The Policy of Welfare
In the past few weeks we have discussed Wilsons perspectives on poverty in the inner city. He discusses two points of view that are essential in this week’s topic in our blog, the perspective of the liberal versus the conservative. This week topic is very controversial and sensitive since it focuses on the lifestyle of the poor. What makes it controversial is that it tends to target a group of race, which in most cases are the minorities. Chapter three and four discussed issues and disproved some ideas on how welfare, is not the reason why poverty has gone into an increase. On this weeks blog I will try and focus some of the key points of both chapters, but also explain welfare and how political policies have changed since it was first enacted.
As I mentioned Wilson talked about
two perspectives of the underclass, the liberal’s and the conservatives. Each
had their own perspective explaining the reason why poverty existed in the communities
of these neighborhoods. The liberals attributed poverty into more social
problems in our society. The conservatives attributed the problem of poverty to
personal characteristics or programs that the government offered. In chapter
three in the book of The Truly Disadvantaged it mentioned how the family
structure has a big impact in your economic class. After the 1960’s there was
an increase of broken marriages, out of wedlock births, an increase in
female-headed families, and welfare dependency. Wilson mentioned both
perspectives on how all these factors became into an increase. The dominating
voice at the time would claim that people on welfare would prolong it as much
they could. This brought a stigma on people who where on welfare, that they
were lazy and comfortable to live in the situation that they were in. Many of
these dominating voices blamed it on un-planned pregnancy as another factor of
increase poverty. But there was a limit opportunity to overcome their social
status, and adding another child into their lives does not limit their
opportunities since their are not many opportunities to begin with. Wilson went
beyond explaining both of perspectives but he gathered information that showed
there was no evidence that linked welfare and the increase in poverty in the
inner city. The answer relied more than social problems, but more of the
economical changes that these inner cities were having. There was evidence that
demonstrated that the increase in male joblessness correlated to many problems
in their economic opportunity. Our economy went from having well producing
industries to service industry. This shift created more jobs in a sense but it
targeted people with qualifications since they were white-collar jobs. Due to
this change, it decreased opportunity for minorities because they lacked the
educational requirements. This created a bigger whole for minorities since they
where the working force and worked in.
Now
that you know a little of Wilson views of welfare, I will give background
information of the policy and how it has changed through the years. According
to welfareinfo.org, the welfare program was started in the 1930’s during the
great depression. The goal of this program was to create aid and give
assistance to those who had little or no income at all. Through the years this
program was highly criticized and deemed upon. As I’ve mentioned before it
created a stigma on people that where using these services. The welfare program
has been a very controversial issue since the federal government had established it. You may ask your self-why has this social program that benefits
the needy has created so much hatred by our society. There is no simple answer. In order to be able to fully understand,
we have to look back in history and comprehend the issues that went on in our
society. We have been a country that has been known for its progress. But due
to racial tensions we tend to judge and generalize certain groups of people because
of personal experiences or media. This lets us generalize and stigmatize that the people that are on welfare are lazy, exploiters, and having more children to
continue enjoying the benefits of welfare. From Wilson readings, none of these
claims hold any evidence whatsoever.
In the 1990's the welfare program was a very hot topic that was on everyones political agenda. Politicians, and constituents demanded change in certain terms of the welfare program. The policies
in Welfare have changed, in President Bill Clinton administration. President Bill Clinton passed a reform law that gave the control of the welfare
system to the states. This causes an issue because a state chooses the funding
of certain programs, which can be a disadvantage for the people that are in
need. States have the power to implement new changes in welfare as they see fit. Some of these new models that have been enacted is drug testing the people that are on welfare. The results have not been in favor, in the state of Tennessee where only 37 people out of 16,000 have failed the drug test. These results out weight the cost that we spend on having these drug test administer, we could be using those funds in other beneficial programs. 
No comments:
Post a Comment