Civil rights issues were at the forefront of the political agenda in the early s. The Civil Rights Act of was a critical piece of legislation toward reducing the social inequalities and discrimination that minorities, particularly African Americans, had lived with since their arrival on the North American shores in the s.
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith influenced the thinking of President John Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson LBJ , pointing out that, while much of society was experiencing unprecedented affluence, there were major pockets of persistent poverty. Important programs to come out of the Great Society included Food Stamps, Medicaid state-administered health insurance , and Medicare old-age health insurance.
There were a great many community organizing and development projects that emerged during this time as well, which helped inner city residents, a largely non-white population, gain access to welfare assistance programs that had been denied them in previous decades.
Do you know what a COLA is? A cost-of-living adjustment and you thought it was a sickly-sweet soft drink! The idea is to ensure that social security and Food Stamp programs keep up with inflation rates, and the COLA has been one of the reasons that welfare budgets have greatly increased as a proportion of the overall budget.
As several social scientists have observed, the reasons probably had as much to do with making sure consumers had some purchasing power, than with ensuring that no one fell deeper into poverty.
In addition, as medical technologies have improved, people have lived longer, and health care costs have greatly increased. Many of the issues today dealing with welfare are about where the money will come from, as much as who is deserving of social welfare. Here is a breakdown of some of the welfare expenditures as a percent of the total U. States well, most, but not Oregon use sales taxes to fund social welfare programs.
Most states also levy an income tax. Property taxes are generally the main source of funding for public schools Oregon has limited this, also, through referenda. In the post s climate, there was a concerted effort to scale back welfare expenditures, attack and scale back the increasing political clout of labor unions, and make welfare as unattractive as possible while at the same time lowering wages.
There was more going on in the world—it was during the s that the globalization of the economy really began to take off. What kinds of jobs were heading out of the country, to where, and what kinds of jobs were replacing those lost?
What was likely happening to wages, in other words, is there a connection between lost union and factory jobs and stagnating wages? Ronald Reagan was president from This welfare queen, African American, supposedly had ripped off the government for hundreds of thousands of dollars, used different aliases and addresses, and would drive up in her Cadillac to pick up here welfare checks. The story had elements of truth, but its use by a president to represent welfare programs was irresponsible.
The idea that welfare creates dependency received support from the highest levels in the s. Programs are available to those who qualify to provide welfare help in the areas of health, housing, tax relief, and cash assistance. Where are the most poverty-stricken areas in your state?
We breakdown over 3, counties nationwide and show the rank the best and worst communities by poverty rate in your area. We breakdown over 3, counties nationwide and rank states with the most and least social security payments given to residents.
Which areas receive the most food stamp public assistance in your state? We breakdown over 3, counties nationwide and rank communities with the most and least food and nutrional supplements given to residents. W Welfare Info. The History of Welfare An Introduction to the History of Welfare in America Welfare in the United States commonly refers to the federal government welfare programs that have been put in place to assist the unemployed or underemployed. Historical Poverty Rate in the US Welfare is a fluid topic that cannot be discussed without first understanding the history of poverty in the United States.
Early History The history of welfare in the U. National Poverty Statistics Where are the most poverty-stricken areas in your state? Under the terms of the Social Security Act of , each state had to first choose whether or not to participate in one of the new public welfare programs. States retained major control over setting the requirements governing client eligibility and the level of cash benefits paid to recipients. Initially, federal financial participation in the cost of benefits paid to recipients was determined according to a formula which fixed federal reimbursement to the level of cash benefits established by a state.
In addition, the federal government agreed to pay fifty percent of the administrative costs incurred by a state. It was also a condition of eligibility that the individual fit one of the established categories, that is: to be aged, blind or a child living in a household without a father. For many years, this limitation of the federal-state public assistance programs contributed to the phenomenon of fathers voluntarily leaving a family so their children could receive public assistance.
Further expansion of medical assistance for the aged occurred in with the enactment of Medicaid Title XIX for eligible public welfare recipients. The basic shape of the state-federal public welfare system formed by the Social Security Act remained largely intact until when the Congress federalized the cash assistance programs serving adults Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled into the Supplemental Security Income SSI program.
In , Title XX of the Act was enacted, consolidating most of the social service provisions of the various cash assistance titles into a single program of social services for needy citizens, with a cap on the amount of money the states could claim as federal financial participation for the provision of social services.
For more information, visit the U. Origins of the state and federal public welfare programs Social Welfare History Project. Thank you for allowing many to utilize your expanded work and knowledge in this area.
Thank you for the comment. You have my permission to cite whatever will help you in your studies. A federal welfare system was a radical break from the past. Americans had always prided themselves on having a strong sense of individualism and self-reliance.
Many believed that those who couldn't take care of themselves were to blame for their own misfortunes. During the 19th century, local and state governments as well as charities established institutions such as poorhouses and orphanages for destitute individuals and families.
Conditions in these institutions were often deliberately harsh so that only the truly desperate would apply. Local governments usually counties also provided relief in the form of food, fuel, and sometimes cash to poor residents.
Those capable were required to work for the town or county, often at hard labor such as chopping wood and maintaining roads. But most on general relief were poor dependent persons not capable of working: widows, children, the elderly, and the disabled.
Local officials decided who went to the poorhouse or orphanage and who would receive relief at home. Cash relief to the poor depended on local property taxes, which were limited. Also, not only did a general prejudice exist against the poor on relief, but local officials commonly discriminated against individuals applying for aid because of their race, nationality, or religion.
Single mothers often found themselves in an impossible situation. If they applied for relief, they were frequently branded as morally unfit by the community. If they worked, they were criticized for neglecting their children.
In , President Theodore Roosevelt called a White House conference on how to best deal with the problem of poor single mothers and their children.
The conference declared that preserving the family in the home was preferable to placing the poor in institutions, which were widely criticized as costly failures.
Starting with Illinois in , the "mother's pension" movement sought to provide state aid for poor fatherless children who would remain in their own homes cared for by their mothers.
In effect, poor single mothers would be excused from working outside the home. Welfare reformers argued that the state pensions would also prevent juvenile delinquency since mothers would be able to supervise their children full-time. By , mother's pension programs were operating in all but two states. They varied greatly from state to state and even from county to county within a state. Administered in most cases by state juvenile courts, mother's pensions mainly benefitted families headed by white widows.
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