What are some good reasons why we should have welfare?

Question

because i'm doing a project in my english class where we have to debate on topics.
and we pulled out of a hat and i got this one.

Answer 1

Most answers you received, of course, were critical of what they perceive as a 'welfare state' that provides aid for 'lazy' people, people who 'don't want to work' or are 'too dumb to work'. Any successful society thrives when every member of its tribe (or unit, or state) thrives. Social welfare programs are intended as temporary assistance to help downtrodden members of our society. Yes, there is always abuse, but welfare programs also help many millions of unfortunate individuals in our national community.
Corporate welfare, on the other hand, is rampant with abuse. There is no justifiable reason why wealthy, profit-making corporations should expect government hand-outs in the form of tax favors, grants, bail-outs or abatements.
The largess provided to wealthy elitists, industrialists and individuals who don't need help is outrageous, immoral, and decadent as long as there is one American citizen who is poor, elderly, sick, disadvantaged, disabled, underprivileged, hungry or homeless. -RKO- 09/18/07

Answer 2

it's good because it helps families get back on their feet.
I do believe it should be temporary unless you have some serious reason as to why you just can't find a job, or anything like that. I get as annoyed as everyone else to know that there are fat slobs out there that refuse to work, and instead live off of my taxes.

However, as I stated earlier, it can also be a great thing. I personally know first hand, my family was on welfare at one point, when we first immigrated here. My parents (both university educated) were having a very hard time finding a job, plus they were having problems learning the language. It's hard to learn a new language when you're in your late 30s, you know.
Anyways, Im not sure exactly how long we were on it, I think maybe around 6 months, because my dad was able to find a job and we slowly worked our way up, to living the good life we have now.
Long story short, welfare is good when used properly, not abused. Without it god knows what we would've done, a family of 4 with 2 young kids in a strange land, with no money or family to help us out.

Everyone opposed to it refuses to put themselves in other people's shoes. People have to understand that not everyone has such a privileged life as they do, and they may need some help.

Answer 3

I can give you a couple:

1. Some people don't want to work
2. Some people are too dumb to work
3. Some people can't work for legitimate reasons and need some help for a brief period of time (a few years).

#3 is the real reason we have welfare, but some people abuse the system and fit in categories 1 and 2.

Answer 4

when used properly..it does help when a family is in crisis financially..my mom and dad had a rough time while i was a kid when he lost his factory job due to a union strike..they lost a house due to some other b.s. so food stamps were something we used..we didn't eat like kings..but we did eat..i didn't have alot of new clothes when i was a kid..so it wasn't that there was money and they chose not to spend it on food..it was a necessity for our family..in todays world food stamps and welfare seem to be handed out to anyone..and its not fair..i shouldn't work so you can collect because you are simply too lazy to get a job or you think its your job to populate the world..but when used correctly as a stepping stone or helping hand out of a financial crisis..they are a good thing..you just don't see many of those situations anymore

Answer 5

Not popular but it keeps people from starving keeps them
out of crime. Allows mothers to raise their children and break the cycle of teenage pregnancy and crime. Allows people to have some money so they don't have to drop out of school in order to work and later become contributing citizens. Many other developed have such programs with less crime and longer life expectany.
Despite the hysteria it costs very little to help people nothin compared to what it costs wage wars
and if billionaires were to pay their fare share of taxes for once that this could easily be accomplished

Answer 6

Temporary benefits for those who need them. Health care for children. Emergency cash for people having a hard time. Food for the hungry. Bus fare for new workers. Partial rent payments for those who earn too little. A wealthy society cannot let its people just go hungry.

The key word here is Temporary!

Answer 7

To spit on the graves of the Founding Fathers?
Or to demonstrate complete lack of respect for the Constitution?

"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated." - Thomas Jefferson

"The Constitution allows only the means which are ‘necessary,’ not those which are merely ‘convenient,’ for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every one, for there is not one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience in some instance or other, to some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one power, as before observed" - Thomas Jefferson

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constitutents." - James Madison

"Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." - James Madison

"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish
and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children,
establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor;
they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress.... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America." - James Madison


This opinion of the Founders was also shared by other past presidents.

"[I must question] the constitutionality and propriety of the Federal Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely, that of providing for the care and support of all those … who by any form of calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy ... I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded." - President Franklin Pierce, 1854

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit." - President Grover Cleveland, 1887

Answer 8

If it was up to me, welfare would consist of food stamps, child care, and health care. Anything else, they need to get a job to pay for!

Answer 9

Because there are honest hard workin people out there that need some help sometime

Answer 10

This is one program that should be done away with. By giving people handouts, you are just telling them that it is okay, you don't have to work, the taxpayers will help you out. Instead of giving them money, give them education, and make them get a job.