Our way of caring for those who need a little help is to give them a handout. Has been for probably 75 years now, August having marked the 75th anniversary of the Social Security Act.
We must, if you don't mind, change that.
And, what would be a better solution? Give them jobs. Simply give everyone a job.
This is a state issue, to some degree. States dictate the qualifications for Unemployment Insurance. We can, as a state change it and also change some of the other social assistance programs.
Why, pray tell, do we not? Why in a state where many believe in work, do we not require whenever we can that people work? Work benefits our society, and it benefits the individual. With the economy what it is, the national unemployment rate riding steady at about 9.5 percent, what if we were simply to offer everyone a job, every person willing to work?
Reading the USA Today article, about how a record one in six is now on welfare, I cringed. We are not considering the danger we have moved into by having so many people on our welfare rolls. Even as the federal deficit is a threat, so is the rate of people on welfare. As with anything in life, a person is more likely to try something again once he has tried it that initial time.
So, during this recession as record numbers have turned to government assistance, we have raised the threat of our becoming a welfare nation.
I would guess more people have been introduced to government assistance these past three years than at any time in our history. We are taught Unemployment Insurance is rightfully ours, that it is simply an insurance that payments are made into with the understanding we should then draw from it when we lose our jobs.
I, too, believe that. I likely would take UI benefits if I were to lose my job and be unable to immediately find new employment.
Accepting government-funded help? How long have we heard the mantra, "I pay my taxes, so I am not getting something for nothing when I receive this help."
And it is a true statement. Trully, we should take the help if we have been paying in and reach a point where we need a help.
What I fear is that many of us will get a taste of the help and eat from the trough longer than we need, or return quicker than we need. This is not an idle worry. It is the way of humankind.
Our welfare system is an accident waiting to happen, simply because human nature is to get something the easiest way possible, and keep receiving it if it is possible. Many trully do need help, but others might simply justify being on the program. Herd them that way, and they may graze there too long.
I think of my days growing up on a farm, how the cow could not be left alone in a field of alfalfa, or it would eat until it bloated. So it is with us, we cannot be left on the welfare rolls, but must be herded back to the job market.
What are we doing to herd them back to work?
What you practice is what you become. So, instead of giving people something for nothing, we need to provide work for them whenever we give them assistance. Then, they are practicing work.
Developing a work ethic in our people is, indeed, one of the answers to our sour economy that we are not considering.
Let's provide jobs for every single person willing to work. Let's create small companies at every pocket of unemployment. We can create a small company for those panhandling and begging in downtown Salt Lake City. We can create a small company for those on TANF, for those on Unemployment Insurance, and even those on disability (many of them can do some kind of work, if not physical labor). Let's attach small work programs to our homeless shelters.
Sometimes, it might be no more than giving them flowers to sell on street corners. Work is work, though, so that is enough.
Who is going to create these jobs, these companies? I submit to you it would be better use of our tax dollars to create employment than to just giving out money outright, but private enterprise should be able to support our needy.
We already have so many rich philanthropists. Would it be so impossible to ask put a new twist on their giving, instead of just giving, creating the small companies we need?
This avoids the dreaded socialism.
But, however we do it, let's provide work, jobs, for everyone, everyone who is willing to work. Really, there is no reason for not having 100 percent employment, at least of those who are willing to work. Even those who are unable to do most work, can be given something to do: Making phone calls from their bed, even if but for just a short period each day, is better than providing them no work at all.
There are two ways of measuring a bad economy. One is to look at how many people are unemployed, and how many receiving assistance, and how many in need. The other is to look at the GNP, and the stock market, and consumer spending.
The first of those two can be solved easy enough. Just create jobs for everyone. That is not a hard solution. It is something we should do.
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