Why does everyone think welfare is so awful?

Question

Not every family on welfare is lazy or addicted to drugs, and welfare actually helps the economy out.

so why, exactly, do so many people hate others being on welfare?

Answer 1

Because many in the U.S. have this idea that they shouldn't have to pay for anything that isn't intended for their own personal self and family.

They whine about taxes, when the truth is that we in the U.S. pay less in taxes than any other country in the developed world.

Also, many people in the U.S. believe in the myth that anyone can be prosperous and rich if they want to badly enough and if they just work hard. Well, no. There are millions of people working minimum wage jobs who have no health insurance and they are barely making it. These people work their asses off....they often work 2 jobs because that's what it takes to keep a roof over their heads.

But few Americans are realistic enough to realize, "I'm just one or two paychecks away from being homeless." No, the ones who oppose welfare are often the ones who think it can never happen to them.

Answer 2

I personally do not think "welfare is so awful". My problem is with the massive abuse of the system.

I see every day senior citizens that can't get any help at all and having to live on about $500 a month while seeing others that are driving a new Custom van, buying New York strip steaks, custom cakes from the bakery with food stamps - then paying cash for several cases of beer.

Something wrong with that picture.

There is something wrong when you see senior citizens not even able to pay for the electricity for their fans during the summer - then seeing someone that is literally popping out a kid every year getting subsidized housing and help with the utility bills as well.

I have personally seen both of the above more than once. I have seen older citizens buying animal grade tuna and not own a cat (what you think that they are doing with that tuna, huh). I have seen people turned away from medical treatment because they couldn't pay - till it was life threatening (means almost taking their last breath/no hope of recovery) while others have government aid for their medical and abuse the emergency rooms for minor problems that could be addressed within a doctors office if they took the time to make the appointment that only costs taxpayers.

I know people that can't afford medication needed for them to live (heart medication, stroke medication, blood thinners, diabetic, and asthma medication) and cut back on the doses to help make it last longer. Then there are the people that can work, have no such life threatening problems at all get free medicine.

That is what I have a problem with. The non equity that is within the system where those that can and should be working are not and being subsidized and those that can't ignored and literally not being euthanized just ignored to the point that they are at deaths door with the same end result.

I have seen all the examples that I list here. Nothing made up. Problems that are real and need to be addressed.

Answer 3

You can read the answers some others posted as to why people hate people on welfare... bigotry.
Some people are on welfare while they look for a job. You can't have a great.. or even good life on welfare. You may be able to survive.... maybe.
Some parents go on welfare while they raise their child because they believe that they can do what's best for their child instead of some daycare center.
Yes, people abuse the system and make it look bad for others... but the ones that need it, don't have any sort of life.

Answer 4

Taxpayers don't like the idea of some people making welfare a career. There are working people paying taxes who don't live as comfortably as those on welfare. I was one.

Answer 5

I have made that same point before. I have found that Conservatives tend to think that all people on welfare are lazy and that they have no incentive to find employment. I think if any of these people were on welfare for a month they'd realize that it isn't sunshine and roses and that most people hate being on welfare. I guess there are some people who have never fallen on hard times so they cannot feel empathy for people who have. Welfare helped me get back on my feet when my ex left me with a young child to raise on my own. I got a job, got back on my feet and eventually remarried and live a pretty good life now. People should not stereotype.

Answer 6

I don't think people think welfare is awful, I think everyone things people abusing the welfare system is awful. I don't think everyone on welfare is addicted to drugs or lazy, but I do think it's meant as a temporary solution aimed to help people get on their feet until they can take care of themselve financially. However, I fell at least 50% of the peopel who are on welfare could be working but chose not to in an attempt to use the system, which they succeed in doing. As well, there is a large portion of people on welfare who do abuse drugs or alcohol which is why they find it difficult to break free of social assistance.
I don't hate people being on welfare, but i do hate paying so much for a welfare system where the marjority pf people who use it think they deserve to use the money given to them as they please, on drugs, or other useless things, instead of using it towards living expenses while they find a way to support themselves freeing up more money for people who will use it to better themselves in life. I have no problem giving up 40% of my pay cheque to taxes, if the portion of it that goes to social assistance goes to people who will use it properly. If they would stop being angry at the world for how their world turned out, and try to rise above it and live a life that benefits society as a whole.
I actually live close to a welfare housing system where there are 100s of people living together and not one person in all those house will come outside to shovel their walkways. Instead there is a group of men paid over $20 an hour who come and do it for them. Is this an abuse of the system? Should people on welfare be required to look after this type of thing themselves? In my opinion they should.

Answer 7

well... first off... it is an easy target... poor people... it's not like they will fight back, or could if they wanted too...

blame it all on them... it's an easy cop out...

but the other issue is... most people who talk about it... don't know ANYTHING about it first hand...

sure some people abuse it... but how many abuse it and how many does it actually help? there are some that abuse every government program, but no one is out there yelling about small business loan abuse?

also, you see a lot of propaganda that doesn't even try to talk about facts... the welfare bill signed in the 90s did a lot to stop some of the abuses that people still cry about today...

they are using arguments from the 60s still and didn't bother to check the facts...

take a look at people arguing about how bad welfare is... see how many actual "stats" that they can cite they throw out... usually it's zero... and all they are saying is emotional rhetoric designed to make people angry...

they also often use tired little stories that are also completely devoid of any actual facts... are 99 percent of the time are based on gross over generalizations that clearly illustrate that they don't know anything about what they are talking about...

Answer 8

Because most are quick to stereotype welfare recipients and feel thier tax dollars are wasted...I think welfare should be limited however our government should work harder providing opportunities to those on welfare and set high standards before qualifying someone...like perhaps having a social security number.

Answer 9

Most of the conservatives I associate with have nothing against the concept of welfare. Everybody hits a bad bit of luck now and then and if that was what it was only used for I don't think you would here anything else about it.

The problem is when it becomes a lifestyle. A way to be a kid for life [sleep all day, party all night] and denies the benefits to those who may really need it.

I have seen with my own eyes generations of people who knew nothing else, who's goal was to have numerous children so they could get "that check", who passed this ideal onto those self same kids who repeated the cycle.

Answer 10

I hate to answer this - it is really a question that shows incredible lack of information concerning the welfare system.... but let me try.

If your next door neighbor came to your house with a legal court issued voucher in his hand and said he had decided not to work anymore and you were ordered to support him until such time as he felt like working again....would you do it?

That's what welfare is....YOUR tax dollars support people on welfare - YOU are paying for them to live.

Now, I'm not totally against welfare...sometimes a family comes upon really hard times and needs a helping hand. Many of our social programs were developed to help out and one of them is the welfare system. I have no problem assisting someone while they get back on their feet.

However, it is a helping hand - not a way of life. There is no reason for an able bodied person to be on welfare more than 6 months. We are more generous than that currently but it is changing. Many states have welfare to work programs which permits a recipient to be on welfare - and hold down a job - and go to school to acquire skills,etc. There are benchmarks along the way in this system and welfare usually ends at the end of a year - sometimes two years depending upon the state. These benchmarks must be met....don't want to go to school? don't show up for work? Then the benefits cease. Get pregnant or get caught doing drugs? No more benefits.....

The current problems exist because people have learned how to get over on the system. Healthy men and women collect obscene amounts of money, have more children (more money when you give birth), generally do nothing except loaf and wait for YOUR check to arrive in their mail box on the first of the month. Many of them spend their welfare money on lottery tickets, alcohol, car payments. There is a woman who lives near me who has 5 kids...she goes to the dollar store with her welfare check and buys dozens and dozens of candy bars - and resells them from her home to the neighborhood children - at full price. She has been reported many times but nothing has been done. Some people who collect YOUR money, have jobs where they are paid "under the table" so their income is not reported.

And, welfare does NOT help the economy...it drains YOUR tax dollars to support people who have made a career out of collecting welfare and food stamps (food stamps can be and are resold - usually at 1/2 the face value).

I don't "hate" people on welfare - but the whole system needs a big overhaul. I do resent the fact that I drag my sorry butt out of bed everyday at 545AM and go to work. I have worked all my life since I was 16 and I am retirement age now... Why should some lazy slagheap roll over in his bed and sleep until noon.