Money From The Government Through Welfare example essay topic

Dear Mayor, I am very concerned about Erie City Councils vacillation over whether of not to support the war effort. Erie should not be neutral concerning the war and certainly not opposed to it. City Council needs to set aside its selfish political agenda and actively support the war effort. If Erie were to reverse it's anti-war resolution it would be treasonous. Young men and women from our city and around the country are risking their lives for our freedom and security.

We cannot let this war become another Vietnam in that our countrymen are sacrificing their lives for a thankless nation. The reasoning of City Council is invalid and self-serving. They bend their will because of the pressure of a few radical. As Americans we need not necessarily agree with the war, but we must still support it and help the effort because it is our duty. To be idle is to disrespect American in the highest degree.

I know you are not to blame for the attitudes of all city councilmen, but your influence and voice must be true to the county you serve. You can make a great impact on many residents in Erie if you show yourself to be a true servant to them and the country you are a part of by praising the President and the armed forces. I ask you not only as an Erie ite but as an American to be bold and resist the political pressure to conform to neutrality and stand firm in support of our war. Thank you for your time and consideration in reading my request The welfare system serves as a prime example of the distance which America has strayed from the guiding principles of hard work and moral values.

America was founded by forefathers which exhibited these principles in their selfless efforts to provide people with a free land. Americans have the freedom of speech, the freedom to bear arms, and the freedom to worship as they please. The American dream is described as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, it seems as if many people have become so used to having so much freedom that they think if they do not feel like working then the government should be required to pay for their food, clothing, and housing. America as a whole has done itself a great disservice by allowing many to eat from the government's table and live in the government's houses. This situation described in insurance company terms is a "moral hazard", which means that by creating the provision of welfare the need for welfare is actually intensified.

Dr. Michael Bauman a professor of theology at Hillsdale College agrees, "Welfare is poverty insurance" (28). The welfare system is a harmful system. Welfare causes individuals to become unmotivated. What is a one's motivation who has everything he needs without even working for it? The answer is clear.

If one becomes used to doing nothing and receiving easy money, then he has no reason to work. Welfare does more harm than good by allowing a person to become dependent, making it almost impossible to become free from poverty. For example, if the average unskilled welfare man were to get a job he would make approximately twenty two thousand dollars, which, after taxes, ends up being more than two thousand dollars less than the average welfare home receives (Bauman 28). When something is taxed it becomes less prevalent, but when something is funded it grows.

This is evident in that if a people are over taxed when they work, then work will become less desirable, and if welfare pays too well then welfare will become more desirable. According to James L. Payne author of Overcoming Welfare, "Decades of government cash payments for idle people have undermined the stigma associated with being unproductive and dependent" (28). For this reason, the government should discourage people from staying on welfare by cutting funding and rewarding hard work for low income people. Welfare recipients know that by staying on welfare they can make a better living than if they worked. Making a decent living is difficult without an education.

With only a high school degree one is not likely to get a well paying job, but without one it is almost hopeless. People without a high school diploma make up only 11 percent of the workforce (U.S. Department of Labor). The majority of people on welfare (65 percent) are not high school graduates. Dr. Bauman explains this dilemma well by saying, "As long as we pay the poor to continue doing the very things that helped make them poor in the first place, they shall remain impoverished" (28). Welfare was intended to be a safety net. Now welfare allows people to drop out of high school without any fear of not being able to get a job.

In essence the government is rewarding people who do not take the initiative to succeed. Education is not the only realm of life that is effected by the frivolity that welfare encourages. Welfare causes harm to the families of America by discouraging marriage. Two people will receive less money from the government through welfare if they are married and only represent one household rather than two.

President George W. Bush sees marriage as an important institution and has recently set aside three hundred million dollars for the promotion of marriage in welfare communities. The president states, "Strong marriages and stable families are incredibly good for children, and stable families should be the central goal of American welfare policy", (qtd. in Schaffer 26). Marriage is an important factor in welfare because women raised in single parent homes are 164 percent more likely to bear children out of wedlock. George Glider author of Wealth and Poverty reveals, "Too many mothers decide not to marry the fathers of their children; they marry welfare instead" (qtd. in Armey 23).

This increase is because "Uncle Sam is exceedingly tough competition for any poor working man who wants to have a wife and family of his own" (Bauman 28). Welfare has made being a single mother far too appealing. What is worse than marriage losing its appeal is that illegitimacy is encouraged because, for every child a woman on welfare has she gains more income. As a result of this, men are beginning to see sex as less than sacred, and women see it as a source of income through child bearing.

Even back in the eighteenth century famous economic genius Thomas Malthus was aware that giving aid to the poor led to an increase of illegitimate children (May 3). Why then can the United States Government today not understand that throwing money at a problem will not fix it? "Since 1960... out-of-wedlock births have increased by more than 400 percent [and, ] by 1990, 28 percent of all births were out-of-wedlock... [In addition, ] 30 percent of all welfare recipients start on welfare because they have an out-of-wedlock birth" (K opel and Tanner 39). There are several results stemming from wedlock, and ultimately from welfare. Children from welfare families are three times as likely to be on welfare as adults.

Also, welfare children "Have less ability to delay gratification and... have a weaker... conscience or sense of right and wrong" (Liebman n 68). By the government showing only sympathy to those having children in wedlock and not any disapproval it makes the.