How Ending Welfare Might Help End Poverty

[SocialistLez]

I got you with the title didn't I?

"t's a liberal faux pas to be against welfare. How could you be against helping millions of struggling women and children? That's just wrong, right?

Well, I'm against welfare. Welfare as we know it, that is.

I have no problem with the helping part. Unlike many I've heard from, I think human beings are morally obligated to help each other, and I don't mind my tax dollars going towards struggling families. In fact, I may be one of the few Americans who wouldn't mind paying a few more tax dollars if I knew it meant more kids could go to the doctor when they were sick or never went hungry. That's the kind of stuff I think money is for, and when it's automatically deducted from my paycheck, my silly desires for a new thing at Target don't get in the way of that happening.

What I hate is TANF. That's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or what we commonly refer to as a welfare check. It sucks. Before reform, after reform — whatever. It pulls families deeper into poverty by establishing stupid rules that make families choose between today's rent check and their future financial security."

If you want to read more, visit this link: http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/how_ending_welfare_might_help_end_poverty

[Demeter]

1. I Object to Welfare for Corporations

whether it's a tax rebate scheme, an illegal war, or pork in the federal budget, I object to supporting a bunch of parasitical artificial, immortal "citizens" who take all and give back nothing, in the process destroying those families of women and children and their fathers and husbands, too.

[prairierose]

4. I agree with you, Demeter.......

this is one of the things that should end.

[Madam Mossfern]

5. I work for TANF

It's a mess, and right now in this economy, it's a real mess.
I honestly don't know how these Welfare to Work programs are going to survive.

[hollowdweller]

2. Is TANF a federal or state program?

[SocialistLez]

3. Federal. NT

[On the Road]

6. The Woman in the Clip

seems like a case where the rules are applied perversely. She could have been studying accounting instead of working fast food.

However, not every one is as practical as that. Many recipients will not work unless forced to do so by the rules. Maybe allowing welfare recipients to be full-time students would help, but it would be

Whatever system you put in place is imperfect and is going to be played. Wherever there are large amounts of free money, people are going to do whatever they need to do to get it.

The biggest issue IMO is not welfare rules, but mindset. The woman planning her future on welfare is the anomaly, not the norm. I think if welfare recipients could either work or go to school, a lot of people would perceive that school was easier and take that option. But it would only be effective for those that had a plan and motivation. It might work for some people, but it's a lot more expensive and you would have to put controls on it for maintaining a certain grade average and restricting it to practical fields.