William Julius Wilson Quotes

Programs like food stamps, unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and job retraining help Americans get back on their feet when they are down and out and laid off through no fault of their own.

I was once a welfare recipient and am very aware of the successes and failures of this critical safety net. There are those that would have us believe that those receiving TANF benefits are lazy, shiftless, freeloaders who are just sitting around thinking of another way to suckle from the government teat.

When they seek to cut programs that help families living in poverty, I will fight them every step of the way.

Some welfare programs in the past have not been well-designed. They increased dependency.

My mother was born into a solidly middle-class family, but, as all too many Americans understand, everything doesn't always go as planned - no matter how hard you work. She died on welfare. Without the support of the state, I shudder to think of where we would have ended up.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

We cannot afford to leave the poor behind.

With the right support, a child growing up in a dysfunctional household, who was destined for a lifetime on benefits could be put on an entirely different track - one which sees them move into fulfilling and sustainable work. In doing so, they will pull themselves out of poverty.

Ten years ago, Republicans decided it was time to reform our broken welfare system and give welfare recipients the tools they needed to escape the system and build a better life.

Poverty-fighting programs are not handouts - they are investments.

It would be naive to imagine we have solved all our income security problems simply because the roles of the federal and provincial governments in the area of skills training have been clarified.

As someone who grew up in tough circumstances, I know that being on public assistance is not a spot that anyone wants to be in.

Do we really want a society in which the stigma of going on the dole has been erased?

A third of all the children born today will be on welfare.

There never can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed poverty.

What we need is a safety net that lifts people out of poverty - that helps them earn a good paycheck so they can support themselves.

We should be reforming our entitlement programs to empower people.

Working class people and lower income people we have to help more.

Government should exist in order to help fortify the country and make those who are in need better able to meet their own.

The government's goal is to provide income support for families most affected by socio-economic hardship. The support... will be conditional on vocational training and job reintegration.

Means-tested benefits have one incredible feature in that they impose huge poverty traps.

I've always thought my main concern is to alleviate the burdens on people, who were earning less money, perhaps than £80,000.

If you're talking about the narrow issue of public assistance, I would like to see us move to a more healthy system. But until we come up with certain guarantees - for example, guaranteed jobs where mothers move off welfare - I support welfare very strongly. The worst thing we could do is impose time limits and then expect people to sink or swim once they move off welfare.

What happened to society? I go into business, I don't make it, I go bankrupt. I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No. They gave me hope, they gave me encouragement, and they gave me a vision.

I wrote my thesis on welfare policy.