During the Great Depression of the 1930s, local and state governments as well as private charities were bombarded by needy families seeking food, clothing, and shelter. In 1935, welfare for poor children and other dependent persons became a federal government responsibility, which it remained for 75 years. When the Great Depression began, about 18 million elderly, disabled, and single mothers with children already lived at a bare subsistence level in the United States. By 1933, almost another 13 million Americans had been dismissed from their employers. Food riots broke out. Desertions by husbands and fathers became overwhelming. Homeless families in cities lived in public parks and poverty stricken towns. The effect of the Depression on poor children was particularly severe. Grace Abbott, head of the federal Children's Bureau, reported that in the spring of 1933, 20 percent of the nation's school children showed evidence of poor nutrition, housing, and medical care. An estimated 200,000 boys left home to wander the streets and loot because of the poor economic condition of their families.
The need for the welfare system implemented 75 years ago, is just as important now as is was then. Hundreds of thousands of families are dependent on that system just to remain at a level of poverty that keeps them in the wretched housing that cities and counties provide. To rip away the minimal support that helps these families live day to day would put a burden on our economy just as is it did in 1933. Welfare was a system designed to provide support to needy families that were nearly destroyed during the Great Depression. In modern day society, everyday is similar to the Great Depression of 1933. My mother was a welfare recipient for many years, until she was able to find a job that would not drown her in the harsh waves of economical oppression. Without that help from the government, my mother might have fallen victim to the cold reality of American society, leaving me and my two younger siblings to do what would have been necessary to survive as did the youth of 1933. Growing up in a poverty stricken neighborhood gave me a brief understanding of how living without the necessary things could cause pandemonium in a household or community.
In 1992 president Clinton said “he would put an end to welfare as we know it.” The attempt was made, but failed miserably due to the fact that the jobs given to those on welfare were not enough to support a family, and many people did not have the skills or education to hold good jobs. The number of families on welfare today, is almost as much as the families who are not. So, if almost fifty percent of American families are on welfare, an alarm in our head should ring, making it apparent that taking welfare away would be devastating to not only the needy families, but to our economy as well. Take a look in the eye of a single mother raising a family of four in the worst part of the city, after you take away her only resource to clothe and feed her children. That look should resemble the face of a black woman during slavery who is watching her children being auctioned off to another family for the use of physical labor. I ask you, is that the look that you want to see on thousands of mothers faces for many years to come?
Written By The Veteran (@I_WhiteMike)
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