Welfare And The IRS

Welfare And The IRS

Many people rely on social assistance to get by.

For deciding to not join the IRS, I'd make a $35 profit.

By Citizen Correspondent Ryan Liedtky , U.S.A.

Date Posted: 11/22/06

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In the late 1990s, the U.S. government changed its policy on welfare assistance, by cutting the number of welfare checks that would be sent out and increasing the number of social programs that would assist poor people in finding jobs. While policies, philosophies and statistics shift, the problem of poverty persists, with many people, the majority being single mothers, continuing to rely on government support. Most of those who have found work continue to occupy low-paying jobs. One man, fed up and disillusioned, went to his local welfare office to get some answers. This is his call to action.

I paid visit to the local welfare office in hopes of conducting a study. I started early in the day, before the office opened, and searched the line. Twenty-three people stood waiting. Some of them young, some old, some middle-aged. The young were women with children in tow.

Why were these women, so young and so financially distraught that they needed government assistance, bearing children? One told me that she was not "with" the child's father, that she didn't know where he was. That, in fact, she didn't care. They were never a couple anyway. She is single, 19, and living in a run-down apartment living off what little money she is granted by the government.

I asked her if she was aware that over 70% of violent juvenile offenders were living in the bottom 5% of the population as far as income was concerned. She was not aware of this fact, but didn't seem to care, either. I asked of her specific reasons for not working: she didn't have one. I asked her why she had a child since she was unable to take adequate care of him. She again didn't have an answer. She grew upset at my questions, so I let her alone and moved on.

The next person in line was elderly. I inquired of his situation. The man spoke to me of hard times, of wars fought, and of the golden days "driving truck." His reason for being on Welfare: he paid his last dime ensuring his wife's funeral services were up to her standards. She'd died of heart-related illness, he said heart attack, though I'm not entirely sure that's accurate. It doesn't sound as though any autopsy was done. Not that it mattered.