User:IsmaelEden/Welfare reform

Welfare reform is the process of proposing and adopting changes to a welfare system in order to improve the efficiency and administration of government assistance programs with the goal of enhancing equity and fairness for both welfare recipients and taxpayers. Reform programs have various aims: empowering individuals to help them become self-sufficient, ensuring the sustainability and solvency of various welfare programs, and/or promoting equitable distribution of resources. Welfare reform is constantly debated because of the varying opinions on a government's need to balance the imperatives of guaranteeing welfare benefits and promoting self-sufficiency.

Overview
From the 1970s, welfare systems came under greater scrutiny around the world. Demographic changes such as the post-war "baby boom" and the subsequent "baby bust", coupled with economic shifts such as the 1970 oil shocks, led to aging populations, a dwindling workforce, and increased dependency on social welfare systems, which inevitably brought up the issue of welfare reform. U.S. systems primarily focused on reducing poor single parents' need for welfare assistance through employment incentives. The U.K. focused primarily on reducing general unemployment through the U.K. New Deal introduced by the Labour Government in the 1990s. The Netherlands emphasized reforming disability programs, and Latin America focused primarily on pension reforms.

Politics of Welfare Reform
Classical liberals, libertarians, and conservatives generally argue that welfare and other tax-funded services reduce incentives to work, exacerbate the free-rider problem, and intensify poverty. On the other hand, social democrats and socialists generally criticize welfare reforms that minimize the public safety net and strengthens the capitalist economic system.

History
Many historians trace the beginnings of contemporary welfare in Europe and America to Germany's health insurance laws introduced in the late 19th century. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced government healthcare and approved the 1883 Health Insurance Act which was the first to introduce compulsory government-monitored health insurance. The German legislation ensured contributory retirement and disability benefits. Participation became mandatory. In the United States, the Great Depression led to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's introduction of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and the Social Security Program through the Social Security Act, which created a public welfare system to provide assistance to various dependent persons in need. This eventually evolved into the system we know today.

United States
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced pieces of legislation collectively known as the War on Poverty in response to a persistently high poverty rate of approximately 20%. This initiative funded welfare programs such as Social Security, Food Stamps, Job Corps, and Head Start. The War on Poverty included new federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which provided seniors, low-income individuals, and other disadvantaged groups with health insurance. Furthermore, the U.S. Government began providing direct assistance to school districts, passed sweeping environmental protections, instituted urban renewal projects, furthered civil rights protections, and expanded funding for the arts and humanities.

President Richard Nixon's administration proposed the 1969 Family Assistance Plan, which instituted a work requirement for all welfare recipients except mothers with children under three years of age. This requirement was removed in 1972 amidst criticism from liberals that the plan provided too little support and having excessively stringent work requirements. Ultimately, the Nixon Administration presided over the continued expansion of welfare programs, however the Family Assistance Plan facilitated greater debate over the state of the welfare system and began the rhetoric for anti-welfare sentiment.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan cut spending for the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and allowed states to require welfare recipients to participate in workfare programs. Charles Murray's book Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980 (1984) argued that the welfare state actually harms the poor, especially single-parent families, by making them increasingly dependent on the government, and discouraging them from working. Murray proposed that current welfare programs be replaced by short-term local programs.