Poverty and the community Part 3

One of the worse programs ever fostered on people is welfare. whether in the form of food stamps or checks. Welfare represents a failure. It is a crutch that many never discard. Either the recipients failed to do enough for themselves or society failed to provide enough opportunities. Instead of helping people find a way through life, welfare robs people of dignity, self-respect and cripples any desire to work hard.

It is a classic example of throwing money at a problem and hoping that it will go away. Welfare doesn’t try to decide why people are poor; it only guarantees a minimal income. However slightly altered, it could become one of the best social programs.

Welfare hands out charity without requiring anything in return. Yes, we may insist that the recipient look for a job. But the right job is not always available or the welfare recipient doesn’t posses the necessary skills. When the individual finds a job, his skills are so low that the wage is also low.

Instead the government should mandate that all welfare recipients attend regular educational training courses of their choice for as long as they receive a handout. For example, a mother with children too young for her to work can attend courses in nutrition, cooking, literacy, and many other self-improvement courses several times a week. Gradually she will have learned many skills and when an opportunity arises can take it. The man can attend vocational or management skills courses so that eventually he too will be eligible for a higher paying position.

Endless research has proven that education is the surest route out of poverty. Thus while the individual receives economic support, he will be building skills needed to meet the challenges of the labor market. Soon the poor will become contributors to the community instead of a drain. Merely feeding people is an insult to human dignity.

A step like this is called a “human investment” measure. Instead of reaching out with guilt for having to “beg” for a living, the recipient strives to better himself. By learning how to think, opportunities present themselves because he is better equipped for them, new skills become incentives, attitudes change from low self-esteem to high self esteem. As circumstances change expectations become higher. When a person receives anything free, he silently scorns it and does not respect it. But when he earns it, he respects it.

Yearly the government spends millions of dollars for public school education. The government and society feel that they have accomplished their task of educating the populace while they are children. Yet prisons are filled with adult failures, drug addicts and alcoholics abound, unskilled potential good workers roam the streets seeking work. Meanwhile poverty flourishes.

Compare the minuscule amount of money the government spends for human investment programs with the millions spent on other projects. It appears that bigger prisons, parks, and sometimes totally non-essential projects are more important than people Sardonically our advice to people who need a helping hand is ” Get a job!” not realizing that the person is not prepared for a job beyond menial labor which pays low wages.

Many young people do not awaken to the importance of an education or fail to learn marketable skills until after they have become adults. By then they have a family or have become despondent over their inability to obtain a good paying job after realizing that they have no skills to sell. They lose hope for a future. Do we leave them in the abyss of poverty or do we create a second chance for them? (Continued)