Reform
...an investment that would repay its cost to society many times over. 1 Since that time, the United States has "invested" nearly $7 trillion in programs that provide cash, food, housing, and medical and social services to poor and low-income Americans. But while the nation was pouring this flood of resources into the War on Poverty, most of its social problems got worse, not better. In its wake, a deluge of illegitimacy, crime, drug abuse, and welfare dependency has besieged America.
The War on Poverty failed. The bottom line is simple: In welfare, as in most things, we get what we pay for. For 30 years, the welfare system paid for non-work and non-marriage, and it has achieved massive increases in both. By undermining the work ethic and rewarding illegitimacy, the welfare system has insidiously generated its own clientele. The more money that is spent, the more people in apparent need of aid appear. The American taxpayer has been trapped in a cycle in which spending generates illegitimacy and dependence--which, in turn, generate demands for even greater spending.
The American welfare system has bribed individuals into courses of behavior that, in the long run, are self defeating, harmful to children, and increasingly a threat to society. Welfare's most ominous feature is its corrosive effect on family structure--its policies have driven up illegitimacy, which in turn has been a powerful factor that contributes to almost every other current social problem. Policymakers must recover the wisdom of traditional charity, which recognizes that "one-way handouts" usually hurt those they are intended to help. True charity must begin by requiring responsible behavior from the beneficiary as a condition of receiving aid. True charity must seek to generate in the recipient the virtues and self-discipline necessary for success in society, rather than passively subsidizing...
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