...To live in the United States most Americans have to work long hours with both parents working to raise a family of five. Children these days spend less time with their parents because both parents are working to provide a better life for them. So why should we, the American population working hard hours give away our hard working money to drug users collecting welfare. Numerous people can argue and say that our tax money should be use elsewhere instead of giving it away. First of all, California has the highest amount of welfare recipients in the United States. One of the reasons is high is because California has a population of over 39 million people. Secondly, California does not require a criminal background or drug test for people needing...
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...American minds. Welfare reform has been a major controversy in the realm of social policy. Most Americans support the idea of equality, one of the values that our nation was founded on, although there seems to be no general agreement on how the government should alleviate poverty. The American welfare system as it is in its present state degrades the beneficiaries and serves to enrich the administrators. If the objective is to reduce poverty and promote self-sufficiency then the right signals are given off but the system is failing in practice. The key to reforming would be to combine work with education and training to help attain skills to increase beyond an entry-level position. To fully reform, the government must integrate developmental efforts in the welfare, work force, education and economic development area in an effort to create a stronger state and move people out of poverty and into self-sufficiency. Welfare was introduced in 1936 under a program entitled Aid to Dependent Children and it provided cash for low-income families with children. The number of people in the household and the total monthly income was the determining factor of an individual’s eligibility. For a household consisting of 4 people, if the income were less than $643, then you would be eligible. Recipients were required to enroll in an Employment First course that taught educational, social and work ethics to move individuals to a state of self-support. With good intentions, the welfare system did not...
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...Justin Mills Welfare Reform In 1996 the federal government of the United States created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in an effort to move parents of welfare and into the workforce (Hildebrandt & Stevens 793). The intent of this legislation was to create an environment in which people would be able to provide for themselves without the assistance of the government. However, as of 2006 38.7 million people in the United States, including 13.28 million children, were still living below the poverty level of $22,050 for a family of four (Hildebrandt & Stevens 793). These numbers indicate that the problem did not improve and many people have become accustomed to the lifestyle that receiving welfare affords them. Further changes to the welfare system would go a long way towards resolving these issues. The United States government must reform the welfare program with pre-screenings and lifetime limits on benefits to prevent producing a society of dependent people. In 1996 Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which created the TANF program (Cook et al. 249). The legislation significantly altered the provisions for extending cash to low-income families (Cook et al. 249). The new provisions imposed a federal lifetime limit of up to five years on financial support and strengthened the requirements for employment and work-related activities (Cook et al. 249). The ability of immigrants, including those...
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...Japan should accept immigrants. The Japanese’s Population has been on an decline. With fewer Babies being born and one of the highest Longevity rates, the population is becoming overwhelmingly made up of old people. The reason why I believe the Japanese should be less restrictive towards immigration is that it would increase fertility, Bring more people to be part of the work force. First of all, immigration would solve the problem of aging society with a falling birthrate. Recently, Japanese population is declining rapidly, and the article stated that the population of Japan will be 87 million by 2060. Currently there are 120 million people. When it happens, elderly people retirement plan would not work because there simply wouldn’t be enough of a work force to support them. If immigrants came to and live in Japan, Japanese economy would be more active, and not only Japanese youth but also many immigrants would support welfare system. In other words, it would ease the tax of welfare for elderly people burden on youth for each person. Second, immigration would bring Japan inter-cultural communication. Though many goods, much money and information are crossing over the world from Japan, it is strange that immigrants are restricted. Some Japanese natives may worry about the risk of losing Japanese traditional culture. Immigrants would be bringing the best of their culture while adapting the best of Japanese culture, creating a new mix that would definitely help japan. Once...
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...Social Welfare Policy Paper: Public Assistance Jennifer Shellhammer University of New England Abstract This paper will discuss a Social Welfare Policy, specifically, public assistance. I have created an overview and provided a concise description of welfare and public assistance, along what social problems it attempts to address. Additionally, it will provide the historical background of public assistance and the economic and political forces which have influenced its development. Furthermore, it will explain the functions of public assistance that people observe and expect, while also addressing what functions are not recognized. Lastly, the paper will provide arguments made for and against public assistance, and what has been said by politicians, and other experts. Concluding, I have also expressed my own perspective on this issue and what changes I would propose to its current state. Social Welfare Policy: Public Assistance The term “welfare” generally refers to programs established by the federal government to assist individuals who are unemployed and poor. Assistance is provided to the poor through several types of programs, which range anywhere from food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, to temporary cash assistance and several forms of housing assistance. These programs were created to prompt effort and attention on specific problem areas and to prevent the deterioration of necessary and essential conditions for individuals and families to successfully...
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...supporting drug addicts? I am unemployed but why am I supporting the next door neighbor and their five children? No one is supporting me or my family. I’m a good mother, I feed my children as healthy as possible. I don’t do drugs. I pay my taxes. It is time for a change in welfare. I deserve my share right? 109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded program. I am not one of them, but my neighbor “Sam” does. What does she do all day? Nothing. Yells at her kids when they are not at my house eating all of my kid’s food. She doesn’t work. She is currently not looking for work either. I am actively looking. It is time for a change don’t you think? Time to get those off of welfare that choose to do nothing in life. I want to see a reform before I retire. After all it is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF ) is federally funded - state administered - financial assistance program for low income families with dependent children and for pregnant women in their last three months of pregnancy. TANF provides temporary financial assistance while also helping recipients find jobs that will allow them to support themselves. What are these people buying with their food stamps they get? I bet just candy probably soda as well. It’s a shame, really. They get hundreds of dollars a month in food stamps and I bet most of them do not even buy a canned vegetable. I wonder if “Sam” my neighbor even cooks a good meal. I love to...
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...Moral Issues Welfare in the United States Moral Issues Welfare in the United States In our society today the welfare program is a hand out not a hand up. I believe that as a society we should go back to what the welfare system was when it was started in the colonies with the British Poor Laws. These laws established guidelines for two different groups of people. The first group was those that cannot work due to their age, or physical or mental health. This group was given assistance with cash and other forms from the government. The second group was those who could work but did not have a job. The people in this group were given help by giving them employment in workhouses. In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the Social Security Act “to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes.” Under this plan, it was easy to receive money, food and medical assistance if you were a single woman raising children, the more children you had the more assistance you received. This system has grown generations of families that have been dependent upon the government to support their children. In 1996, President...
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...are many different perspectives on social welfare. Some people will argue that social welfare is no benefiting society because we still have a huge population of people who need public assistance. While on the other hand some would argue that social welfare is beneficial. Perspectives allow for different social attitudes and ideologies about social welfare and how it should be controlled. One type of perspective is “political perspectives on social welfare” this perspective focus on the government influences on reforming and enforcing social welfare programs. This section of the reading looked at different views on whether the government should step in to work with social welfare programs. Some views said that the government should provide...
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...Some have argued that social welfare should be about promoting recipient wellbeing. However, others have argued that in recent times welfare programs are more about controlling the behaviour of welfare recipients. This essay will examine the history of welfare programs to women since the initiation of the post-war welfare state under Labour Prime Minister Chifley to ascertain whether recent development in these programs are more about providing for recipient’s wellbeing or rather about trying to make them comply with certain standards of accepted behaviour. Chifley argued that it was the “duty and responsibility of the community, and particularly those more fortunately placed, to see that our less fortunate fellow citizens are protected from those shafts of fate which leave them helpless and without hope”. He continued the labour movement would fight to ensure a future “free from want, insecurity and misery” (Chifley, quoted in Beilharz, 1994). Chifley was stating that those in need should be the recipients of welfare without them having to comply with any requirements to perform to certain behavioural standards. This approach set the scene for the expansion of the welfare state from the post-war period through its expansion in the Whitlam years until its principles were challenged by the Howard Government in the 1990s. During this time welfare benefits grew and were extended to new groups of people considered in need. The labour party supported the notion of deservedness...
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...Introduction The following essay will trace the development of Human Resource Management/Personnel Management. Within this essay the origins of personnel management will be described and how the Human Resource Management (HRM) developed from that process. A brief discussion on the development of the ‘factory system’ and a description of the employee working conditions within these ‘factory systems’ will be discussed. Also included will be an outline on how these ‘factory systems’ operated and what this meant for the employees. The development of the ‘Welfare Tradition’ will be discussed and how it relates the Human Resource Management of today. The role the ‘welfare officers’ played in businesses and the changes that was brought about will also be discussed. After the ‘Welfare Tradition’ came the ‘Scientific’ movement. The changes in businesses that the ‘Scientific Movement’ brought about will be looked at. F.W Taylor’s ‘Principles of Scientific Management’ will be explored and the affects his principles had on businesses. The ‘Behavioural Science’ movement will be discussed along with Elton Mayo’s ‘Human Relation School of Thought’ and his experiment widely known as the ‘Hawthorn Studies’. The impact this had on businesses and the affect this had on the managers and workers will be included. The growth of trade unions and the affect they had on employers and employees will be discussed along with Jeffrey Pfeffer’s seven key HRM practices and a brief analysis of their meaning...
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...P5: Review the methods used by the public services to ensure they have a diverse workforce. Introduction All public services must have a range policies and procedures that they should follow to make sure that they can enforce diversity and equality. These include: – Equal opportunities policies and Anti-discriminatory policies – Grievance procedures – Bullying and harassment at work policies – Recording and monitoring of equal opportunities data and complaints – Complaints procedures for service users Equal opportunities policies and Anti-discriminatory policies – Issued by Equality and Human Rights Commission Equal opportunities and Anti-discriminatory policies are put in place to show how employees should be treated when they are going...
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...Welfare, it is on just about everyones' mind, whether it is Medicare or the A.F.D.C. Some believe there is too much and others think there is too little. As the years go by, the need for welfare reform increases. President Clinton had pledged in his 1992 campaign to "end welfare as we know it". Only time will tell by what extremes welfare will change. As technology continues to increase and jobs continue to go overseas, the United States must decide what direction the welfare system should take. As they exist today, welfare systems are an evolution of the thoughts laid out in the 19th and 20th centuries. Before the Industrial Revolution, the responsibility of helping the poor was mainly given to the churches or local communities. As machines took the place of workers, governments were looked upon to help the unemployed. In 1883, Otto Von Bismarck, the German Chancellor, setup the first form of Modern Welfare when he enacted a sickness and maternity law. He followed up this law with a work injury law and an old-age assistance law in 1884 and 1889 respectively. Today European countries such as Germany, Norway, and Sweden have highly sophisticated Welfare systems (Bender, 13). Welfare did not reach the United States, however, until shortly after the Great Depression with Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal." The New Deal brought on new economic and social welfare legislation. This is the first time that the United States Government used federal and public funds to finance...
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...Illegal Immigration Reform Proposal The United States has gone from being a nation of one race (Native Americans), to being a country of many nations. This country has increasingly become responsible for immigrants that have decided that the state of their own nation has become unbearable and have decided to make a change in their life from day to day as well as the life of their entire family. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimated in 2010 that there were 11,900,000 illegal immigrants in the United States at the cost of approximately $83,665,408,222. The impact of illegal immigrants on the United States has become an issue that has stirred the emotions of all American citizens for many decades. With the population of illegal immigrants believed to be having a negative impact on the rising cost of healthcare, the contribution to a nationwide problem of unemployment, and citizens and immigrants’ alike calling for fairness to all, a complete immigration reform is something that needs to be addressed on a national level. President Barack Obama has a “commonsense immigration reform proposal.” His proposal consists of four parts that will hold accountable not just the illegal workers, but the employers who hire them as well. There are four parts to President Obama’s proposed reform: 1) continue to strengthen the borders to the United States; by doing so would strengthen our ability to remove criminals and apprehend and prosecute national security threats;...
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...Minimum wage has been around for quite a while now, but what are its origins? What are the pros of having a minimum wage, what problems does it have potential to solve? What are the problems with having a minimum wage, and just how much do they affect the U.S. economy? What are potential alternative solutions to raising the federal minimum wage? Many different viewpoints and ideas will be discussed below, but it is difficult to fully grasp how far reaching the effects of minimum wage. The purpose for a baseline wage was set to help poverty stricken workers a fair wage for their cost of living. In June 25, 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the “Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,” which aimed to ban child labor, set maximum work weeks at 44 hours, and set minimum hourly wage at 25 cents. Roosevelt felt child labor, undercutting wages, and stretching out hours of the lowest paid workers during times of recession had a big effect on buying power even though this act affected one-fifth of the United States population at the time. Roosevelt realized a population without buying power is more than just an ethical problem but an economic one as well (U.S. Labor Department). The father of modern economics Adam Smith once stated, “But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable (wealth of nations)...
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...Recognizing a Faulty Welfare System by Educating the People of Our Society As a society we are lacking the education needed to fully understand the welfare system. This naivety about the welfare system has caused it to become the least effective assistance program designed for the people of our society. Instead we have found it easier to generalize that the system is only for people who are lazy and choose not to work and therefore causing us to neglect the system. According to an article written by Elizabeth Anderson, “Survey research shows that most welfare recipients endorse the work ethic.” (2004) I know what you are thinking, how does a valued work ethic play a role if a person chooses not to work? The response is that everyone has to have a starting point. If we can believe that the majority of welfare recipients are willing to work then together we can review the current welfare system and make the changes that will benefit all the parties involved. If we can sift through the flaws and support the need for assistance we can effectively create a system that will produce results and potentially lessen dependency. So where do we begin? It all starts with an education. To support a need you first have to understand it. The goal of the welfare system is to provide cash assistance for low-income families with dependent children. The benefits a family can receive were outlined in 1996 when a law was created to design a new welfare program called Temporary Assistance...
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