Pros And Cons Of Submerged Social Welfare Programs

The submerged state has been growing in recent history and has resulted in negative implications for American society. The “submerged state” is a term coined by Cornell University Political Scientist Suzanne Mettler which describes federal social welfare policies policies that, by design, are not very visible to citizens. Social welfare policies are designed to reduce the economic insecurity and inequality generated by capitalist markets and were created to provide assistance and services to the neediest individuals and families, including temporary assistance due to job loss or injury, and to assure economic security in old age (Heerwig, 10/6). Examples of social welfare policies include food stamps, veterans’ benefits, and Medicare and

For example, 53.3% of people with student loans were not aware that they were benefiting from a government social program (Mettler, 809). This leaves Americans in an unfavorable predicament. If people are unaware that submerged social welfare programs exist, they can not take advantage of them and are much more likely not to support them. The problems with submerged social welfare programs extend even further, as there are many cases of policies that are ineffective in aiding people who need them the most. Furthermore, people who are not aware of bad social welfare policies are not in a position to fight for their removal. For example, the home-mortgage interest deduction is ineffective because it costs the government over 100 billion dollars a year to maintain, yet it benefits the wealthy much more than it benefits the poor (McCabe, 10/8). This is unfortunately not an aberration as many of these submerged policies benefit the rich much more than they benefit the poor. Mettler says, “Most of the submerged state benefits high income people the most, even if a lot of middle income people receive some benefits from these same policies” (Shannon, 5:19). Many of these submerged social welfare policies are helping the affluent more than the disadvantaged, which makes them a waste of tax