Welfare in America Is Being Abused

Welfare in America is Being Abused

Courtney Calkins

Classical Argument Position Paper

Abstract

Government handouts allow millions of people to misuse the system with absolutely no accountability. Welfare recipients never have to look a taxpayer in the eye when their check comes in the mail every month. They do not have to humbly express thanks to someone for providing for their children or giving them clothes to wear. Well above 100 million Americans are registered in at least one welfare program run by the government.  Many are in more than one.  That is around a third of the whole population of the country. 

Although government aid, or welfare, was a great idea for helping many in times of hardship, it is being violently abused in America today. Billions of taxpayer dollars are going to lazy people who do not want to work and too many able-bodied, healthy people are using welfare to live off of instead of finding work.

American social welfare, thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Social Security Act of 1935, is furthered currently by two major categories of cash support programs: social insurances and public assistance (Marx, 2010). Social aids are based on the previous earnings and payroll contributions of a person, while public aid, usually known as “welfare,” is based on the financial need of a person.

According to ("Welfare is Destroying America | American Overlook," n.d.) “Welfare is destroying America and needs to be eliminated. Those who receive these checks and are "having a hard time" always seem to have enough money for beer, cigarettes, and nights out at the bar, but they can't seem to have enough money to pay for food, heat, rent, or any other necessary bills.” They then have the taxpayer, who scrimps and saves and goes without the perks of life, pay for their welfare check. This is, believe it or not, a thoroughly upsetting subject around taxpaying individuals. Most believe that the whole welfare system should be abolished or regulated...