The whole concept of welfare and a social state involves so 
much more than monetary assistance.  The basic elementary 
right to shelter and medical care are at the core of the issue.  

Providing a welfare assistance program that demeans and 
diminishes the needy is not the answer to poverty in this
country.  Food stamps are not the answer.  The answer lies 
in the way the necessities of life are provided, not in how 
much.  

Child care centers that allow the parents to pursue education 
and job training should be provided.  This could and should be 
merged with a "Head Start" program to provide these children 
with the ability to start elementary school in a positive manner.  
There should also be before and after school programs so that 
parents can pursue employment and self sufficiency.  The money 
that is wasted in busing programs could be put to much better 
use in the care of children in their neighborhoods.  Elementary 
schools should provide a free hot lunch on a daily basis.  The 
existence of programs that make a school a place where children 
want to be will make it much easier to enforce discipline and 
rules of conduct.  

The question, of course, is who is going to pay for this?  I 
would hope the answer would be that it could be paid for out 
of savings that would occur because of the numbers of people
who are then productive as a result of the programs and 
therefore are off of welfare.

There is another factor that must be considered.  What is
the incentive for a person in receipt of welfare to remove
themselves from public assistance?  It would seem that there 
is a group of people who have made it a personal goal to remain 
in receipt of public assistance for as long as possible.  There 
should be a "cost" involved for entitlement to the benefits, 
and an equally attractive incentive to stop accepting welfare.  
What's fair?  How about conceding the right to vote?  In so far 
as the right to vote includes the right to elect those who 
represent us in the various government units, and therefore are 
responsible for the laws that allow public assistance to be 
provided to those in need, it would only be fair that those who 
are being assisted not have the right to elect representation.  

Would this make us less than a democracy?   Should the people 
who cannot support themselves be empowered to elect representatives 
who will then pass laws to continue or increase public assistance?  
This is an extreme example, but there must be an answer to what 
is a fair cost for public assistance.

An additional issue here is the "Underground Economy".  A
large number of people, both welfare recipients and many others,
work as incidental laborers and receive wages that are not
reported as earned income and for which no tax is paid.  The
government has created the conditions that foster this type of
activity, but what it really does is support the cycle of poverty
that is supported mainly by the welfare system.  If a homeowner
was allowed to hire incidental labor without being responsible
for the same types of obligations that business employers are
encumbered by, they might be convinced to report the payments so
that the government could adjust welfare payments for those
individuals who are earning enough to not be eligible for
welfare.  The possibility then does exist that over-regulation
has driven the underground economy deeper into the abyss and
helped create the quagmire that we now are trying to find our 
way out of.      

Instead of seeking solutions to these problems, legislatures
are busy trying to enact laws that would limit or control the way
that payments are made and how individuals will qualify for those
payments.  It is important to understand that this type of reaction 
will not solve the problem of people in need of assistance.  If 
we are going to be a civilization, than we will have members of 
our community that are not able to care for themselves.  It is our 
obligation, both civil and moral, to ensure that the means are in 
place to provide the assistance that is required.  Future 
generations will look at our times and will determine how life was 
by the way in which we cared for the least capable of us.
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