What did the poor do before there was welfare?

Question

Was there another program? or did they rely on help from family and friends through their hard times?

Answer 1

No other program. Family and friends helped each other out during hard times.

Answer 2

These answers seem divided into three categories. Either they got a job, or received outside help from non-government agencies, or they did not survive. (with the exception of the guy from Ohio who thinks you can't get a job like everybody else)

The social welfare system is a hallmark of westernized society. In countries such as China for example, you work. Many extended families still live together to survive, much the way it was in the USA many years ago. No job, no family...they beg for a living.

Answer 3

Families helped each other. This included older children quitting school to go to work to help support the family and/or care for the younger ones. They did what they had to. I think that entitlements have led to a permissive society that does not emphasize the importance of personal responsibilty. It has also trivialized the two-parent family unit.

Answer 4

They went to churches for help and families did help each other out more then, but some of them starved to death, or died of illness if they did not have family or friends. Or if they were poor because of children they sometimes had back alley abortions, or gave their children up. (they had orphanages back then, so it wasn't always for the child to have a better life.) Questions like this makes me think that people actually think that poor people relish the substandard lifestyle that they endure and that people also think that it is so easy to pull ones self out a bad situation. Well for anyone who has pulled themselves out of a bad situation, they may not have been on welfare, but they didn't do it on their own either. Someone gave them a chance to succeed and by the grace of god or whatever you believe in they took it and flourished.

Answer 5

Made it on their own. Did whatever work they could to take care of their families. At times they relied on friends, neighbors, their church or family to help with food or childcare. But they did not expect to be that way forever, they knew with hard work, they'd pull out of it.

Answer 6

I think the Industrial Revolution marked the beginning of social changes which drew people to the cities and started the disintegration of the family support.

Social charities were supported by churches and church women would see to the needs in their communities, distributing the funds raised. Modern criticism of this method is that they selected the "worthy poor," which might have been one reason out-of-wedlock parenting was uncommon.

I think the vast entitlement mentality we see today, especially in the South, was proliferated by the Civil Rights movement, unfortunately. Civil Rights was an excellent idea which got too bogged down in politics to achieve its righteous aims of true equality of opportunity. You cannot bring about equality of opportunity by putting a group of people on the public dole.

I believe that if people were not required to pay such a hefty portion of their income to taxes (12% to SS for self-employed--7.5% per employee for employers for FICA) people and businesses would be more giving.

Answer 7

Read the novels of charles dickens.

Hard Times is a good place to start..

The people shouting at the poor to get a job, are basically the last people on earth to employ them btw.

Poverty isn't about morality it is a requirement for a useable currency. Every nation on earth has poverty...Thatcher put millions and millions of people (none of which wanted to be there) on the dole and kept them there (by paying them pennies and essentially rooting them to the spot), to make the currency valuable enough to trade in. Pick the morality tale out of that..

Answer 8

They went to what was called the poor house and stayed there until they either got a job or moved somewhere else to find work. We did not just hand them a check and let them sit on their butt and have babies!

Answer 9

They suffered until we came up with the Surplus program the predecessors to welfare. The government would provide surplus cheese, peanut butter, milk, bread, canned meat, and a few other staples to feed the hungry. They had to go to their local court house to receive the surplus. More than not, many would not go, because of Pride. Now, we no longer have Pride standing in the way, because we call it an entitlement, instead of a handout. Or to be politically correct, a hand-UP.... which means a handout but we don't want to insult your pride....

Answer 10

Hey Steve - the great depression started w/ the Stock Market crash of 1929. Not 1913.

Perhaps you should watch who you call "ill informed".