The Idea of Welfare

When people go to their local church to give away canned goods, the church then sorts the various kinds of fruit and veggies to make readily accessible. After this is complete, the hungry come to the church to receive some portion of these canned goods according to their specific needs. The church continues this process every week of every year, and often, some of the same hungry groups of people come to have their share of the charities.

This is an example of welfare in a positive light. If people looked at welfare in this way, who could argue against it? Well, that is exactly the point that is coming a crossed: why won't the people getting food rations get a job?

The primary problem in welfare is not in the way it is done, but the way it is missused. Of course there are people who use the system that are honest, like J. R. R. Tolkien of The Hobbit. Tolkien speaks of the beauty in welfare, because without it, he would be unable to feed or house himself. Now, of course, he does not use it, but he used welfare appropriately. Others, however, use welfare as a way to keep themselves up without working. This group consists of the negatives in the welfare program. They do not treat the gift the way it was meant to be.

If we could look at these two points together, the good and the bad, we would see that there is a problem theoretically in the people, not the actual program. But if we look at this realistically, how can we change the people who use welfare wrongingly? Individual inspect each welfare recipient? It is just not possible. It is a matter of morals, not charts or graphs. So all we can do is keep it running, and hope welfare reaches the people who really need it more than all the others.