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A personal story about personal welfare:
In 1990, my father lost his job. America was in an economic slump and my father had to sell the stock that he owned for 1/3 their two year high and much less than what he bought them at to pay rent. They were raising six kids at the time. The youngest was born in 89. They could just barely scrape by when my father was laid off. After about two months of temporary jobs, he landed something perminent, but it paid nearly half what he was making and was 50 miles away. He left at six every morning and got back around eight. They couldn't support the family with just one income but my mom had to stay home with the kids and baby so they applied for welfare. For two and a half years they were on welfare until my youngest brother was old enough that my mom could go to work. We had no toys, a black and white TV given to us by an aunt, few books, third hand cloths and little food for those 2 1/2 years and for much longer after that. Had it not been for food stamps and welfare, one of two things would have happened, we would have been unable to pay for rent or food and have to live in a shelter or something similar or my parents would have put us up for adoption.
Now, I'd don't agree with welfare myself, but I fail to see an alternative. We need a safty net for those people in need but I don't think that the current system will work for much longer. If it wasn't for welfare, I wouldn't be here today, but there has to be a better system out there, one that doesn't take money from honest, hard workers and put it into the hands of those who can work but don't because they know that they can get by on others. This is one of my personal political issues that I have yet to find an answer to.
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