Welfare Woes

In light of welfare reform in Washington the topics has been on my mind. It also has been on the minds of the populous of Ozarkians around me. People have a broad base of feelings when it comes to welfare. Some think there is nothing wrong with the system as is and others over demonize it. Personally, I feel welfare is a product of a compassionate country and is a very positive thing. What is not positive is when it is run badly.

First off we need to stop allowing people to victimize themselves. Here in America white people are the largest populous and 55% of the welfare recipients. There after black people account for 28% percent, Hispanic 17% and so forth. Where the numbers get skewed is when you look at how much welfare money on a per person/ family basis is received. The average welfare rate per person is as follows: White- $1,022, Black-$2,210, Hispanic- $3,230.

"The higher rates of welfare receipt among blacks and Hispanics are largely the result of the erosion of marriage among those groups. In 1998, 69.1 percent of black children were born outside of wedlock. Among Hispanics the number was 41.6 percent, while among non-Hispanic whites the number was 21.9 percent."

People who know me know I am very against racism and for minority rights and honestly so. But I am also a humanist and believe in the equality of all people and just not selected groups. In America now we have been become so over concerned with Political Correctness (PC) or making old restitution (such as in the case of slavery) we have chastised the motive to ever point out the down falls of a group people and call it racist or hate. No, what we are doing is making people victims. A child of any color, ethnicity or background that is allowed to do what ever they want without correcting the mistake because if might hurt their feelings often turn out to be the most self centered, selfish people. Same thing with the adults. As long as some groups are treated with an overly sensitive approach to correcting inappropriate actions we are allowing them to think they are entitled to special treatment or exempt from certain social expectations. All groups need to be expected to not to only help themselves, but help all other groups equally so.

We need to find a way to limit living off of welfare for extended periods of time and having lots of children thus receiving money. I don't have the fail- all complete solution, but here are some of my thoughts to possibly add to the current system...

-Assign a person to have bi-monthly meetings with welfare recipients.

- As the government has now proposed we should drug test. This will limit the funding of the drug lords. In a sense thus far we have been funding both sides of the war on drugs, both the people who buy and sell, and the police who stop it. By making sure individuals are drug free we will allow them to help themselves and their families. The police load will be lessened.

-Give more money to women who can be proven to be on birth control or do not exceed having children more than every three years. Make said birth control free. This topic can get sensitive, because not all people believe in birth control and the point we are taking away individual rights is a fine line. I reconcile this by always siding with the children. I don't care what faith or thought a person follows, but if the child will be negatively affected extensively something has to be done. If a parent truly can't afford to live without a large amount of a assistance they have no right to have 8 kids if they can't even minimally afford to give proper care to one.

-Give education incentives. While they go to college and maintain above a 3.0 they get some extra funding. They must graduate or must refund the extra incentives given. The goal is at least an associates degree or trade certification.

-Specify where funds can be personally allocated. Limit excess spending. Make them keep record of their expenses.

-After getting off of welfare and if making at least $30,000 a year make them pay a little more into taxes for welfare. This way money comes somewhat around full circle.

-Again, stop allowing some groups to be victims and victimizing themselves.


In the end I feel with more freedom comes more personal responsibility. I wrote all of this pretty quick so if some one else can think of some more or disagree with me feel free to comment below. Also if you want to check my statistics go to http://www.newcoalition.org/Article.cfm?artId=152 and http://images.publicradio.org/content/2008/08/07/20080807_welfaremap_33.JPG.