Social Welfare in the United States
Social Welfare in the United StatesIntroduction (History of Welfare):
The United States is the richest country in the world. Our democratic system of government and free market economy has the potential to provide all citizens an equal opportunity to live a decent and productive life. Despite all the resources, millions of Americans still live in poverty (LeVert, 1995).
The welfare system in the United States is very complicated. There are many goals that the government is attempting to reach regarding our current welfare system. The subject of welfare often triggers heated emotional debate. Our country has a long history of compassion and generosity. The American way of life consists of community spirit, family, ties, volunteer work, and charity work. There are many different types of welfare in the United States and many different sources of help for Americans.
In all societies since the beginning of civilization, well-bodied adults have worked to support themselves as well as to provide for young, elderly, and disabled family members and, non-family members. The modern United States welfare system dates to the Great Depression of the 1930s. During the worst parts of the Depression, about one-fourth of the labor force was without work. More than two-thirds of all households would have been considered poor by today’s standards. With a majority of the well-bodied adult population experiencing severe financial distress directly, Americans could not view poverty simply as a personal failure.
Reforming the American welfare family, the disadvantaged social groups that receive public welfare benefits, is an important aspect of social welfare. Aid to Families With Dependent Children, was initially designed as part of Roosevelt’s and Congress’ Social Security Act of 1935 (Glazer, 1988). This act and its 1939 amendments established a number of social welfare programs; each designed to provide support for different segments of the population. These programs included Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance (OASI) for retired people and their families (disability insurance was added to it in 1954, forming OASDI); Unemployment Compensation for those who lost work temporarily; Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), later known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); and grants to states to provide medical care. In 1946 the government created the Social Security Administration (SSA) to oversee the provisions of the act.
A string of federal agencies has managed social security programs since the act’s origin. The Federal Security Agency was established in 1939; the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1953; and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 1980, when the SSA became a separate organization. The government created the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 1965. It replaced the former Housing and Home Finance Agency, and provides public housing support for low-income families. The U.S. Department of Labor—created in 1913, predating the Social Security Act—and its Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, manages workers’ benefits programs. Its Employment and Training Administration manages some welfare-to-work programs, as well as job training and placement programs. Other federal government agencies, including the Department of Education and the Department of the Treasury, also administer welfare programs.
The social welfare issue is worth dedicating valuable research time to because there is an overwhelming amount of the United States population that is currently receiving welfare or received welfare in the past. In the future, the problem of welfare must by some means be corrected and put into effect so in event of a war or nationwide depression, individuals and families will not suffer extensive losses in addition to the ones they are currently having.
Literature Review (Methodology):
In a longitudinal design of social welfare, the target population for this proposal arrived at United States citizens who are below poverty level, which is about $16,000 for a two-family household. This is a measure based on national mean income figures. The sample was determined by the availability of New York City welfare recipients currently receiving welfare benefits (stratified sample). This method of sampling is useful in my research proposal because the stratified sample draws from a homogeneous subset of the population, a population with similar characteristics, which reduces sampling error. A survey questionnaire was offered to a few welfare recipients attending jury duty in the New York State Supreme Court of Kings County and the New York State Supreme Court of Richmond County. This survey can help obtain the data that will be needed to pursue this proposal. The surveys were then returned with answers to a few questions required to determine possible findings in the welfare dilemma.
Survey Questionnaire
Date: / /
Time: : am/pm
Place:
Residency/Borough:
Hi, I am conducting a survey about social welfare. I would like to know why society feels most welfare recipients do not deserve the benefits they are currently receiving. All the information in this survey will be kept confidential. I am not using this information for any use other than a school proposal. I am simply interested in the findings you can provide me along with your opinion. Please answer the following questions as completely as possible. Thank you for your time and patience.
1. How effective are the programs designed to help the poor?
q Very effective
q Effective
q Somewhat effective
q Neutral
q Somewhat ineffective
q Ineffective
q Very ineffective
2. What obligation does the government have to help the needy?
q Small obligation
q Medium obligation
q Large obligation
q No obligation
3. What do you think recipients of welfare owe society in return?
q Slight reimbursement
q Intermediate reimbursement
q Huge reimbursement
q No reimbursement
4. What can our government do to solve the problems of poverty in America?
(Please Explain in detail)
5. Are the programs established to help you find employment executed to your advantage?
Yes
No
Neutral (does not apply)
Refused
6. If the government did not consider welfare benefits would you consider working a minimum wage occupation?
Yes
No
Neutral (does not apply)
Refused
7. Household size:
q 1
q 2
q 3
q 4
q 5
q 6
q 7
q 8+
8. Is anyone in your household of age/able to work?
o Yes
o No
o Neutral (does not apply)
o Refused
9. If you did not receive welfare benefits would you consider putting this person to work?
a. Yes, certainly
b. No, never
c. Maybe
d. Neutral (does not apply)
e. Refused
10. Do you think you are doing the best you can to support yourself with or without welfare benefits?
q Yes, absolutely
q No
q Unsure
q Neutral (does not apply)
q Refused
Interviews were also useful in obtaining data for the proposal because the opportunity to ask in-depth questions is valuable for the qualitative responses that can be uncovered.
Research Questions (Hypothesis):
The trouble today is still the number of people on welfare, and the rising costs of welfare. Problems in the past were that welfare was not working the way it was expected to work. It was becoming a strain on budgets and led to stiffening of the rules. Today rules are a bit stiffer but the government still decides how much welfare support to provide, and to whom, based on measures of economic well-being. My questions are to whom are these people the government spends their money on? And which poor Americans are doing the best they can to support themselves? Why is it that the majority of welfare is spent on minorities? Is it still due to a racial intolerance in the professional work force? How can we force companies to equally train those minorities who may not have the experience due to their financial and educational backgrounds? Or, is it the issue of comfort and stability that these welfare recipients feel? What % of the welfare recipients can be labeled comfortable and stable? Obviously disabled individuals need the help welfare benefits can provide, but what about those single mothers who refuse to work because they have not found anyone capable enough to watch their child when they do find work? Is this beneficial to the child or is working while children receive daycare a better suggestion? What kind of occupations would mother and child be permitted together in order for the child to be brought up sufficiently?
The dependent variable in my hypothesis is the individual in need of welfare, where as the welfare benefit itself is the independent variable.
Conceptual Framework (Definitions and Theories):
Welfare, as we know it are programs aimed at helping people unable to support themselves fully or earn a living. Professionals use the term social welfare to describe a broader range of programs, both privately and publicly funded. Welfare systems are formalized versions of types of social support that societies have always maintained. Mean income is an estimate of how much a typical person earns over a certain period of time, usually a year. Welfare programs targeted to people with relatively little income and few assets are called means-tested welfare programs. Other forms of income support are referred to simply as non-means-tested. An entitlement is support that the government must supply if a person is eligible according to income, assets, and categorical eligibility standards.
One theory is that welfare targets make sense, since they direct support to those most in need. Targeting, though, creates difficult incentives. For example, if welfare recipients begin to earn money, or earn additional money, their benefits may fall and their taxes rise. This can be a prevailing incentive for recipients to remain on welfare and not seek work. Actually, this situation creates a penalty for welfare recipients who take work, especially in any of the many low-wage occupations typically available to them. Minimum wage pay, minus taxes, often cannot compensate for the loss of benefits. Targeting welfare benefits to certain groups also creates incentives for people to change their actions in order to become eligible for benefits. For example, a young parent may be less likely to marry or stay married if being a single parent becomes easier to claim welfare benefits.
There are a few other theories about welfare that concern most Americans. Some Americans do not believe that able-bodied adults deserve public assistance and resent paying taxes to support those who do not work. Unfortunately, public resentment of welfare programs and their recipients sometimes stems from prejudice, misinformation and the acceptance of stereotypes of welfare recipients. But, are these Americans right in expressing their opinion that some minorities take advantage of welfare because they are minorities and feel that they are entitled to benefits? To a certain extent this may be true. Some people have been known to restrict their income to remain eligible. And in actuality there are more minorities on welfare than whites, unless the elderly and disabled are included along with the Caucasian race. Many Americans also believe that there is a racial intolerance in the professional work force especially in those companies that are predominantly Caucasian sought professions. In addition, is a concern about the single mothers and their use of the welfare system. Some believe that poor women purposely have babies to collect welfare benefits and continue having children in order to remain on welfare. They may really be using welfare as a substitute for work, when they are able-bodied individuals. Others believe the welfare system has contributed to the cause of welfare by offering cash grants and other benefits to single parents. And there are still those who believe that the poor should make every effort to help themselves. The prevailing question is who deserves this help.
Measurement:
Measurement levels have been formed in the use of the survey questionnaire. Some of these measurement levels include nominal, interval, and the Likert Scale forms of measurement. Ordinal and rating were not included in the short questionnaire. I used the nominal, interval, and Likert Scale of measurements because I felt they would generate quantitative research opinions to be used along with the interview, which is evaluated as qualitative research.
Anticipated Results and Dissemination Plan:
In our current system, most Americans benefit in some way from our system of social welfare. My goal of this paper was to make people aware of other issues involving social welfare. Exceeding beyond the known aspects of social welfare is an objective of this paper. Relating welfare to issues of family composition, unemployment, minimum wages, the disabled, elderly, increase in minority influx, and racial intolerance are all well-known concepts. But, what about behind the scenes of these current issues? Are there things that we overlook as we study welfare? I expect to find the results of the study on the % of the welfare recipients that can be labeled comfortable and stable or the questions of why is it that the majority of welfare is still spent on minorities? Including, how we can force companies to equally train those minorities who may not have the experience due to their financial and educational backgrounds and what kind of companies/occupations would mother and child be permitted together in order for the child to be brought up sufficiently? The answers to these questions will take a great deal of time to solve, but I expect to find at least 40% of the sample population comfortable and stable due to their welfare benefits, and the reason the majority of welfare is spent on minorities is because they cannot get either a United States citizenship, a employment opportunity that can support them, the government feels obligated to help them because in their homeland they have even less benefits, and that they claim they aren’t making sufficient money but are actually working in off-the-books-jobs. In the question how can we force companies to equally train those minorities who may not have the experience due to their financial and educational backgrounds, I expect that companies of the future will have government standards on each and every person hired, and specific training to be available if needed or at least have a government or city official participate in the hiring processes. Another expectation depends on what kind of companies/occupations would mother and child be permitted together in order for the child to be brought up sufficiently. I expect that mother and child can eventually be together in jobs like social work, at home/in house agencies established for people who need to care for children, or even in elderly homes to bring joy to the older generation or ill individuals.
The ways to correct these problems before they begin is an important concern. Stressing the importance of two-parent families, exchanging handouts to mutual responsibility, abolishing programs that insulate individuals from the consequences of their actions, eliminating all cash assistance, setting a government standard of wage increases in entry-level positions, establishing time limits, more job search services and educational skills programs might improve employment eagerness to about 50%, and finally a national child support program that would decrease the welfare population of all able-bodied individuals to about 60%.
There is almost a universal acknowledgement that the American social welfare system has been a failure. In the future Americans hope that change will come to the welfare policies. Today, most people recognize that welfare cannot be reformed. While serious disagreements remain about the effectiveness and desirability of our current system, most Americans, including I, believe that the government has a fundamental responsibility to help disadvantaged individuals lead productive lives.