Welfare Reform: Americans Issue with Reform

Welfare Reform: Americans Issue With Reform

One of the most debated issues in American culture is Welfare. Today what’s known as aiding the poor and lazy in began as a system of assisting the under-employed families. For several years anyone receiving Welfare was considered less than, lazy, unworthy and plain ole poor. Looking back at the history of how and why Welfare was initially created can cause great debate to many in our culture today; some may debate it was started for a good cause or reason, others may disagree. Whatever side of the debate you’re on, there is no doubt we all have an opinion on those that receive this type of assistance from the government.

Here are a couple of my suggestions that I feel could improve Welfare; First, make it mandatory that anyone getting assistance from the government give back to the community, i.e., volunteering at a school or homeless shelter, assisting elderly in the community. If it was a requirement that those receiving government assistance gave back to the community it could save monies on other government funded projects in their neighborhoods and those funds could go to bettering our school systems. Secondly, make it a requirement that those receiving government aid continue their education. Mainly, all recipients should obtain a high school diploma. There has been a great debate regarding whether or not to have welfare recipients’ drug tested and I’m unsure on my feelings on that subject matter. As stated in a recent article by Hucks (p.10) he asks a few questions, “So how do you define welfare? Is the term pejorative in contemporary usage? If so, does it apply to the nearly 10% of the U.S. population who are currently unemployed? Do you consider Pell Grants