Misuse And Abuse Of Welfare Essay

Misuse and Abuse of Welfare in America
Welfare misuse in the United States is more common than the average person may think. Welfare is a government program that provides financial aid or services to individuals who cannot support themselves. The program takes money from working individuals in the form of taxes and distributes it to assist the disadvantaged and less fortunate. Though this effort is incredible in many ways, it is misused and abused by many receiving it. This misuse encourages many who do not need welfare to apply for it because the criteria to receive benefits can be easily met. There have been many plans to stop the misuse and to create a reform, but none of these have been thoroughly carried out. Although supporters
While this might be true, the media, film industry, and popular websites like YouTube lead Americans to believe otherwise. They depict images of young, able-bodied Americans misusing and abusing the welfare system. The lack of accountability and sense of entitlement portrayed in these images and videos is extremely disappointing. In the YouTube video entitled “Welfare Recipient: I Get to Sit Home…I Get to Smoke Weed…We Still Gonna Get Paid” by TheDailySteeple, a woman by the name of Lucy calls into an Austin, Texas radio program to discuss how she does not see the point of working when she can sit at home, hangout with her friends, and smoke weed every day thanks to taxpayers. As the call goes on listeners learn that Lucy receives approximately $1,200 a month in welfare benefits in addition to the family benefits her husband receives, and that Lucy’s parents were also on welfare. This so called generational welfare not only limits potential, it diminishes any motivation to succeed. And while the welfare program has served its purpose it has also failed by creating a sense of dependency and entitlement. Attitude’s like Lucy’s are spreading at epidemic proportion. Instead of blaming the system for their problems, recipients need to be accountable for their actions and stop viewing welfare as a career.
Taxes used to fund the welfare program are deducted from every employee’s paycheck. The more people the government has to support, the larger the deductions will be. If the money deducted was solely used to support truly desperate and deserving individuals, it would be a completely different matter. The fact that the current welfare program is allowing so many underserving citizens to receive assistance is making the entire program seem like a joke. In fact, many working class citizens support the idea of mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients, especially since it is not uncommon to be drug tested when applying for a job. For business owners, this practice holds employees accountable for their actions. If they do not pass the drug test, there is a very simple consequence; no job. In addition to drug testing in the workplace, a growing number of states are requiring drug testing for recipients of welfare, food stamps unemployment and other