The Show - 12/2/05

The State of the Safety Net - Michigan radically changed its welfare programs in the 1990's, dumping thousands from the rolls.  Now, there is a new drive to put a time limit on cash assistance.  Does the state need to take one more step to streamline the safety net?  Or have we already gone too far? 

Jack talks with State Representative Jerry Kooiman; Sheldon Danziger who is the Co-Director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; and Gerald Miller, Head of Workforce Services for Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS) and the Former Director of the Family Independence Agency.

Listen to the mp3  or  Real Audio

Comments

[Michael Gillespie]

Jack:

Your editorial at the end of today's show is 100% correct. Cash assistance is the income that these families receive. Unless there is going to be a substantial increase in the minimum wage, this bill is going to decimate the 'safety net' in Michigan.

I thought Dr. Danzinger would have taken more of a social justice stance. Instead, his agreement with someone who helped build the current, troubled safety net was unexpected.

Basically, if the State cannot build a viable economic landscape where people can obtain and keep sufficiently paying jobs to take care of its citizens, then the State should take care of the people who cannot make ends meet. Foodstamps, for example, are good, but if you cannot afford to buy or rent an apartment or house to store your food, then the foodstamps are useless.

[Robert (Grand Rapids)]

Something like this is long overdue. Why it hasn't been more aggressively pursued before now I don't know. For the people that are living off the system this would be their wake up call to get off their apathetic backsides and start contributing to the economy. If you want to get assistance then you need to give something back, and work to make yourself a contributor. I realize these people may not make up the majority of welfare recipients but I imagine it will be a good portion. A few years back there was a proposition to have drug and alcohol tests before they could receive their public assistance but was turned down because it was deemed an invasion of their privacy?!@?# I don't see the problem, if you want financial assistance then you should be clean.
Then the question where do you find jobs for all the people out there? I agree that putting people to work in such programs as environment clean would be an excellent idea. How about this, why not give the unions a run for their money. Why not have a state sponsored work program for the manufacturing industry. Recently, businesses having been heading for the hills of China and Mexico because they can't afford to pay the cost of labor here in the states. Let’s give business owners an option to their current choice. Isn't that part of a free market? Set a wage somewhere between minimum and union prices and let the market equalize itself. I'm all for paying people a livable wage but why pay a line worker twenty two dollars an hour+, to sit there and slap on a door panel or spot weld two pieces of metal together. I recently left the manufacturing field and can say that that is an honest average of pay wages. Not to mention the fact that the union shop that I worked with (not for) employed a large percentage of illegal immigrants. There are a few more jobs available when temp agencies really start checking social security cards.
Maybe something like this would clear the way for medically and mentally incapable people, or single parent families, that really need the money. These are the people that we need to help out and try to make a better life for.