Welfare: The Government's Failure

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The United States Government has pumped more than $3.5 trillion U.S. taxpayer dollars into welfare but, ironically, the poverty rate is higher than when they started (Tanner, Welfare Reform). This outrageous amount of money proves that welfare will lead United States into debt. The original intent of current welfare benefits has failed; therefore the national welfare system must be reformed. To fully understand how to reform the welfare system Americans must know what the history of welfare is, illegitimate births’ obvious connection to crime and welfare, how welfare has failed to keep the poverty rate down, the great problem of dependency, and finally what reforms must be made. Welfare reforms will greatly help this Nation become stronger and have a more secure future.
The history of welfare has been a short story. This is a short summary of welfare history from Micheal Katz’s article The American Welfare State. AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) was around the 1970’s, and it was the first modern welfare division but after a reform in the 1990’s TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) rose out of the remains of AFDC. After the reform the people on welfare went down, momentarily, but the poverty rate stayed steady. Since then there have not been many changes (Katz).
Michael Katz of the University of Pennsylvania defines welfare in this quote “The welfare state is how a society insures against the risks inherent in human life - unemployment, poverty, sickness, and old age - that in one way or another confront everyone.” (Katz). Accordingly the United States’ citizens and government has been thought of as charitable, but unfavorably, government intervention might be altering United States’ citizens’ charita...

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...ted States will fall into uncontrollable debt. Therefore, we need to be persistent and headstrong; we need to fix this Union.

Works Cited

Clegg, Robert. "Latest Statistics on Illegitimate." National Review Online National Review, 4 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Katz, Micheal B. "The American Welfare State." History In Focus Institute of Historical Research, Oct. 2008. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Tanner, Micheal B. "Relationship Between the Welfare State and Crime." Cato Institute Cato Institute, 7 June 1995. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Tanner, Micheal B. "Welfare Reform." Cato Institute Cato Institute, 9 Mar. 1995. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Gentry, Kenneth L. "Problems With Public Welfare." Chalcedon Podcast RSS Synergema, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Nilson, Greg. "Welfare - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Social Corruption Magazine Social Corruption, 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

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