Public Welfare in America

In: The Journal of social, political and economic studies, Band 19, Heft 2, S. 245-250

Abstract

Reviews problems of public welfare in the US, highlighting the negative effects of the expansion of the welfare system on poverty levels. It is argued that the welfare system has created behavioral disincentives that trap many recipients in poverty across generations by producing dependency & decreasing work effort. Increased dependence, in turn, has strong negative effects on children's intellectual abilities & life prospects: children raised by families on welfare are more likely to fail in school, be engaged in criminal activities, & end up on welfare themselves. Welfare reform, it is argued, must acknowledge the fact that most programs designed to alleviate material poverty lead to an increase in behavioral poverty. R. Jaramillo