Welfare should be a state that we seek for all – the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity.1 Certainly, as a pediatrician, I have been seeking and helping to enable such for the families that I have seen and those on whose behalf I have advocated. Yet for some families, this quest is so difficult. They need assistance, the type of welfare – aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need – that social programs supply.
So many of us have benefitted from the good fortune and hard work from our ancestors and our current generation. Our “state of doing well” is not entirely of our own doing. The right resources, situations and supports have allowed us to advance in society and enjoy the benefits of this advancement. With that advancement comes the responsibility to assist others in this journey.
But second aspect of welfare (aid to others) has come under attack and labeled as handouts to those not deserving of such or even implying that folks that need this assistance are ne’er-do-wells. How did we get to this state of affairs? How did we get to the point of portraying welfare as a dirty word, not worthy of support? How did we get to even considering how to reduce this help?
Heather Cox Richardson, in her Letters from an American series (November 30, 2024), details how mid-20th century presidents sought to protect the majority of citizens from the authoritarians and the moneyed elites of the late 19th-early 20th century.2 “To address the extraordinary concentrations of wealth and power made possible by industrialization, [something needed to be done]…Corrupt industrialists increased their profits by abusing their workers, adulterating milk with formaldehyde and painting candies with lead paint, dumping toxic waste into neighborhoods, and paying legislators to let them do whatever they wished…Under the new governmental system that Theodore Roosevelt pioneered, the government cleaned up the sewage systems and tenements in cities, protected public lands, invested in public health and education, raised taxes, and called for universal health insurance, all to protect the ability of individuals to live freely without being crushed by outside influences.”
She effectively argues for the need for the development of a welfare system. “It is that system of government’s protection of the individual in the face of the stresses of the modern world that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and the presidents who followed them until 1981 embraced. The post–World War II liberal consensus was the American recognition that protecting the rights of individuals in the modern era required not a weak government but a strong one.”
She concludes that “when Movement Conservatives convinced followers to redefine ‘liberal’ as an epithet rather than a reflection of the nation’s quest to defend the rights of individuals—which was quite deliberate—they undermined the central principle of the United States of America. In its place, they resurrected the ideology of the world the American Founders rejected, a world in which an impoverished majority suffers under the rule of a powerful few.”
I find her arguments quite compelling and further solidified by Timothy Snyder in his latest book, ON FREEDOM.3 He declares that the welfare state was actually created for a white middle class. The National Housing Act in 1934 created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), guaranteeing mortgages and easing the burden of house buying.3 (p.134-136) There was a catch though. If a Black family moved into the neighborhood without federal assistance, the FHA no longer guaranteed the mortgages of the white families. This practice morphed into redlining, the purposeful segregation of Blacks into specified neighborhoods.4 He notes that many whites did not realize the gains from these benefits were from the government. “Wrongly convinced that economic justice was for other people, they settled for the self-deception that independent spirits such as themselves needed no help from the government.”
Snyder further notes that Presidents Nixon and Reagan linked welfare with race (and by association with crime). Reagan dramatized the idea of a “welfare queen” – a black woman with many children, driving a Cadillac and bilking the government for all its worth. Of course, these women were living “high off the hog” through no work of their own and at our expense. He and other like-minded individuals were able to turn the idea of welfare into a negative term and worthy of our disdain. As I commented on in a recent blog, freedom per Professor Snyder is not just the absence of oppression but the presence of good. Welfare, positively applied, is a social good.5
So, I am writing today to appeal to our better angels.6 If we truly desire to make America great again, I would argue that we need to Make America Generous Again. Yes, MAGA as currently touted (make America great again) really wants to take us back to the era when protections were less prominent, and people could benefit off of others without giving this latter group adequate support. Minimum wage doesn’t provide for the economic support of a struggling family. Inadequate shelter and inadequate health care perpetuate chronic disease, shortened life spans, and mental health issues. Shortcomings in education due to lessened opportunities further prolong this cycle. Continuation of those policies make American less great, again.
Welfare (the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity) should be our goal without demeaning others. When we are truly MAGA conscious (Making American Generous Again), we are closer to the ideal of our founding that all are entitled to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Intrinsic to this ideal is the promotion of the welfare of all citizens, rather than the purposeful damnation of certain groups. Welfare is not a dirty word but a vaulted ideal, worthy of our continued pursuit.
Welfare for children is an absolute necessity, yet it is too easy to blame others instead of providing the required policies and actions that government should provide. How did that happen? It happened when we chose to demonize rather than assist those who need it. A generous society helps and supports its citizens. Red kettles for donations at Christmas time should not be needed in a country that values its citizens. Let’s make welfare a goal rather than an evil presence. Let’s make American generous again.
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/welfare
- https://substack.com/home/post/p-152386272
- Snyder T. On Freedom. Crown, New York; 2024. 345 pp.
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/remember-redlining/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/freedom-and-children/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/our-better-angels/