The How-To of Public Welfare
The facts behind the stereotyped image of "public welfare".
It's as predictable as weeds in an August garden.
Mention "welfare" to the Great Middle Class and a
stereotyped image - accompanied by much raving and
ranting– instantly flashed across
Agnewland: Young, black woman in some big city with four
illegitimate children and more on the way, permanently
lollygagging about at the expense of "us honest,
hardworking taxpayers". Kind of strange isn't it: The
Pavlof response never seems to include the families in
Appalachia whose farms were stripmined by a company that
moved on, took its jobs with it and left... nothing. Nor
the old folks whose home and business were destroyed by an
urban "development" ... nor the young father dying of
cancer... nor the children starving in Georgia because
"boss" only pays their daddy $5.00 a day and, that, just
during cotton season... nor the old lady blinded by
glacoma... nor even the young, white, middle class working
people ("the company lost the contract and closed the
plant, you know") that needs a little help till something
("anything") turns up. The truth of the matter is that
welfare was designed to do some particular jobs and –
whenever those jobs need doin'
– it should be used.
Furthermore, when it IS used – since our
government seems able to afford moon shots and insane wars
– welfare should provide something more than
a bare existence. A little compassion thrown in wouldn't
hurt either.
RELATED CONTENT
At the end of 1968 over 10 million Americans collected
public welfare in one form or another. But for every
individual who received a welfare grant, perhaps two more
were eligible! I will attempt to explain the welfare system
to you in order that you "know" the facts. If you think you
are eligible after reading this, GO TO YOUR LOCAL
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE AND APPLY!
Public welfare has long been this country's favorite red
herring. Because of our puritanical heritage, we have been
graced with that Protestant ethic of ethics which says "No
work, no bread!" As a natural extension of this train of
thought we have added that the poor must be "worthy" as
well as needy. And worthiness is measured in terms of how
much crow one will eat in order to collect welfare: the
more the crow eaten, the higher the welfare grant.
People, welfare is a right, not a privilege. It is
guaranteed in the Federal Constitution that all people have
the necessities of living. For fact, one need not even be a
citizen! One need only be eligible.
In order to see how welfare works, I should first explain
how it is financed.
All public welfare as we know it today in the U.S.A. came
about due to the Social Security Act of 1935 which carried
a provision that: States should insure that their residents
have the necessities; states set guidelines for these
necessities; and that federal money would be given to
states to develop programs within the states to see that
poverty was eliminated. However, it was not until the
Kennedy years that real teeth was given to the welfare
program.
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