The New New Deal: A Way to Help Fix the Welfare System

“Only thing we have to fear is fear itself” were the words of FDR. Our President through some of the toughest economic times in our country, he was integral in reviving our faith and fervor in our country’s financial standing by soothing our angst, helping our less fortunate and giving us a sense of pride. His administration created the NEW DEAL, a program which effectively created jobs for the millions of unemployed people in the USA. These jobs included building dams, railroads, and highways.

That was then, and this is now. The economic times in this country are definitely progressing, albeit very slowly. The state of the welfare system in the United States is abysmal… It’s definitely a system that needs some work and I think I may have a few ideas for how to help make everyone happy.. some more than others.

Welfare in it’s basic concept is a great idea. It allows the government to provide financial assistance to those below the poverty threshold. In the USA, that level is around $22,500 for a family of 4. Around $10,500 for a single person. So, in essence, you can go apply for financial aid from the government if you are below these financial levels. Easy enough to fill out an online application and receive a card, such as the LINK card, that essentially is a debit card allowing you to purchase goods such as milk, eggs, bread.. The welfare program is a great way for people down on their finances to gain some momentum and recover so that they can flourish in the future. OR, it can be a great way for someone to leech off the system, indefinitely.

We’ve all seen someone use a welfare debit card at a grocery store only to put their groceries in a Range Rover or Escalade. We’ve seen the ridiculous abuse of the system over and over again. We’ve seen the single mothers get their check for “baby formula” only to be wearing thousands of dollars of jewelry and in essence, showing off a financial level completely unimaginable for someone that would need welfare assistance. The welfare system was intended to be a band-aid… not stitches. It was meant to help people in their time of need, not to be a supplemental source if income for several years while you get paid cash under the table. It was not meant to be abused and unfortunately the people abusing it have found the way to do so and the people in charge are helpless to repair it.

Now, I’m not generalizing anything.. I’m not saying that everyone is leeching off the welfare system… I’m not saying that it DOESN’T happen, either. All I’m saying is.. instead of offering anyone at these levels just a refillable debit card, perhaps we should try to improve the economy alongside the welfare program. Perhaps.. we could offer a few NEW NEW DEALS and allow our country to prosper from the current state of affairs? Here’s what I’m thinking.

Now, let’s say you’re Joe Schmo and you lose your job. You were making $50k a year and now you’re getting around $2k a month from unemployment. That will eventually run out and you may or may not find a job. The common trend for people is they’ll lose a job ( or something more tragic like losing a spouse who was the wage earner ), file for unemployment (a temporary band-aid, right?), and ultimately if all else fails, file for welfare. What if the government took your previous job experience, tossed it into a database for government jobs, found you something temp to potential hire, and gave you an actual secure job while you earned a wage that wasn’t necessarily what you had previous but made you feel useful and allowed you to get back on your feet. Hell, it might even open doors for potential advancement in the temp job that the govt. gives you, right?

It seems like a simple concept, really. I mean, sure, there are those who are not capable of working because of health or mental issues. Those people could also be put to some betterment for the country by offering basic skills training? Maybe if someone is elderly, offer them crafts and hobbies they like to produce products that could be sold or auctioned or donated to charities for kids, etc. In exchange, they get financial assistance. Overall, I’m saying to quasi-enslave the people under welfare.. and it seems like a pretty ridiculous comment, but I think it would do a few things for our country that aren’t currently happening..

If we were able to give a time limit to welfare and unemployment ALONG with an actual PROACTIVE and AGGRESSIVE mentality towards getting these recipients back on their feet, it may change things. Currently, you just answer some questions and supposedly fill out a sheet of places you’ve applied to for work. Do people actually do this, I seriously doubt it. Why bother? They don’t really check.. and if they do ask you for your sheet, you just make up some BS and submit it. It’s a flawed system, and I think a great way to help out the entire community would be to have the government help in finding jobs for people. If you don’t want the jobs they offer you, your time-frame of financial assistance gets shortened. It’ll essentially force Americans to not leech off the system indefinitely.

What I’ve said is pretty easy to say, but hard to do. You’d have to create a job placement department under the welfare system.. or wait, we could just use the internal job listing of the actual government.. and cross match people with good experience to those jobs. You pay them possibly a little less than you would someone who actually applied for the job, since it’s a temp position at first. So, you’d be giving jobs to people out of work, they’d work for the government in jobs that need to be done (yes, I know.. this is a topic for another post.. useless jobs at the government)… and overall give people a sense of accomplishment in what they’re doing. They can work at a temp job until they find a full time job,… this also looks better on resumes that they worked for the government and were gainfully employed throughout their down time.

I guess I’m just sick of seeing people abuse the system and really upset at the government for letting it slide. I’m sick of seeing good hard-working people work to provide for their family only to see undeserving people abuse the system of welfare. Of course not everyone does this but enough do for me to notice it, so it’s noticeable. Let’s make those who are unemployed contribute for the money they receive and keep them employed performing tasks and jobs that help out the economy. In turn, the country could have a better employment rate BY DEFAULT, give people some peace of mind that they’re employed, give less financial assistance to those who don’t deserve it or are unwilling to work, and overall create a better USA.