Workfare Quotes
FDR assumed office with the Great Depression raging, and rapidly provided relief to destitute Americans—see related quotes.
This appears to be one of the first expressions of the 'workfare' concept.
This clause is an interesting combination of liberal and conservative ideas. The former was the fact that it was the society’s obligation to provide jobs for the willing workers and welfare for the needy. At the same time, there was to be no assistance to the people who would not work—a classic conservative welfare reform.
Nixon’s view was very popular, except the reality of the welfare system was much more complicated than most people thought. A very large percentage of the adults on welfare were women with young children. There was no practical way for them to work unless there was some mechanism for caring for the children. Most of these women could only earn minimum wage which was not enough to cover the cost of child care. Providing child care would then cost more welfare money for this investment and politicians, even those hating the welfare system as it was, would not make this investment which would have dubious payoff. Training the women for better paying jobs and covering their child care in the process, works but the investment is very large and gives the government even more control of American life so there has never been a consensus for this. In other cases, women could get work but not having an automobile, they could not get to jobs in most of the United states. Further, requiring welfare recipients to work, collapsed when the economy was in recession. Many women just could not find jobs, and even when the government provided assistance, the state of the local economy determined whether or not workfare was practical.
Workhouses were factories using unskilled or semiskilled labor established by the government to employ poor people constructively. The problems caused by these were many. The government workhouses competed with private factories, and generally taught no skills so that a poor person could ever escape poverty. Opponents of big government complained that the government was adding millions more people to its employment roles. Conservatives have liked the idea of requiring work for welfare benefits wherever possible, but they do not care for the other problems. America instead has workfare where welfare recipients must work where possible but they work for private firms. This tends to break down when there are no or few priate jobs available as in a recession. The belief that welfare will erode the quality of the work force in general, has proved to be a false notion, but it was widely held in 17th century England and is still held by some people. The problem of work and welfare is a very complicated one.
