Corporate Subsidies Essay

Submitted By xojohanson
Words: 1906
Pages: 8

Wrong About Welfare An analysis of the Judge Judy episode “Judge Judy Versus The Welfare State” reveals facts about one person receiving welfare. This specific episode shows a lazy and unemployed male who is on welfare, making the entire welfare state out to be the same as him. People who are from the inner city or from reservations are often on welfare, and they also happen to be unemployed. While on welfare it’s not impossible to get a job at the same time, but that is exactly what welfare recipients need to do. People who are on welfare have the highest unemployment rate in the United States. Welfare is a touchy subject amongst Americans, but they seem to have no problem at all with corporate subsidies. What is more dangerous here, welfare or subsidies? Welfares main goal has always been to help people in need, and get them back on their feet. This seems like it would be the perfect plan to get society back on their feet and working hard, but that is not the case. In the past years welfare recipients have grown progressively more lazy, and feel they do not need to work because the government will take care of them. Just recently the welfare agency decided to make a change from their original policy and focus more on getting their recipients employed. More than 10,600 welfare recipients in South Carolina have been employed since the change in agency has taken place (Smith). The people that are actually getting jobs are still on welfare, but they are working hard to get off welfare and support themselves. These people are different from the specific man shown in the episode “Judge Judy versus Welfare State” and this proves that not all welfare recipients are the same as this man. One stereotype that is often made is people on welfare are of the African american or Native american race. In this Judge Judy episode the man shown is African American and can’t afford his rent. The government gives this man enough money through welfare to easily pay his rent, and still have enough money to live. He was using this money to pay for his own personal spending money. African Americans are already stereotyped into the category of being on welfare, but this man makes them all out to be lazy and unemployed. A lot of inner city African Americans are on welfare, some may need the extra money, but some are dependent on it, and don’t see the need to work for their money at all. Many people who are dependent on welfare are likely to be that way because of their work experience or test scores. Less than one out of every eight welfare recipients has received any schooling beyond high school. A lot of jobs that pay a decent amount of money require some type of schooling beyond high school, making it very difficult for people who did not get advanced schooling to get a job with a decent amount of revenue coming in. One negative aspect that welfare used to possess was that it was difficult for recipients to become productive members of society. Alas, congress passed a bill replacing the Aid to families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with the new Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program. While on the TANF program recipients have to go on job searches, take part in community service, and on the job training as a condition upon receiving money. Two dramatic changes were noticed after recipients realized they had to work in order to receive the favors. Half of the people receiving welfare left rapidly when they realized they had to work, and the other half noticed a drop in the child poverty rate. The rate of child poverty fell from 20.8 percent to 16.3 percent in just five years(Burtless). The upkeep of reservations is very poor, and the abuse of alcohol is very high. Being put into the category of lazy and unemployed often happens to native americans. Native americans are often stereotyped because of their high poverty, and unemployment rates. This does not account for all native americans, just native americans