Let me ask you this: How many of you sitting in here today have parents, even grandparents or siblings, that work a demanding 8-hour day at their jobs? Everyday – every week? Perhaps missing out on birthdays, or other significant events at home because they have to go to work? Working to earn money, to keep a roof over your head and a hot meal on the table every night? Or are they just working to pay taxes? To pay for people to be unemployed? Taxes taken away from their hard earned money, to be sent to the Government, to pay for “unemployment benefits”.
Good morning / afternoon Mrs. Arnold and fellow year 12 students. Today I will be discussing the controversial issue, “Should working for unemployment benefits be compulsory?” My opinion, absolutely it should.
I would like to begin my argument by initially define the subject matter. The “work for the dole” scheme that has recently been discussed by the Australian Liberal Government puts forward the notion that the unemployed population of Australia, must work for the unemployment benefits that they receive. Unemployment benefits, or as it colloquially referred to, the dole is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as ‘payment made from the state to an unemployed person’. An unemployed person however, is defined as “without a paid job but available to work”. The work that the Government is aiming to be made compulsory, in order to receive the unemployment benefits, according to the ‘Courier Mail’ is labeled as “unpaid community chores”, and includes rubbish collection, park maintenance and volunteering in aged-care homes. Although you and I, at face value may have the opinion that those duties would appear to be less then desirable particularly for those people who are highly skilled a...
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...e an increase in equality between the employed and unemployed; it is also thoroughly beneficial to society and the communities we live in. I strongly believe that we as a society need to remove the highly prejudiced opinions we have of people on the ‘dole’, and think of these people in less fortunate situations then we, not just as ‘dole bludgers’ but as people who just want to be considered in out community. I am completely convinced that the unemployed should not feel worthless and unmotivated, just because they do not currently have a job, but should be offered opportunities where they can feel a sense of pride and a sense of contribution. By implementing this scheme, it will inevitably tear down the barriers, which restrict equality between the employed and unemployed, and will be far better for our society, then keeping the distinct omission of the unemployed.
This essay will attempt to assess the impact of the 1942 Beveridge Report on the post 1945 UK welfare state. A welfare state is essentially ‘policy intervention through the state [to provide] forms of support and protection’ for all its citizens. (Alcock: 1998: 4) This means that the state will fund or provide provisions for services which are of need to its citizens. This is funded through citizens who pay taxes or National Insurance when they have active work, which in turn helps out the vulnerable members within a society. This concept is in essence designed to maintain the welfare of citizens from birth to the grave.
Porter, A. (2003). Consolidating Neoliberal Reforms: Globalization, Multi-Earner Families, and the Erosion of State Support for the Unemployed. Gendered States: Women, Unemployment Insurance and the Political Economy of the Welfare State in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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.
The gap in wealth between the rich and the poor continues to grow larger, as productivity increases but wages remain the same. There were changes in the tax structure that gave the wealthy tax breaks, such as only taxing for social security within the first $113,700 of income in a year. For CEOs this tax was paid off almost immediately. Free trade treaties broke barriers to trade and resulted in outsourcing and lower wages for workers. In “Job on the Line” by William Adler, a worker named Mollie James lost her job when the factory moved to Mexico. “The job in which Mollie James once took great pride, the job that both fostered and repaid her loyalty by enabling her to rise above humble beginnings and provide for her family – that job does not now pay Balbina Duque a wage sufficient to live on” (489). When Balbina started working she was only making 65 cents an hour. Another huge issue lies in the minimum wage. In 2007, the minimum wage was only 51% of the living wage in America. How can a person live 51% of a life? Especially when cuts were being made in anti-poverty and welfare programs that were intended to get people on their feet. Now, it seems that the system keeps people down, as they try to earn more but their benefits are taken away faster than they can earn. Even when workers tried to get together to help themselves they were thrown
Welfare reform caused many families surviving with the help of the government to go out and look for jobs despite their need for childcare that they could not afford. Barbara Ehrenreich, a journalist with a PhD, decided to find out how life would be like living on minimum wage labor. During her journey, we see that labor has not changed majorly because laborers are not paid fairly and they are declined their rightfully owned rights. Although women are allowed in the workplace, an eight hour work day is established, and we have a minimum wage, many are still struggling to make it because the system simply does not work unless you are running the show.
For the past year I have watched my younger sister struggle to support herself and her now 11 month old baby. She makes more than minimum wage. She has struggled to the point where she was evicted and now lives with me. I have also experienced struggling on low pay. When I was 18 I was kicked out of my family’s house, and I was only making $8 an hour. There were days where I had to choose between paying rent and getting my electricity shut off, just because I couldn’t work enough hours to pay all of my bills. It can be very scary to only make minimum wage and have to support yourself. There are changes that need to be made so that every person can live properly with any job.
Some people feel that the majority of individuals receiving welfare benefits are simply lazy and do not intend to work to earn money for themselves and their families. While it is true that there are deceptive people amongst us within our society, it would be unfair to punish the honest along with them by enforcing a work requirement. Although it...
The concept of the "working poor" has gained prominence in the post-welfare reform era. As welfare rolls shrunk, the focus shifted from the dependent poor to the working poor. It was obvious that without substantial outside support, even families with full-time low-wage workers were still earning less than the official poverty line. And while American society purports that anyone can prosper if they work hard enough, it became apparent that with inadequate opportunity or bad luck, a growing number of families could not attain the American dream, or even break the cycle of poverty. The new challenge for American social policy is to help the working poor lift themselves out of poverty. That's why progressives who supported ending welfare as we know it have set a new goal -- the government should "make work pay" so that no one who works full time is poor.
to be looked at because other policies such as the welfare work requirements have problems
unemployed are therefore forced to find a job, no matter what they have to do.
How should people handle their unemployment? The decision for many Americans is dictated to them because of this indebted and dependent lifestyle. What are these people dependent on? These people are dependent on, not alcohol, or some other vice, but on their jobs and occupations. They must go out and seek to locate another "safe and secure" job to replace the "safe and secure" one they lost. In their minds, this would allow them to be making money again only to continue to spend it again and also accumulating more debt. As the reader can see, the vicious cycle continues.
Walsh, M., Stephens, P and Moore, S (2005)Social Policy and Welfare, Cheltenham, Stanley Thrones Publishers Ltd
There are a multitudinous number of both economic and social difficulties associated with unemployment. One fundamental reason why the government particularly stresses on reducing unemployment levels is as a result it poses a great cost on the economy. Not only does it affect the economy, but also it poses a great threat towards the living standards of the unemployed people itself. This could lead to many receiving less or no income based on whether or not they receive unemployment welfare benefits from the government. Reduction in income, would lead to a less disposable inc...
Immigrants have been a problem in the United States due to increasing population and jobs being taking by foreign workers. Many seem to believe that immigrants are an issue in the country because of them not benefiting the economy. Which in reality all types of immigrants help out the country by hard work. Work is a enormous reason most of them come into the United States and them coming to work helps a handful of business and most important of all the economy. Although some believe that immigrants don 't affect the country in a positive way by being in the United States, Immigrants actually help out the economy by working and living like the rest of citizens. Therefore immigrants legal, illegal, refugee, or any other type of person should
In December 2007, the United States of America experienced a very scarce yet appealing setback. In fact, because of this specific dilemma between 200,000 and 500,000 were left unemployed and without a stable home. The national Bureau of the Economic research defined this nationwide downfall as “The great recession”. According to the U.S Bureau of labor statistics the unemployment rate has not made a drastic improvement since the start of the great recession. Unemployment has become that is still rising today with a slow rate of change. Unemployment is usually expressed as a number or as a percentage of a larger number. Although it has been ambiguous who has to be included in the percentage, there are members of society without a job, for whom it is certain that should not be added. Officially the unemployed are the people who are registered with the government as willing to work and able to work at a going wage rate but can’t find suitable employment despite an active search for work. In the article “why long-time employment can’t get back on track”, the author begins speaking on a ...