THE UNITED WELFARE STATES

The United Welfare States

The United Welfare States

Introduction

The social welfare state that existed for over 60 years in the United States, AFDC in specific, failed to raise its recipients out of scarcity, or boost them to depart scarcity behind on their own. AFDC and other welfare the claim programs only eased poverty. (Elizabeth, 2008)They supplied some economic assistance to numerous persons for the time being and numerous others for expanded periods of time, but in either case they supplied no genuine inducement to work. For numerous, raising themselves out of scarcity through hard work was inducement sufficient by itself. (Duff, 2003) For others, welfare supplied the disincentive to work. Many single mothers discovered that welfare benefits were simply more precious than low-skilled employment. Neither choice would often eliminate the single mother from poverty. (Elizabeth, 2008)

Helping individuals in times of need is not one of the responsibilities the founding fathers envisioned or desired for the federal government, and government sponsored welfare programs have only perpetuated the dependence upon such programs.

Throughout the 1980's and '90's, public attitude started to resent widespread welfare dependency and took issue with the detail that persons could reside off the welfare state and "avoid working." In 1996, President Bill Clinton "changed welfare as we knew it" with the signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. This new regulation, presented by Republicans in congress, responded to the public attitude of welfare dependency by farther limiting benefits and imposing time limits on benefits that finally force persons off welfare rolls.(Stanfield, 2003) These changes, fueled by swaying public attitude and championed by conservatives, failed to grasp the cause of the "incentive problem" associated with welfare. Yes, AFDC supplied the disincentive to work, but not because welfare recipients were slovenly, benefits permitted single mothers to cash in on out-of-wedlock births, or benefits were lavish. Benefits really supplied very little. (Tanner, 2006) The difficulty was, and is, that the single mother will not competently supply for the family on low-wage earnings. Leaving welfare rolls and connecting the "low-skilled" workforce often increases the economic strain on the single parent and their family. (Elizabeth, 2008)

The founders warned against the drift toward the collectivist left: Since the genius of the American System is maintaining the eagle in the balanced center of the spectrum, the founders warned against a number of temptations which might lure subsequent generations to abandon their freedoms and their rights by subjecting themselves to a strong Federal Administration operating on the collectivist left. They warned against the welfare state where the government endeavors to take care of everyone from the cradle to grave. Jefferson wrote: "If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them they must become happy." (Bergh, Writing of Thomas Jefferson, 10:342)

Discussion

As mentioned earlier disciples of the collectivist left in the founder's day as well as our own have insisted that compassion for the poor requires that the Federal government become involved in taking ...