Why should or shouldn't I support welfare?

Question

Does it really help people if the government provides for them? There is a saying that goes "You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for life." We already have a public education that we are dumping tons of government funds into. Should we also spend money to feed people? How does that benefit them? Doesn't it give more incentive not to work, because of all the freebies?

Answer 1

Yes, this wealthy country should help out those who are down, but not to the extent that we create a multi-generation welfare culture!

Exactly how to do that, I don't know.

Virginia enacted welfare reform several years ago--basically, recipients who were able to work had to get a job. The local newspaper started a series about five single moms who were affected (I think they wanted to show how callous this law was). All five moms said something like, "Wow, I actually have to get a job a show up on time every day. I need to get an alarm clock. This is going to be really hard." After the moms started changing their attitudes, the paper dropped the series (or at least, I didn't see any more about it--it's possible I just missed it, although I was looking for it).

And welfare recipients should stop complaining. Yes, they should be treated with respect, but they need to learn to be happy with beans and rice (very nutritious). If they want hamburger, they can get a (better) job. They don't need TV's. The library is free. They can read to their kids, so the kids don't need TV either. They can spend their evenings helping their kids with their homework and inspiring them to do better so as not to perpetuate the cycle to another generation.

I am not being callous. I would support meeting basic needs, but basic needs are just that. . .basic. TV and hamburger are not basic. It's hard to come up from poverty, so if we make people comfortable in poverty (as opposed to meeting BASIC needs), they will stay there.

Worthwhile accomplishments, in general, are hard. Getting a college education is hard. So is making a marriage work, raising your kids right, becoming a basketball star, being a store manager.

Answer 2

"Should we also spend money to feed people? How does that benefit them?" - Keeps them from starving to death. Sounds like it benefits them fine.

"Doesn't it give more incentive not to work, because of all the freebies?" - Under the old program where someone could receive welfare payments as long as they kept having kids, you would be correct. However since the current program has job training requirements and time limits this is less of an issue.

The most common person to end up on welfare is a woman that married young, had children and then for one reason or another became single again (divorce, death of partner). It is unlikely she has job skills.

Answer 3

From a personal perspective, if you're living in welfare you should. Otherwise, you'd be out of money. But if you're a taxpayer, why would you? what do you get from it?
I know it sounds selfish but selfishness is the root of generosity.
With the current system, all the real workers hate people on welfare or on government jobs because they're all living good lives paid by taxes.
I know that they're not living in comfortable clean houses, I know that they don't have new cars. Not all at least.
But I have to work hard for that money and they do nothing to get out of welfare. In fact, they practically educate their own kids to stay in welfare. I'm sure that you can find families where two or even three generations have been born and spent the whole life in welfare.
It's a pathetic life, one that I wouldn't accept for me or for my kids. But it's an easy life. One where satellite TV and beer are granted. One where sex is profitable, any way you want to interpret this phrase...

The answer is no, you shouldn't support welfare. Or universal health care or public education.

And for those who cry a river for the ones who are in REAL needs. Yes, there are some. And they were always supported by the local communities as long as they prove that they're willing to help themselves too. The welfare system doesn't check who's in need and how bad is in need. The more the merrier. For every dollar they spent in welfare, half of it or even more, is used to support the government structure of welfare. That means easy jobs with no responsibility for more people. Who would want to restrict the access to welfare?

I have a plan to solve the problem. Let's create a paradise, a real paradise. A place where people "in need" can go and get all their "needs" fulfilled. Not a concentration camp, a real paradise. Let's give them a whole island in the Caribe, a place where there's no need for heaters or air conditioning. I'm willing to pay for free transportation and all the food they need. Not just enough to keep them alive, plenty of food, enough to get overweighted if they want to. That's humane, that's a lot cheaper than the welfare system and that's incredible more fair. It's the perfect life, no responsibilities.

But they won't go. Because they want a car, a tv, a couch, a beer.
The funny thing is that I have a cheap car because I save to pay for my kids education, I don't want them on welfare. I barely watch TV because I spent my free time with my kids, doing homework, talking, trying to make of them something better than welfare leeches. And all the money I could save for denying me of those pleasures, goes to pay the same pleasures for people on welfare. Tomorrow, my kids will be hard working members of the community and the same socialist government is going to take money from them at gun point to support the kids of those in welfare today. Tell me that this is a fair system.

Answer 4

I am a fiscal conservative. I think that our welfare programs are far too generous. The goal of any welfare program should not be "to throw poor people a bone" but rather to "teach them to fish" as you say.

Any benefit should be time limited, require job training, and should be paid back with interest once the person is gainfully employed. There should be absolutely no incentive for anyone to live as a leach off of those who work and produce.

Answer 5

We need a basic safety net in order to keep society stable. That's why we have "New Deal" programs like Social Security. Obviously, people see welfare differently b/c unlike Social Security, it isn't "earned". However, it probably prevents poor people from committing crimes in order to feed their families. Also, there are a lot of working poor people in the USA who get food stamps...even some enlisted military servicemembers qualify for foodstamps. Furthermore, there is the "multiplier effect" (i..e., welfare helps the overall economy b/c the recipients spend the money as opposed to saving it, thereby spurring economic growth). Finally, I don't think it's fair to pick on welfare recipients and say nothing about folks who get farm subsidies from the Govt (that is, the people who are paid by the Govt NOT to grow certain crops). Of course, welfare should be administered so as to not encourage people to stay on it for generation after generation.

Answer 6

Our public education is not that great. What real skills do children have after leaving high schools? Most have to take classes over at college of subjects they should know well. Even so called "A" students find them self struggling in college as they are ill prepared. Perhaps anyone on welfare should also get cooking classes, sewing classes, car repair, and other handy skills which they could actually apply to do more with the little money they have and perhaps find work.

Answer 7

Welfare is okay... welfare fraud is not. That's the problem. The system needs to be policed better than it is, and keep a keener eye on people who have a disability. Many do, yes, but just as many are at the gym doing crunches. And FEMA really needs to cut the purse strings faster. We still have Katrina people crying for their checks while watching their plasma TVs the government bought them.

Answer 8

Have some compassion, and do what you can do. We don't understand their situations enough to judge. Life can be very cold and unfair for a lot of people. Many people who end up on the street are people with mental illness. They can't take care of themselves.

I agree with you about many people who don't use the help as more than a crutch. I say let that be their problem, as long as we are doing all we can do teach and help them, they are responsible for their own choices.

Answer 9

If you are positive that everyone you care about will never need government assistance, then don't support it. If you are not sure about that, and there is no way you can be, then I would think about it. Are you prepared to support the people you love? Or just watch them suffer?

Answer 10

I think it's good for me because there would be a lot more crime if we didn't throw poor people a bone once in a while. I hate getting robbed.