This is from a conservative study, but other entities, such as Brookings, has very similar findings. It was a success under President Bill Clinton, who worked well with a more conservative Congress (unlike the current administration unfortunately). This is a good study, and please note the footnotes and sources.
Job openings for lower-skill workers are abundant in every state in the US. None of them pay enough to survive, or have regular hours. So essentially, Maine has required government aid receivers to get jobs which can't sustain them without government aid. There exist requirements which would actually move people to self-sufficiency. For example, requiring attendance and good grades at a community college or trade school. Learning to write a resumé doesn't help you get a living-wage job. Getting a welding certification helps you get a living-wage job. Let's see a study proving that. Ideally double-blind by an unbiased source. There's the crux. They didn't start working, much less become self-sufficient and get out of poverty. They just started going hungry. Success?Job openings for lower-skill workers are abundant in Maine
Workfare programs provide training, job readiness preparation, and employment search services that help to connect recipients to jobs.
These services help recipients to increase their skills and to find and obtain employment, thereby speeding the transition from welfare to work.
Caseworkers in Maine note that the drop-off appears to be due to individuals who have chosen to forgo food stamp benefits rather than fulfill the work requirement.
So, if you read, there is also an option for community service (like painting the buildings supplied for you or subsidized for you at taxpayer expense). That would, at least, provide a value to you and the property. This, I guess by the Maine caseworkers, is not good enough or too tough? I would like to see some pilots run that allow men, who impregnate women, to actually marry or be together and receive benefits, thereby actually encouaging , to a larger degree, family formation, and the requirements learn a skilled trade, go to community college, or work. We would, for a generation or two, have to subsidize child care ( which is done now), and provide mentoring programs through civic and religious volunteers, to provide life skills like budgeting, planning, relationship, and other crtical skills. This would be an improvement over the current "keep you in poverty" designed programs the FEDS have designed. They are designed to keep you dependent not free you from it.
I can only speak for California and Washington, but in those two states you forfeit unemployment for any week you: A) undetake any schooling or training B) do any free work C) report any illness D) report for jury duty You also forfeit if you don't list the three new people you contacted looking for work (unless you're union, in which case "fuck you, I'm on the available for work list" suffices). So. Don't get sick, don't do an internship, don't volunteer, don't improve your skills or we'll revoke your money that you paid into the system during better times. " The extent to which conservatives will go to discourage "freeloaders" is appalling.
The study skips right over a certain brutality of the rule: So. If you: 1) Aren't taking care of minors full-time 2) In an approved work-training program at least 20 hours a week 3) Pregnant 4) In treatment 5) On disability You are assed out of food stamps for THREE YEARS. Thirty six months. Longer than a congressman's term. And it doesn't fucking matter if there aren't any jobs or approved training programs near you. It certainly doesn't matter if official unemployment statistics in your 'hood are pushing 15%: What the study proves is that when you make food stamps impossible to get, fewer people are on food stamps.DHHS has a new rule that limits Food Supplements for some people between the ages of 18 and 50. If the rule applies to you, you can only get benefits for 3 months during a 36 month period.
You mean the minors that I decided to have "out of wedlock" so to speak, or the three kids I chose to have by three different fathers ( none of whom have the character to actually provide for their kids). These are the minors I am caring for? So, what is your solution? If you lack life skills you SHOULD be in a program , I guess the taxpayers "forced you at gunpoint" to get pregnant (I hear the complaint but no solution) . All programs have exceptions for disabilities, this one included!
Just so we're clear: You're angry enough to make a straw man about the people who DO qualify under this plan? We can continue, but I'd like you to complete an exercise for me: Give me an itinerary for a day in which you have to spend 4 hours at your local DSHS office. Include getting there by public transport. Then get to your job, also by public transport, and get home. Remember - food stamps are supplemental income.
Who really got your there buddy? Do we, as a society, completely excuse any contingent of " personal responsibilty" for one's actions and choices. So, making people work or do community service, or get a GED, or enter an educational path constitute "brutality"?