I think the primary problem with this discussion is it implies that a social safety net has to be earned. That's fuckin' weird and progressive countries don't do it that way.

You want to have a discussion about "welfare." That covers everything from SNAP (food stamps) to WIC (food stamps for parents of babies) to disability (cash payments to the injured or otherwise unable to work) to Medicare (reduced-cost medical treatment for the elderly and infirm) to school lunch programs to Stafford loans. Yet the onus is so deep that _wage went and threw "unemployment" in there, too.

I have friends and acquaintances on just about every form of government benefit there is. Most of them paid in in some way or another. I have a friend who is considered 90% disabled because he has Lyme Disease. This means two things: (1) he is given enough money to live at 90% of the poverty level in the United States - that's $10,000 a year. (2) He is not allowed to work or he jeopardizes even that.

And sure - if you can work, you shouldn't be on disability. But if you can only work a few days every couple of months because you're busy with fuckin' Lyme Disease the rest of the time, make hay while you can! So he gets paid through his dad. It's pretty fucked up.

Me? I got a tip from a friend that California pays unemployment when you have a kid for paternity leave. So even though it was my dead season I got a phatty check for $5600 just for having a li'l taxpayer. More than half what my buddy made - but it was money I paid into the system. Doesn't mean they don't try their damndest to make you feel guilty about it. Even now I'm defending withdrawing $5600 from a fund that, by my seat-of-the-pants calculation, I've paid over $10,000 into.

So when you phrase the question like this:

Do you think that the welfare system helps people get back on their feet in the US or does it mire them in a perpetual cycle of dependance? Or, perhaps it does both and it's impossible not to do one without the other...?

I don't even think you're touching on the issues that matter. The basic problem is the United States insists on making people feel bad for getting money from anyone but a direct employer. It's fucking stupid. If I've got to subsidize four inner city moms in order to help their kids graduate high school and gain meaningful employment so they can pay taxes into the system rather than suck down funds through incarceration, it's a fucking bargain whatever it costs.

"Merit" and "employment" are not related. We need to stop talking about it like it is.