Returning To Work

Going back to my definition of Liberal (give them fish) and Conservative (teach them to fish), we have this from IBD:

Posted 4/6/2006
Welfare State: The welfare rolls in New York City are down to 1964 levels — extraordinary proof that welfare reform has worked there as elsewhere. That's good news for all except true believers in big government.

Those getting welfare in the Big Apple now number about 400,000, the city's Human Resources Administration reported this week. That's a big drop from the city's peak of close to 1.2 million welfare recipients in 1995.

New York achieved this shining success because former Mayor Rudy Giuliani converted the government culture of entitlement into one that demands that the able-bodied work — a policy Mayor Michael Bloomberg has continued, though with a lower profile. Briefly, here's how it works: Those getting benefits are scrutinized, and those abusing the system are removed from the rolls.

To do this, welfare offices were changed into job-search centers; case workers became "job opportunity specialists"; and welfare recipients were required to get used to work through the city's Work Experience Program.

Never letting a silver lining ruin a gloomy day, The New York Times notes these cuts in government dependency occur "amid concerns about income inequality . . . and new signs that poor families are having a harder time meeting housing and food costs."

Welfare reform at the national level shows success is greatest where people are most responsible for solving their own problems.

Miami, for instance, cut off all cash aid after only two or three years when recipients refused to work. As a result, from 1993 to 2002 the welfare caseload in Miami-Dade County plunged 75%.
An analysis of welfare and jobs data by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. found that after 1996, "there was a sudden and significant increase both in the percentage of welfare recipients who became employed and in the duration of their employment."

When welfare reform was reauthorized in February, the get-tough strategy was bolstered. "States will now be required to look at their welfare cases and see who's participating," Kirk Johnson, a senior analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told us.

Far from being an "attack on the poor," as some have argued, welfare reform has been an amazing success — on the national and local levels. This success is so resounding, and so clear cut, that some even contemplate the end of welfare itself.

"The welfare state produces its own destruction," Charles Murray argues in a new book, "In Our Hands." "The process takes decades to play out, but it is inexorable."

We hope Mr. Murray is right. We think he is.

Comment:
While the results are not perfect, they are still moving in the right direction. Who has a better chance of improving their position in life, those that are in the job market albiet at a low paying job, or those who sit at home and wait for their monthly check from the big government?

Perhaps those agricultural states can tie their programs in with the local farming industry and relieve the "need" to employ illegal aliens to get the strawberries picked!