Creating Our Own Problems

The more direct experience I have with the "system", the more convinced I am that it desperately needs an overhaul.

Nobody wants others to suffer. We're largely a compassionate people, turning to both the government and private charities to take care of the "less fortunate".

Well, I've been seeing a lot of the "less fortunate" through my work with CASA. And I've gotta say, the way our government "helps" them is making their problems worse, not better.

Here's the reality. Social welfare programs have created generations of leeches. There's a whole class of people that don't get educated, have kids in poverty and out of wedlock, and make a career out of getting the maximum in benefits from the government and local charities.

There are too many 21-year-old girls who already have 4 kids. She has never worked, never married, and gets by on handouts. She can get a decent house from the government, or if she's really lucky, a charity like Habitat for Humanity will build her a really nice one.

In the meantime, her boyfriends will move in and are likely to physically or sexually abuse her kids. She doesn't much care, either because she wants the man around (even if he's an abusive bum), or because she's so stoned she hasn't noticed.

She gets food stamps, but is as likely to sell them for drugs as use them for groceries for her children. She gets regular government checks, which of course are as likely to be spent on the drugs as anything else.

Eventually somebody will catch up with her and get her children out of there. "There" being the home that she got for free, that in only a few months' time has been utterly trashed. Her children probably will have to be split up between foster homes. The foster parents may not be able to deal with the destructive behaviors of the children, who are already at risk to stay in the system until they end up in prison as adults.

These programs are well-meaning, but terribly misguided. Here's what I would do, assuming you put me in charge:

No more cash payments. If you're poor, you can't get cash from the government.

Instead, the government will partner with charities to provide services. Need help? Come on in, and we'll help.

But first, you have to help yourself. If you need emergency shelter, food, or clothing, it will be provided. But going forward, you have to work for whatever benefits you get. If you don't work for a local business, we'll give you a job. Show up and you'll get paid; fail to show up, tough luck.

If you're strung out, we'll get you into a rehab program. Need someone to take care of your kids while you dry out? We'll take care of the kids. If and when you're through rehab and demonstrate you can hold a job and stay clean, you get your kids back. That's assuming you can do that in less than 2 years, by the way.

Bottom line, if you've fallen on hard times, we'll be there to help. But the help won't be free houses, free food stamps, or checks. It will be in drug and alcohol treatment, education or job training, job placement, and whatever you need to become self-sufficient. No more government coddling.

It might sound kind of tough, and it is. But this approach is the only way to make sure people take responsibility for themselves, instead of adding themselves to the ever-increasing rolls of leeches on the rest of us. Nobody starves, and nobody has to be homeless; but if turning to the government for those needs is less desirable than going to work and taking care of themselves, I believe most will choose self-sufficiency.