Welfare

Not everyone is so fortunate to be financially stable enough to support themselves or a family. For many, social programs are the only things that provide them with the means in order to simply get by. That's not to say that there aren't many who take advantage of these programs. I've worked in a few places that accept food stamps and unfortunately I've witnessed many people who use them to not only buy food with little to no nutritional value, but then turn around and use the money they've earned themselves to buy alcohol, tobacco products, lottery tickets, and other luxuries. Seeing that always irks me a bit because I feel that if one has the money to buy such luxuries they shouldn't be using government assistance to pay for the food that they supposedly don't have the money for. However, I don't think scrapping such programs all together is the answer. Most people receiving government assistance legitimately need the aid and I don't think that we should get rid of the programs because a portion of those recipients take advantage of the assistance. That's not to say that I don't think recipients shouldn't be monitored to make sure that they legitimately need the aid. I don't think drug testing for welfare recipients is necessarily a bad idea. State support shouldn't be used to buy food when someone has the money on the side for substance abuse. One very good thing is that government aid is under very strict scrutiny making such actions much more difficult for those who would try to take advantage of the system. Many opponents of social program use the term "hand out" with an intensely negative connotation and many have gone so far as to call welfare recipients horrible things such as leeches and mooches. While yes, there are many who take advantage, those who legitimately need the aid shouldn't be cut off because of them. There are too many people in need for these programs to be cut all together. Another thing that I think is probably a good idea is for there to be regular check ups by the state in order to see that recipients are seriously looking for work in order to get off of welfare. I think that ideally, welfare should be a temporary assistance until someone can find the means to get back on their feet. That's a lot easier said than done, and can take a good amount of time but I think is important. Whether or not you believe welfare programs are a good thing, it can't be denied that they exist for a very important reason; to help those who are having a hard time helping themselves, and because of that I believe we as a society have a moral obligation to keep them up and running.