Government Welfare System and their Effect on the American Dream

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From 1990 to the present, government welfare such as income assistance and food stamps have aided the unemployed, the ill, and the broken families of America, but government assistance greatly affects the myth that hard work is the only pathway to success, and welfare provides many negative, as well as positive impacts to society. In the United States, many different welfare systems offer a wide range of benefits including money and food stamps to a variety of people. Plagued with economic issues and a shrinking middle class, the poorest Americans keep getting poorer, and the door seems to be shutting more and more on the opportunity to rise above their impoverished roots. Welfare aims to provide aid to those poor Americans who need an extra boost to keep up and help them in achieving the sought after “American Dream.” According to the US Committee of the Budget: House of Representatives, “There are at least 92 federal programs designed to help lower-income Americans. For instance, there are dozens of education and job-training programs, 17 different food-aid programs, and over 20 housing programs. The federal government spent $799 billion on these programs in fiscal year 2012”. Welfare also greatly affects a large number of the United States’ population, and as Robert Rector states in the article “Spiraling State of Welfare Spending,” “Roughly 100 million people- one-third of the United States population- received at least one means-tested welfare program each month (Feulner). Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provides cash assistance for families with children in need. TANF was created after the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which was instituted in 1996 under President Bill Clinton. PRWORA aimed ...

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...les to insure the women take the necessary steps to getting out of poverty, “No drugs or alcohol are allowed, and absolutely no men” (Thibodeaux). Eveline’s Sunshine Cottage highlights Rector’s keys to staying out of poverty and educates not only the single mothers in the program, but their children as well. The program aims to spark generational education and eliminate the chance of the children falling into the dark hole of poverty. As Barbara Gault, executive director of the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, said, “when a single mother gets a college degree, you’re reaching her kids and her kids’ kids” (Thibodeaux), yet again illustrating the importance of education in eradicating poverty. Overall, welfare has the potential to help achieve the American Dream; nevertheless, current programs yield the misuse of welfare and the potential of welfare dependence.

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