My job is to deliver prescriptions to people in a very poor community. I see the down and out, the sick, the hurting. I've also spent a total of 20 weeks in villages in Uganda. A totally different kind of poverty. This is an issue that touches my heart and I long for answers to solve this problem. Some people have been born into the poverty and never found a way to climb out. Some made bad choices and dug themselves into a deep hole, while others had tragic circumstances throw them off the cliff. So many reasons, so many difficult situations.
The other day as I was driving I began to dream. What if I had billions of dollars? I had this idea to go knock on doors of some of the worst houses I could find in my delivery area. To pretend I was doing a study on poverty for a college project or something. Talk to people. Hear their stories. Find the people who really want to change their stars. Then ask them what would change their situation. Since in my dream I'm a billionaire, I thought it would be so cool to then offer them specific help. Not free money, but actual help that would change their situation. Do they need a car and new clothes to go to a job? Do they need an education? Do they need basic budgeting skills? Do they need help to get off of drugs? Do they need better medical care? Do they need an investor to help them start a business they have dreamed about? So many thoughts of what might help people.
Then I thought about what is happening currently. I've been listening to Candace Owens and she says the welfare system is designed to keep people on it. I don't know how true that is, but it seems plausible. I hear about people all the time that are truly in need of some assistance and are told they make too much money. I tried to apply for food stamps once myself and was denied. I was only working 12 hrs/ week at that point! That is less than $500/mo take home pay! I have no idea how that is too much! No way I could even afford rent on that type of income, let alone food and all the other things necessary for life. From knowing that, I guess if people are on welfare, it makes it hard to get a job because they may lose the assistance and be bringing in even less money. If you have kids to feed, I get why you wouldn't want to take that risk. To me that says our system is severely broken. How can people ever start being productive and taking care of themselves if when they start to, the ladder is pulled out from under them? Financial assistance is often necessary to become self sufficient.
I totally get that people need a helping hand sometimes. I want to see that help actually help. I want to see a welfare system that is focused on helping people make it on their own. My idea of doing it on a personal level would be great, but I also know that the cost to have our government agencies do it on that level would be high. That would take a lot of workers to go in, get personal, and really assess the true needs and solve them. At least at first. I would think that after a few years the workload would die down as more and more people get out of the bottom of the hole.
I also like the idea of work for welfare that has been implemented in a few places. Those who are able bodied should have to do some work or be enrolled in training for a job in order to get their government assistance. It gives people a sense of accomplishment and self-worth to earn a living. Free handouts with no requirements can often create lazy and entitled people that don't benefit society, they only leech. The hard part is deciding who is able and who is truly not. Welfare seems depressing and hopeless to me. Some of my clients express that hopelessness every time I talk to them. Some are sick and unable to work and it's hard for them. Being able to work and earn a living gives people hope.
I believe that my idea would end up costing less in the long run. Invest in people short term so they become productive and self-sufficient, or support them their whole lives as they barely have a life to speak of.
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