America Doesn’t Need More Welfare Checks

America Doesn’t Need More Welfare Checks

The United States recently experienced one of the greatest "booms" in our economic history. More people were working than ever before. People were buying houses at a faster rate than they have in decades. Yet there were many people still living from paycheck to paycheck, or welfare check to welfare check. The subject of welfare stirs different passions in different people. Some say that those who are on welfare should be taken off, with no hope of survival afterward. They should "support themselves," these people say. Others believe that these welfare recipients should be able to stay on the rolls indefinitely. I think that people who are on welfare, who are physically capable to work, should be required to work. However, I also feel that it would be irresponsible of this country to throw these people into low-paying jobs with no training or education to help them eventually get a better job at a higher wage. We should not "force" them to work; we should help them to work and acquire the skills necessary to maintain a good paying job.

Requiring welfare recipients to work and aiding them along the way in respect to finding a good job lessens the welfare rolls by helping the people to find work. Many times, the only reason a person is on welfare is the simple fact that he looked but was not able to find a job. Many people would love to be able to find an entry-level job, but lack of skills and shrinking job markets make it harder and harder to do. In one of the few pieces I have seen done recently on the national television news programs, a man who had a wife and three children was interviewed. They were on welfare because he had lost his job during the downsizing effor...

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...andchildren of people who worked on the W.P.A. during World War II. While the W.P.A. did require the workers to labor, it was still basically a government welfare program. The government "found" something for the workers to do. They paid the workers with tax dollars. This program helped many people survive the Great Depression. We could take everyone off the welfare rolls today, but if we did not give them any guidance or training, they would be back on the roster within months, if not weeks.

While many people may have many different opinions about welfare-to-work programs, I think that if handled properly, they can be beneficial not only to the state, by lessening the welfare rolls, but also to the worker. We can give them the knowledge that they need to move away from welfare and on to a better, more promising future that lies just ahead of them.