Liberals do not believe welfare programs like food stamps are intended to lift people out of poverty. Such programs exist as an unfortunate safety net to the very poor. It is a necessary evil in an economy where wages for the poor are WAY behind on inflation. It is also important to note that 83% of households on food stamps have at least one child living in them. That means that even if you want to argue that any adult on food stamps is a self-defeating loser, it doesn't change the fact that kids in that family are in desperate need of proper nutrition for their development.
Conservatives like to argue that the poor are responsible for lifting themselves out of poverty, not the government. Now this is certainly true to a degree and is a fair point, but this logic ignores the nature of the economy that we live in. Low wage jobs greatly outnumber higher wage jobs and low wages are way behind on current cost of living standards. That means millions of people have NO CHOICE but to accept shitty paying jobs.
No liberal/democrat in general believes that welfare will end poverty. Have you noticed that one of the polcies of dems is to raise the minimum wage? Millions of people currently on welfare would no longer qualify for it if they made a decent wage.That is the ONLY way to fix poverty. Wages in the middle class and poor have been flat for DECADES while inflation is way ahead. What is the incentive for the private market to raise wages on its own if business owners can maximize profit by keeping wages so low?
HUH
WTF
FROM THE FATHER OF THE "WAR OF POVERTY" ONE
LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON
"Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope--some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity.
This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort.
It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest Nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it. One thousand dollars invested in salvaging an unemployable youth today can return $40,000 or more in his lifetime.
Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support. But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the State and the local level and must be supported and directed by State and local efforts.
For the war against poverty will not be won here in Washington. It must be won in the field, in every private home, in every public office, from the courthouse to the White House.
The program I shall propose will emphasize this cooperative approach to help that one-fifth of all American families with incomes too small to even meet their basic needs.
Our chief weapons in a more pinpointed attack will be better schools, and better health, and better homes, and better training, and better job opportunities to help more Americans, especially young Americans, escape from squalor and misery and unemployment rolls where other citizens help to carry them"
