too many on it now, and many, whenever they want more income, they decide to have another child to get it. I lived next door to people like this as a child. It's rather sickening.

I don't have a problem with illegal aliens as long as they don't take advantage of things like welfare.

back on topic: my family needed welfare for years. Without it we'd be on the streets or dead. And i don't like either option.

Personally, I can't stand the thought of illegal immigrants benefiting from the taxes of hard working people. If you are hiding from the law to avoid prosecution or arrest, in my state, you are ineligible for any sort of assistance; so why aren't illegal immigrants?
Now; regarding citizens, regardless of how they became citizens: My beloved Grammudie always said "I paid my taxes into that, so did your grandfather, so did your parents, so if you need help, you go get it." There are a lot of restrictions and incentives to prevent people from making a lifestyle out of it, but I wish they could do more to prevent abuse. The way I see it, if you need a little help, go and get it; there's no shame in it. But if you're using the welfare system just for an easy lifestyle, you should be ashamed of yourself. I hope I didn't offend anyone, because that really isn't what I wanted to do, but I really think that everyone needs to be as responsible as they can. I understand that some people cannot work; I have no issue with that. My issues are with the people who do whatever they can to stay on welfare.

I don't think you would of offended many people, although I am quite biased as I happen to agree with you quite strongly. As I find people abusing the system to be quite sickening as not only are they unjustly taking money they do not need, but they make it that much harder for those who genuinely do need assistance. Both in terms of giving them a bad reputation and in terms of taking some of the already limited resources.

I live in a region where the social system is so strong that nobody ever has to fear to become homeless or starve to death. When I compare it to the US, of course there are a lot more people who're actually abusing the system, and of course it's a red rag to all of us who are paying taxes to keep those parasites up and going.

But if I had to choose between the US social system and our own, I would never want to switch. Yes, half of my solidarity taxes are probably going to people who are not needy, but on the other hand I can be sure I can count on the system if anything happened to me. It's a good feeling.

I have a cousin like that. As far back as I can remember, she's been pregnant. No joke, man. I saw her at the transit mall (lol, didnt talk to her) and mentally played "Count the children!"
2 young children
an infant
And the knowledge she had two more at home.
And the fact she was heavily pregnant.

People like her, not only are they abusing welfare by having kids, are also overpopulating the earth.

I have a related question for you people:
What do you do when government hand outs are more profitable then working?.
This has really happened to me. The less I worked, the more I made off the government in the form o unemployment payments. Different thing, same source as welfare.

Let me give you a quick background:
I went on unemployment due to a dishonest boss who cheated me out of salary and created a desperate situation. I lived for months eating away at my saving first and I strongly resisted the idea of going on uneployment as a highly educated person. I kept saying NO, I will not spend the energy and effort trying to get unemployment, instead I will keep job fighting.
There were a lot of tears when jobs kept going up in smoke due to dishonest people and the general rat race that makes so difficult to get a decent job.

I kept right on job fighting for a better paying job before submitting. So now I'm using the governments money and earning a salary. This has continued while I job fight off and on for a better paying job. I finally broke down and accepted an extremely menial job to simply avoid being unemployed. I'm talking a job high school students could do. Which I held on to every time another job went up in smoke, tears and dishonest people happened in the job field.

Somewhat recently I switched careers to increase my employment changes in another hopefully more promising field, during this time while I was in training, I was also job fighting less often. It was very difficult to let go what I studied to be in college start all over yet again...But I did it. And like so many people, I dislike my job which is boring and monantious sp?.


Now for the dillema.
If I work more/earn more with what jobs are available, my unemployment payments will realtically with salaries being what they are around here be cut when I earn "too much".
Now I will work harder and have less money, I would risk being on the streets with the salary they give me without the unemployment payments which are currently about eight times as high as my salary. In order to get ahead ( not be homeless), I will need a job that pays ten times as much as my current salary.

I've had people get upset with me because I work and collect uneployment at the same time, I had a long time friend dump me for being immoral. One thing I will not do is hide, I am open about what I am doing. If someone hates me for it...So be it. I wish I had better options.

So you can see, where's the true motivation in continining to fight for a better paying job when I will be overall worse off then when on the unemployment rolls.
I seriously have more money right now then when I worked six days a week retail. My bills are paid on time, my rent is paid, I eat better and my medication will allows me to work and not suffer from a disabling illness is paid.
I am not disabled, but if I go off my medication, I will get sick on a regular basis to the point where it's hard for me to hold down a regular job.

I consider myself a responsible working person, it's hard for me to live with this all the time.
Sometimes I say, why did I spend years fighting to get into college, then years fighting in college getting well educated, then years job fighting, THEN putting the enormious efforts into changing my career a few times over (each time a lot of effort, time and energy), when I could have just gone on welfare rolls right after high school with far less effort and been far better off now. Then I brush it aside feeling guilty for thinking this way, I just can't.
I have to fight for the right thing to do, which is supporting myself financially and working.

I'm benefiting from this system, but it gives me a real bad feeling and I can't help but it see it as an inherent problem in the system. I can't help but see how it's not the best thing for society as a whole.
Instead of what they are doing, they should do more to ensure people like me get a wage that they can pay rent with so they don't have to decide between doing the honorable thing and being on the streets VS drawing from the tax monies.
ALL I really need it a "livable" wage...Not being in the unemployment system.

Claudia, don't they have legal minimum wages where you live? For I have to totally agree with you, if you could actually no longer afford keeping your home with your current salary, there's definitely something wrong with the system. Is it the aftermath of the current financial depression, or is this an inherent problem?

Though I think there's a huge difference between what your situation seems to be like and what I've heard others say: "Heck, I can get almost exactly the same amount for doing nothing, so why should I even attempt to get a job?"

That's something to really be ashamed of (and I don't even understand it - I have a lot of hobbies, so I wouldn't get bored, but I sure as hell would become crazy from not doing anything valuable that actually warrants the money I'm receiving) , while I don't think that taking money from the system in order to keep your home is immoral. Like you said, there's something wrong with the system if you're forced to live like that.

(Though I still think - I'd rather have a flawed system like that than no social safety net at all. Better that there are people out there who are forced to stay "unemployed" than leave them with no money at all.)

Regarding welfare, to a degree it helps.

But the system in how it's distributed has serious flaws, and that creates problems of abuse, etc. Things like food stamps get sold and traded for drugs, etc. is what really put a concept of abuse. Perhaps better distribution of welfare is needed.

I personally believe welfare is something that should only be in emergency, and not to maintain your current standard of living, but a standard lower than anybody would like, but livable.


I have read a bit on European welfare, and I believe that their unemployment is absolutely moronic. They give like, months of welfare even if you are not actively seeking a job. I have read in France that during the summer months, people all quit their jobs and go to the beach, because welfare will support them the duration of the summer. It's that kind of abuse that makes welfare bad, but if you considered that if a person was actively seeking a job, then they should deserve such welfare. Or even a government provided temporary job would work.


Welfare should be limited, and it should given with LOTS of work for it. You don't just walk up and get it, you have to file tons of crap, make it an absolute hell, and make it worse than doing work, and you'll have people willing to work. (Obviously with control as some people probably aren't in the position for it).

I think that so many people refuse to work cause they know they can get free money. If more people had to work in order to get welfare then I doubt there would be as many unemployeed people who dont pay taxes taking the money of those who do pay taxes.

I agree. In my opinion that should be the solution. My dad wasnt taught to read cause he lived on a farm where he didnt go to school. My mom tried to get him to sign up for a SSI check. I find this to be rediculous cause he can still work.

I think that welfare recipients should work for the government for what they receive. There are many things they can do from home. Also the government should provide them childcare so they can work. As a matter of fact we should have government run daycares and make welfare mothers run and work in them. Their children can stay right there with them and the women that really want to better themselves and their childrens lives could get jobs and have free daycare. Unless you have a severe disability and staying barefoot and pregnant is not a disability you have no reason not to work for what you get. If someone really is down on their luck then assistance for a limited time is ok. But the government should provide jobs. If they had to work for what they recieved anyway they would not stay on welfare. And a single mom shouldnt keep having children. More should be done to make them work and provide daycare. Also if they had to live in a commune type community where they all stayed in one facility with their families and other families and had to share the household chores they wouldnt want to stay on it. Why make it easy. Help a family out not support them their whole lives. When I work five days a week and have to eat hamburger it pisses me off to see someone with food cards getting steaks and shrimp and driving a new car (how they do that I dont know), while I help foot the bills.

I can't imagine anyone saying that living off of welfare can have an easy life. Welfare gives you the ability to maybe live in a run down little apartment, or get school supplies when you need them, not to feed a family and then go out and buy the latest designer shoes or flat screen TV. I can't help but think that those of you who make it out to be like that have no idea what it's like to have to live like that.

Firstly, not everyone who is on welfare is some skanky, young, single mother. Not everyone on welfare is lazy and making you "foot the bill". Why do you want to put the poor in some sort of ghetto-like facility? What are we, Jews in Nazi Germany?

Being poor is never easy. Never. Living off of welfare is not a walk in the park, it's not sunshine, shiny cars, and flat-screen TVs. Why make it harder on the poor and make them live in worse conditions? Is that going to help break the cycle of poverty for the millions of families in it? Is that going to make it better for them?

Lets face it. Most of the welware recipients are woman who wont work. The elderly really need it and cant get it. Most of these woman keep having children just so they can stay on welfare. Find out about the qualifications. As long as they have a child under six they are elegible. I am all for helping people. But Im sorry I see a lot of woman who get it that have new cars (dont know how they pay for them). New clothes (ditto) and their kids dress better than mine and have cell phones and ipods. Many of them have boyfriends that live with them and help support them. I have seen it. Welfare is poorly managed and policed. There should be more unannounced checks on them. Rewards should be paid for people that report this. Temporary help for those who need it should be given. Quit giving them money. Put everything on a card so that it can be tracked.
Welfare shouldnt pay for a pregnancy. If they get pregnant and are already on welfare they should have to give the child up for adoption. They obvisously cant support another one. Whatever they get what they first get on it should be all they get. Another child well then make do with they they already get. This would discourage them from having another one. Require them to provide daycare for free to mothers that will get out and work. Give them a year of training and require them to go or lose those benifits. Require them to work and provide childcare and adjust what they get by how much they make working. If they had to work anyway they wouldnt keep having children. If after a year they cant make it take the children away. They will never be able to support them anyway. We should help those in need but we shouldnt have to support them and their children all their lives. No No No. Welfare is supposed to be a temporary help for them not a lifestyle. Get rid of the freeloaders. Let the government give them jobs. Why pay someone to stuff envelopes and do paperwork when we have enough people on welfare to do it and earn their keep.

I would love to see your statistics about how most people on welfare are women who "won't" work, and that they have such nice cars and clothing. Tell me, when you see a woman in designer clothing and a nice care, how do you look at her and know "oh, well, that family is on welfare. most definitely". My family used to get welfare, and it was enough to get school supplies and to help pay rent. It was NOT enough for new cars, it was NOT enough to support even close to 50% of the cost of raising a child.

Darling, let me tell you something: the poor are, indeed, people like you and I. Being poor does not mean that you deserve a lower standard of living or your right to privacy (taking a child against their will) taken away.

Let's say you have a pregnant woman who is working. Oh, but then the economy collapses and she loses her job. In order to keep her house, she goes on Welfare, just until she can get another job.
She should get her child STOLEN from her because she was on welfare simply because she lost her job? Oh, it's so nice to see empathetic, compassionate people like you. How do you expect people to rise up from poverty if you treat them life serfs? How do expect them to be anything above poverty when you FORCE them to work simply to get a decent standard of living?

Perhaps you never had to live in poverty, I don't know. But it's not easy. Whatsoever. It's one of the hardest things you can do, not some walk in the park. The last thing these families need is the judgmental, pointed, narrow-minded views of people who don't and never will know them, and wants to treat them like subhuman serfs.

Kris I respect that you feel sorry that people have to be on welfare and the discussion is about if welfare helps people. Yes it does help those who temporarally need it. But I speak from personal experience. I personally know several woman who are young able bodied and have children who have never been married. They date different men. Their boyfriends spend the night and give them money and one even has a new car her boyfiend gave her. Do they want to work, no. Have they ever worked, no. I also have a daughter who is 30 years old, married with 3 kids one of which I am raising. She left her husband multiple times and got on welfare. Granted she did try to work some and is currently working. She is back with her husband, they have 4 cars, has two car phones, a tv in every room. Each kid has their own tv and playstation and hundreds of games. She has a pool as well as a four wheeler. Both her and her husband work and she is still getting food stamps and her kids are on medicaid. Tell me thats fair. It has been over a year now. She hasnt let welfare know she is working. Are they on thier feet. Yes with four cars, and a four wheeler I certainly think so. If you are really poor and cant work you certainly wont have the money for a car or new clothes. Or to have your hair fixed in a salon. Yes poor people need it but many get on it and never get off. And never better themselves. These people need to be weeded out. Wouldnt you agree?

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience about your daughter lying and cheating.

Is your daughter's faults reason to make the poor serfs to the government? To take away their very rights and dehumanize them? Your daughter cheated the system; SHE deserves to be punished, not the entire community that needs welfare to be able to buy their children school supplies or to prevent themselves from being homeless.

If you want to dehumanize those on welfare to the point where forced labor is okay, then how do you think they're going to better themselves? If you force the poor to work for the government with nothing but the measly welfare checks to tide them over, how do you expect them to get off of welfare? If you force the poor to live in ghettos (as though this was Nazi Germany that we are living in), then how do you expect the children to ever see new things and branch out beyond these ghettos?

Your daughter is doing a very evil, corrupt thing. Perhaps that is reason to punish her, to make HER life harder, but it is no reason to spite everyone on welfare, and it is no reason to make the poor's lives poorer.

I know for a fact that it helps people.
A lot of people that don't really need it, maybe because they're too lazy to get a job, do take advantage if it, making it harder for the people that really need it.
My mom is on welfare because she can't work from all of her surgeries and she still has a looong way to go before she's in any shape to work. Before, she couldn't find a good enough job to support her and my brother and I that also paid enough to make the rent being raised from it not such a big deal.
So yeah it helps a lot of people, but there are also way too many people that take advantage of it that don't really need it for any reason other than them being too lazy or stupid to find a job.

Visionary, Unlike what some people are reading into my messages, I am sympathetic to people who need it like your mom. No problem with that. But unfortunately the ones I would like to see changes for are the ones who abuse the system. My daughter is not the only one Ive seen abusing the system. I am just saying that when people need help, we should help them. On the other hand the ones that truely just get it due to not wanting to work need to be weeded out. I think alot of people feel the same way I do. That is hardworking people who struggle to pay their bills, clothe their children and feed them all while working. I am not against welfare for those who need it. It should be a temporary measure to help someone get on their feet. There are people who like your mother have health problems. I also know there is SSI for them. People with medical problems also can get assistance based on medical or disability. There are still plenty of people out there who are able to work who wont.

Oh, that's what I'm saying! (wasn't arguing with you =) )
But also, that's what unemployment is for, helping the people that don't have jobs stay on their feet until they can get a job.
I think the government should make it a lot harder to get on welfare.
Thorough screenings, proof of inability to earn on your own, ect.
Maybe there should be another program, but I don't think people who just don't feel like working should be allowed to get it and just sit on their butts and live off government money that's really needed elsewhere.