The Problem of Poverty: Welfare in America Essays -- Poverty Essays

The Problem of Poverty Welfare in the States For centuries, nations, cities, and individual families incur dealt with the paradox of poverty how to remedy sure situations and how to prevent future ones. For most of history, there have been no governing body controlled poverty helper programs. The poor simply relied on the goodness of their families or, if they did not have a family, on the generosity of the reality at large. In the coupled States, this situation changed in 1935 with the passage of the cordial Security Act. The Social Security Act has seen many successes, entirely it also faces many critiques of its mental synthesis and function. In the past, most governments did little to actively aid their poor population. This certificate of indebtedness was understood to fall on the families of the poor individuals, charity groups, and generous individuals. round governments aided their destitute in indirect ways. One of the first government-mediated assistance progra ms was passed by the English Parliament in 1601 as the Act for the comforter of the Poor. This act set up local parishes that were responsible for taking shell out of the poor in their own district. However, the government stomachd no funds to assist this program?the parishes were responsible for levying and collecting taxes to finance their programs. Though it would be considered a very primitive form of welfare by today?s standards, it was a large step toward government-mediated welfare compared to the English system 250 age before that. In 1349, Parliament forbade charity on the grounds that it force encourage laziness. Since then, public attitudes have changed about the responsibility of the citizens and the government to provide for the assistance of the needy. Limited federal assistance was given to war veterans and their families head start during the Civil War, but large scale assistance to the general needy community was not available for almost 75 more old age (Kom isar 48). A large contribution toward the assistance of the poor in the United States came during the Progressive movement around the turn of the century. Activist groups championed not provided workers rights in the form of unions, but also the right of every citizen to have access to decent living conditions (Komisar 67). The Progressive movement slackened during the prosperous ?20s, but the social welfare issue was forcefully placed back into the public con... ...banks could meet the needs of the increased number of people who seek their services. Although it is plausibly impossible to achieve complete freedom from poverty, society need not sit idly by in the face of much(prenominal) a monumental challenge. Indeed, it is the public duty of each individual to aid in the improvement of the lives of poor persons around the nation and around the world. Large-scale, complex systems such as the one now in place in America, sole(prenominal) serve to create an inefficient, costly ef fort that could be achieved with less custody and fewer dollars. Government oversight and subsidizing of private contributions toward the elimination of poverty is a far more efficient, adaptive, and economical way of working toward the eradication of the problem of poverty. Bibliography Garfinkel, Irwin. ?Welfare?, World Book Encyclopedia, World Book Inc., New York, Vol 21, pp. 191-193, 1988.Komisar, Lucy. crush and Out in the USA A History of Public Welfare. Rev. ed. Watts, Chicago, 1977.Patterson, James. America?s Struggle Against Poverty, 1900-1980., Harvard Press, Boston, 1981. Segalman, Ralph. Poverty in America The Welfare Dilemma, Greenwood, Los Angeles, 1981