Democratic Socialism

I am posting a story recently published in Talk About Town.  If you have already read the article and want to see the additional comments drop down below the dotted line.

Florida passed a new state law that requires drug testing for welfare recipients.  "While there are certainly legitimate needs for public assistance, it is unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction," Governor Rick Scott said in a news release. "This new law will encourage personal accountability and will help to prevent the misuse of tax dollars.” says Scott who pushed for the law.  In Florida alone over 113 thousand people are currently receiving temporary cash assistance.  While state law makers feel this will root out welfare recipients who are using public dollars to buy drugs, Democrats and advocates for the poor say the requirement could violate individuals' constitutional rights to privacy, and the American Civil Liberties Union is likely to challenge the law in court.  Currently seven other states are considering this same legislation.  Pastor George Scott from Orlando said, "At times I feel like there are so many hurdles that they keep genuine people with real needs from getting help… Kids could end up paying the price for parents' irresponsibility," he said."  I wouldn't want that to happen. I wouldn't want them to pay the price for mistakes the parents are making." Well, I don’t either, but should these kids be in the hands of parents if they are drug users?  Now I am the last person to kick someone when they are already down, and I know many people who are on assistance that really need it.  However, I spent over 25 years in Human Resources, and over the last 10 years I’ve had a lot of interaction with people who were benefiting from welfare that walked into our company “looking for work”. Unfortunately, I also saw an increased trend of those same people failing drug tests.  I found my staff spent as many as 10 hours a week per staff member completing food stamp, housing, childcare and other welfare benefit paperwork.  What was sad, when we would call many of these same people for work, they would turn us down for various reasons.  I have actually been told “no, Oprah has a show I wanted to see on today, can I start tomorrow?”  I don’t know if drugs are the only problem we are battling in this day and time.  There is under-education, lack of work ethics, inflated cost of living expectations, just to name a few.   I think we all have a responsibility as citizens to help solve the welfare problems, not just turn and act like we don’t see what is happening.  I write often about the Center of Hope, with two locations in Parker County, they offer people “a hand up, not just a hand out”.  I don’t want to just complain, I have some suggestions on how to address these issues, do you?  Together we can unite to solve the problem of poverty in our country.

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Not all people who are receiving welfare benefits are on drugs, however, many drug users and dealers do draw benefits while earning money illegally by manufacturing and selling drugs.  Since they obviously don’t report that income, on paper it looks like they have no means of income.  I agree that there should be some accountability from welfare recipients that they are not wasting our tax dollars.  Florida is handling the issue well, if they pass the drug test, there is no charge.  Only those who fail pay for their test.  This law is no worse than the “no pass, no play” rule our kids are guided by in school. 

However, I also don’t think that this law alone will solve our unemployment  and poverty issue in America.  While there is no perfect plan, I have a few thoughts on how to start to work on these problems.

Now many of you may say my ideas sound like they belong in a socialism society not a democracy, but don’t we already have a hybrid of both?  We are supporting millions under a socialism model who are being supported by those who believe in the system of democracy.

I belief if people can’t or don’t want to support themselves, then they need to have some accountability and control over them.  If they want the freedom to do what they want, the democratic system is available for them to break away from government support.

First, I see trade schools and training programs popping up on television and the internet, promising a great career after training.  However, they mislead students about income levels and job opportunities.  I had a daughter who went to medical assistant school.  After $10K in education, she started at $8/hr in 2000, she could have been earning that same amount in most general skilled positions without the $10k student loan.  She left that field after 8 years to go into a clerical field for $4/hr more and just her computer skills, no trade school required.  I know from personal experience as a professional in helping people find gainful employment that most employers require some experience.  They will hire someone with experience before someone fresh out of school.  One suggestion is allow employers to gain some kind of tax break for hiring trade school graduates for their first year of employment; this would help people gain the important on-the-job experience they need to survive in the trade they studied for.  They could pay a lesser training wage since the productivity may not be as great as the experienced worker.  To help those trainees survive, defer the loan repayment for the first year so they can afford to start at a lower wage without the pressure of repaying the high student loans.

There is also an aging workforce that finds problem getting employment after 40 years of age.  I worked with many employers who often selected less qualified candidates for positions.  While they didn’t say it directly, I know they passed on more experienced candidate due to the age, and past income record.  As a person over 50, I know that the more mature workforce still has a lot to offer and they need to continue to support themselves.   Companies could benefit from hiring these individual to train the newer generations, they could learn better work ethics and commitment just to name a few things that are lacking in today’s generation.

Now I want to talk about welfare.  Our answer today is to pay out money for food, housing, and general expenses.  But we have no real accountability to the recipients for working to better their situation.  In fact the system keeps most of them in poverty.  I used to give jobs to people who really wanted to work, but then in their first month they would have to take time off work to make a food stamp or childcare assistance appointment.  They knew that if they took time off their job in the first 90 days they were subject to losing their job, but they couldn’t afford to lose their benefits yet either.  Why can’t the welfare offices open from 10am-7pm, and make appointments so those who have found gainful employment can make their appointments and keep their jobs?  It seems like such a simple compromise doesn’t it? 

I know individuals who are on disability benefits who would love to work, but have some health issues that prevent them from working in the field of their experience.  Instead of using the skills they have, we just start giving them a check.  They no longer feel useful and we the taxpayers foot the bill.  Many employers don’t want to take on a disabled worker fearful of some liability issues.  Why not adapt jobs to their disability and supplement their disability income to allow them to work some and feel like they are still contributing to society?  Instead in our current system, we cap what they can earn, and threaten to take their disability benefits away.  Why not just reduce their benefits after they earn a certain amount, but keep the disability status so they can fall back on it when necessary due to their illness and retain their Medicare/Medicaid health coverage.  Most people with disabilities can and want to work, at least part time but are afraid they will lose their benefits so they sit at home. .  I know of one company called Expanco, in Ft Worth, TX.  They employee severely handicapped and disabled people.  Each job is specifically designed for the individual.  For example, one person who is wheelchair bound and severely handicapped cannot count, read, or stand.  They created a template for this person to build picnic kits for large national retailer.  They drew 4 circles for plates, four outlines for forks, spoons, knifes, and cups.  She could match the items on the template and complete one kit.  They had a blind man with a severe brain injury who did quality assurance.  These people earned minimum wages with a supplement, but they were productive and earned their own money, not totally dependent on the state.  We could keep many jobs here in the states and spend less to produce product, by supplementing their income over and above the cost of building product here in the United States instead of sending jobs out of this country.

Now, regarding welfare in general, I have met some people who remain on benefits for extended periods because we don’t penalize them.    Instead of paying them $800-1,000 month directly for housing, why don’t we have many housing units like high-rise buildings, apartment complexes etc .  The cost to build and maintain these complexes would be half what we must pay so welfare individuals can pick and choose where they want to live.  We could make sure these complexes have mass transit available.  When I was growing up, we had an area outside of downtown called the “projects” that worked similar to this.  However, over time, these areas have been torn down to make way for more freeways and commercial growth. 

Next, while someone is on welfare they should be required to produce some kind of product or service a minimum of 20-30 hours per week while they are seeking outside employment.  Give the welfare money to Companies to build their factory at or near the living sight and agree to employee welfare recipients.  They would perform this work of 20-30 hrs per week and in exchange the company pays them welfare benefits as wages for their time.  This is a great deal for those who really need welfare, they get to gain some work experience.   For those who could be gainfully employed, they would go find a better job because they would not want to work just for welfare money.  The company would benefit because they could produce product at a lower wage.

My grandfather ran the Ft Worth rehabilitation Farm for over 20 years in Ft Worth, TX.  He would  take individuals who were arrested for public intoxication or were homeless to “the wino farm”.  They would get a bed, food, and clean clothes.  In exchange, the people living at the farm would work for the city parks and maintenance department during the day to clean up the parks and city gardens to work off their fines.  They also did all the cooking for the jail facilities.  It was a good arrangement for the city and the individual.  So what went wrong?  When my grandfather got old and had to retire, no one had his passion to continue to carry the torch.  The residents around the farm expressed concerns about the farm residents breaking into their high dollar homes (although, during the farms existence, no such incidences were recorded), so the funding to help run the farm was lost.  What happened you ask?  The farm was shut down due to lack of funding, the residence returned to the street as homeless living under the bridges in the downtown Ft Worth area, the city had to pay more money to keep the parks and general area clean, and the jail outsourced it’s food suppliers (they have had several new stories of the bad food and health conditions of the food vendors since the close of the farm).  These programs work, but we must help support them, and I believe it would cost less per individual than paying the benefits directly to individuals through the welfare program. 

I saw two women who ran a food kitchen and they feed 2,000 people per week for pennies on the dollar, why do we need to give so much money to people who just end up selling their food stamps so they can buy things other than food.  Let’s give the food stamp money to these community facilities who can feed hundreds more with less money than our food stamp program does currently.

I have also met many people who truly are unable to care for themselves.  Those individuals seem to be grateful for whatever support they get.  They don’t complain about where they live, the graciously accept whatever food they are offered.  These unfortunate individuals usually get by with less, and don’t abuse the system.  I don’t mind my tax dollars supporting the TRULY needy.

Yes, many of my suggestions do sound a lot like socialism.  However, the basic difference is people have choices.  They can choose to live off the government system and in exchange the government will dictate where they live and work, or they can make the effort to gain skills, desire, and get out there and work and live wherever they choose to.  I think we are all given a choice.  While not all, but many find the welfare way an easy life.  They spend most of their time in front of the TV wasting their lives away.  Our system was built on the harder you work, the more you earn the more you have.  Somewhere along the way be felt we should give hand-outs to the less fortunate but never built in a system to give them a “hand up” back on their feet, that’s where our system fails them.  I say we stop the “hand-outs”.  What is your opinion?