Welfare | A Lack of Opportunities Keeps the Poor on Welfare
Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein interviewed 214 welfarereliant women in the early 1990s about the economic circumstances that led them to choose welfare benefits over work. In the following viewpoint, the authors maintain that the minimum wage jobs available to unskilled single mothers leave them no better off financially than remaining or signing onto the welfare rolls. According to Edin and Lein, lowwage work does not offer the training, experience, or education that would facilitate advancement into higher paying jobs and lacks the medical coverage available to families under the welfare...
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- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Does Welfare Encourage Dependence?
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Chapter 2: Is Abuse of the Welfare System a Serious Problem?
- Chapter 2 Preface
- Welfare Fraud Is Widespread
- Insufficient Welfare Benefits Encourage Fraud
- The Government Must Enforce Child Welfare Payments
- Noncustodial Fathers Should Not Be Required to Pay Child Support
- Refugees Deserve Welfare Assistance from the Government
- Refugees Should Be Discouraged from Accepting Welfare
- Chapter 2 Periodical Bibliography
- Chapter 3: Can Private Efforts Replace the Welfare System?
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Chapter 4: How Should Welfare Be Reformed?
- Chapter 4 Preface
- The Government Should Discourage Welfare Dependency
- Welfare Recipients Need More Government Assistance
- Work Requirements and Government Subsidies Will Reduce Poverty
- Work Requirements Harm Poor Mothers
- Welfare Policies Should Discourage Out-of-Wedlock Births
- Welfare Policies Should Not Promote Marriage
- Chapter 4 Periodical Bibliography
- For Further Discussion
- Organizations to Contact
- Bibliography
- Copyright
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