HOW CAN WE STOP THE ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN WELFARE SYSTEM?

HOW CAN WE STOP THE ABUSE OF THE AMERICAN WELFARE SYSTEM?

It is well known that the Social Security Act of 1935 created a federally financed and federally administered retirement insurance program for people who had worked in certain sectors of the economy and had paid payroll taxes on their wages. What is less known is that the Act also created a federally financed but state-administered program called Aid to Dependent Children (“ADC,” later to become Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or “AFDC”)? As Sheldon H. Danziger and Jeffrey S. Lehman stated in “Welfare”, “When Americans speak of “welfare” or “relief” they are usually alluding to ADC and its successor programs. From the outset, the design and implementation of ADC highlighted the central conflicts of welfare policy. Issues of race, gender, work, and parenting style were, then as now, matters of great social tension”(Danziger). From 1935 to 1960 the only changes to the welfare structure was the inclusion of widows and disabled people into the social security system.

In the 1960’s policymakers began to speak of creating equal opportunity for everyone by educating and rehabilitating the poor so they could compete (on an equal footing) in the market place. The policymakers thought that this would eliminate the artificial barriers imposed by the circumstances of birth. By the late 1960’s a “welfare rights” movement advanced the claim that welfare was not an act of public charity, but instead an entitlement of the poor (Danziger). This claim was the result of the Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and opposition to the Vietnam War movements and the corresponding changes in philosophy and moral outlook that these movements brought about. This “entitlement credo” was op...

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...ified. One thing is certain, measurable or not, great efforts are being made to curtail and eliminate child abuse.

Works Cited

Boxall, Bettina. "How Fair is Workfare?" Los Angeles Times 9 Mar. 1997: 1

Boyer, Barbara. "PA PHILADELPHIA WELFARE FRAUD STATISTIC" Philadelphia Inquirer.8 Jan.1999: B1

Danziger, Sheldon H., Jeffrey S. Lehman, "Welfare." The Oxford Companion to American Law (2010)

Hall, Carla. "Taking Parenting a Step at a Time Education" Los Angeles Times 19 Nov.1994: 1

Hasking, Ron. "Work over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law." Brookings Instituteion Press [Wahington, DC] (2006) 364