What is the annual cost per welfare recipient on a state by state basis?

Answer 1

Try looking on the US Census website or doing a search for something like "Welfare per capita by state". I've included a link I turned up after doing a quick google search below. There may be more recent ones out there, but you'll have to find those on your own =)

Answer 2

Let's see, the cost?

1). Children turning out like them...bad for the kids, good for correctional facilities and job security for police.

2). Gangs: Gangs like it because the kids of welfare recipients are 72% more likely to get involved...especially the boys.

3). Morgues... morgues love them too because of the proclivity towards violence.

The cost? Very expensive to society due to their high drop out rates and the tendency for their kids to do the same. Verrryy expensive!!

Answer 3

A more important question to ask if this:

How many welfare recipients are created by the state itself?

Upon doing a little research and thinking about this, I can now see that the need for assistance can be created in the courts when someone tries to leave a marriage and a judge disregards the rights of one or both parties to be able to drive and work to earn a living. Sometimes judges either disregard or else can't figure out which parent is best able to keep children motivated in school and keep them happy enough not to settle into depression that affects their performance and motivation.

Welfare recipients are created when judges order people out of their homes without regard for whether they have a place to go, when they order someone to pick up children in a car but don't worry if that person has enough money to keep the car inspected (which can lead to that person's losing a driver's license, and if that person has nowhere to stay but a place too far from employment, that person can not work).

They are created when motor vehicles agencies take away people's licenses because they can't pay some minor fine or parking ticket and the fees that DMV added when it wasn't paid in time.

Welfare recipients are created when child services agencies in states fail children in one way or another. They are created when prisons release people with no place to live and only a few dollars. (Yes. In this case, the person committed the crime; but often once they've paid their debt to society it is the state that contributes to their need for welfare rather than having some system that would not.)

Welfare recipients are created when judges leave divorcing spouses in situations such as leaving children with the parent who is emotionally or physically abusive. The non-custodial parent can be so upset and may have no place to live, and may be - yes - driven to take a drink to try to keep sane. I'm not defending drinking, but the person who must keep going may have no alternative if he is so distraught he feels as if a drink will calm him enough to keep sane - so, yes, states can mess up people's lives enough to contribute to their being "driven to drink".

States contribute to the number of welfare recipients when schools don't know how to help all children reach their potential, when they don't even know that some children exist, and when they don't recognize that the measure of potential isn't necessarily linked to grades.

And when states mess up, they add to their own expense by refusing to admit mistakes, leaving people on welfare rather than making sure they can work, and then maybe even running up lawsuit settlement money by allowing a lawsuit that results to run on too long.

They contribute to the number of welfare people by only making eligible for assistance anyone with children under 18 and by disregarding the need of non-custodial parents and parents of newly grown kids to help keep their family stable and secure.

And do you know that a person can say to a welfare agency, "I'd like to work but I need $500 to be able to get back a driver's license and be able to go out and find and get to a job" - and a state agency can say, "There is no help for that. Why don't you apply for food stamps."

There are any number of ways states run up the need to spend tax dollars on welfare, as well as all kinds of other tax spending that is a giant waste. That is the question that you should be asking. Also, ask how many welfare recipients never would have needed such assistance had the state not been involved in their life and made a giant mess. I don't know the statistic, but it is worth finding out the percentage.

Finally, people need to stop assuming that people who find themselves in need of some kind of assistance must need "education" when it comes to job skills and handling money. It is entirely possible for the person who needs a divorce to have no choice but have to go through the court system, and if some judge screws up that person's ability to be able to earn a living and have peace of mind when it comes to the children it doesn't matter if that person is a financial wizard or has a Ph.D.

Instead of looking to the people with financial need to ask how they can be "educated" states need to look at their own screw ups, mediocrities, misguided values, court systems and schools to get to the root of the problem of many people needing welfare.

I know there are some for whom the state isn't responsible; but if anyone takes a look at all the states and all the cases it is entirely possible they will be shocked to identify the degree to which states create the need for welfare assistance and prevent the individual from ever being able to get off it.

Answer 4

Too much