1. THIS MORNING:
1. Film "The Begging Game"



2. THE DEBATE ABOUT WELFARE:
1. Hostility to welfare programs is almost part of the American creed.
2. For many Americans the welfare system epitomizes all of government's shortcomings.
3. Popular beliefs: The "welfare system"
1. is ineffective and inefficient.
2. even worse, is counter-productive: it creates the behaviors that it tries to correct.
3. provides benefits to many who do not need or deserve assistance
1. The film "The Begging Game" illustrates how many Americans look at welfare in general.
2. Welfare system is crowded with people who are too lazy, too unwilling, too irresponsible to work for a living.
3. Society offers plenty of opportunities for those willing to take advantage of them. Hence, most recipients really do not need welfare.
4. Poverty's very existence and the need for public assistance fly in the face of America's beliefs about individualism, opportunity, mobility, optimism, and the American Dream.
1. They thus evoke a visceral reaction.
5. One can argue that welfare programs are held to a higher standard of performance than are just about any other government acitivity.



3. WELFARE AS A "CONSTRUCTED" PUBLIC ENEMY:
1. The "welfare mess" is partially "constructed." Constructed means that certain opinion leaders (both in and out of government) create images of the poverty
1. These images constitute a representation or interpretation of reality; they are not objective pictures of it.
2. These images in a way serve the interests of various political groups and forces.
2. Beliefs about welfare serve various (unintended) public functions:
1. They further reinforces and justifies distrust of government.
2. The poor provide scapegoats
1. Doesn't everyone have to feel more superior to at least someone else?
3. Certain groups use the "welfare mess" as a vehicle to attack government programs that threaten their interests.
1. Example: by souring public opinion about government groups can successfully challenge regulations such as health and safety standards that are unrelated to anti-poverty programs.
2. By demonizing welfare groups maintain their own benefits, or direct attention away from their reliance on public assistance.
4. anger at the poor keeps the lower and working classes, blacks and whites divided and demobilized.
5. The realities of welfare do not always jibe with the myths.



4. NEXT TIME:
1. Welfare: the other side of the story.
2. Reading:
1. Finish There Are No Children Here
2. Squire and others, The Dynamics of Democracy, Chapter 11 explains the specific terms I have been using. You should read it, especially pages 360 to 368.
3. Read over Chapter 17, "Domestic Policy," especially pages 586 to 600.

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