Joan J Johnson's Children Of Welfare

What really is welfare? According to Joan J Johnson in her book Children of Welfare, “Welfare is not just one program; it is many. Each of the programs that make up ‘welfare’ is designed to aid a specific aspect of the recipient’s daily life. All are designed to help the poor and/or needy survive” (Johnson 21). This includes popular legislation such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, or AFDC, and food stamps. With more than half of our population dependent on money from Washington (Boyd), it would be safe to say that America has almost become or is a welfare state, or “a country in which the government provides the essential needs and economic security of its citizens” (Allard). Even though this set of programs may seem wonderful

One flaw is that welfare is mandated by the federal government. “The current welfare system is a complicated set of federal programs involving the Department of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Treasury, and Education” (Faherty 17). Although this may seem like a good thing from the outside, it isn’t as favorable as it appears. Each community is unique, and therefore has its own individual set of people and needs. There are 50 states in America, 3.797 million square miles, 19,354 cities, and 318.9 million people. How can one governing body located in 68.34 square miles containing only 658,893 people know the circumstances in every state, city, community, and

A long history of generous handouts and assistance will breed a generation that only takes and never gives. Today’s programs have taught citizens to “think of payment as a basic right” (“Basically Flawed; Rethinking the Welfare State”). With the administration and the overseers so far away, it’s easy to find loopholes in the system. Police and reporters investigating a suspected drug peddler stumbled onto a filthy apartment filled with welfare children, their parents probably high, drunk, and using their handouts for anything but to care for their kids. “None of the six mothers who lived in this filthy apartment were at home at the time. Yet between them, they were collecting $4500 a month in Aid to Families with Dependent Children and food stamps intended for the support of their children” (Johnson 9). With so many freeriders and takers in today’s world, the working class bears a good portion of the