Would we even need welfare programs if most people were honest?

Question

I know I will probily get blasted but we created this dependency. I know far to many people who could work but choose to get county checks.
Did you know that you can reason with yourself and justify anything? There are very few on the system compared to all that recieve benifits who really needs it.

If National welfare was closing in 3 months with a requalifying by medical exam for Medicaid. There would be a mass re-employment and the people will find a way to survive.

I believe they made a show about it called, survivor...LOL

I live in one of the poor counties and the most highly welfare abused and used. Working is a choice. I make just barely over a level that I struggle more than welfare benifit users. I have to pay my own insurance and work two jobs while my lazy welfare neighbor stays home every day and brings home more than enough groceries while I support a family of 4 and often only have a budget of $40-60 week for groceries. If you dare defend your position based on laziness then your as big of a problem as the system.

Biologist mom, your the except not the norm. I have grown up around people who teach thier kids how to live on the system. The welfare sysytem is failing to assure that those who are on it are actually in need. Oh, and government programs is what more people want and the Liberal leaders love socialism and dependence.

It figures, those who ask me questions and stupid ones, does not allow email. Thats ok, you Identified yourself as a Liberal, I understand..

Answer 1

It's not necessarily about "honesty". Some of it is about lack of opportunity. Some of it is about habitual lack of motivation.

Living in the DC area, we have a weird mix of government "consultants" and lobbyists who make obscene amounts of money for doing basically nothing, and multigenerational welfare families in certain communities who get a monthly check for doing absolutely nothing. Don't get me started on laziness. The rest of us are working ourselves to death to survive at a cost of living that is 4-times that of most cities the size of DC.

Yes, we do have a real class distinction here and there are genuinely poor and struggling people who are legitimately on public assistance. And the employment opportunities and job distribution doesn't make a whole lot of sense (i.e. construction contractors trucking in people from out of the area instead of hiring locally). And not to sound heartless, but yes, many of the "unskilled" jobs in the area have been taken by immigrants because they are willing to work for less money.

Part of the problem is the pervading sense of hopelessness, where people feel that there are just NO opportunities out there, so why even bother. This may sound like a cop-out (and it is), but despair is a real emotion that can cause people to just curl up and rot in place. Yes, there needs to be welfare reform. Remove some of the options to sit back and rot. Welfare is supposed to be the option of last resort, not a lifestyle choice. Work or starve. The government will help you if (after) you can prove that you are starving.

You want a suggestion for a first solid step for welfare reform? Stop paying for all those kids! Childcare is ridiculously expensive. Children are ridiculously expensive. If you don't have to pay for daycare, you can go to work. If you don't have the excuse of having to stay home to take care of the kids because you can't afford daycare, you can go to work. IF YOU'RE NOT PREGNANT, you can stay in school and then get a better job. You're on welfare and you already have one kid? Whatever. You have another one? Sucks for you. You get cut off because you should have known better. The government shouldn't be paying for people to sit around the house all day watching talkshows, smoking weed, and screwing.

There are lots of people who are on welfare who genuinely need it. That's what the system is there for. There are lots and lots of people who genuinely need it who aren't getting it. That's why we have so many homeless people out there. The system still needs to remain in place, but there desparately needs to be some sort of reform so that the right people get the assistance they need.

Answer 2

How come you know so many poor people? Where would the jobs come from and would they pay a living wage and offer insurance. Or are you just dreaming again. Come on, how many people on welfare do you really know. I think you just watch Fox news way too much.

How come killing innocent children in Iraq doesn't bother you.

The norm is that most people on welfare need it. You are judging the entire group by the action of a few. It is a conservative lie that the majority of people who use welfare abuse it. And no, work is not choice, there are not enough jobs to go around. There never is because that would cause wages to rise.

Answer 3

I personally didn't CHOOSE to be on public assistance. I was laid off just a month before the birth of my first child. No one will hire a woman who is that pregnant, I tried. Then I developed seizures while working in a lab. I cannot work as we cannot get the seizures under control. I am a well-educated woman with a college degree. Your assumption is false, it is really awful to get public assistance. Every two days you get a letter saying that you forgot a paper that they never sent you and they will be cutting you off. You have to call 18 people just to be able to get medical care. And the worst of it is having to listen to uneducated jerks like you. Why don't you just go away!

Answer 4

Would you really want a bunch of homeless, starving, desperate people wandering the streets of your city?

Answer 5

Is that really you in the avatar?