Do Welfare Handouts Motivate People to Be Lazy - Report Example

Running Head: DO WELFARE HANDOUTS MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO BE LAZY? Do welfare handouts motivate people to be lazy? al affiliation Instructor’s name Course Date Do welfare handouts motivate people to be lazy? In the United States, social welfare systems exist to ensure healthy balance for people in different social-economic classes. In the United States, poverty is prevalent among some social groups depending on gender and racial affiliation. For example, women and ethnic minorities rely on welfare than men and people belonging to ethnic majorities (Browne, 2006). However, the issue of welfare benefits sourced from increased taxation of the working class has created a lot of controversy. The working class argues that the use of welfare handouts simply encourages the recipients to be lazy and avoid work, since they can live comfortably without working. This viewpoint forms the subject of discussion for this essay. Poverty is a social construct brought about by various inequalities in the society. According to Browne (2011), society has come to refer to the people reliant on the welfare state as the underclass, since these people are somehow secluded from the rest of the society. According to this viewpoint, the people belonging to the underclass have developed a non-working culture, which makes them reluctant to find employment. These people lack motivation and are lost in a poverty mentality that leads them to become dependent on others. The most prevalent groups in the underclass are African-American, Asians, Hispanic, and single black mothers who are unemployed. For the case of single unemployed mothers, they need to provide their children with basic needs, which they cannot afford. A case in point is that of Angel Adams, who in 2010 hit the headlines for being a homeless, unemployed single mother of 15 kids (Morelli, 2010). This means that the taxpayer has to pay for the upbringing of children they do not even know. For the taxpayer, it would seem more logical for young women to first of all ensure that they have a stable source of income before becoming pregnant and leaving the burden of raising the children to the public. Yes, there are people who honestly need welfare benefits to survive, such as the physically disabled and children. On the contrary, there are able-bodied people out there who simply refuse to work and depend on handouts. These are the people that most Americans wish could be cut-off from the welfare programs, thus forcing them to work. Most people feel that the attitude of the underclass towards work is to blame for the poverty among people from this group. Whites in America blame ethnic minorities, especially immigrants for the increased levels of welfare funding. Unfortunately, Americans have turned to racial bias towards African-Americans, the latter who are blamed for being the biggest recipients of welfare funds and services. The whites believe that the uncontrolled fertility among blacks is what gives rise to so many costly children (Dillon, 2009). However, society is not as just as many people would want to believe. Society has a way of stereotyping people based on their social-economic and ethnic backgrounds. For example, Mooney, David & Caroline (2010) state that poor people are labeled as lazy, unmotivated, immoral, and irresponsible. On the other hand, rich people are seen as industrious, innovative, and highly motivated. With such perceptions from the society, the underclass and especially the poor are excluded from most societal functions. These people, according to Browne (2011) share the same attitudes towards work and prosperity as everyone else in society. The only problem is they lack the opportunities to show that they too would want to find gainful employment and be self-sufficient. This leaves most of the poor people miserable and lacking in self-confidence, leading to missed opportunities for self-reliance and personal growth. Most of the poor people lack education and skills to be gainfully employed. Accordingly, if they were to get jobs, the wages would be too low to cater for their needs, meaning it is better for them to wait for welfare benefits. As Parrillo (2011) states, even if they do work, the low pay the underclass get from their jobs forces them to still rely on welfare handouts to survive. Conflict theorists of sociology are very right when they argue that social structures have failed to promote the welfare of the society in general (ibid). Here, some groups are more favored than others by the existing social structures, thus leading to major inequalities. For example, while the whites in the United States find it relatively easy to find a job, their African, Asian and Hispanic counterparts form the bulk of unemployed citizens (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). The debate about whether welfare handouts encourage laziness or the recipients of these handouts really need the handouts to survive is an intense one. I am particularly concerned about people advocating for welfare programs to be scrapped off so that those lazy people out there can go find work. Evidently, there are able-bodied people prefer to rely on the government for welfare handouts; rather than work. However, Parrillo (2011) states that these people only are a small proportion of welfare recipients. There are those recipients who genuinely need welfare in order to stay alive. These include the aged, physically disabled, and children living in poverty. Essentially, the problem lies in determining who really needs welfare versus who can afford to take care of themselves. Some factions in society think that the solution to the welfare conflict lies in modifying the whole system to come up with more stringent rules for eligibility. For instance, one has to prove that they cannot provide for themselves and their families at that moment. As a result they should be put under welfare for a short period of time as they seek to stabilize themselves then the welfare services should be withdrawn after that time expires. Fundamentally, the length of time an able-bodied person is entitled to welfare should be significantly reduced, in order to entice such people to find employment. Personally, I can only imagine how much tougher the unemployed are finding the current economic situation, if the working class are complaining. That is why I am of the view that the only way to deal with getting able-bodied people off the welfare handouts is to create more opportunities for them. The federal government should ensure that poor people, especially the ethnic minorities get access to standard education and training, thereby enabling them to find gainful employment. I disagree with the opinion that the welfare system should be overhauled, since I believe that will lead to more social problems. For example, getting an illiterate unemployed youth off welfare handouts will only lead to delinquency. Society will be marred by cases of violence and theft, as the unemployed, yet desperate people resolve to using force to acquire their basic needs. There are a good number of people who have been on welfare, received education and training and today, they are self-sufficient, have well paying jobs, and carry out their duties just like normal citizens. A case in point according to Graham (2012) is that of Marilyn Lewis, a 23 year old woman who benefited from the W-2 program in Milwaukee and today earns a stable income to sustain her and her son. Fundamentally, if only the government provided education to the illiterate and created more well paying jobs, there would be less people on the welfare programs. Society should also learn to treat people as individuals and cease stereotyping certain ethnic groups. There are those Africans, Hispanic, and Asians on welfare programs who are willing to work, only that there are no jobs for them. According to the symbolic interaction theory, in Parrillo (2011), stereotyping those people as lazy and irresponsible only serves to discourage them and make them subject to poverty and lack of independence. Visual aids This is a photo of Angel Adams with twelve of her fifteen kids, all hurdled up in a single hotel room (Morelli 2010). Here is an example of a young woman who benefitted from social welfare and is now earning stable income (Case Study, 2012. The Mail on Sunday. Available at: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx). A graphical representation of the rates of unemployment among ethnic minorities in the United States (United States Department of Labor 2012). References Browne, Ken. 2006. Introducing Sociology for As Level. Malden: Polity. Browne, Ken. 2011. An Introduction to Sociology. Malden: Polity. Case Study, 2012. The Mail on Sunday. Available at: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx Dillon, Michele.2009. Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts, and Their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Graham, Caroline. 2012. Wisconsin Woman Tiffany Austin Suggest Plan To England To Eliminate Welfare And Poverty. Retrieved September 21, 2012 (www.originalpeople.org). Mooney, Linda, David, Knox and Caroline, Schacht. 2010. Understanding Social Problems. Belmonte: Cengage Learning. Morelli, Keith. 2010. Mother, 12 Children Leave Motel for New Home. Retrieved September 21, 2012 (www2.tbo.com). Parrillo, Vincent.2011. Strangers to These Shores: Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States: Census Update. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Education Limited. United States Department of Labor. 2012. Racial and Ethnic Characteristics of the U.S Labor Force, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2012 (www.bls.gov.Opub). Read More