Taylor Brenneman Reagan Hess Josh Klausmeier Jaycee Thorn Carole Sieverts English 1010 10 April 2014 Does

Welfare Encourage Unemployment? With poverty levels on the rise in America, more and more people are counting on the government for financial aid. Since 2008 the number of Welfare recipients has risen a preposterous thirtytwo percent, going from 26 million applicants to 46 million applicants in a mere four years (Dinan). The Welfare system was created by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a result of the Great Depression. Though the idea of welfare had been around for hundreds of years, the U.S. version took actual form on August 18, 1935. The system, originally called the Aid to Dependent Children program (ADC), was meant to bring aid to families with very little or no income whatsoever. This was done with the understanding that families would only rely on such help until able to find work or financial stability. In 1939, 700,000 people were receiving aid from the ADC or Welfare as it is now called. That is a miniscule amount compared to the 12,800,000 that are receiving aid from the system today. Those numbers are for Welfare alone, not including other government aid systems such as the Food Stamp system (SNAP), Unemployment Insurance, Medicaid, etc. Such programs, though helpful to the few who need it, are also being abused much like welfare and used for everything they have by people who do not wish to work.

According to statistics taken in 2011 and reported by the CNS News, only forty-one percent of Welfare recipients are working or looking for some kind of work. That means out of the 12,800,000 people who are receiving aid only 5,248,000 are trying to gain financial stability while 7,552,000 are not. Also, full time working American citizens have become outnumbered by the number of non-working American citizens substantially. According to the same statistics taken above, 108 million Americans are in some kind of government aid program while only 101 million Americans are working full-time, yearround jobs (Jeffrey). All of this comes to no surprise when you take into account that in 35 states Welfare recipients make more an hour than minimum wage workers, who work at the rate of 7.25 dollars an hour (Bastasch). In 13 states the problem gets even bigger, seeing as they pay over fifteen dollars an hour, more than double that of the average minimum wage worker (Gehl). Below is a list of the states and their rate per hour on welfare:

Taking into account the information given above, it is no surprise now that only forty-one percent of Americans on Welfare are working or looking for a form of work. Why would you spend your days working at a minimum wage job when you could make the same amount of moneyor moreby simply applying for government aid? It becomes increasingly more clear as you study into this subject that the before mentioned thought has occurred to many people in America already. According to the Department of Commerce, eighty-one percent of Welfare recipients are in the aid system for seven months or longer, with the 2-5 year range having the highest percentage, and the 5+ year category coming in second (Welfare Statistics). According to that same report from the Department of Commerce, though many welfare recipients (80.4%) leave within five years of applying, seventy percent of them return to Welfare aid after one year, and ninety percent of them return after five years (Pavetti). This is shown in the table below:

Time on AFDC Less than 7 months 7 to 12 months 1 to 2 years 2 to 5 years Over 5 years

Percent of Recipients 19% 15.2% 19.3% 26.9% 19.6%

Many people would argue that this would be for reasons such as the bad economical state of our country, the inflated job market, or other such explanations. But if you do your research youll find that though the economy is still in rough shape, the job outlook has improved. In 2013 there were 2.6

unemployed persons per job opening, which really isnt so bad considering just a few years ago there were almost six unemployed persons per job opening. Statistically speaking then, you have close to a fifty percent chance of landing a job in this market (Casselman). The bottom line is that our economy is in bad shape, and because of that a lot of people need extra help. But looking at the numbers and statistics available to us we can plainly see that the bulk of people counting on the government for a welfare check are not actively trying to change their unemployment status, and out of those who do leave the system for a honest working job, the majority of them return within a short amount of time. The salary the government offers to those who are on Welfare can be tremendously more alluring than a nine-to-five desk job. It seems America would rather the oh-sotempting free handout then an honest wage from a days work.

WORKS CITED Bastasch, Michael. "Study: Welfare pays more than work in most states." The Daily Caller. The Daily Caller News Foundation , 20 Aug 2013. Web. 13 Apr 2014. Casselman, Ben. "How Much Is Job Market Really Improving? ." The Wall Steet Journal. 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc, 6 Aug 2013. Web. 13 Apr 2014. Dinan, Stephen. "Welfare spending jumps 32% during Obamas presidency." The Washington Times. The Washington Times, LLC , 8 Oct 2012. Web. 14 Apr 2014. Gehl, Robert. "Welfare Payouts Top $20 Per Hour In Eight States." DownTrend.com. DownTrend.com, 9 Jan 2014. Web. 13 Apr 2014. Jeffrey, Terence P.. "Census Bureau: Means-Tested Gov't Benefit Recipients Outnumber FullTime Year-Round Workers." CNSNews.com. CNSNews.com , 24 Oct 2013. Web. 14 Apr 2014. Pavetti, LaDonna. "Time on Welfare and Welfare Dependency." Urban Institute. 2013 Urban Institute, 23 May 1996. Web. 13 Apr 2014. "Welfare Statistics." Statistic Brain. Statistic Brain Research Institute, publishing as Statistic Brain, 1 Jan 2014. Web. 13 Apr 2014.