Welfare And Poverty

It’s Your Money and I Need It Now! The Great Depression is known as one of the worst points in American history regarding unemployment and poverty; indeed, the crash of the Stock Market left a quarter of Americans without a job, which, in turn, prompted the government to step in and attempt to resolve the catastrophe. Franklin Delano Roosevelt came up with the idea of the two-part New Deal, which, among various societal benefits, provided monetary aid and opportunities to those who lost their jobs or homes; as a result, social welfare rose to prominence in America around 1935 and has not slowed down since. Social Welfare is defined as the well-being of an entire society that focuses more on the quality of life than the total standard of living
44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, believed the government owed American citizens a stable system of welfare to fall back on, stating, “If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost (Barack Obama). On the opposite side, nearly 3 decades earlier, 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, disapproved of the growing number of people on welfare; in fact, his vision of welfare functioning correctly was a decrease of citizens on it, stating, “We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added (Ronald Reagan).” The division of America’s opinion on the America’s welfare system was created to help the poverty-stricken get back on their feet; however, the rising percentage of Americans on welfare, along with an increase of poverty and unemployment, reveals that welfare has became less helpful and more harmful to the nation over
One notorious example of welfare abuse occurred during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, in which a single woman “used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans’ benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare;” Reagan labeled this woman as the “Welfare Queen” and pushed the idea that the current state of welfare was broken (Levin). It was during Bill Clinton’s presidency that welfare was last reformed with temporarily effective results; indeed, poverty was as low as 4% before the September 11th attack, which resulted in state deficits and a decrease in economic growth (Welfare - A Brief History Of Welfare Reform). According to a chronological graph of data, America’s annual amount of money spent on welfare has increased nearly 2.5 times what it spent 3 decades ago (Filly). Looking at the situation of modern American society, the amount of government funds spent on welfare is up to $956 million dollars annually; this money is often taken straight from taxpayer’s, with each individual taxpayer contributing nearly $9,000 to keep welfare thriving (The Welfare State’s Cost to American Taxpayer’s). The national debt of the United States of America is nearing $20 trillion dollars as opposed to the slightly