The Human Cost of Welfare: How the System Hurts the People It's Supposed to Help

by Phil Harvey, Lisa Conyers, Jonathan Rauch

Overview

Why is the welfare system failing to work for so many people? This book examines the problems with the current welfare system and proposes reforms to create a smarter, smaller system that helps people improve their lives through rewarding work.

Unlike other books on welfare, this one draws on the stories of more than 100 welfare recipients who are trapped in a system that keeps them underemployed and unemployed. The authors present case studies that show that being a part of a welfare program can actively result in the recipient having to limit their job efforts for fear of losing government assistance. The book examines all major U.S. welfare systems, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, SNAP, Medicaid, and others.

The authors begin by exploring the nation's basic poverty issues and examining the relationship between work and happiness. Next, they zero in on specific welfare programs, reporting both on their dollar costs and on the ways that they fail enrollees. The book then concludes with strategies for addressing the shortcomings of the current U.S. welfare system. This book is appropriate for readers interested in public policy, government programs, welfare, and cultural shifts in America. It adds a new perspective to the existing body of welfare scholarship by systematically assessing the impact of welfare on the receivers themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440845345
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/25/2016
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Phil Harvey is the chief sponsor of the DKT Liberty Project, an advocacy group that raises awareness about liberty and freedom in the United States.

Lisa Conyers is director of policy studies for the DKT Liberty Project, where she works on topics including welfare, inequality, and civil liberties.

Table of Contents

Figures, Tables, and Appendices ix

Foreword Jonathan Rauch xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction: Welfare Reforms Need Reforming xvii

Part I The Welfare Conflict

Chapter 1 What Does Work Have to Do with Happiness? 3

Chapter 2 The War Between Welfare and Work 9

Part II The Counterproductive Qualifications for Welfare

Chapter 3 What Counts as Poverty 19

Chapter 4 Marriage, Childbearing, and Teen Pregnancy 25

Part III Welfare Programs in Theory and in Fact

Chapter 5 TANF: The Changing Face of Cash Assistance 41

Chapter 6 A Housing System Leaves the Needy Out in the Cold 49

Chapter 7 Who Gets Food Stamps? 53

Chapter 8 WIC: Missteps with Women and Children 65

Chapter 9 How We Disable the Disabled 71

Chapter 10 Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act 93

Chapter 11 The Earned Income Tax Credit: Welfare Done (Almost) Right 109

Part IV Building Blocks for a Better Welfare System

Chapter 12 Patterns of Dependence and Independence: American Indians on Reservations, Barterers, and Immigrants 127

Chapter 13 What Should Be Done: From Incentives to Special Savings Accounts, Solutions Abound to Get Americans Back to Work 145

Notes 169

Bibliography 193

Index 199

What People are Saying About This

Daniel Gade

"The Human Cost of Welfare exposes the downside of America's welfare programs—they keep people underemployed and unemployed, preventing them from leading meaningful lives. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the disability systems for civilians and military veterans. I've studied this issue and lived it myself after losing a leg in Iraq, and I'm glad Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers are shining a light on this huge hidden problem."

James Bartholomew

"This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about what is really happening in America. Useful, informative and sobering, it describes a dysfunctional welfare system in which one sixth of the population of one of the richest countries in history is living on food stamps. Welfare programs are helping to bring about a slow-motion destruction of the American dream."

" Baltimore "Marie

"It's about time somebody wrote a book about what it is really like to be on welfare; it's a joke. So many rules, so hard to get off, you just get stuck, that's all."

Nadine Strossen

"Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers illuminate the whole welfare picture with reports from real people about what keeps them poor and dependent. One of the stories that stays with me came from a pregnant teenager. 'In my high school,' she said, 'they even have day care for the kids of the students. The school clinics can't give out birth control, but they can take care of us and our babies.'"

Peter Goettler

"Highly readable and thoroughly researched, this book reveals the tragic secret of our welfare state: It is hurting the people it is intended to help. The Human Cost of Welfare then provides practical suggestions for righting this wrong."

Gary Johnson

"When you deal regularly with welfare problems, as I did as governor of New Mexico, you see the harm that supposedly helpful government programs can do. Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyer's book paints an alarming picture of our welfare system's unintended consequences and provides valuable suggestions to make the system better."

" Washington DC "Janet

"This book should be read by politicians; they're the ones who don't get it. If we can get to work we can start living that American Dream and giving our kids the life they deserve, and that we deserve too."

" Brooklyn "Karen

"I'm glad you wrote this book. I'd rather be going to work today, not dealing with welfare offices, and I'd rather my daughter saw me going to work today too; your book explains why that's so hard to pull off."

Editorial Reviews

With its scores of original interviews and empathy for people who want to be in greater control of their lives and its sensible, workable reform agenda, The Human Cost of Welfare is a must-read for anyone interested in making government more accountable and improving the lives of the poorest Americans.” —Reason TV

“A refreshingly non-partisan dissection of the social safety net's unintended consequences. It may be hard to believe that a book discussing welfare policy can be described as a page-turbaner, but here it is.” —Washington Independent Review of Books

“This very readable book may stimulate some alternative approaches to making lives better.” —Choice

From the Publisher