Welfare State. Ensuring the Well-being of Citizens

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Outline

The research paper discusses an argumentative topic about Libertarian views on Welfare State. The essay begins with an introduction that describes the term Welfare State and it ends with a thesis statement. The body of the essay includes role of Welfare State, Welfare State and the immigrants, libertarian views about immigrants, and the attitudes of libertarians and the Welfare State towards basic human needs. The paper ends with a conclusion that restates the main points and agrees with the thesis statement.

Introduction

A welfare state is an economic system in which government is responsible for the welfare of the people. In such a system, state focuses on people with poor economic conditions, disability, low education status, unemployment, and so on. Through this system, government tries to bring economic equality for all the people by lifting the economic status of weaker brethren. Many developed countries do not come under this system; they allow some of such schemes for the people and these services are available to the individuals who come under certain stipulated criteria or persons who prove their eligibility requirements for acquiring this kind of benefit from the government. Some other nations believe welfare state is the appropriate way for reducing the inequality that existed in the nations.

In the book, The welfare state reader, authors Christopher Pierson and Francis Geoffrey Castles define welfare state as [it is the] state responsibility for securing some basic modicum of welfare for its citizens. (Andersen, 160).

It is the system in which government has the major responsibility for assuring the well-being of citizens. Presently in US, welfare state system exists but political and intellectual debates are going on on this issue. For funding, the government mainly uses revenue from taxation. The main sources of this taxation are earmarked payroll taxes and trust funds. Here the people who receive welfare state concession from the government are not having the responsibility to pay income tax or property tax. Libertarianism promotes maximum individual liberty and it forces the people to follow the world which minimizes or avoids the involvement of the state or the government. This is the term that inspires the people who believe in free will and opposite determinism. Analyzing vies towards immigrants one can see that libertarians never believe that the arrival of these new people has positive influence on the welfare of the state. Therefore, they oppose these kinds of unequal distribution of wealth and they force the people to consider immigrants are just thieves. The web article named Libertarianism and Welfare: Is Charity Enough? by Richard Garner provides the idea that And, lastly, libertarianism would also mean the freeing of the creative energies of people themselves to come up with their own solutions to problems and hazards, including the risk of poverty and the future inability to provide for oneself. (Garner).

Libertarians viewpoints do not support the welfare state system. They give priority to individuality and individual freedom. They oppose the government intervention in economic activities and argue that individual acts as an agent in the economic activities of the nation. But an evaluation of welfare state and its activities will clearly reveal the role of government in matters such as poor economic condition, disability, and natural disasters.

Welfare state for disabled persons

In United State many people come under the category of disabled persons. Welfare state provides different types of schemes for helping disabled persons. In America 70% of the disabled persons average income is less than the poverty line. (Katz, 215).

Old age people and physically or mentally weak people are considered disabled persons. For the well-being of these types of persons different schemes like pension, health insurance, and so on exist under the welfare state of the federal government. This system is helpful for them to lead a normal life. Otherwise they will be a burden for others, because in many situations they cant earn money for fulfilling the requirements related to the day-to-day life. A poor family cant give health care and other requirements. Another welfare program that exists for the disabled persons is their employment. It lends a hand to them for earning money and to lead a life without depending on others. From all these, one can understand the importance of welfare state system in the life of disabled people. Today, the welfare programs are controlled by federal government in U.S. The citizens of US are totally unhappy with the current welfare programs because the benefits are derived by ineligible people. People do not apply for jobs, have more children, remain unmarried etc to get more benefits from the economic support of welfare system. There are certain factors that decide the eligibility for welfare schemes. Eligibility is determined by their income, volume of family members, and critical circumstances which include healthcare emergencies, pregnancy, people with no home, or joblessness.

I could not understand that on what basis the libertarian says that illegal immigrants are contributing to the government welfare system. They are gaining the maximum benefits from the government welfare systems instead of contributing. Generally United States is regarded as the land of illegal immigrants. Immigrants are considered economically poor people and they relocate into the different parts of United States. In the book titled A companion to American immigration Read Ueda comments on the state of American immigrants. The author states: Because immigrants often took hazardous, low paying jobs, injury, and illness rates were higher among immigrant workers than among the native-born. (Ueda, 120).

The immigrants are all under poverty line. Therefore, they are eligible for welfare services. Majority of immigrants are facing challenges such as proper education, healthcare and an adequate salary. Fortunately, US government provides good education and healthcare program for them. The US government provides permanent residence permit and job securities to immigrants which create negative impact on citizens of United States. Lack of education and skill causes low productivity in United States. The immigrants obviously dispatch their earnings out of the country which makes high impact on local economy. Generally the immigrants are not entitled to take medical insurance. Every day hospitals are filled with illegal immigrants who are in need of special medical care but are not covered by insurance and do not have the capacity to pay the bills.

Federal government is facing many challenges, such as. funding and maintaining welfare systems in United States. Many economists, politicians, and policymakers stressed the importance of reduction of expenditure in welfare programs which is very necessary during this recession period but we cannot retrench at the time of crucial circumstances such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and poor economic conditions and so on.

Natural disasters such as volcanoes, tornados, fires, floods and earthquakes and so on generally affect common people. People become homeless and lose their valuable assets because of natural disasters. An individual can not overcome such kind of circumstances without the help of government welfare system. There are many policies and welfare programs established in United States for helping the victims of national disasters. United States has the responsibilities of peoples right to live, freedom, and the pursuit of cheerfulness. So the government should provide support to the people who are victimized by natural disasters. Samuel Nosh and Ora Ahimer comment that Welfare influences the social stratification system. (Janowitz, 93). The libertarian states that people have to overcome the horrible circumstances instead of taking help from government welfare system. According to their concept government does not have the responsibility to aid individuals in their pathetic condition. Generally natural disaster is considered a national disaster so that we can not agree on the concept of libertarian.

Under Welfare State, Government has the responsibility to tackle the problem of economic backwardness of the people and tries to adopt various measures in lifting the poor section of the people. In welfare state, Government promotes the economic and social welfare of the citizens. Government provides free health care facilities, education, employment opportunities and social securities to the people and it helps the poor people in the society. All the welfare measures of the government increase the standard of living of the people. In welfare state, welfare of the citizen can be developed through various schemes such as public health, pension scheme for the old people, unemployment payment, housing for the people adopted by the government etc. In the journal article titled Reinventing the Welfare States, Nancy Fraser says; A welfare system that prevents womens poverty and exploitation might still tolerate severe inequality between men and women. (Fraser).

A social welfare program adopted by the government decreases the poverty of the people and increases their income. Welfare state is based on the principle of equality and tries to satisfy the requirements of the people for quality life. Government adopts various poverty eradication programs which help to increase the purchasing power of the people. The persons below poverty line get opportunities to participate in various economic activities and help them to lead a better life in the society. Personal taxation is an important tool in the welfare state and it is used to achieve justice in income distribution in the state. Government can impose higher taxes on the middle and upper sections of the people and the revenue can be utilized for the welfare of the weaker sections of the society. In socialist countries the governments cover the cost of employment and regulate the price of the product. Workers are provided equal wages by controlling the prices and wages. Government resorts to various social insurance policies and allied activities to protect the life of the people and to increase the living standard of the people in welfare state. The online article titled US Welfare System Help for US Citizens gives valuable information about the welfare system in America. The article remarks; The US government responded to the overwhelming number of families and individuals in need of aid by creating a welfare program that would give assistance to those who had little or no income. (US Welfare System- Help for US Citizen). Government gives attention to the poor people and reduces the inequality and poverty among the people. Equality among the people is possible through redistribution of income and one of the important tools for the redistribution of income is social insurance program. The benefits of government policies are attained by the poor sections in the society and government gives priority to the needs of the weaker sections and the policies which help to come out from the backwardness.

People all over the world are facing the economic and social problems related to recession. Many companies decided and implemented retrenchment and salary cutting. Problems related to recession had their influence in United States too. People may feel the taxation is too high. Plans like progressive taxation can avoid this kind of opposition related to the taxation. From the above-mentioned points it is clear that welfare state is a good and essential method for keeping a balance in the social and economic status of a country and for the well-being of people.

Works Cited

Andersen, Gosta Esping. Three Words of Welfare Capitalism: What is the Welfare State. Polity. 2^nd Edition. 2007.

Fraser, Nancy. Reinventing the Welfare State: Ideals: Equality. Boston Review: A Political and Literary Forum. 2005.

Garner, Richard. Libertarianism and Welfare: Is Charity Enough: What About the Poor. Libertarian Alliance. 2008.

Janowitz, Morris. Youth and the Welfare State in the United States. Routledge. 1985.

Katz, Michael B. The Price of Citizenship: Redefining the American Welfare State. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2008. Web.

Ueda, Reed. A Companion to American Immigration. Wiley- Blackwell. 2006.

US Welfare System- Help for US Citizen. Welfare Information. 2009.

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Welfare State. Ensuring the Well-being of Citizens

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