Originally posted by: Genx87
Originally posted by: Balt
Originally posted by: Genx87
Originally posted by: Balt
No one thinks it's a good idea for the public to fund drug habits, but if you completely cut people off people's assistance rather than requiring some kind of rehabilitation program probably all you are going to get is an increase in crime. They are going to feed themselves somehow.
Also what are you going to do with their kids? Take them from the parents?
All in all you are likely going to increase the costs to the state with something like this if you want to prevent the side effects. If it actually helps people, that's fine. Eventually it might even lower costs if you can get people cleaned up and becoming productive members of society. If people are under the impression that this is going to save them money and cost them nothing in the short term, however, I think they are deluding themselves.
Anything is possible. But did we see a large increase in crime after Clinton passed his welfare reform that shed thousands of people from the rolls?
I don't know if it was ever studied, to be honest. You'd have to look at specific areas where welfare reform had its highest impact to be able to tell. On a national scale there would be too much noise.
I am pretty sure we saw a drop in poverty rates which means they went out and got jobs.
Poverty rates are related to a lot more variables than just welfare, though. The drop in poverty rates could largely have been a response to the overall economy of the time. Without someone running the stats there's not going to be a way to say definitively one way or the other.