The issue behind welfare checks has always had a negative connotation behind it. Think about it, when you imagine someone who receives welfare some but not everyone thinks of your typical (lack of a better term) “hood-rat” chick, many of the recipients of welfare are in fact not your typical “hood-rat,” but individuals that were hit hard economically. A recent post from Instagram appeared in my inbox, with the question “What you think?” Before I go further here’s the question, “You should have to pass a drug test to receive a welfare check, because I had to pass one to earn it for you”. Welfare initially started off and remains as a temporary means to allow individuals and families to receive funding until they get back on their feet. Now welfare is something that many depend on and overly abuse. Robert Rector a Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation stated that, “Taxpayers should provide support to those in need; recipients, in return, should engage in responsible and constructive behavior as a condition of receiving aid.” This quote takes me back to the original statement posed on Instagram, if I’m a taxpayer giving a part of my earnings to help families and individuals in need, can you at least refrain from spending the money on drugs? I mean let’s think about this logically. If you’re on welfare 9 times out of 10 you’re in need of a job, being that welfare is a TEMPORARY means of aid, at some point you have to apply for a job, right? Right! And when you apply for this job what do most jobs require you to do, take a drug test. Now, if it’s mandated that recipients of welfare take drug test in order to continue to receive welfare, then this means that more will pass drug test given by employers, which will ultimately allow welfare to be temporary aid, which it was designed for. More people have jobs and less people on welfare, happy world right?
Many feel that drug testing of welfare recipients is discriminatory towards minorities, which only suggests one thing, that those that feel this way assume that the majority of welfare recipients are minorities. Wrong. The majority of the recipients that receive welfare are in fact White. This is something that many try to hide, but numbers don’t lie. This type of drug testing posed is not established to discriminate against any one group of people, but its goal is to weed out individuals who abuse the system. I do however suggest that if something like this is implemented that there be certain stipulations where someone with a child loses their welfare because of a failed drug test that the child is somehow still partially taken care of whether it be via free lunch/breakfast at school (if school aged) or a food bank. At the end of the day the children should not suffer for their parent’s wrong doing. Once an individual fails a drug test, there should be levels to where may be the first offense the benefits of the welfare are taken away for 30 days, then 90 days, and then if it still persist where the individual is still failing drug test, then guess what maybe they just don’t deserve to have welfare. The object of welfare is not to support drug habits, but it allows you to support your family by means of government assistance.
I personally see nothing wrong with the statement posed on Instagram, if you’re receiving a welfare check you should want to hold yourself to a higher standard, and not just sit at home an abuse taxpayers dollars. I am sensitive to the fact that many will disagree with my semi-republican (I promise I’m not one) logic and say that the only beneficiaries of this are the drug testing companies. But I feel that drug testing is needed to help take welfare back to the temporary state that it was designed for. If something like this isn’t implemented there needs to be something to help weed out the abusers of the welfare system.
Thoughts?
Britt Daise
Urban Echelon Magazine & Blogspot
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