Summary

Should people who accept welfare be required to work? Seems like a fair question. (Note that I did not add qualifiers like “able-bodied” or “working age.”) What is your answer?

Links and References

Statue of Responsibility (Blog only)

Money and Dignity

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Transcript

Should people who accept welfare be required to work? Seems like a fair question. (Note that I did not add qualifiers like “able-bodied” or “working age.”)

You have heard observations like, “That is a First World problem.” generally after someone says something along these lines, “Not only was it raining as I drove to work, but the line at Starbucks was almost out the door. And they had run out of my favorite breakfast snack.” That is indeed a First World problem.

Asking the question, even leaving out references to age, physical condition and welfare status, “Should people work?” is a 21st Century question. This is a very new question. How did we get here?

For thousands of years, life for most people on the planet was short, lacking in even the basic freedoms, and generally spent being subservient--not just working for--subservient to--those in the classes above them. The unspoken assumption was not just that people should work, but they had to work, or they were beaten until they did. In the early years of immigration to the US from Europe, many came over as indentured servants, forced to work for poverty wages until they had repaid their passage across the Atlantic. There were no labor laws to speak of, including a lack of child labor laws, and unscrupulous employers took advantage. Work correctly, was the assumed default, but this correct assumption was badly--often cruelly--implemented.

Our social thinking has advanced, as it needed to; we now have protective labor laws, full employment, a rising middle class and a steady decline of those in poverty, and so much more. Invoking a popular phrase, we have cleaned the baby, but have we thrown the baby out with the bath water? What happened to the assumption that everyone should work? Kids can do chores, babysit, mow lawns and shovel snow; adults with children can work part-time from home; handicapped adults can do limited--but valuable to themselves and others--work. Of course there will be some exceptions, so please don’t take the time to list them. The point here is that the default condition--the assumption--should be that everyone works. Work makes a contribution to the society as a whole; perhaps more importantly, it is invaluable as a confidence and dignity booster for the worker--for the person doing the work.

Borrowing a key concept from the law, we must start with the assumption that everyone should work, unless proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they can’t. Dangerously, we are moving toward reversing that assumption; folks don’t need to work unless proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they can. We need to see that we are shifting the burden of proof in the wrong direction. Programs that started out as social safety nets are rapidly becoming cradle-to-grave welfare programs. As these programs continue to expand, they rob recipients of motivation, and, more insidiously, lure the recipients--and future generations--into the false belief that all of this is okay. No need to change. Welfare then goes from being a needed and temporary medicine to being a debilitating and addictive drug. And as with all drugs, it always takes more and more to keep the user content. Please do check out “Bread and Circuses…” (Blog only) Are we replicating one of the worst parts of ancient Rome?