>From the time the first settlers came to America's east coast, a welfare state was created. America has always seemed to be the land of wealth, opportunity, and freedom, so it is no surprise that many of the immigrant who first sailed across the Atlantic to escape English rule were also doing so to escape poverty. As more people immigrated to the United States, it became apparent to each colonial town that something had to be done to help those who could not help themselves. The first welfare law stemmed from the English poor laws of 1601, for that was all the settlers knew. Therefore, it was decided that e

Another Act of legislation passed in 1996 was the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. This Act established a new framework for the welfare system, creating Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). TANF was a decentralized program to take the place of Aid of Families with Dependant Children (AFDC) (McKeever, Zvesper and Maidment, p. 409). Under this Act work requirements and time limits were set up for welfare recipients. The states were in charge, and the Federal Government gave TANF grants annually. It is up to the state to spend the money as it sees fit, although it is required that each state spends at least seventy five per cent of the aid in order to receive the full grant the following year. Another federal requirement pushed on the states was tightening work requirements, time limits to receive aid and, cracking down on child support; providing harsh penalties for delinquent parents.

ach family was responsible for those family members that could not care for themselves. If the person living in poverty did not have living family then local parishes or individuals, such as doctors, would assist them and provide relief. However, this aid was not given for free, the doctors that assisted the poor received tax breaks for their services

The growth also expanded because congress had added a new program to Social Security. The new program, Medicare, began as a federal health insurance program for Americans over sixty-five years of age, in 1965 the program-expanded to include Medicaid. Medicaid is a program that provides grants to supplement state payments of medical bills from that receiving welfare aid. The combination of these two programs crated a comfort blanket for many Americans who were not able to provide with proper health care for the family. Instead of using these new programs as a springboard to propel them forward until they could provide proper care, they used the programs as a crutch, leaning on them when things were not going well. At first, this was not a problem for the government, but in recent years the federal government has had to re-examine the programs. Today people live longer and health care costs more, so in all reality the nation is spending much more on health care than it ne!

Eventually it became apparent that poverty was caused by discrepancies of American society and it was the institutions rather than the individual. In 1929 when the stock market crashed Americans were left without jobs, money, or personal savings. Several Americans even lost their homes and were forced to live on the streets or in shelters. During the years of the crash nearly one third of the nations private relief agencies disappeared because of a lack of funds.

In the late 1970s, another welfare program surfaced, this program was food stamps. Food stamps were set up as a system of vouchers that allowed Americans to buy food they could otherwise not afford. The number of vouchers and individual received depended on their monthly income. Unlike other welfare programs, this program was available to persons who did not receive any other form of welfare from the government. congress decided that families with children should receive the benefits free. This program seemed to be a success at first, but soon there were many people abusing the benefit of free food. In the early 80s, the eligibility to receive such aid was tightened by the Regan administration. The tightening of such a liberal program forced Americans that were abusing the program to eventually drop it. Finally, in 1996 President Clinton and congress provided a new swing to the American welfare system. Together they added a new work requirement to the food stamp progr!

Seventeenth centaury Americans saw need as a way of life. They believed that God had placed people in the financial situation that they lived. "Thus, poverty was an opportunity for 'men to do good' and help one another out" (Chaltain, 1995). A lot

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Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)