By 1935
a national welfare system was established in America. Although Americans had
always prided themselves on hard work and self-reliance, the Great Depression
made it clear there would be times when even able bodied people, who wanted to
work, would need help (Constitutional Rights Foundation,
1998).
There have been many changes made to that initial system of support, to the
system we have now, which is bloated, abused, and enables people who don’t want
to work to remain unemployed and receive benefits. When government assistance
pays better than employment, there is no incentive to get off that assistance. A
study done in 2013 by the Cato Institute, “found that in many states, it does
indeed pay better to be on welfare than it does to work” (Tanner).
For a system to function long term and to be truly beneficial to society, it
needs to assist and incentivize the receiver to improve themselves, improve
their situation, and get off of assistance.
