usatoday.com — A decade since welfare reform, the worst fears of those who opposed it haven't materialized. Thousands of poor children did not wind up "sleeping on grates," as senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted. Nearly 70% of all single women are working and incomes have risen. Child poverty rates have dropped and teen pregnancies are down.
Jul 18, 2006 View in Crawl 4
pollarditoJul 18, 2006
it says right in the description that Daniel Patrick Moynahan opposed it, are they really hiding the liberal viewpoint?
duconihilumJul 18, 2006
The best way to reform social welfare would be to remove it.
thereJul 18, 2006
I think shifting the focus from handing out checks to providing tools to get jobs is really great. Where I think the lassiez-faire types are still very confused though... is even this still takes up taxpayer money... as does the FDA, NASA, police, public schools and a zillion other public institutions. America has NEVER been purely capitalistic... nor has any modern country. I can entertain THEORIES that perhaps a laissez-faire economy would work as long as it is stated as a theory.... not some 100% absolute moral and scientific truth. Otherwise Libetarian and Objectivist types come across as moralistic militant extremists like communists. The truth is despite one article about how welfare reform is working.... there are still countless examples of poverty that exist in America (New Orleans comes to mindl). There is no zones of poverty and crime like this in say Norway or Japan, so obviously something is still messed up. Furthermore America is definitely losing it's lead in technology. Forty years ago it was 20 years ahead of everyone. Today Airbus is just as big as Boeing, Europe even built a new super collider while American taxpayer and corporations weren't willing to complete their own, China is talking about putting a man on the moon-- while NASA can barely put a man in space (Russia even has space tourism). Iceland is nearly completely on renewable energy while America is debating if GW is real. America has massive deficits because we aren't paying the taxes necessary to support the existing infrastructure (that is already crumbling and under stress) The land of the "free" still has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. All this while (unlike most of the 20th century) the gap between the wealthy, the poor and middle class continues to increase at a record pace. If all these pressures continue it may lead to many of the same social pressures that occurred during the turn of the 20th century.... one of which lead to the opposite extreme.... communism. I realize it has become fashionable to dismiss anything socially minded since the collapse of the Soviet Union but I hope one day people realize they don't have to be extreme one way or another. Mixed economies work. We know they work because we grew up in one. We can tinker with the mix and how money is spent but I don't think it make sense to toss away centuries of effort for unproven ideology.... that at best could only marginally increase efficiency.... and at worse lead to a situation where we return to the middle age practice of fiefdoms (except now our grandchildren will call their Lords... CEOs). You don't need to be called a slave to be one. What's most scary of all is some Americans live with the metholoogy that they can continue to use force on other nations to impose their values. Some think other nations can't build a military as strong or stronger than the US. If Toyata can kick the crap out of GM, I think it's safe to say other nations can build a powerful military if these choose to. Based on the evidence of Iraq I would also suggest all this talk about "American" military interests... is counterproductive. The fricken Dixie Chicks are more in tune with reality than GB. I guess what I'm ultimately saying is America has allowed itself to become... well....anti-social. Foreigners hate Americans and even Americans hate Americans. The justification for this has been the economy but sorry I don't even envy America's economy... i think it's in terrible shape and that the US is living on credit that will one day need to be payed. And you know what? The markets that are investing heavily against the dollar agree with me.<a class="user" href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDEUR=X&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=">http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDEUR=X&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=</a><a class="user" href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDJPY=X&t=5y">http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDJPY=X&t=5y</a><a class="user" href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDCAD=X&t=5y">http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDCAD=X&t=5y</a><a class="user" href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDAUD=X&t=5y">http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDAUD=X&t=5y</a>
zonaJul 18, 2006
So nearly 70% of single women are working? That means an unemployment rate for single women of over 30%!!! That is HORRIBLE! Compared to a 3%-4% for the country as a whole, that says just how badly welfare is.
vertinoxJul 18, 2006
"Ummm yeah... The President does not make laws... "The President introduces bills or rather suggestions... Congress squables over the said bill and makes changes and even introduces their own bills... BUT!The President is always responsible for allowing bills to pass into laws by signing them. He can veto them if his disaproves (baring congress over ride) but a president is always responsible for laws that are passed.To say congress made them is a fallicy because without the presidents support they won't become laws (of course the same could be said of congress having to pass them first)
ronhawkerJul 20, 2006
Me too as another recent article says they are really low.
tjblazeJul 20, 2006
I agree. I am always amazed by the comments that our poor are not really poor. This is a sad rationalization. We need to be a nation with a more ambitious vision for ourselves.Further, I wish that "tax" were not such a bad word. It would do us a lot of good to regard our tax payments as investments in the commonwealth.