Having administered welfare programs as a large part of my work tenure, what I can tell you is that poverty is an industry because it supplies many others with jobs. Aside from those who have encountered tough times, grew up in dysfunctional families, or made bad decisions, the premise of the welfare system is not to progress people out of poverty. It is designed to make politicians look as if they are benevolent & Godlike by taking from Peter to pay Paul. However, the system neglects real-time payments that reflect the cost of living & does not do anything in the form of job training, family counseling, life skills, civics. The lifeline is a means-tested one that supplies a mere stipend--one to keep one hooked to the system for the sheer sake of staying alive but never enough to save for a rainy day nor to push one out beyond. Therefore, the poor are dependent on the class of politicians who claim to preface empathy for them while at the same time that group of lawmakers rely on the poor for their votes to stay in office. And it happens generation after generation. I found that this was the most dehumanizing practice--not to allow people to progress to some skill. Give a man a fish & he can eat for a day; give him a fishing pole & he can fish for a lifetime. But the dirtiest American secret is that a certain group of lawmakers don't want to see that lifeline.
