Ole Miss Rebels Sports » Why the U.S. has a culture of dependency

catfishboy · 6/06/2018 9:12 am

Why the U.S. has a culture of dependency

Story highlights

Matthew Spalding: U.S. social welfare programs are creating a vast culture of dependency
He says the welfare state removes the stigma from taking government support
He says longtime recipients lose work habits and jobs skills
Spalding: The U.S. must require work for assistance and better target poverty programs

For most of American history, the average farmer, shop owner or entrepreneur could live an entire life without getting anything from the federal government except mail service. But those days have gone the way of the Pony Express.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that 49% of the population lives in a household where at least one person gets some type of government benefit. The Heritage Foundation's annual Index of Dependence on Government tracks government spending and creates a weighted score adjusted for inflation of federal programs that contribute to dependency. It reports that in 2010, 67.3 million Americans received either Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Social Security, support for higher education or other assistance once considered to be the responsibility of individuals, families, neighborhoods, churches, and other civil society institutions -- an 8% increase from the year before.

These people aren't necessarily dependent on government; many could live (even live well) without their Social Security check, Pell grant or crop subsidy. That's not the point. The problem is that Washington is building a culture of dependency, with ever-more people relying on an ever-growing federal government to give them cash or benefits.

This is a growing and dangerous trend. The United States thrives because of a culture of opportunity that encourages work and disdains relying on handouts. The growth of the welfare state, a confusing alphabet soup of programs that are supposed to help low-income Americans make ends meet and do not include entitlements such as Social Security or Medicare, is turning us into a land where many expect, and see no stigma attached to, drawing regular financial support from the federal government.

Consider means-tested social welfare programs. The federal government operates at least 69 programs that provide assistance deliberately and exclusively to poor and lower-income people. The benefits include cash, food, housing, medical care and social services.

Yet when poverty expert Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, examined these anti-poverty programs, he found that only two, the earned income tax credit and the additional child refundable credit, require recipients to actually work for their benefits. It had been three, but earlier this year, the Obama administration effectively set aside the most well-known welfare work requirements, those specifically written into the 1996 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families law. The Department of Health and Human Services announced that states could apply for a waiver of the law's clearly stated work requirements.

Meanwhile, although spending on welfare has been cut in half since it was reformed in 1996, other federal spending on programs, such as food stamps, has soared year after year and decade after decade. Simply put, spending on social welfare programs has exploded.

Under a culture of dependency, poverty becomes a trap, and recipients get stuck. Long-term welfare recipients lose work habits and job skills and miss out on the marketplace contacts that lead to job opportunities. That's a key reason the government should require welfare recipients to work as much as they can. What could be called "workfare" thus tends to increase long-term earnings among potential recipients.

Another problem is that we simply can't afford all this spending.

The national debt is at $16 trillion, more than the entire GDP of the United States last year. High as it is, that debt is about to soar. More than 78 million baby boomers are retiring onto Social Security and Medicare in the next 15 years or so. Under Obamacare, Medicaid is set to explode as well. Within just one generation, total federal spending could reach nearly 36% of GDP, and the Congressional Budget Office says debt held by the public could reach nearly 200% of GDP.

That will crowd out virtually all other government spending, including national defense. Future Congresses could impose deep cuts in social welfare programs across the board or raise massive taxes to support these exploding programs. The results would be chaotic and unpredictable.

It doesn't have to be this way.

We can reduce dependency on government and focus benefits on those who are truly needy. For example, by including work requirements and promoting marriage (being raised in a married family significantly reduces a child's chances of being in poverty), we'll help rekindle the American Dream for everyone.

All poverty programs should be reviewed to make certain they're helping people instead of harming them. Social welfare programs should help people up, not hold them down.

SOURCE: Spalding, Matthew. "Why the U.S. has a culture of dependency." CNN, 21 September 2012, https://www.cnn.com/2012/09/21/opinion/spalding-welfare-state-dependency/index.html.

Johnny Yuma · 6/06/2018 9:53 am

Lyndon Johnson did more to destroy this country than most realize.... His "Great Society" should have been labeled "Great Socialism"..... He destroyed the black family structure with that giant welfare state....

Sooper_Rebel · 6/06/2018 10:04 am

There is no more wasteful and inefficient entity in the world than a government. I ask my liberal friends why they think that the government is the right place to take care of people. If you care about helping people, then donate to a charity that helps them in the right ways. The government will take our money and ask for more and never get done what it was intended for. Nope, I quit being a Republican supporter because they are too damn liberal. Look at Trump's last budget bill. It was HUGE! It was Obama-esque and my republican friends wholeheartedly supported it. I asked them why they did since they were so against Obama's similar budgets and they fidget around the question. Why was Rand Paul the ONLY senator to oppose the bill with enough gusto to hold a one man filibuster? Both political parties are in it for themselves. They are essentially the same. They polarize us and aren't held accountable for anything because they will always have their supporters blindly following them off the cliff. This was about the most honest thing that I have heard a politician say concerning government:

Johnny Yuma · 6/06/2018 10:13 am

Sooper_Rebel wrote:

I'm not a big Rand fan as I think he's extremely naive when it comes to foreign policy... But he was spot on with that quote..... I gave up on republicans years ago....they actually disgust me more than Democrats in a way....at least with a democrat they tell you their beliefs and fight for them..... republicans say 1 thing to get elected and then proceed to cave and not fight even a little bit or do the opposite of what they campaigned on when they get to congress and I hate a liar with a passion because they CAN NOT be trusted....I see them as the "enemy within" and that is FAR more dangerous to a nation than an external threat.

Sooper_Rebel · 6/06/2018 12:51 pm

Agreed Johnny.

How many years did we hear that they would repeal Obamacare? Now they have a R president and both houses of Congress are R controlled. They couldn't even get a bill on the floor.

Johnny Yuma · 6/06/2018 5:29 pm

Sooper_Rebel wrote:
Agreed Johnny.

How many years did we hear that they would repeal Obamacare? Now they have a R president and both houses of Congress are R controlled. They couldn't even get a bill on the floor.

Yep.... Yet they still seem clueless as to why Trump got elected instead of one of their establishment lackeys....

What we had was a peaceful revolt against the RINOS...... People got tired of being held hostage with the "well, if you don't vote for our choice you get a democrat" line...Forcing good people into a choice of the lesser of 2 evils...... and the people said ENOUGH....STOP IT....and sent a total outsider to the White House.....

Themob · 6/07/2018 2:58 pm

The issue today is how people no longer want to assume responsibility for bad results. Farmers were give subsidies during tough times and many became addicted to it. Mainly because government ties harmful repercussions for not falling in line. Same way with states. States send their money to the feds, then feds put strings attached to money that gets sent back.

Both parties play the game. The issue is power. Voters live with the bs because the longer your in Congress the more power they weld so people think by voting out destructive politicians, they lose pull.

Democrats win votes by class warfare. Republicans win votes based on security and “values”.

The media is the wildcard and should be the Arbitrator of truth, however they have turned completely progressive so reality is never reported

This is nothing new under the sun, the lessons of the past get lost and the failures of the past are relived.

Last edited by Themob (6/07/2018 3:28 pm)

Sooper_Rebel · 6/07/2018 4:40 pm

All government programs have strings attached.

Themob · 6/14/2018 11:01 am

I am in a heavily right leaning area. What is odd, when federal elections come around, the conservative colors come flying and people vote in droves. What is frustrating at the local level elections are the pet projects. We have a massive conflict of interest here in which the county owns a hospital. There are a load of county commissioners who are on the hospital board. They do not recuse themselves on any issue regarding the hospital. Since the county owns the hospital building, the board and the commissioners have opened the county's ability to issue bonds up to any large capital projects. This past month, the hospital asked for tens of millions of dollars in bonds for a construction project on property that started months ago. Since the majority of the commission has vested interest in the hospital, they voted for the bond issue despite the fact the hospital board never let the commission know (as a group), they would be asking for money in the future. The hospital pays the bond but the issue is, the government does not or should not issue bonds for private commercial use. why is it ok for the county to own an asset, control the asset that competes against the private sector, allow for these select groups to borrow capital, give unfair advatanges and in the past, fight directly against other competing hospitals when they tried to build in the area. The long of it is, government is a drug, or like sugar. It is instant gratification and no one cares about the long term lasting affects of to much or relaying on it for toooo long.

even in one of the most conservative areas of the US like my county, with an entire governing body made up of "republicans", government turns into a piggy bank and a pacifier for all people. This is why we continue to have urban sprawl as well. People get tired of government getting to big so they move to citizen friendly and self sufficient areas. The more people more to these generally smaller and rural areas the more the want for services like sewer, trash, commerce other than the quick mart or mom and pop service stores grows. The next thing you know, your low taxes and high quality of life is eroded and government becomes the driving force because people allow it. It is called progressivism, it is a cancer and is ignored and anyone who points it out are roundly attacked because you are blamed for being either an obstructionist or against policies "that help people"......

Last edited by Themob (6/14/2018 11:06 am)

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Why the U.S. has a culture of dependency

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6/07/2018 4:40 pm #8

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