(http://rightwingnews.com/top-news/welfare-recipients-freak-theyre-told-work/)
Essentially, what it said, was that the people of Maine were a bit shocked at a decision made by their governor recently. The decision, made a law that had been put on suspension during the recession, was being re-instated. The law itself, makes people who are on welfare, were going to have to go back to working for their welfare cheques. Oddly enough, the almost 6,000 people on welfare in the state, were not happy about this.
My initial thought, was that this would have the potential to harm the legitimate welfare recipients who had kids, were unable to work due to injury, were elderly, etc. That was until I read the article fully.
The law itself, exempts anyone over the age of 50 or under the age of 18, so the elderly, and the children who didn't have parents, or were raised on the child welfare system, would still be completely protected. Parents with children would also be protected, which I fully support, as being a parent 100% of the time to more than one child and without child protective service intervening, if frankly a fulltime job itself; atleast when they are not school aged.
"Governor Paul LePaige said in a statement on the decision. “We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient.” In order to do this noble goal, he is complying with the law which requires that anyone who is on welfare, could be working, and does not have children, must do one of two things to get their funds. The first option was that they could volunteer 20 hours a week for a charity, or non-profit organization. The second option was that they could enroll in educational programs to assist them in being able to be employed.
Frankly, both options were very reasonable. 20 hours out of a week with nothing to do, would benefit the rest of society through working for charity. People would be paying it forward, and the state benefits from the people who are off work. It's something people can be proud of, and even place on their resume as new job skills, and humanitarian work. Education speaks for itself, giving you a chance to learn a new skill, hobby, or even extra criteria for your resume.
The shock came when they interviewed a woman name Melina, who stated that she" was particularly disturbed by the news that she would have to do something in order to receive her special “expensive” food" due to her dietary restrictions. "Melania had been receiving $224 per month for nothing and now just does not think it’s fair to have to put an effort forth for it."
To be honest, I think Ontario and the rest of Canada could learn from this, and implement a very similar law. If you have children at home 24/7, there's absolutely no excuse for not utilizing publicly funded programs for educating your children or keeping them active. I've seen a close friend do this regularly with her children, and after residing with her for almost a year, I was able to see how structured her day was with the kids, and how beneficial it was for them. Her children were well rounded, behaved, and extremely smart.
If people are sitting on welfare, without having children and are not doing anything, then there's absolutely no excuse. These people are draining public resources, which would be better spent for public programs, educational programs, and all sorts of other activities that would benefit society.As a tax payer, we pump millions of dollars into the welfare system every year, and yet our economy suffers because there's no one to run soup kitchens, food banks, shelters, etc. without being paid. These programs would get people off the streets, clean up our country, and cost less than they do currently if staffed by thousands of able bodied volunteers.
Currently, Ontario doesn't have regulations or laws like this. In fact, after seeing our welfare system work, and working with it for many years, I can truthfully say, our welfare system is a giant joke. Our welfare system take money from people who are attempting to work by taking dollar for dollar amounts out of the pockets of hard working citizens. It makes it punitive to work while on welfare, when it should work to top up people who are trying.
Consider this mathematics 101 thought: If you have 20 people on welfare, collecting $500 a month, then the system is paying out $10,000.00 a month to those people alone. Give those 20 people a job, which pays them $400.00, and have welfare add the extra $100 dollars, and you have the system paying only $2,000.00 a month for those same people. At that rate, the tax payers are saving $8,000.00 monthly which works to help an extended 16 people. Now, this is hardly a solution for the system, as it doesn't help anyone become stable, it only replaces money from one pool to another, and there's no actual incentive. However, if those 20 people work the same amount, make the $400.00 a month, and we provide them an extra $250.00 a month, well now they make more which benefits them, and the Taxpayer still saves $5,000.00 to benefit others. We both win, and slowly but surely, those 20 people gain further skills, employment, and stability, getting them off the welfare system altogether.
Let's clean up our own country Canada, let's get volunteers to teach programs, run food banks, shelters, and free programs. If there's a desire to work, people will find a way to do so, and if they reap benefits from both to eventually get off welfare, our country becomes stronger. So push the government to reform our current system and make our country better. There's no reason we can't do this as a nation.
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