Who 'deserves' welfare?

• the disabled (the not 'able-bodied')?
• the 'working poor' (and EITC)?
• the 'able-bodied' worker (workers compensation, unemployment insurance)?
• the elderly (Social Security, Medicare)?
• children (free/reduced fare school lunches, WIC, CHIP)?

Or . . . .

• those who qualify (irrespective of any judgments of 'deserving' or 'able-bodied'ness)?
• from what quarters of society do the judgments come?

Hays' 'unsympathetic cases:

• Teresa--3 children, worked nights as prostitute, selling marijuana (in underground economy)—welfare check kept them off the streets, though;
• Darla--3 kids by age 21 (teen years spent partying with soldiers on local military base); on and off welfare for 17 years;
• Joanne--4 kids, crack addict; youngest two kids going into foster care; oldest two taken in by parents;
• Teresa--First child at 15 yrs; three kids, two fathers, second relationship ended in divorce and violence
• Medias 'contributions' (Fox, local news in Georgia, LA, Indiana, John Stossel, CNN , CBS News, Adam Carolla, CBS News (hey wait!)

Stereotyped 'syndromes':

‘Burger-barn' syndrome

• hopeless job prospects
• staying at home on welfare, caring for the family, is the best use of time. Some characteristics include:
• Early mothers, ambivalence about birth control;
• Children and familial responsibility serve as checks on wild, irresponsible behavior;
• Go for the benefits—to support children;

  • Hopeless future in the job market
  • Child-rearing may be the one bright spot in a woman's life
  • Lack of faith, trust in men in their lives (but not necessarily total rejection)—about fatherhood

  ‘Candy-store' syndrome’
• drugs, sex for pleasure,
• dulling pain of life on the bottom,
• Characteristics include:

  • Active sex life, multiple partners (sometimes multiple abortions), rocky relationships;
  • Drug user/abuser (and in one case, a thief);
  • Inept with finances;
  • May have some human capital, but it hasn’t paid off;
  • Unstable upbringing—lots of turmoil, breakups;
  • Like a kid in a candy store (a la ‘instant gratification’ from Oscar Lewis' culture of poverty thesis)—self-absorbed, aimless consumption—lots of Americans do this (some can afford it …)
  • Drug abuse is probably only the # 3 problem among welfare recipients (behind domestic violence, disability)

  ‘System screwed me' syndrome

• Government has no respect for them
• Feeling's mutual
• Traits include:
• multiple children
• working the system (and proud of it)
• able, not willing to work
• sense of entitlement
• men providing support (what else are they good for??)
• more independence as a result
• Able to work, but not willing or interested;

  ‘Lorena Bobbit syndrome’

• men are an afterthoguht
• pattern of relationship issues--rejection of men in their lives
• marriage promotion, anyone?

Deviant Values?

But then Hays asks whether these women really represent profiles of deviance.