Ok, I looked through the threads but did not see anything to the extent of what I am about to go into.

Welfare assistance needs to be overhauled on every level.

1) Why isn't mandatory drug testing in place?
2) If it were in place it would also tie in that it would assist the abused children of drug abusers (a majority of abuse cases being lower poverty level children) being assisted at a much earlier timeframe and giving assistance to the abusers for drug rehab and family therapy). Requiring mandatory drug assistance and family counseling as well as child care protective services to be involved.
3) Limit the time for welfare assistance to include and require **training classes for a person on welfare who must pass those classes and either find a job on their own or be given a job found by unemployment services. If they are unable to find a position within a certain time frame, have a government co-op of jobs to be utilized by this available personnel. There are things that need to be done at every level of the government but more importantly, give them priority to government positions that come available but require that they pass the job requirements skills. Give them monthly evaluations for up to a year to show their job skill progression.

4) The (re)training would consist of general learning skills that they are deficient in such as reading, writing,etc. Have it in place that they must pass the classes or be tested for mental deficiencies and then be given assistance accordingly. If they have an IQ of 80 they are low level functioning so they probably won't get a secretarial job. Give them a trainable skill they like - gardening (translation - lawncare), animal care if proven trainable and dependable. Unsure of what would be the solution for non-functioning... I guess that then falls to disability category. That is another thread altogether.
5) Require family counseling and finance training (i.e. - learn to balance a checkbook) for all welfare recipients.

6) Have a limit of time between assistance or have steps in place to verify reasons for welfare again in such a short time. Hoops must be jumped for assistance again after retraining.

Well, that is my beginning thoughts. Anyone have more thoughts? I post regularly on Whitehouse.gov for this as well as with my legislative representatives and would like a well-rounded and more fleshed out detail of overhaul.

Thanks!

[edit on 6-5-2009 by mhinsey]

mhinsey, your ideas are workable, sane, fair and reeks of commom-sense.

And that is precisely why the government will never implement them.



[edit on 6/5/09 by MajesticJax]

Clintion tried this, with limited success. I think it's a great idea, but what it does is create bigger government, with another layer of beauacry to wade through.
I know, from first hand experience how mush the welfare programs are costing us on a state and federal level, and the figures ain't pretty.
If such a program is instigated, the ALCU will be all over it before the ink is dry.
And it will never be passed because welfare recepients vote, and those are constituents they are afraid to lose.

the sad part is the welfare constituents are the ones too lazy to get a job much less show up at the voting place.

Also, if it were done in increments then it would not be noticed as much. Notice how the privacy acts were implemented in slow degrees so no one would REALLY get upset until it was over and done.

It does create that, however, if the right computer program was set up so that literally checks and balances were done, then notification of whatever would just be a report on a daily basis so that joe schmoe would receive email notification, telephone notification, paper notification, etc. on what steps are necessary. If they are medically incompetent (ie recovering drug addicts in therapy) then their representative would be utilized.

For that matter, use the people on welfare to work the programs after initial setup by outside source. Use temporary force until first training classes "graduate". Assuming they have the intelligence to learn rote and computer training.

Also utilize high school and college students for the workforce. There would have to be a (again) checks and balances on the ratio of student to welfare probably to really make this work. *This would tie in with "free college" for up to 4 years that Obama is pushing also that is talking about mandating volunteer requirements for that "free" education.

(Which is fine for me. I don't need free but volunteering in free time for an education is an awesome way to get through school without a larg debt - which I currently have).

The drug-testing idea has been floated by some states but it's always shot down because it allegedly mucks with peoples privacy.

Government employees have to get tested. If you're on welfare you're getting a government check (funded by property extorted from me). Doesnt that make you a government employee?

For the sake of consistency they would have to do away with testing for all government employees or permit testing of welfare recipients.

I'd rather we do away with the whole thing entirely.

I was raised on welfare till i was 14. My mom never looked for a job, and all tasks were such an inconvinience to her. Just my two cents, but from my personal experience welfare perpetuates laziness.

hehe well number 5 need's to be more far reaching... You HAVE to include BANKERS, CONGRESSMEN and PRESIDENTS in it too! They seem to have the biggest problem balancing checkbooks.

I agree that we need to totally change the way we think about these things, although personally i am of the opinion that far to large an emphasis is placed on making people 'manually productive' at a detriment to the health, mindfulness and overall greatness of humanity. On paper it may seem important to have the largest possible growth and production but in fact this is a nonsense of what we all know to be true in our day to day lives, we are super complex bio-mechanical machines with highly complex brains living in a ridiculously complex world... We need to take time to understand ourselves and our place in the world around us, to learn how to use and maintain our bodies, minds and souls.

Too many of the problems in the world are caused by people simply being out of touch with the world, getting caught up in situations and being unable to think clearly or quiet simply by stupid people. If society is ever going to work then people are going to have to slow down and take some deep breaths, at the moment it's already like being on a treadmill since the day your born and having to jump through hoops - we need to build a rest area or an off button so people can catch their breath and take stock of the situation before carrying on.

When you leave school suddenly you have to start running real fast, you need a job to pay for a car then a flat or a house, which means gas electric and phone bills plus water rates, council tax, your car now needs new tires, an mot, petrol, plus the food shopping and the TV, etc, etc, etc in a constant loop ad nausium.... If somehow we could create a way that meant it was possible to step back for a bit without it throwing you from the train - then people would be able to gather themselves together and take control of their lives.

Maybe if instead of paying cash money taxes you could donate your time to a project you're skilled at, enjoy or are at least able to do then the country would still be able to remain solvent while providing services and people wouldn't be so compelled to spend so much time at work. The government could (if it were as solvent as say china) pay for people doing such work with coupons, etc which can be redeemed against vital utility bills, etc -in exchange the government will use the workforce to maintain, build and research the utility infrastructure, so everybody wins (or comes out even at least)

The people after signing up have a number of hours they must work, for certain skilled jobs maybe they are paid more than an hour per hour but in general most people work about the same -they then log onto the gov website and book when and where they're going to do their hours that month, maybe with the ability to do more hours and build up a reserve should u want to go travel or take a few months off (i would work all winter and laze all summer myself) - this would give people the time to work on their own projects, learn new things and hopefully develop as people.

The basics sorted out people could choose to live cheep or to do some extra work in the private sector to earn money for spending, hopefully the people having bettered themselves would perform much better at work and the world would run more smoothly...

Of course not everyone could, should or would want to be part of this - many people would work hard in a certain field to pay the cash money tax just as they do today.

Originally posted by NatureBoy
hehe well number 5 need's to be more far reaching... You HAVE to include BANKERS, CONGRESSMEN and PRESIDENTS in it too! They seem to have the biggest problem balancing checkbooks.

Amen to THAT!!!

It should be a school requirement that a child learn to handle banking and general living budgeting. I REALLY wish that had been done for me. I am still learning and I am almost 40.

Well, I was hoping for more insight to an overhaul program that goes into details. Has anyone thought of any aspects of this?

So, to reiterate, please give any more details of your thoughts on how to overhaul the welfare, unemployment and social services and be as detailed as possible. I am going to submit this to whitehouse.gov.

As I have stated in the thread somewhere, hope is eternal but craziness reins. Can't hurt to submit a thought out plan with breakdown showing how the interaction would be handled between the departments (welfare, disability, social services) and an overhaul of the software to be utilized.

Man, my head is hurting thinking about this.

I guess this is something that is even more important now with the healthcare situation coming into play...

Any new thoughts?