I always like hearing people's opinions on welfare in my classes. However, there always seem to be a general lack of understanding and misinformation. Now, I don't claim to be any more informed or above anyone in my knowledge about social programs in the U.S. but I think that as a whole the topic of poverty and social welfare programs are rarely seriously discussed or critically looked at. Part of it is our removal from the situation. As college students we have a certain amount of privilege which not only distances us from any real understanding of impoverished neighborhoods but also of seriously considering their welfare as a serious or relevant part of our life. In short, why should I care about inner-city ghettos or impoverished areas in the mid-west?
As a topic of discourse not only is poverty/welfare generally avoided in this kind of atmosphere but there is no real advocacy or work being done to tell us that we should do otherwise (that we should care about the impoverished). It is not held as a prevalent issue in our American discourse. The only places where people seem to talk or even care about poverty is in impoverished places, but as a whole (with the exception of the "jobs" problem) poverty is not in our National scope.
So because of this, I didn't really want to make really a whole lot of claims. I simply wanted to put up some data (which admittedly can be hard a lot find sometimes) which hopefully should challenge us about our general perceptions and which which hopefully leave us with more to say than "it needs reform" the next time anyone of us is asked to speak on the issue.
http://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=110936.0
http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/resource/character/fy2010/fy2010-chap10-ys-final
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/media/news/2012/09/20/38746/think-again-ignoring-poverty-and-hunger/
http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/media-not-concerned-about-the-very-poor/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnCOutrlRRQ
-Jayson Castillo
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