In 2014 Maine became one of the first state in the USA to attempt Welfare system reformation. They enacted a new law which required anyone who wished to receive SNAP benefits to met a certain number minimum requirements first. In order to become eligible for food stamps people must either work part time 20 at least hours a week or complete 24 hours of community service/internship /education classes each month. As a result the number of people who applied for SNAP benefits dropped from 12,000 in 2014 to just over 2,500 in 2015.
If you were curious the average SNAP benefit equates to about 116$ a month. Divided this by a 24 hour per month standard you are looking at 4.83$ per hour in SNAP benefits. Much lower than the Federal minimum wage but not terrible considering this 24 hours is time spent bettering yourself and your communities. Republicans in Maine are claiming that this legislation and subsequent turnout are reflective of a great success. Democrats in Maine think the numbers are a shame to see. What do you think?
Welfare reform in America is becoming an important issue. You may know that Americas debt clock currently sits at 18.6 trillion dollars and counting. 70% of this amount has been added just within the first 6 years under Obama. This debt has also coincided with federal programs such as food stamps increasing by 19 million recipients. In fact 35.4% of the U.S. population, or 109 million people, receive some form of entitlement benefit.
America’s Welfare entitlement programs have been around since 1935. Yet the number of Americans living in poverty is growing higher then it has in decades. Welfare programs present a very large expense to our federal/state governments and it could be argued these programs are only pacifying the underlying problem of poverty and do nothing to fundamentally address or fix it. A reformation of Americas Welfare entitlement programs may soon be needed, it is just a matter of which direction we choose to take it……
This article “What Happens When People Are Forced to Work In Exchange For Welfare Benefits?” is free and open source. You have permission to republish the article with a creative commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ
if you want to be taken seriously, please learn to write and spell properly.
…is growing higher *THAN it has in decades.
…work part time at least 20 hours a week…
“… to complete met a certain number minimum requirements…” – what does that even mean?
I think I’ll just give up, there. You figure out the rest of your mistakes.
Wow! You’ve got them!
Not everybody in this world is from an English speaking country, this guy/girl could be from outer mongolia! In which case his spelling and grammar is relatively excellent.
I get the inner grammar rage too, but making it a point of it isn’t always the coolest option. 🙂
I wonder why someone from outer mongolia would be interested in writing about American economy and social welfare from a viewpoint of him/her being impacted by it?
Stop it.
First there was WORKFARE, where able bodied men worked for their earnings. Hard work indeed. Clearing woodland and building roads for the developing interstate highway system among other projects. Welfare was added to aid mothers with food for their children. It was never meant to be the budget sucking monster it has become. It was supposed to be a temporary support system, not a way of living
This should happen as a whole country so my tax money wouldn’t go to waste. Tax payers should eat steak, not people not willing to work.
Welfare Reform is just Republican’t doublespeak for trying to cut as many eligible recipients as possible from the program by manufacturing requirements beyond the federal requirement of low or no income.
they have been doing this in colorado for years have to work volunteer labor for way less than a fair wage
Welfare is a joke. Its purpose is the keep a good portion of the population on the sideline of life. Some do need and deserve help, but financial and economic help even though should be a given, is not enough. People need mental and spiritual guidance to fly on their own and that is definitely not happening. Those who are able physically and mentally to do some form of work but don’t due to their own fault shouldn’t get help. But then again, the government has shipped out so many jobs that even the able are not totally to blame. The government, and particularly the Democrats, need the poor crowds satisfied with crumbs to keep them relevant and in power crying wolf against republicans. The whole system is corrupt and perverted along with most people. This society is on its way to perdition, which is OK as it has to die before being reborn.
You haven’t answered your question. People don’t apply–that doesn’t mean that’s a positive thing. It means that children go hungry. It means that parents work longer hours even though they can’t afford daycare, so their kids are home alone. Humiliation is a powerful deterrent to begin with; pushing someone who can’t work enough hours to meet the requirement, for reasons YOU don’t understand, just means that people who need and deserve help aren’t getting it.
Also, if you want to look at the debt clock, check out the #1 cause–military expenditures. Welfare pays back in healthy children and functional adults more than what it costs taxpayers. And SNAP benefits, specifically, pay back $7 to society (decreased health-care expenses, lowered crime, and circulation within the economy) for every $1 invested through taxes.
The main problem here is the same one we have in Australia. All basic low skilled work is now being pushed overseas due to big and now small business outsourcing. There are few basic jobs about. Big Business in particular love this since it increases profits and as such push the Government to allow more of it. The Government not willing to upset big business/big political donations. They just approve the supplied legislation.
If they (the government) remembered they are there for the people this kind of outsourcing would be banned. You need basic jobs, people want to work. Sure profits would be down for business but social support costs for the Gov would be massively down. Just think how many call centre jobs in the US has gone to india or some other cheap labour country. That skill alone would supply a million jobs for US citizens. Courage is the problem or the Lack of it by Governments.
A person could easily spend more than the the $116 in snap benefits buying gas and appropriate clothing and child care to meet the requirements. Who can say how many people turned to dealing drugs, prostitution, or other crimes rather than pay strangers to watch their kids while they engaged in programs that probably wouldn’t guarantee them future employment while people with college degrees are out of work? this is just a welfare cut, and not a way to get people off welfare. Statistics are like a lamppost to a drunk; better for support than illumination. People need living wage jobs. Bernie Sanders has a solution.
You would really benefit from proofreading before submitting.
I like reading your articles, but please check the spelling and grammar before publishing. It’s hard to be taken seriously with poor grammar.
Your friend,
Shelley
They receive $4.83 an hour in benefits if they volunteer. If they work 20 hours a week, they get wages in addition to the $4.83. If these recipients are able-bodied, why shouldn’t they work? $4.83 is a coup if you can work and choose not to. Don’t EVEN compare the $4.83 to minimum wage; apples and oranges; NOT relevant!
Whoever wrote this article needs to work on their literary skills. Poor grammar it’s barely readable. Nonsensical sentences and statements. It’s called proofreading!
Just wanted to correct some of the math in this article. According to the article you linked, the Obama administration has seen an increase in debt of $8 trillion. That’s 70% of the amount before they took office, but only about 43% of the current total $18.6 trillion.
It’s still plenty. 🙂
Sounds like an awesome reform to me. Everyone needs to be responsible for themselves and earn a living if physically capable. This is a step in the right direction.
I am trying to read this article because I find it interesting, but the grammar is absolutely terrible. I’m finding it difficult to take the writer seriously or to concentrate on what is actually being said.
Seriously? “Welfare entitlements as [sic] very big cost to our government”-
You MUST be referring to CORPORATE welfare, which costs taxpayers a hell of a lot more than these programs. Honestly surprised that Anon backs this drivel.
This problem will never be addressed…. too many billions invested in wars and armament.
Maybe they chose to turn to a life of crime instead? The pay would probably be better.
Or joined the black economy?
Oh stop the bull****, the major part of the america budget is swallowed up in national Defense,Overseas Contigency Operations (fancy name for WaronTerror) and other Military assistance. Food Stamps are not what is crippling the American economy.
Spell check and a proof reading would have made this article much more effective.
Though I agree that people need to work instead of relying on government, it is quite hard to make it in today’s world. More tax dollars go into corporate welfare than to Americans in poverty. Even with raised numbers of people on welfare programs. We have tax payer dollars going to subsidize companies and corporations that have record profits yet pay their employees barely enough to get by and that don’t offer any insurance what so ever. (Not saying that all kinds in America are bad, but we have an increasingly amount of shittier jobs which lead to higher welfare numbers.) we have tax dollars that go to build malls for people who are already billionaires who could take loans out or just strait afford to have them built theirselves instead we tax payers fit the bill while they reap all the benefit we build they don’t have to pay taxes for many many years while they sit back and make more millions and billions in rental spaces off of our money. Sports stadiums are also paid for by tax payers for wealthy billionaire as well when they could easily fit the bill themselves. If I wanted to start a bussiness I would have to take loans and risk not knowing Thai could guarantee myself to be able to pay these loans yet these billionaire who could afford the risk and could afford to loose don’t take any risk they get tax payer money in which they take no risk or benefit greatly off of other people’s money.
Community service or education, in exchange for welfare money is a good idea. A system that just hands money out to people with no expectation that those people will do something to better themselves or their community is pointless. Think of the W.P.A. projects during the “Great Depression”. Those folks didn’t get a handout. They got a job and could take pride in what they built. Many of those projects still exist today. Given the terrible state of our infrastructure in the USA, welfare should come in the form of jobs improving our roads, rails and parks. Doubt the oligarchs will allow such a thing. No profit in it for them.
Could be the reason more people are eligible for SNAP is the fact that wages have been stagnant for years while inflation has risen. They say job growth in this recovery has been all low paying jobs and blame Obama, if he would executive order a minimum wage hike that would lift people who work 40hrs/wk over the poverty level it would shift the burden of us working taxpayers to subsidize our neighbors wages back to corporations like Walmart. If they paid a group rate for all these low income employees for health insurance we would not have to pay ObamaCare for our neighbors either. The reason I say this is because they say corporations are raking in and hoarding record amounts of capitol on the sidelines, makes me think they are just greedy and sticking the burden on the middle class to pay their worker food and medical as well as pay to pave the roads all their trucks ruin hauling junk to the “company store” lol happy Black Friday ftw
I wrote about the expectancy of growth and what it causes – the inequality roughly 8 months ago. Please do check it out. Fits here perfectly.
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/2y4sgm/expectancy_of_growth_is_causing_world_of/