Dear next President,

I believe you should only be on welfare if you are really struggling, and only for a certain amount of time. Laid off from a job, going through a tough divorce, having a newborn child. Welfare for only your first child should be a law. I argue about the system of welfare because I do not think it’s fair; my parents work two jobs each to support my sister and I. Now their taxes are going towards people who don’t even try to better themselves. They sit around and pop babies out to get more welfare for themselves that most of the time do not go towards things that are needed but more for a want. My mother, uncle, grandpa, and my aunt own their own businesses, and the amount their workers make is not even close to $30 an hour. That’s unfair, and they work so hard to earn the money they make and sometimes it’s not enough to support a four person family.

Welfare doesn’t have a time limit so you could basically drop out of high school/college, live on your own, have a child/children and get welfare for free for life. That’s not fair, I think welfare systems should have a time limit so that you can’t take advantage of it and depend on it for life.  To dole out relief in this way is to "administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.  To become comfortable relying on the work of others instead of your own work will change your character, and the character of the nation." I’ve met several people with more than 5 children and they live in apartment complexes and live on welfare but have all of the newest shoes, cell phones, clothes and the parents don’t have jobs. For example my step cousin has seven kids and isn’t worried about getting a job because she’s not “struggling”; yeah that’s because they’re living on welfare and they go on vacations every other month.

Welfare has been overly used for so many years now that the system takes in more money in a month than some people make in a year. Debt is a huge factor in American families nowadays and it’s unfair that people on welfare don’t have to worry about being in debt. These cost nearly $1 trillion annually. By the end of the decade, welfare spending will rise from five percent to six percent of GDP. $100,000 in the next ten years – just to cover the cost of welfare spending. If you break down welfare spending per household, recipients are making $30/hour. That’s higher than the $25/hour median income – certainly more than what I make per hour. Most people in my family only make $15/$17 an hour. One day in a gas station i witnessed a young male using a welfare check to purchase $228 worth of lottery tickets and he didn’t think anything of it.

Reasons why the opposing side would disagree with my theory are possibly that welfare helps with disabled people who cannot work and gives them the opportunity to live life as a middle class man instead of being homeless. It supports disabled people who can’t work. It helps people who can't find a higher paying job, pay the bills and feed their families. It feeds people, and houses poor families in some cases. In some cases i can see why this is their decision, My grandma is on oxygen and she cannot walk without having to stop and take a long breath to continue walking. Sometimes it’s so bad she can’t even make it to the bathroom. She could be on welfare for groceries and for her supplies.

As you can see these are the strong reasons to my logic on the system of welfare and why I think it is unfair; any taxpayer would most likely agree with me. It is truly an astonishing amount of money we are spending to support people who could 100% support themselves.

Sincerely,

Brianna

Works Cited

Gaiser t, Elliott “five reasons to reform welfare...Again                                     http://spectator.org/55875_five-reasons-reform-welfareagain/

http://www.welfareinfo.org/assistance/