Response to Sara

I feel that Mink made some good points in her article but she did not completely convince me of her argument. I do agree that welfare needs to be reformed because of the many loopholes through which single mothers seem to fall, but I also think that the welfare system as a whole needs to change for men and women alike. Especially in our current economic situation, the nation should be spending their dollars wisely; we need to ensure that we are spending our money effectively. In terms of welfare, I think that this means the money should be going to the people most in need and most deserving. There are many people that may need welfare but are taking advantage of the system. My father works as a welfare fraud investigator, and I have heard anecdotal evidence of the many ways in which people take advantage of the system. He alone, recovered about one million dollars for the state. I think if welfare reform was passed, the government should include harsher punishments for those that violate the law, so that there is more money to spread to the honest people. I understand that single mothers are forced to work outside of the home, and this may be detrimental, but there may be no other way to ensure that mothers are working to pull themselves out of poverty. We cannot police homes enough to ensure that the women are in fact raising their children well, keeping a nice home, etc. That work is of course valuable work but there just may be not simple way to ensure that such women are in fact doing that. Perhaps if the law included something about required parenting classes or a course about working from within the home such a law would not need to be included.