Should people on welefare work or be schooled?

[Classact]

I tried to start a thread to debate the largest waste of our government here: http://www.debatepolicy.com/showthread.php?t=9192 but apparently it is too hot to touch.

Should folks on government support be forced to work or lose their checks and coupons?

[darin]

There should be a time-limit. One should prove their need, and be accountable w/ monies given. Same with Child-support; Anybody getting money like that should be required to answer for how they spend it.

[theHawk]

There definately needs to be a overall time limit that one can use welfare over their lifetime, or better yet, abolish government welfare altogether. This country gives everyone a free education all the way through high school. I'm willing to bet that most of the people on welfare are the same ones that threw that free education right out the window. And now I'm supposed to feel sorry for them? Or worse yet I am supposed to bankroll their needs?

Welfare is nothing more than charity and the government should not be spending tax dollars on charity. Charity is best left to non-profit organizations and churches.

[hjmick]

There should be a time-limit. One should prove their need, and be accountable w/ monies given. Same with Child-support; Anybody getting money like that should be required to answer for how they spend it.

I agree, show me receipts.

Drug tests. If you're on welfare you should have to be able to pass a drug test, given randomly.

If I have to pass a drug test as a condition of my employment, I do not think it unreasonable that someone collecting funds provided from my tax dollars should be expected to do the same.

[Nukeman]

I agree, show me receipts.

Drug tests. If you're on welfare you should have to be able to pass a drug test, given randomly.

If I have to pass a drug test as a condition of my employment, I do not think it unreasonable that someone collecting funds provided from my tax dollars should be expected to do the same.

This is soooo true. I couldn't agree with you any more on this. If MY tax Money is going to someone for hardship tha last thing they need is to take that moey and buy freaking drugs with it......

[typomaniac]

There definately needs to be a overall time limit that one can use welfare over their lifetime, or better yet, abolish government welfare altogether. This country gives everyone a free education all the way through high school. I'm willing to bet that most of the people on welfare are the same ones that threw that free education right out the window.

Never mind that you can't do squat with a high school education anymore.

Want to school the welfare recipients? If they're citizens and smart enough, send them to college. They'll get jobs that pay enough to live on, and it will still end up being cheaper than supporting them with welfare.

[April15]

The welfare reform act of 96, I think it was then, put a time limit on welfare. It also required those able to work, to work. This is part of the reason for the rising poverty in the working class.

[Hobbit]

I say that they should have to spend at least 7 hours a day job hunting and filling out applications, then bringing back paperwork from the people they gave those applications to. If they don't feel like doing that, then have the government put them to work cleaning highways or something. If they do neither, then no money for you. It'd be kinda like the homeless shelter John Stossel reported on where you have to do chores at the homeless shelter in order to get any benefits, and the more chores you do, the nicer the rooms, beds, etc. that you get.

"If a man will not work, he shall not eat." 2 Thessalonians 3:10

Edit: As a side note, I hate the term "working class." My dad is a CPA and a financial consultant who makes 6 figures a year, which means nobody would call him working class. However, the implication is that he doesn't work, or at least doesn't actually EARN all the money he gets. However, he throws himself body and soul into that job, and just because it's not manual labor doesn't make it not work. I prefer calling the poor...the poor, or 'the working poor' to refer to those not on welfare who are also poor. If you have to use the word 'class' (in this context, another word I don't really care to use), just use 'lower class' like everybody used to do until it became politically incorrect to do so.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I think language like 'the less fortunate,' 'the working class,' 'the privileged,' etc. contribute to the false idea that those who have a lot of money didn't actually earn it, that they are only rich because they got lucky or swindled their way into money. It also creates the impression that if you're poor, there's not really anything you can do about it because the people who aren't poor are either lucky or crooks.

[typomaniac]

I say that they should have to spend at least 7 hours a day job hunting and filling out applications, then bringing back paperwork from the people they gave those applications to. If they don't feel like doing that, then have the government put them to work cleaning highways or something. If they do neither, then no money for you. It'd be kinda like the homeless shelter John Stossel reported on where you have to do chores at the homeless shelter in order to get any benefits, and the more chores you do, the nicer the rooms, beds, etc. that you get.

"If a man will not work, he shall not eat." 2 Thessalonians 3:10

I have no problem with adult men and women being subject to rules like these. But what about their kids?

[Missileman]

I say that they should have to spend at least 7 hours a day job hunting and filling out applications,

I disagree. They can job hunt on their own time. They should have to spend 8 hours a day walking around their town picking up litter...a welfare chain-gang if you will. Nothing like having a crappy job to motivate someone to improve their lot.

[Classact]

My point is that there was no outrage following the New Orleans hurricane and flooding when grown men and women sat on their fat asses in hotels and motels using room service bitching about how bad they had it in the storm.

It is clear that there was no will, by the government or the American people to insist that those people get off their fat lazy asses and go do something. Send a bus by every morning at 7:00AM and pick them up and take them to cleanup details or detail them with habitat for humanity... anything but let them lay on their lazy asses bitching.

I don't care if a welfare mom is 57 years old and has three teen agers in her house...her ass goes to work at 7:00AM and she works eight hours.

The teen aged sons not making a B+ or better should be forcibly required to attend tutoring every night and weekend.

It should be uncool to be on welfare or in a ghetto. The jails these little fuck trophies should be set up with pigs, chickens, cows and farm crops and these little gangsas should be put knee deep in pig shit when they get caught selling drugs on my tax dime. Put them in knee deep pig shit but open a door to school if they prefer... attend the school and obtain a skill and then return them to the uncool hood and let them tutor the teen boys and girls.

Let the food form the prisons replace the food assistance... give the little gangstas something uncool to rap about!

[Hobbit]

I have no problem with adult men and women being subject to rules like these. But what about their kids?

If they're in school, one parent may loosen up on the work required in order to take care of them when they get out. If they're too young for school, one parent may stay at home to care for them, although I wouldn't oppose some sort of a reduction in what's paid out, as the family no longer has to pay for day care.


I disagree. They can job hunt on their own time. They should have to spend 8 hours a day walking around their town picking up litter...a welfare chain-gang if you will. Nothing like having a crappy job to motivate someone to improve their lot.

Well, the point is to get them off of welfare, so I'm perfectly content to let them make job hunting their new job.

[avatar4321]

The welfare reform act of 96, I think it was then, put a time limit on welfare. It also required those able to work, to work. This is part of the reason for the rising poverty in the working class.

how can people getting off welfare raise poverty? Are people taking work that pays less than welfare?

[Classact]

A single mom can work her ass off and be in poverty. Allow her free day care from another single mom on welfare and locate the father of the child and force him to pay child support.

[Hobbit]

how can people getting off welfare raise poverty? Are people taking work that pays less than welfare?

I think he meant "raise the poverty level," which, of course, means that the bottom 20% are making more money than they used to.

[Classact]

I think he meant "raise the poverty level," which, of course, means that the bottom 20% are making more money than they used to.I think you are correct.

My wives brother married young and had two children and then divorced. His wife moved to NY city and demanded child support. He sent it and remarried and had another child. Living very tight on money he wanted to finance his first children a trip to PR and to do so he sold drugs and was busted.

He didn't get sent to a typical jail, he went to a work camp doing the same thing he was doing when he was free, construction. He was forced to live in a quasi military barracks and his income was managed by the state to remove child and wife support before giving him any remaining. No alcohol, no free time... six days a week hard work, mandated work building buildings for the government. Now he is free and is managing his life quite well and he stays away from illegal activity. You will not catch him writing any rap songs about how bad he is in the hood.

[avatar4321]

I think he meant "raise the poverty level," which, of course, means that the bottom 20% are making more money than they used to.

well that makes much more sense.