For hundreds of years people have marveled at the American work ethic, but how long will we be renowned for our work ethic when welfare is offering an incentive not to work. America used to be known for hard work and determination, now people are sitting on their collective asses while taking money from the state. Due to sources such as welfare the government is encouraging people to not work as hard and settle for okay. This topic is significant because it shows the growing shift in American ideologies and work ethic. The topic of work ethic is obviously best viewed from themes stemming from work. To what extent has welfare and other governmental programs impacted the modern American work ethic. The American work ethic has been negatively …show more content…
As Richard Nixon talks about how work is ingrained in the American character, "This is why most of us consider it immoral to be lazy or slothful-even if a person is well off enough not to have to work or deliberately avoids work by going on welfare."(Nixon) Nixon identifies the ongoing changes that are negatively impacting our society. The significance of this is that Nixon encourages Americans to take the, "road of hard work, self-reliance, and self-respect," in this he intends to bring shame and social judgement upon those who would rather be lazy and rely on welfare to support themselves. To sum it up Nixon states that, "we must reinstill a pride of craftmanship, a pride in good service, that results in quality workmanship." As put by Peter Kirsanow, "but the expectation, the presumption of hard work doesn't appear to be anywhere near as pervasive as in the past."(Kirsanow) to put it lightly Kirsanow believes that we do not value hard work as much as we used to and kids these days are fine with leaching off their parents for as long as possible rather than work for what they want. Kirsanow supports the stances of this paper from agreeing that welfare has a …show more content…
It is a broken system with many people milking it for years such as, the case where an illegal immigrant was on unemployed and on welfare for twenty years until his arrest later this year. For an example of a possible solution, "states may set a 60-month time limit, a shorter limit, or no time limit, and they may choose to exempt families from time limits" (MDRC) Although it is fine by me for people to have food stamps to feed their kids, why do they have the above and beyond foods. I mean like these are not necessary to survival, at that point it is just extra money for tax payers. This is important because we can see the views of those who just wish to have welfare for a few months after losing a job, but we can see the flaws in the mentality of some people to live of welfare for the rest of their lives. This shows the significance of welfare on the American work ethic, prior to the institution of welfare this type of lifestyle would have never been possible; thus, emphasizing the negative impact of
In Niall Ferguson’s essay “America’s Oh Sh*t Moment,” he mentioned America’s newfound unemployment work ethic. The statement was quite interesting to me because from my perspective, it is accurate because the majority of Americans do not want to work. They would much rather sit at home all day and watch television. Unfortunately, most can not sacrifice their jobs due to financial circumstances. Furthermore, I will use the idea of work ethic to write my paper by comparing America’s work ethic to India’s. Despite the fact that India is a third world country, most Indians have a stronger work ethic than Americans. Therefore, I will develop an argumentative synthesis to support my thesis based on the information I discover after I conduct thorough research.
When speaking about Welfare we try to avoid it, turning welfare into an unacceptable word. In the Article “One Nation On Welfare. Living Your Life On The Dole” by Michael Grunwald, his point is to not just only show but prove to the readers that the word Welfare is not unacceptable or to avoid it but embrace it and take advantage of it. After reading this essay Americans will see the true way of effectively understanding the word welfare, by absorbing his personal experiences, Facts and Statistics, and the repetition Grunwald conveys.
Samuelson uses his essay to explore a thesis that Americans are moving from a ‘work’ ethic to a ‘fun’ ethic. However, he doesn't spend much time explaining or introducing this, preferring to spend his time presenting facts, articles, quotes, polls and stories to prove his point. Unfortunately, as a reader, this choice of evidence, rather than solidifying his point, actually begs the question: what is his point? Samuelson spends very little time in the essay actually concluding or explaining his information. Instead, he buries the reader with facts and statistics, moving on from one factor to another before the reader even has the chance to grasp the importance of the previous one.
Hays found that initially most welfare workers were optimistic and even excited about the changes. Most workers felt that the Act represented real progress and allowed for positive changes which would positively impact the lives of their clients. Hays spoke to one welfare who said that welfare reform “offered the training and services necessary to 'make our clients' lives better, to make them better mothers, to make them more productive.'” But as she was soon to find out, welfare reform, while it did have a positive impact on the lives of some welfare clients, made the lives of most clients more difficult, not to mention the stress that it caused for the welfare workers who had to deal with the often confusing and illogical new rules.
Why should we be the ones to pay for someone to sit around at home? The answer is one simple word, welfare. There are many reasons why people mooch on welfare, rather than going out and working. The only jobs these people are qualified for are minimum wage jobs. As Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, worked at minimum wage paying jobs and reported the hardships that people had to go through on a day-to-day basis. A critic responded by saying, “This is simply the case of an academic who is forced to get a real job…” Ehrenriech’s reasoning for joining the working-class is to report why people who mite be on welfare, continue to stay on welfare. Her reports show there are many hardships that go along with minimum waged jobs, in the areas of drug abuse, fatigue, the idea of invisibility, education and the American Dream.
It seems like the Welfare system treats its recipients with disrespect and shame to discourage them from joining the system. The people who made and run Welfare in the 1990s made Welfare into a blame game and forces recipients to solely blame themselves for their poverty. The moral prescriptions in individually getting rid of poverty according to TANF are the Work Plan/Family Plan. The focuses on work and family are contradictory because of how little time there is to get both goals done and each goal perpetuates the idea that it is the most important part of ending poverty. It seems like Welfare is more about getting people off of Welfare than eradicating poverty. There is a difference in the goals and that is reflected in how the recipients are treated and how Welfare is run.
O?Beirne, Kate. ?The State of Welfare: An old and tricky question resurfaces.? National Review 54.2 (February 11, 2002): 1--2. Online. Information Access Expanded
In the summer of 1996, Congress finally passed and the President signed the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996", transforming the nation's welfare system. The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act sets the stage for ongoing reconstruction of welfare systems on a state-by-state basis. The combined programs will increase from nearly $100 billion this year to $130 billion per year in 6 years. Programs included are for food stamps, SSI, child nutrition, foster care, the bloss grant program for child- care, and the new block grant to take the place of AFDC. All of those programs will seek $700 billion over the next 6 years, from the taxpayers of America. This program in its reformed mode will cost $55 billion less than it was assumed to cost if there were no changes and the entitlements were left alone. The current welfare system has failed the very families it was intended to serve. If the present welfare system was working so well we would not be here today.
Many families and people have become too dependent on food stamps. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) But if they did not have this program people would go hungry. “11.9 million people went hungry in the United States”... “that included nearly 700,000 children, up more than 50% from the year before.”(NoteCard #2, Point 2) The program does good and helps people but it also spends a lot of money to get people food stamps. “..food-stamp recipients has soared to 44 million from 26 million in 2007, and the costa have more than doubled to $77 billion from $33 billion.”(NoteCard #5) But in the end, is it worth it? People need the assistance. It does help people from going hungry and keeps them at least with a little food in their stomach to that keeps them from starving. A lot of people who could not get jobs, were eligible for the program because they did not have a source of income. “Critics of food stamps and government spending, however, argue that too many families have become dependent on government aid.”(NoteCard #1) Since not everyone could get work, the government changed the requirements and it went for the better and for the
The American work ethic is something our country should be proud of. Since the days of George Washington Americans have worked hard for what they believe in, what they need, and what they want. It is our right as Americans to be able to work for these ideals. Without out a strong work ethic our country would crumble. From businessmen to politicians a strong work ethic is necessary to keep our country financially and politically stable.
In today’s America, there are many people who would either be disgusted at the very mention of Welfare or be highly grateful for its existence. I believe that in order for welfare to be more effective in America, there must be reform. From the time of its inceptions in 1935, welfare has lent a helping hand to many in crisis (Constitution Rights Foundation). However, at present many programs within the system are being abused and the people who are in real need are being cheated out of assistance. The year after the creation of welfare unemployment was just about twenty percent (Unemployment Statistics). The need for basic resources to survive was unparallel. Today, many people face the same needs as many did during the 30s. Some issues with
Albelda, Randy. “Fallacies of Welfare-to-Work Policies”. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 577, JSTOR Sept. 2001. 66-78.
In the years immediately following America’s independence from Great Britain, the United States established their own form of a welfare system – a “government-sponsored form of indentured servitude, whereby poor of unemployed people were auctioned to employers who used them as laborers.” In addition to this program, the new United States also created a financial incentive to well-off families who would sponsor a poorer individual or family (Issitt).
I have concluded that there are five major problems within our American government assistance system. One, the welfare system is too generous. There is evidence of this within the article because it states that government assistance spending has more than doubled since 2008. It also states that in poor countries people only have the choice to work or starve. They choose to work long hours and we choose to not work and receive benefits. There is definitely a problem with our assistance system if a single mother could receive more money in benefits than a secretary who works. Two, the welfare system becomes a crutch and acts as a government safety net. It creates idleness and comfort with people who rather receive a generous amount of benefits than work. Three, one-third of people claim disability are actually able to work. Four, states have significantly differen...
Welfare programs are an important part of American society. Without any type of American welfare, people will starve, children will not receive the proper education, and people will not receive any medical help simply because they do not have the resources available to them. Each of the three aspects of the American welfare system are unique in their own ways because they are funded differently and the benefits are given to different people. While support for these welfare systems has declined in the more recent years, the support for it when it was created was strong.