One of the major points of contention between conservatives and liberals is about how generous the government should be in providing an economic "safety net" to those who find themselves in poverty. As president Obama moves forward in his second term, we've seen a massive explosion in the welfare rolls. Huge increases have been seen since Obama took office in the number of Americans receiving Food Stamps, Disability Benefits, Housing Assistance, Medicaid, and benefiting from myriad other federal, state, and local programs created to assist the poor.
As a Roman Catholic Christian, I believe it's important for me to do what I can to help people who need it. Therefore I've got firsthand experience dealing with the poor and their problems.
During a training class I attended to prepare me to become a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), perhaps the most memorable thing I learned was this:
There are two basic categories of the poor. The temporary poor, and the permanent poor. The temporary poor are the people who have suffered a setback of some sort. They've lost their wealth to divorce, a lawsuit, a business failure, or a medical bankruptcy. These temporary poor don't like being poor, and are highly motivated to escape that condition. Therefore, these are the easiest people to help. All they need is temporary assistance to get past their immediate problems, but once they get back on their feet they will rapidly become self-sufficient and no longer need or want assistance.
The permanent poor, however, are much more difficult to help. Because they are often third or fourth generation poor, and being dependent on services from the government and charity is a way of life. You could reasonably say that their profession involves maximizing their benefits. These folks make it their business to know about all of the government programs that will give them money, housing, food stamps, and other benefits. They also know about all of the local charities and their rules, and show up at the charities for whatever handouts are offered. The permanent poor have no intention of finding a job and becoming self-sufficient; in fact, they can't even imagine such a lifestyle.
In my experience working with the poor, most are high school dropouts or if they graduated high school did so just barely. Many of them are illiterate and have no idea how to do simple things like balance a checkbook or go grocery shopping with a budget and a meal plan. They often lack basic skills in simple things such as cooking, cleaning, or basic home repair.
The welfare mom is a modern tragedy. Imagine a young woman, 20 or 21 years old, who is raising 4 children on welfare. The first of her 4 children was born when she was only 14 or 15, sometimes younger. The father of that child is almost always an adult, and should have been prosecuted for statutory rape. But the overloaded social services agencies are too overloaded to pursue justice in those cases, because they are so common.
The welfare mom doesn't marry any of her baby daddies because if she were to do so she would lose her benefits. Those benefits are significant, and if we added up the value of all of them we would find that she's making a much better living from taxpayers than she ever could working as a clerk at the local fast food restaurant or convenience store. Baby momma gets a decent house, paid for by HUD. She gets free healthcare, courtesy of Medicaid. She gets hundreds of dollars worth of Food Stamps, now issued on a debit-like card called EBT. And she maximizes her monthly welfare salary check by virtue of her 4 children, giving her plenty of spending money.
She probably has a boyfriend, who may or may not be the father of one of her children. He lives with her, but knows that if he gets caught it could result in a reduction in her benefits. In most cases I've observed personally, the house has little to no furniture, aside from the 50-inch flat screen TV in the living room. The house is a mess, with dirty clothes piled up in every room that have been soiled by the dog(s) and/or cat(s) that roam the house.
In many cases, baby momma is addicted. Unfortunately that can mean she sells her food stamps to get more money to buy her drugs and there's nothing in the house for the kids to eat. So if the kids are in school, they get fed there. Or they figure out where they can go to get a free meal and fend for themselves. Also, the kids have to be wary of the boyfriend. He's more likely than not to abuse them, molest them sexually, or both.
The poor have their own neighborhood watch. Only they're not watching for criminals. They're watching for cops and social workers. They have elaborate alarm systems, that alert everyone on the block when the social worker is driving up. The boyfriends all high-tail it out the back door and disappear, knowing that if they're caught in the house they might have to answer some uncomfortable questions or perhaps even get arrested.
My conclusion is that the welfare system is broken. Republicans got Bill Clinton to sign their Welfare Reform bill in the 90's, which make a huge impact on getting people more self-sufficient and into the job market. But president Obama has repealed that law without the approval of congress (I still can't figure out how he got away with that) and has reverted the system back to the bad old days.
If I were in charge, I'd have to realize we can't move so many millions of unwed baby mommas off the rolls overnight. But I would set up programs that form partnerships between the government agencies and charities, with the goal of eliminating duplication. I would build incentives for the government agencies whereby they are rewarded for the number of people they get off the welfare rolls, rather than current policies that reward them for bringing more people onto those rolls. The stated goal for all government social services agencies will be to work themselves out of a job, when the day comes that nobody needs them anymore. Perhaps that would be achievable someday and the charitable organizations could meet all of the needs of the relative few who hit a string of bad luck.
Addiction treatment would be an important component in freeing up welfare moms so they can hold down a job. Although I'm not a fan of daycare, it would also need to be a component in removing one of the biggest obstacles to welfare moms taking a job.
It is past time to stop the nonsense of the popular culture, which encourages irresponsible behavior that leads people to illegitimacy. Leaders, churches, and schools must be united in spreading a positive message to everyone that our best chance for a happy and prosperous life is to find and marry someone for life and become partners in raising smart and successfuly children.
There is a category of people that need outside assistance to survive. That category is the physically and mentally disabled. Our government has turned the mentally disabled out and closed their hospitals, causing chaos. (Evidenced by just about all of the mass shootings we keep hearing about, for example). My preference would be to see the churches and charities band together to take care of these folks when their families cannot. But I wouldn't raise a fuss if the government decided to re-open the mental hospitals for the low-functioning people who will never be able to live independently. And of course the physically disabled deserve whatever help we can provide them.
This is a multi-generational problem that was begun by Lyndon Johnson. It was only briefly solved in Clinton's second term and through the Bush years, but now has reverted back to the dysfunction we see today. It can be resolved, but not until we elect people smart and principled enough to enact the right solutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment