Government Assistance Programs: How Much Good Do They Really Do?

I for one think assisting those in need is a weighty but important undertaking. Such a philanthropic approach is not just an act of kindness but it endeavors to boost the morale and the potential of the less advantageous. It should also motivate such individuals to reassess their own lot in life and improve the areas that are deficient. It may be education or just a matter of learning how to make better judgments. Benefactors of such programs may learn how to find and seize opportunity better. Or it may be any combination of results.

Sadly though like most good things in society we have found ways to ruin these programs. In general most people are aware that these efforts are good in principle but disingenuous in application. What are the problems?

To start we have to face the reality that there is an enormous amount of corruption in Government. Regardless of your political or non – political convictions you have to be living under a rock or be in a coma not to see the extortion and putrescence of the world’s governmental system. And if it isn’t obvious to you then consider the following.

Experts on the USA government spending and fiscal administration estimate that 75 – 80 cents of every dollar earmarked for welfare is used just to cover the cost of running the program. This seems quite excessive. So where is all this “overhead” going? Surely it is not easy to run such a program either. However it would be more effective and efficient if those gainfully employed just walked through a poor neighborhood and gave people a few bucks. For one we would save some serious tax dollars. Secondly and more important those struggling to make ends meet would actually benefit instead of the endless horde of managers and staff at welfare offices across the United States.

Again I repeat I am not suggesting that there are not hardworking people in these offices but I am pointing out it is set up as an incentive for crime. No one is really holding a true accounting on the welfare system or other government assisted programs. In fact the US government has taken money from this program and appropriated it for other “official” financial blunders. This system has run amuck and we are powerless to stop it.

Of course to add insult to injury there is a percentage of recipients of goverbnebt assistance that are outright liars and abusers of the system. They are defrauding and stealing what little money is left after the government has squandered its enormous slice of the pie. Not to mention we supposedly pay people to find these criminals. And according to people who know the system, these regulators are not worth the money they get as a whole. It costs more to find the abusers than the amount of money that would be wrongfully embezzled by false claimants.