Jackelyn Rosas

English 103

August 19,2021

Welfare Reform

It is clear that welfare has been a big part of this since back in the day to today . It has been a big

help to some people, it has supported them through thick and thin. Welfare is the financial support given

to people in need and people who are single-parent households. With Welfare people are supported by

healthcare assistance, food stamps, and unemployment compensation here in the US. For me I believe

Welfare has impacted humanity and its economy badly because it causes poverty instead of taking them

out, it affects you mentally by letting you grow knowledge and physically by making you lazy, and it

takes a lot of maintenance to support welfare.

Cliff Laking, a 20 year former foster care kid who has survived from living off the welfare

system, believes that welfare should be extended. He mentions “the terror of living on the street, the filth

of tumble-down rooming houses and the loneliness of having no one to support him” For him without the

support from the government he would be on the street with nothing. He believes that welfare has gotten

him out of poverty. He looks up to welfare for giving the support that he needed when he was young for

that welfare is beneficial to the people. In the same article a third person came out with the name

Simpson, a student from New York City. He begins to say “extended maintenance should be available for

as long as former foster children need it” This means extending welfare is a great and positive thing to do

because it’s not just throwing away the money, it is being used by people who actually need it. It is being

used to benefit children in the future and help them achieve their goals. Without the support from welfare

for foster kids there would have been thousands of kids in the streets, stealing, committing murders, etc.

Lasty it says “it’s vital that we ensure our young people have every opportunity to get out of the cycle of

poverty and get the education they need to contribute to society.” This shows that children who are under
the welfare system will later contribute to the incoming children on welfare because they know how much

it has helped them achieve their goals. For them they are thankful that there is a system that supports them

into not falling into poverty.

While most people believe that the welfare system is a huge upplifter to people, they don’t see

that people who are in the welfare system are people who suffer more. While I was reading Muddine,

Warren newspaper “Welfare is Destroying Us” he mentions “welfare is another word for poverty” Instead

of helping people out of poverty it makes them even poorer. The people who receive this type of help are

just waiting every month for money to come their way and are satisfied with the little money they get,

sometimes it isn’t even enough for them but they don’t do anything about it. There are also people who

abuse this system even if they need it or not. It doesn't only affect people who are receiving but also

people who don’t receive any help pay when taxes need to be done. Another thing he states is “but

poverty isn’t just a factor of income, it’s also about deprivation of basic needs.” This means that people

who received this financial support from the government are not in a hurry to work because money is

coming their way without doing anything. They are mentally hurting themselves because there is a lack of

the basic needs like interacting, using their brains to think, doing basic math, etc. They are also physically

hurting themselves because they get lazy when someone gets lazy there is no type of movement, they

become overweight. Say you're at home just watching TV and living off of food stamps and not being

physically active at a job sometime it can lead to obesity and depression. Lastly he gives an example of

himself, when he was 18 he got injured and went into worker’s compensation for 11 months. He says

“...sleeping most days and going to parties most nights” This goes back to the first part: people get used to

receiving money without doing nothing, they become lazy to work. They can lie about still having injuries

or having no husband to support them while the husband is at home with them. Welfare over all just

affects them. Another thing that is mentioned in this article is “public debate on these issues typically

involves anger over the system and cost to taxpayers” The comes to show that people who have worked

so hard for there money all year, and comes to do there taxes and pay it’s unfair to those who don’t do pay

their taxes under the welfare system but still get rewarded for not working. Overall the welfare system is
in general messed up when it comes to handing out there money. They should be looking more into the

people who receive it and actually require them to do something not just hand out the money like it is so

easy to get.

In 1992 when Bill Clinton entered the presidency he started this system called TANF, Temporary

Assistance for Needy Families.This is just welfare in other words. In Marry Pilon article says “an

additional 1.5 million families with children living in poverty were created” This means even with the

new welfare system making people work and receive welfare there was still poverty involved. Some

believe that the reason there was still overtly with this welfare system was because they would get the

money from federal block grants, as well as federal dollars. As we move on to President Donald Trump

with his welfare proposal she writes that “ new regulations would focus on cuts, including stronger work

requirements.” This shows that even the government knows that people receiving welfare aren’t trying to

put effort in themselves by working, all they want to do is receive, receive, receive. As he puts in stronger

work regulations on people receiving financial support, the less people will receive this service. It states

that “President Donald Trump planned to lift our citizens from welfare to work” This comes to show the

importance of having people on welfare to work and not become lazy. It shows that they were rewarding

people who don't work and continue to have babies. If the welfare system puts in more force and

requirements on people who are getting this type of aid the less people will receive it and actually try to

put in effort in life.

Kay Coles James, president of The Heritage Foundation, explains in her video “Why we must be

bold on Welfare” . She gives a personal example of herself and says “I know firsthand the unintended

harm welfare has caused.” She herself was part of the welfare system and sees how much it affects a

person. She knows that it takes them away from their purpose of living normally, it takes away their basic

capabilities in life. She continues to say “American who’s subjected to the same failed liberal policies.”

This means the people who are under these policies like aren’t married, have children, and don’t work get

rewarded for doing that and in exchange they receive money. This makes preppie having children like

crazy because they will have in mind oh I have welfare to support me. They will just continue to have
children out of hand because welfare doesn’t set a limit on the amount of children you are able to have.

Another thing is this welfare system policy congratulates you for not having a job and being at home.

Imagen you are able to have as many children as one wants and get paid for it in addition to getting

money while at home without a single job because welfare is there to support you. Kay Cole then gives an

example for us to think about it by saying “what if I told your daughter, sweetheart you go ahead and have

as many kids as you want I’ll give you more money to to take care of them” This becomes a huge impact

in not only our families but also our own children. It impacts our families because our family will not stop

growing and will become poor eventually. It also impacts our children and our children’s children because

the cycle will continue if we continue to have a poor welfare system policy. Lastly she mentions “it’s

destroying hopes and dreams.” The way it destroys people's hopes is by not being able to achieve more in

life. Just being stuck in one place and having the same routine. It destroys people's dreams because they

won’t push themselves hard enough to become something in life because they believe living off this

system is okay for now, and that’s how there going to be the rest of the life. If she herself knows the

struggles she got while on this financial aid but was able to overcome it but not everyone is like this, not

everyone is as strong as herself.

Welfare can be a huge part in people’s life but it also destroys them in many ways. According to

Robert Rector article “The Effects of Welfare Reform” he says “prolonged welfare dependence reduces

children’s IQ levels.” The reason why it would reduce children's IQ levels would be because children will

drop out of school because they are seeing that they are getting money even if they aren’t working. Just

like he said as well “a poor child without welfare will do better than a similar poor child on welfare” A

poor kid will do better because they will work super hard to have money and not be stuck in poverty,

while on the other hand a child on welfare won’t do nothing on there part to come out of poverty. Another

thing he mentions is “out-of-wedlock childbearing and single parenthood are the cause of child poverty

and welfare dependence in the U.S.” First of all, just like I had said in the beginning people are having

babies out of hand with the support of the welfare reform, they will continue to have babies out of rage

knowing they are still going to get money for it. This leads to parents being divorce or separated and
becoming a single mother on welfare. Which also affects kids because their parents are being separated

and they fall into depression. The last thing he mentions is “nearly all welfare aid for children goes to

single parent households” This becomes an effect on them because first both parents are separating which

takes a big impact on kids, second because parents are separating they need support with their children

and leads them to go to welfare. This impacts them because it takes away children’s abilities to develop

their basic necessities in life. Lasty it says “instead the opposite is the case, most social problems seem to

have gotten worse as incomes rose.” This comes to show that since the government is financially

supporting people, goods like in stores or or supper markets rise. The outcome of the price rising up is

that people who are on welfare won’t be able to buy certain stuff which will eventually lead them to steal

or do other things. It won’t necessarily benefit them in any way for getting help from the government if

prices go up. Another problem is “it is the ethos within families that is critical” This means the more

families see that they are being supported no matter what, and it makes them believe that they are doing

good to themselves and their children. It shows that some become parents at an early age and go into the

welfare system but eventually have a broken family for their kids, which this later can have a huge effect

on.

When it comes to welfare reform there is a negative impact in the economy, says Joel Garrison in

his article “The Disadvantages of Social Welfare to human Development.” He begins to say “when

governments print too much money, the rate of inflation increases, raising the price of goods for

everyone.” This means if the government is supporting people with welfare aid we are the ones paying for

it basically. Since the government is just handing out money and the money he gives out the only way to

get that money is by us the consumers that don’t receive any support from them. Just like in today's

society we are getting so many stimulus checks that prices for everything are rising. The more money the

government gives to people the higher goods become, so there really isn’t any help that they are giving.

Another point that he mentions is “disincentive” . This means that they become discouraged in life. For

example, if you work a full or part time job you have a reward in 2 weeks which is money. For people on

welfare aid they don’t need to work, but they still get congratulated with an incentive which is help from
the government. People on welfare reform become inactive within themself because they don’t need to do

anything and still get money. A third thing he mentions is “high cost” welfare is expensive for the

government, he says. The government can’t support so many people all at once, because if one family get

welfare their kids get it as well, and then there kids, kids get it, and it becomes a cycle where the

government isn’t able to sustain then aid. He mentions “social welfare programs, including social security,

Medicare, accounted for between forty nine and sixty percent of federal government spending. Imagen

almost 100% of the supporting aid is helping people on welfare. Lastly, he mentions “government

control” . Most people believe that if the government is supporting you with financial aid they can have

any control over us if they want to. If we rely on the governments money then if sooner or later they want

to set rules on us all we could do is follow them because they're literally giving us support.

Another reason why welfare has had a huge effect since back in the day is because they keep

changing the system. In the article economist.com on “How Welfare reform has had a negative effect on

the children of single mothers” , Kamila Harris of California, for example, has proposed a federal cash

transfer for some low income families.” This shows that if they have seen that welfare hasn’t been a hit

back in the day, because every time a president enters presidency they do some sort of arrangement that

makes us think welfare is good if they keep making changes to the system. It shows how unstable the

welfare system is because they aren’t able to find something that works well enough to make it

permanent. Another thing that is mentioned in this article is “...Americans who are cash poor, new

research suggests that has had a damaging effect on the behavior of their children.” The people who are

receiving only welfare and aren't doing more things to earn a bit more cash on the side are the ones who

suffer. The children from those families tend to get the biggest impact of poverty because sometimes their

friends at school have more luxury items and wish they can also have that. This will have an impact on

welfare children because it would lead them to get money the easy way since they are not used to working

for it. It can lead them to sell drugs, become part of gangs in order to receive money in an easy way and to

get the stuff they want. Lastly it says “boys and girls exposed to welfare reform were also significantly

more likely to skip school and boys are more likely to damage property or become involved in a fight.”
This relates to my last point on how much of an effect it can cause children on welfare. First, they are

more likely to skip school because they see that they are getting money to waste on unnecessary things,

they have money to go to a place that they want without having to work for it. Second, they become

aggressive once they see the money that they get isn’t enough to make a living out of it and leads them to

anger because they crave for more and more.

After all, some possible challenges that people working on this welfare system come across are

trying to see if the family that is applying for the financial aid really needs it or just want extra money.

Because there are people out there that fake it until they make it, I’m saying in reality they might not be a

single-parent household but file as one while their husband is on the side. As well as trying to be fair with

the support because if people who don't receive this support see it’s that easy to get money by just having

a kid with no regulation the entire world would have kids and be support, it would literally be a world full

of poverty. Then again some long term consequences that can have is affecting children's capabilities to

expand their knowledge and put in effort in life. In today I myself don’t really know how much a person

in welfare gets each month, but I feel it is sufficient enough to support them and their children while still

having a little side hustle. Not just be living off what the government gives you but also working to have

more, which will lead to actually getting people off poverty instead of sinking them into poverty.
 Works Cited

C.K. “How Welfare Reform Has Had a Negative Effect on the Children of Single Mothers.”

Google, Google, 2019,

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/02/25/how-welfare-reform-has-

had-a-negative-effect-on-the-children-of-single-mothers.

Coles James, Kay, director. Why We Must Be Bold on Welfare Reform . 2018,

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=welfare+reform+&ru=%2fvideos%2fsearch%3fq%3dwelfare%252

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Garrison, Joel. “The Disadvantages of Social Welfare to Human Development.” Synonym, 30

June 2020,

classroom.synonym.com/the-disadvantages-of-social-welfare-to-human-development-12084203.html.

Mudine, Warre. “Welfare Is Destroying Us.” WELFARE IS DESTROYING US - ProQuest

(Elac.edu) , 2016, www-proquest-com.libproxy.elac.edu/docview/1821865832?pq-origsite=primo.

 Pilon, Mary. “How Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform Changed America.” History.com, A&E

Television Networks, 26 Apr. 2018, www.history.com/news/clinton-1990s-welfare-reform-facts.

Rector, Robert. “The Effects of Welfare Reform.” The Heritage Foundation,

www.heritage.org/testimony/the-effects-welfare-reform.

Toronto Star., Laurie Monsebraaten. “Fix Welfare System to Give Us a Break,Youths Tell .”

ProQuest , Fix welfare system to give us a break, youths tell Nixon: [SU2 Edition] - ProQuest (elac.edu) .