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What Is The Welfare Reform Act Of 1996 By Barbara Ehrenreich

517 Words3 Pages
The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 was a landmark legislation that drastically altered how the U.S. government approached poverty. Passed during Bill Clinton's presidency, the reform aimed to decrease the dependency on state support by promoting self-reliance and employment among the populace. This initiative gave birth to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. However, despite the seemingly positive intentions, the Act arguably created a plethora of issues. In fact, many have criticized the reform for its unrealistic assumptions about the reality of poverty in America. One prominent critic of the reform is the author Barbara Ehrenreich. She decided to fully immerse herself in the lifestyle of the nation's poorest citizens
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Her work was similar to what Karl Marx describes in his theory of alienation and exploitation. She was able to do her study on the working class by living the day to day life of a low wage worker and had great insight into their lives, except she limited herself by having added cash, a vehicle, and a rental deposit (Ehrenreich, B. 2001). After reading the first part of Ehrenreich’s book, and imagining what the low wage worker may think of the American economy I can truly believe they see the injustice between working classes rather than accepting the low paying life they are living. There truly is a huge difference between working classes, from how they work, get paid, treatment, feeling of self-worth, and everyday living

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1425 Words | 6 Pages

In the book “$2.00 A Day” authors Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer look into the lives of families who are living with an income of $2.00 day. The authors use storytelling throughout the book, but also interject into the stories to explain what policies are in place that perpetuate the circumstances that keep these families in such extreme poverty. The book focused on how the welfare policy reforms in 1996 created a shift in who primarily received assistance. Before the reforms in 1996, welfare “entitled families with children to receive cash assistance as long as they had economic need” (Edin and Shaefer, 2015, pg. 7). However, the 1996 reforms largely did away with this type of assistance by setting lifetime limits on programs cash welfare with programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

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96 Words | 1 Pages

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1996 Welfare Reform Summary

236 Words | 1 Pages

The 1996 Welfare Reform Act abolished Federal Cash Assistance and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs, all of which many believed locked people in the perpetual cycle of state- assisted poverty. There were three research findings on the “efficacy of the 1996 reform, all gave a summary of the most influential studies conducted by US researchers. Nearly all reached the same conclusions: First, Welfare Reform under the Clinton administration did result in a significant shift into new employment by the long-term welfare recipients. Secondly, the overall strong growth conditions were linked to the U.S. during the late 1900s. Third, the growth in income and employment experienced by the American poor welfare to work transition

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512 Words | 3 Pages

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1041 Words | 5 Pages

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417 Words | 2 Pages

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664 Words | 3 Pages

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