I have a couple of friends who get state assistance, and instead of being thankful for it, they often complain. One of my friends gets like $300 a month in food stamps and says that it is not enough. It bothers me because I think that people should be thankful if they get any assistance at all. Right now my kids get very low cost health insurance through the state and I never receive a bill for their treatments. This is one of the few monthly bills I pay diligently on time because I am so thankful I receive it. I don't even care that they can't go to some doctors because the state is helping me. What are your thoughts on welfare?
I think there are people that really need things like welfare. Equally I think it is a system that is abused and could stand to be better managed. My complaint about the system is that people still have some ideas that are no longer valid. It is often stated that people that live on these programs are lazy welfare queens trying to beat the system. Often you hear how these folks go to the store in fur coats and a Cadillac. This really is not the case these days. Health care, heating assistance and food are main areas that people get assistance in. Contrary to what people think it is not that easy to get food benefits, your family size must be larger and your earnings must be low. very low in fact. Depending on how many are in your family $300 a month is really not much money because food today is expensive. I can tell you as fact there are only two people in my household and we spend more then $300 a month. We also cook at home and grow and can our own food. There are no pumpkin latte's here. I could not imagine several young children that need to eat to grow right. Same thing with heat, in the Northern areas you could freeze to death if you have the heat to low. It is a real life dilemma because gas bilsl is the north are crazy. Now health care is in a sad state right now. Even people that are paying for their own coverage are feeling the pinch. Obama care has not made it easier for everyone. They just had a piece in the local paper on how these new market places are causing a strain on the lower classes because the deductibles are so high. It is hard enough to struggle to pay even a lower cost mandatory premium, but then add the insult of having to pay all the bills till the deductible is met is just outrageous. It is not unusual for people to be paying $6000 in premiums (this is after it is subsidized) and then having to meet a $5000 deductible before the coverage kicks in on regular visits. The result has been that people that truly should have routine care are not getting it because they cannot afford to. These are people that have treatable conditions that just two years ago paid into shared health on the job and then made a co-payment at a visit. Now instead of getting health visits they are getting debt that is encompassing sometimes more the 30% of their monthly take home income. In my own experience I just had a recent doctors appointment and he said to me- "You did not have blood work this year" and I told the doctor that "until my deductible is met I would have to pay out of pocket for this blood work. Is there something in particular that concerns you? because in my mind it is a waste otherwise." In this area a standard CBC blood screen, one of which everyone has annually with the physicals runs about $956. If you read the payment agreements these labs and doctors give you now (In New York) you will notice the verbiage has changed and it no longer is what the providing network allows that becomes your charge, it is what the doctor or diagnostic lab wants as a fee, and you as the end user pay that bill. For example if you go to a doctor, a specialist maybe, and you want an appointment, you better ask right at the start what the office visit costs because you are on the hook for the balance if it exceeds what your coverage allows, or the whole thing if your deductible is not met. Be prepared for sticker shock. In the end I feel like if that is the way it is then I would rather just have major medical and pay as I go, forget this grand plan because it is awful like it is right now. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to pay for a family on one of these plans. If you are poor enough for medicade you are okay, but if you are above that poverty line the cost is actually crushing.
I would quote My401k! I have to agree with him here. I know quite a few people who get food stamps. Some do abuse the system, but for the most part these people NEED the money. I have 4 people in my family and we make around 40,000 on a good year. We were turned down for assistance in TN. We can apply for WIC which does give me about $20-30 in food each month. We have to get by on $100-150/week in groceries including formula, diapers, wipes, and bottles. I think that welfare does, at times, give people an incentive not to work, but the problem is not welfare it is that a midde class man working full time on minimum wage does not even come close to covering basic expenses. We are not talking about lazy people here, but people who work full time
A social safety net in general is a must have first world amenity. It's a very cost effective tool. If you didn't have it, it would end up costing the system a lot more money. People who need it would resort to crime. Some people generally need the extra help. Yes there are people who are fully capable of working who abuse it, but too be honest they are normally pretty terrible employees anyways and would just screw up whatever job they are given. I generally believe most people WANT to work and don't want to be on welfare.
There was this one person I read about who was on welfare because he was addicted to rock music. He couldn't miss a concert which made it impossible for him to work. It's such people who make it appear like most of the people on welfare don't actually need the help they are getting. Withholding aid from those who really need it as @ScooterB points out would backfire. Either give someone $300 a month or spend a lot more for his/her upkeep in prison.
Here in the UK the benefits are a hot topic at the moment, well, they have been for years actually. If people need assistance they should get it, and its as simple as that for me, and before you say anything, no, I'm not one of them. I've been lucky enough to have been employed in various jobs since I was 16 and I'm now 38. I know friends that haven't been able to get jobs and its definitely not through the lack of trying and they even do volunteer work to help keep them active and used to working even though they aren't getting paid. These people, family's in poverty, the sick and the elderly all deserve to get benefits off the government, I've paid my taxes as millions of others have done over the years so these people can be helped. I dint have an issue at all with that, and not many working people do. What I do have an issue with however is how the government is cutting back the benefits that these people need, they rely to live off, and spending the savings on things like an high speed rail link. £12billion. £1billion spent on the benefits and the rehousing of 25,000 refugees, and that's just two examples. More children in the UK are growing up in poverty than anytime in the past 150 years. Food banks are at an all time high, and the suicide rate of people on benefits as increased 200%. These are the elderly that have fought for their country not being able to afford to heat their homes because their pension payment as been stopped because they have had to fill out a form online and they've done it wrong because they can't use a computer. A young single father that missed an appointment at the job centre because he was sat in hospital after his daughter got rushed in, as his benefits stopped for 8 weeks as a punishment with no way to appeal. Evictions and repossessions are at an all time high as people can't afford to keep a roof over their heads. The homeless rate as grown by 70% since 2012. THAT is the state that the UK is in, and the government give India £200 million in foreign aid, out of my taxes, and they use it to fund the Indian space shuttle program. How can that be right???
Those few people who cannot care for themselves will always be taken care of. For everyone else, it should be a form of temporary assistance one can utilize if needed during hard times, such as the loss of a job - a safety net, as someone has said. Unfortunately, it has become a system that is easily abused here in the US - many women intentionally have as many children out of wedlock as they can, for example - in order to get benefits for each child. It should not be a career choice. It should only be permanent for the few who cannot care for themselves, and a temporary safety net for anyone else.
I have trouble believing people have kids just to get the domestic benefit. That would be kind of like deliberately chopping off a limb to get disability benefit. The imposition of any unwanted child on a person's lifestyle, no matter how poorly parented, is utter a scale of magnitude a bigger issue that a subsistence income. They would have to want the children in a more general way to have them. And the lifestyle you have as a single parent on benefits and food stamps makes subsistence as a fast food worker look like luxury.
It happens here in the UK all the time. Our benefits are rather generous and comprehensive and it's not always more profitable to go back to full time work once the kids are at school. However, once your youngest child reaches the age of 7 here, you are required to look for work. To get around this, more and more women seem to be falling pregnant once their youngest gets to around 6 years old, to avoid having to go back to work.
For those that cannot take care of themselves (physically and mentally ill, the very old, the very young, etc.), there has to be a good social safety net in a decent society. A combination of government and nonprofit resources can help those folks out. For those that suffer a temporary setback (e.g., job loss, serious illness, crop failure, etc.), there should be some temporary assistance to make sure they don't fall into poverty. No one wants to see our fellow citizens suffer a temporary setback that results in their life falling apart. However, those that are lazy, stupid, irresponsible, and/or addicted, that refuse to take responsibility for their own lives, too bad. Sure, if they want get on the right track with job training, some assistance to get them up and running, etc., fine, but as a lifestyle—NO! Just, no. Get your act together and start contributing like the rest of us. Don't want to? OK, but you're not getting any more checks.
