I agree with Jessica's proposal but as I mentioned in class, I think that the welfare system itself also needs to be fixed. Enacting requirements on limits for welfare and ascertaining a family's consumption are solutions to the effects of the problem, as opposed to solutions to the causes. It is far more effective to simply address the causes and make sure it is easier to use the system to minimum as opposed to abusing it.
As part of my internship this semester with Congressman Tom Reed I had the chance to meet with the director of Chautauqua Opportunities, a Dunkirk located organization that serves poor and disadvantaged people in that area. The director's number one concern was not that people were exploiting the welfare system, it was that the welfare system was entrapping those in it. While there are always some bad apples in the bunch, she emphasized that most people who were on welfare and part of her program wanted to get off welfare but it is simply a bad decision on their part. For example, she mentioned that when somebody goes off welfare and gets a job they are bumped up a tax class and therefore end up making less money then before. They also lose other governmental breaks and benefits from getting off of welfare. It seems that indeed people are milking the welfare system but not out of greed, it is simply to maximize the minimal resources they already have. This is human nature, to do what is one's best interest. If this is at the expense of taxpayer's and one's dignity, than so be it. Survival is more important than pride and faceless citizens.
The solution, the director explained, is to have Congress changed the myriad laws governing the welfare system. I'm not expert on such things and I can't quite remember the specifics of her plan, but suffice it say it involved changing incentives for going off welfare. It should be more beneficial for a person to go off welfare than to be on it. Perhaps taxes would be lower or non existent for a person off of welfare until they reach the next income bracket? Perhaps an (temporary) increase in breaks and benefits for those off of welfare? Whatever it may be, the welfare system should be designed so recipients clearly do it as a last resort. They also need incentives to get off it as soon as possible. In addition we should also enact the measures Jessica mentioned. Together I think these would make for an effective base of rules for a improved welfare system.
I find your internship experience interesting and the information that you were told is definitely some sort of explanation why so many people stay on welfare instead of getting a job. I agree that survival may be more important than pride and therefore it may become a difficult decision when trying to get off of welfare and integrate back into the working world. I completely agree that benefits for getting off of welfare should be increased rather than people believing that staying on welfare would be more beneficial.
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