A Brief History of Welfare for Middle-Class Americans

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/a-brief-history-of-welfare-for-middle-class-americans/68991/

by michaelchisari • 16 years ago

7 24 16 years ago

shawndumas12• 16 years ago

Wait; let me get this straight... The government not taking as much of my own money away from me is welfare?!

The point is broader than that. For instance, many people (excepting children) who go on food stamps, disability, or welfare are often people who have paid into the system over the course of their life. In that sense, the social safety net is an example of the government simply giving back their tax money.

So in that same sense, there exist massive programs of subsidization of the middle class and even the wealthy, just as there is of those who take in welfare or unemployment benefits.

Ultimately, the point the article is making is that society is an interlocking set of dependencies, and that demonizing one group for receiving government payouts ignores the complex social dependencies that all economic classes have in some form or another.

shawndumas12• 16 years ago

Are there people that are on food stamps, disability, or welfare that haven't paid sufficiently into 'the system' to off set the cost of them consuming said services?

fleitz• 16 years ago

Just because gov't programs for the middle class cost a lot of money doesn't mean they are delivering actual benefit.

Given the example of medicare vs. insurance tax deductions for employers, I think the economy would be much better off with insurance tax deductions for everyone and no medicare. Or no insurance tax deductions and no medicare. There are plenty of ways to make healthcare cheaper and less bureaucratic.

If the middle class put the squeeze on gov't expenditures that won't mean that middle class benefits will be the first to be cut, they'll likely be last.

A Brief History of Welfare for Middle-Class Americans

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