Now there’s a touchy subject. Welfare was introduced in the ’30s by FDR. The idea was that poverty would disappear in America by just throwing money at it. By taxing the rest of the country, they could redistribute the wealth to the poor. Despite the good intentions, the program does not work well. Poverty is still around, people are staying poor, and jobs are still lost. And no, the solution is not to throw more money at the system.
The word “welfare” only means (in this sense) the aiding of poor or unemployed citizens. It doesn’t mean necessarily that the government administers that aid. In older times, that’s what welfare meant: the aiding of private citizens by other private citizens, or groups of them. This usually worked very well, until you had a situation like the Great Depression where practically everyone was poor. The sources of aid that had done the job in previous situations were no longer available, or just exhausted. In this case, I think it is all right for a government to step in and aid its citizens, using money that has been saved up for such emergencies. That’s another example of what I spoke about before with regards to socialism being appropriate in emergencies. The problem occurs when the government continues to assume its role as the big daddy of everyone after the emergency has passed. It doesn’t work, and there are many problems that have come up, are coming up, and many more that likely will come up.
Here are a few:
The welfare agents don’t know the private situations and backgrounds of the people they serve. They can’t understand each personal case because they usually aren’t from the area. Thus, they can be deceived by some shady people into giving money away.
The welfare system puts an extra, unneeded burden on the people.
Welfare also promotes a kind of laziness, and unwillingness to work or get out of the present situation. Instead of the alcoholic working for his liquor, the government now pays for it with the money of hardworking people. That makes sense. People who would otherwise work hard to get out of poverty now don’t have as much of an impetus to do so. “There’s time, Uncle Sam will pay for it.” You see the effect in New Orleans. I’m not saying that all poor people are a bunch of lazy slouches who sit around watching TV, and sipping beer. What I am saying is that welfare is not good for getting people out of poverty, off the rolls, and into productive roles in society. It does not accomplish its primary function of eliminating poverty.
As I said in my second paragraph, welfare used to be distributed by private citizens who understood the needs of the particular people (and believe it or not, their needs do not begin and end with money). The voluntary organizations also helped a great deal in fulfilling the need of the poor and unemployed.
There are many stories of people who got off welfare and speak of it as an addiction. They say that welfare doesn’t help the people; it only compounds the problem. I tend to agree. People need other things besides money.
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