Welfare System Abuse
David Kelley, Rebecca Glynn and Kristy Lindquist
Editorial #1
In today’s society, Americans working full time, or even over time, would be coming home knowing that a good portion of their hard earned income will go into some unemployed citizen’s pocket for their upcoming vacation. Because that citizen is without a job, their vacation is being paid with the money they’re receiving from welfare checks, pulling money from American taxpayers. The welfare regulations are weak and flawed in that it allows unemployed Americans to continue to gain benefits without any motivation to earn their own income and become part of the working class.
The welfare benefits provided encourage laziness in unemployed Americans. Although the welfare system does aid lower socioeconomic families, the benefits provided, in some cases, can exceed those of working and earning an income. This makes it difficult for unemployed citizens to find checks that can replace the amount received from welfare.
Because of the benefits welfare provides, some recipients will receive even more from welfare by committing acts viewed unwise by society. For example, by having children out-of-wedlock, welfare recipients gain additional assistance in order to provide for their new child. A wiser decision would have been to secure one’s financial income before having children. This gives welfare recipients no incentive to even start to work for their own income before having children.
Earning one’s own income is imperative when providing for a family. Under the welfare system, if an unwed couple were to have to a child, they would have their child for free and would again receive additional money from the welfare system to support their child. If the same couple were to be married, they would have to pay approximately $15,000 to have their child and would not receive any additional money to support the child. That is just one of the many ways the system encourages poor decision making in today’s society. What’s more, many unemployed citizens collecting welfare also get tax returns, meaning they’re also receiving money back from the government when they didn’t even pay taxes in the first place!
In conclusion, the welfare system is in need of much reform and it seems hard working Americans are cheated out of benefits they should be receiving for their efforts. Those benefits are being given to citizens who, although in need of help, don’t work to earn the benefits or pull much weight in society. Hopefully, in the future, American taxpayers will be able to sleep soundly knowing that the money they contribute from their hard earned paychecks will not be taken advantage of while those in need finally become self sufficient.