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What messages did you get from family, friends, school, work, the media or other sources about welfare? What kind of welfare do you think our government ought to provide, and to whom?
Survey Responses:
In terms of media, "welfare" equals "hand outs for unwed mothers," and I was one of them! I think the government should provide more day care vouchers and college scholarships.
I've always gotten mixed messages about welfare. My family is a mix of
different levels of wealth, and my immediate family is the least wealthy
in the family, which places us at lower middle/working class. My mother
told me from when I was young that there was no shame in being on welfare,
but only if you really needed it. She also made me aware of the fact that
there are some people on welfare who don't need it but don't want to have
to work hard, but that's not everyone. Some other family members seem to
have the opposite attitude, thinking that any person on welfare is only on
it because they are lazy. The media seems to give mixed messages as well,
and sometimes they make a joke out of it. They'll make a show about a
family who is obviously not of good financial standing and play off of the
things that, in the real world, would probably put them on welfare, or
have them in debt, or make them unhappy. But, on TV or in a movie, it can
be made to be funny.
Growing up on welfare, I remember knowing and hearing from the school that
if your family was a welfare/food stamps recipient, you got free or
reduced price meals, and any fees or charges for other things like books
and/or school trips and things could possibly be taken care of. It wasn't
until later that I think I really became conscious of mainstream messages
about welfare - things to do with how people on welfare live, how people
on welfare don't pay taxes, people complaining that they don't want their
tax money to go to people on welfare, and other things like people on
welfare don't have enough, we should increase benefits to welfare
recipients, especially those with more children, etc..
I think welfare in one way is admirable, because it helps out a lot of
people who struggle to survive. On the other hand, it is not hard for
some people to start taking it for granted and become dependent on it. I
think our government could better serve people by institutionalizing a lot
of programs and services that would lower overall cost of burden for
everyone, and help relieve a lot of the burden for people who struggle
more. In other words, as much as our government likes to avoid it, I
think even a slight shift towards a more socialist government would help.
The overall message is that welfare is bad, people on welfare are bad and they are to blame for being on welfare. Yet I believe that it is important to us ALL to have a social safety net. Welfare is one important net to catch people in need. We should be provide assistance so that ALL children are able to live in safe housing, to have caregivers able to attend to their needs -- food, clothing, shelter are just a start.
The messge I got growing up was that it went to people who were lazy. As an adult I see it as a hand up, not a hand out. Our government needs to provide help to obtain marketable job skills, mental health care, child care, health care, help with immediate needs so that they can then focus on moving off of welfare.
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