There's also a reason that modern welfare programs no longer include work-houses, which is what the idea of "working for welfare" amounts to. I don't think any good welfare reform would include something like that.  Things like universal health care, job training programs, higher minimum wages and good, affordable daycare programs might be better ways of doing it.

Bruce I got your book today and look forward to reading it, very nice dedication, I bet your parents and wife were so proud!

After I read it I am going to give it to my local school board to read.

Wow! Thank you, Jodi! That's just...wow.

Let's just say I'm honored.

Ok!  Turns out the mugging story is now confirmed as fake.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081024/ap_on_re_us/attack_mccai n_sticker

The welfare office should find them jobs in much the same way community service people find people jobs.   Have them do work at Salvation Army or the SPCA or any number of places that need the free help.  Then they are working for the money they receive.  As I stated before, there should be free childcare as part of the welfare while the parent is working.

I agree 100% with this.

I was mugged by an Obama supporter.  He took all my money and spread it out amongst all those present, so I did get some of it back.  It wasn't enough to buy alcohol and cigarettes, so I had to sell my ass to make ends meet.  They cut it up for flank steak.

Okay, I'm caught up now.  Carry on.

"Okay, I'll bite.  What's the reason?  Why shouldn't people have to work for welfare?"

I thought referencing work-houses would be sufficient. Apparently not.

Work for welfare locks you into a low paying job (well, you're basically paid nothing outside of your welfare check, but that's not it.) that makes it more difficult for you to look for another or seek out job training that will enable you to get better employment in the future. 

Some of the welfare jobs are in effect less than minimum wage, at least to the employer, so that there is no chance of you going from doing that job on welfare to doing that job off welfare. Because the employer would "lose" money (i.e. profit less) by hiring you for real. So it's basically dead-end with no future employment opportunity. And generally it's a kind of job that doesn't give you a skill set that will help you get better jobs either.

You also do not have the option of quitting, unless you've already lined up another job. This impedes your rights and opportunities as an employee, compromising your work safety and your ability to avoid being abused in some way by your employer (not necessarily in a sexual or violent way, but you might find that you're given the worst shifts or the worst chores because you do not have the option of saying no.)

There was a "60 minutes"  interview I think over a decade ago that showed one such "work for welfare" program in action, and it showed people being forced into dead end jobs, abusive working conditions and it was experienced as demeaning and in the end it wore people down physically and psychologically, making them even less capable of functioning in the regular workplace.

I think the idea was that you would put people out in work placements and after a short while the employers would hire these people at a real wage or they would acquire a new skill set for getting other decent jobs and the motivation to start working again. That's not what happened.

And that was the problem with work houses, too. It was just another form of legalized demeaning slave labor.

By the way - I guess, based on the talk here - this isn't a mandatory  program - but I have a cousin with two kids who's on the public tit - but she's also getting job training.  Plus?  She gets a check for $500 a month to raise two kids... which is kind of .. like... I don't see her getting rich off of welfare here.  But they do provide childcare while she's in school, and provide free schooling/job training, so... one expects she'll be off the tit as soon as she can get through the program and begin to support herself.

So... that's my personal story.

Just because the "liberal media" has reported this unprevoked attack was *allegedly* false doesn't mean it isn't something that could have happened.

It sounds exactly like something that could potentially happen, given how many millions upon millions of people there are in this great, God-loving nation of ours. Never mind how many non-Christians there are on welfare, sapping all of my hard-earned money.

I'm going to continue to believe that it is true.