American Way of Welfare: The Way It Was

[regent]

Prior to Franklin Roosevelt, welfare was handled by charities and churches, carefully considering who got the relief, and the reasons for same.

Under FDR, welfare and charity became a patronage endeavor, to get votes rather than to ease suffering.

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) doled out relief nationally to those states with the best political connections. The Emergency Relief and Construction Act of 1932 began with the best of intentions...but under the Democrats it went to well-connected friends, including mayors and governors.

Illinois, a swing state, got $55,443,721, which was almost 20% of the RFC's $300 million, more than NY, California, and Texas combined.
Murray Rothbard, "America's Great Depression," p.262-263.


See where welfare became politics?

Nope, before the Great Depression welfare was handled by the states and states often turned welfare over to the counties. County poor farms, county poor houses and so on. Counties often rented out those poor people, including children (sob) to regain some of the county money.
When the Great Depression hit, states could not provide so a liberal president then had the federal government step in with work programs. RFC was a Hoover idea, money to business not people, business did not need money they needed buyers of their goods.
There is also a beneficial side to poverty, cheap labor and less guilt less guilt because as we all know, poverty is a result of laziness, boozing, and playing the races.
Any government program, Republican Democrat, city, state, federal is going to have political dippers, it's the American way.

 

[PoliticalChic]

"1 in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working"
1 in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working | The Weekly Standard

 

[regent]

"1 in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working"
1 in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working | The Weekly Standard

Yep, the lazy bums should get a job, lay off the booze and stop playing the races.

 

[PoliticalChic]

"1 in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working"
1 in 6 American Men Between Ages 25-54 Are Not Working | The Weekly Standard

Yep, the lazy bums should get a job, lay off the booze and stop playing the races.

Your attempt at being clever falls short, as even federal studies show that welfare contributes to both family dissolution, and the exact behaviors responsible for poverty.

Wise up.

 

[Bfgrn]

In the colonial days of our republic most people were farmers. Land was cheap, almost free, and and it was almost difficult to go hungry unless old or disabled. Welfare for those unable to farm or work was the responsiblity of state and county governments. There is a list of abuses by some of those county poor-houses.
As manufacturing replaced farming town-jobs became the norm, but it brought new problems, people depended on a manufacturing job not their farm for their livlihood and with the business-cycles of manufacturing America began to have recession/depressions and unemployed.
In the Great Depression the problem of the unemployed overwhelmed the counties and states and the federal government took on the job of welfare for both businesses and the poor.
A new status emerged in America, the employed and the unemployed. Those with a job felt superior to those without, and the superor person was not a noble or of royalty but one with a job. The usual superior/inferior litany now prevailed, lazy, won't work, live off the dole, etc. One of the great differences with welfare during the Great Depression was the poor had to work for their dole; roads, dams, the land, rural electification and projects improving our intrastructure were built.

Well, reggie.....I'll deal with specifics in your post a bit later....but wonder if you are trying to cloud the issue?


Which worked better at actually reducing poverty and encouraging the personal efforts in that direction, the colonial policies, or the modern Liberal policies?


Careful, reggie.

Reggie is right on. America of colonial times was much different.

Thomas Jefferson's Agrarian Vision

Jefferson's stature as the most profound thinker in the American political tradition stems beyond his specific policies as president. His crucial sense of what mattered most in life grew from a deep appreciation of farming, in his mind the most virtuous and meaningful human activity. As he explained in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God." Since farmers were an overwhelming majority in the American republic, one can see how his belief in the value of agriculture reinforced his commitment to democracy.

Jefferson's thinking, however, was not merely celebratory, for he saw two dangerous threats to his ideal agrarian democracy. To him, financial speculation and the development of urban industry both threatened to rob men of the independence that they maintained as farmers. Debt, on the one hand, and factory work, on the other, could rob men of the economic autonomy essential for republican citizens.

Jefferson's vision was not anti-modern, for he had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear technological change. He supported international commerce to benefit farmers and wanted to see new technology widely incorporated into ordinary farms and households to make them more productive.

Jefferson pinpointed a deeply troubling problem. How could republican liberty and democratic equality be reconciled with social changes that threatened to increase inequality? The awful working conditions in early industrial England loomed as a terrifying example. For Jefferson, western expansion provided an escape from the British model. As long as hard working farmers could acquire land at reasonable prices, then America could prosper as a republic of equal and independent citizens. Jefferson's ideas helped to inspire a mass political movement that achieved many key aspects of his plan.

 

[PoliticalChic]

In the colonial days of our republic most people were farmers. Land was cheap, almost free, and and it was almost difficult to go hungry unless old or disabled. Welfare for those unable to farm or work was the responsiblity of state and county governments. There is a list of abuses by some of those county poor-houses.
As manufacturing replaced farming town-jobs became the norm, but it brought new problems, people depended on a manufacturing job not their farm for their livlihood and with the business-cycles of manufacturing America began to have recession/depressions and unemployed.
In the Great Depression the problem of the unemployed overwhelmed the counties and states and the federal government took on the job of welfare for both businesses and the poor.
A new status emerged in America, the employed and the unemployed. Those with a job felt superior to those without, and the superor person was not a noble or of royalty but one with a job. The usual superior/inferior litany now prevailed, lazy, won't work, live off the dole, etc. One of the great differences with welfare during the Great Depression was the poor had to work for their dole; roads, dams, the land, rural electification and projects improving our intrastructure were built.

Well, reggie.....I'll deal with specifics in your post a bit later....but wonder if you are trying to cloud the issue?


Which worked better at actually reducing poverty and encouraging the personal efforts in that direction, the colonial policies, or the modern Liberal policies?


Careful, reggie.

Reggie is right on. America of colonial times was much different.

Thomas Jefferson's Agrarian Vision

Jefferson's stature as the most profound thinker in the American political tradition stems beyond his specific policies as president. His crucial sense of what mattered most in life grew from a deep appreciation of farming, in his mind the most virtuous and meaningful human activity. As he explained in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God." Since farmers were an overwhelming majority in the American republic, one can see how his belief in the value of agriculture reinforced his commitment to democracy.

Jefferson's thinking, however, was not merely celebratory, for he saw two dangerous threats to his ideal agrarian democracy. To him, financial speculation and the development of urban industry both threatened to rob men of the independence that they maintained as farmers. Debt, on the one hand, and factory work, on the other, could rob men of the economic autonomy essential for republican citizens.

Jefferson's vision was not anti-modern, for he had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear technological change. He supported international commerce to benefit farmers and wanted to see new technology widely incorporated into ordinary farms and households to make them more productive.

Jefferson pinpointed a deeply troubling problem. How could republican liberty and democratic equality be reconciled with social changes that threatened to increase inequality? The awful working conditions in early industrial England loomed as a terrifying example. For Jefferson, western expansion provided an escape from the British model. As long as hard working farmers could acquire land at reasonable prices, then America could prosper as a republic of equal and independent citizens. Jefferson's ideas helped to inspire a mass political movement that achieved many key aspects of his plan.

Uh, oh!


There's the 'kiss of death'.....

....you agree with someone, and everyone knows they have to be wrong.

 

[Bfgrn]

Well, reggie.....I'll deal with specifics in your post a bit later....but wonder if you are trying to cloud the issue?


Which worked better at actually reducing poverty and encouraging the personal efforts in that direction, the colonial policies, or the modern Liberal policies?


Careful, reggie.

Reggie is right on. America of colonial times was much different.

Thomas Jefferson's Agrarian Vision

Jefferson's stature as the most profound thinker in the American political tradition stems beyond his specific policies as president. His crucial sense of what mattered most in life grew from a deep appreciation of farming, in his mind the most virtuous and meaningful human activity. As he explained in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God." Since farmers were an overwhelming majority in the American republic, one can see how his belief in the value of agriculture reinforced his commitment to democracy.

Jefferson's thinking, however, was not merely celebratory, for he saw two dangerous threats to his ideal agrarian democracy. To him, financial speculation and the development of urban industry both threatened to rob men of the independence that they maintained as farmers. Debt, on the one hand, and factory work, on the other, could rob men of the economic autonomy essential for republican citizens.

Jefferson's vision was not anti-modern, for he had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear technological change. He supported international commerce to benefit farmers and wanted to see new technology widely incorporated into ordinary farms and households to make them more productive.

Jefferson pinpointed a deeply troubling problem. How could republican liberty and democratic equality be reconciled with social changes that threatened to increase inequality? The awful working conditions in early industrial England loomed as a terrifying example. For Jefferson, western expansion provided an escape from the British model. As long as hard working farmers could acquire land at reasonable prices, then America could prosper as a republic of equal and independent citizens. Jefferson's ideas helped to inspire a mass political movement that achieved many key aspects of his plan.

Uh, oh!


There's the 'kiss of death'.....

....you agree with someone, and everyone knows they have to be wrong.

You are incapable of civil conversation. As always...

 

[PoliticalChic]

Reggie is right on. America of colonial times was much different.

Thomas Jefferson's Agrarian Vision

Jefferson's stature as the most profound thinker in the American political tradition stems beyond his specific policies as president. His crucial sense of what mattered most in life grew from a deep appreciation of farming, in his mind the most virtuous and meaningful human activity. As he explained in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), "Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God." Since farmers were an overwhelming majority in the American republic, one can see how his belief in the value of agriculture reinforced his commitment to democracy.

Jefferson's thinking, however, was not merely celebratory, for he saw two dangerous threats to his ideal agrarian democracy. To him, financial speculation and the development of urban industry both threatened to rob men of the independence that they maintained as farmers. Debt, on the one hand, and factory work, on the other, could rob men of the economic autonomy essential for republican citizens.

Jefferson's vision was not anti-modern, for he had too brilliant a scientific mind to fear technological change. He supported international commerce to benefit farmers and wanted to see new technology widely incorporated into ordinary farms and households to make them more productive.

Jefferson pinpointed a deeply troubling problem. How could republican liberty and democratic equality be reconciled with social changes that threatened to increase inequality? The awful working conditions in early industrial England loomed as a terrifying example. For Jefferson, western expansion provided an escape from the British model. As long as hard working farmers could acquire land at reasonable prices, then America could prosper as a republic of equal and independent citizens. Jefferson's ideas helped to inspire a mass political movement that achieved many key aspects of his plan.

Uh, oh!


There's the 'kiss of death'.....

....you agree with someone, and everyone knows they have to be wrong.

You are incapable of civil conversation. As always...

I'm not always rude and sarcastic. Sometimes I'm asleep.