WELFARE!
Democrats love it. Republicans hate it. But in times like these, there's no getting around it. Low-income or no-income citizens can't simply be told to "get a job". They need help to get back on their feet plus a system that supplies incentives to not stay in the system. That's where we come in. A government needs to look after its people and more importantly, people need to look after each other. This is where that whole individual interest vs. collective interest thing becomes a problem. Sure no one wants to pay more taxes. The fact of the matter is that a nation cannot prosper when its people aren't properly taken care of. When about 54% of our tax money is spent on defense (i.e. military, weapons, and war.... YUCK!), I think we can consider some serious budget reconstruction so that no human being goes hungry under our watch.
Now it's time to dispel some myths about the current welfare system.... GET EXCITED!
Myth: People on welfare are usually black, teenage mothers who stay on ten years at a time.
Fact: Most welfare recipients are non-black, adult and on welfare less than two years at a time.
-Over half of all recipients stay on welfare for two years or less.
-Teenagers form less than 8 percent of all welfare mothers.
Just some food for thought. That was fun, wasn't it?
Until next time...
P.S. If you're interested in sources for this data, just let me know! :)
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It's true that most people don't want to pay more taxes to help fund welfare, but at the same time that doesn't mean they aren't helping out. My family gives a ton of money to local soup kitchens and we are always helping out on the off season (not just around the holidays when people feel morally obligated to do so). Ensuring everyone in America has food to eat isn't as simple as just raising taxes or reallocating money in the budget, and I agree that there needs to be some incentive for people to leave the system. Sure I believe people need to look out for each other, and many people are by giving whatever they can to people who need it. Although, people need to look out for themselves too. I don't have a problem helping fund legitimately needy families, but I'm not ok with helping to fund someone's drug addiction. If someone isn't prospering then it shouldn't be entirely in the government's hands to fix all of their mistakes.
ReplyDeleteLastly, I think it would be irresponsible to reallocate the funding our military receives while we're in the midst of a war. Even if you don't believe in the war, are you really okay with leaving the men and women who have fought to keep us safe overseas without the proper equipment to do so? It's true, our nation can't prosper unless we're properly taken care of, and our military is doing just that.
Kat I've gotta agree with most of what you've said, welfare is definitely under-funded and what funding is being put forth is most often being misused. Miss Melissa, I must respectfully disagree with a few of your points. I do not think that Kat was trying to imply any sort of fault on the "common citizen" for not doing enough, whether their actions are in the form of time or monetary donations, but that the government is inadequately providing for the millions of citizens who are living on or below the poverty level. You must understand that welfare does not "fund...drug addictions", there are many food-assistance and housing-assistance programs that do not provide any form of direct financial support but that provide needy people with the resources they need to provide. I would much rather see the burden of supporting down-and-out people fall upon the church or the family as it has for much of human history, but with the globalization and industrialization of our country that is no longer possible because those institutions have lost much of their credibility and strength. Therefore, this responsibility falls upon the government, whether they like or or not. I agree that one of the main responsibilities of our government is to protect its' citizens from outside threats, but the war we are in is not exactly one which is entirely necessary to keep us safe. Some of the actions taken by our government may have prevented ongoing terrorist activities, but on the whole we have spent billions of dollars to set up a mock government that the people we have imposed it upon don't even want and in the process have dug our nation into deeper debt and neglected millions of our own hurting citizens. There may have been a time when it was appropriate for the United States to exert it's influence over the rest of the world when it was for the greater good, but that is no longer the case and we are egocentrically trying to spread the American disease of affluence to the people of the middle east because hey, who wouldn't want that right?
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