Blog 2 - Post 2 entry 1: Part 2; In Our Self Interest

A Cause for Concern

In this section of our reading , Rank discusses these three points in depth:.  

 1.)   Poverty Argument, self interest of Americans, (Poverty drains us both indidually and as a community and society.   A very high price to pay.

2.)   Reducing Poverty, this is consistent with two core sets of values held in high esteem by the majority of Americans (if we truly believe in such values and principles, then the reduction of poverty is highly consistent with and in fact critical, to their realization.

3.)   As members of communities, larger than ourselves we have a shared obligation and responsibility to alleviate greivious ills, such as poverty.   This is based on such obligations becoming binding when it can be demonstrated that a specific problem like poverty is largely the product of strutural inequities within the system.

The contention that interested me was "The Question of Welfare Use"   it seems to me that he is basing the premiss of the argument on what (Gillens, 1999; Horan and Austin, 1974; Kluegal and Smith, 1986; Macleod and speer, 1999; Tropman, 1998).   Gillens writes, "In large measure Americans hate welfare because they view it as a program that rewards the undeserving poor."  He  states, that "we have seen that a majority of Americans will face the experience of poverty.   In kind programs provide specific resources such as Food Stamp, Housing Assistance Programs and Medicaid.   Cash programs include those that provide therecipient  with a monthly check, such as Aid to Families with Dependant Children (AFDC), which has been replaced by the 1996 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program (TANF) Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and General Assistance.

Rank,  wants to show in the time table; that a welfare recipient receives welfare benefit by age, gender ,sex and family.   He states that" the use of welfare falls outside the mainstream American experience