What Do You Think Of When You Hear the Word "Welfare"?

There isn't a word in the Minnesota lexicon that conjures up more distinctly different images among our citizens than "welfare."   During a lot of the legislative debates, stereotypes of individuals who misuse state debit cards, vacation all over the country on state money and refuse to work to stay on public stipends, were discussed in legislative hearings.

And of course, there are a few individuals who can fit those descriptions.  However, the vast majority of state assistance recipients are there for very good reasons... and when the economy is in recession, the increase in numbers of people who need help can have a profound effect on state budgeting.

When I was a kid, my family had to go on state assistance in North Dakota for a time.  My family had a small farm during a time when commodity prices were pretty meager.  Then my father had a stroke and quite frankly, we had nowhere else to turn.  We were dependent on Social Security disability and state aid.  But with a heavy dose of determination, my father fought back from that stroke to find a job he could handle.  We rented out the farm land and lived from paycheck to paycheck, never again to need direct state aid.

I went to school on financial assistance reserved for poor people (another type of state assistance).  With a combination of work study, financial grants, and reduced rate student loans, I made it through college and became a comfortably employed tax paying citizen.  I am grateful for that opportunity and I have not forgotten how important a role state assistance had for our family.  I have a brother and sister who are also doing well thanks to that helping hand of years ago.

My family is not all that unique in that regard.  Many people who complain about "welfare" now, probably had some state help in one form or another.  But that is what state assistance is... it's a safety net.  Help when we can't quite get over the hump.  In a majority of cases these days, it is help needed for health reasons.  State aid and state health insurance are vital to a lot of poor people as a bridge to better times.

We also tend to forget that state aid doesn't just go to the poor.  A lot of profitable industries come to the legislature for hand outs.  Ethanol, mining, or the leisure industries to name a few.  And of course, our sports teams just can't make their billions work without state aid for stadiums and venues.   That, of course, is not considered welfare -- because we think of those handouts as investments. 

Well, people are investments as well.  Maybe there are a few who will abuse the system, but it is hard to imagine that all of the state welfare "cheats" put together could have been a bigger fraud than the individual cases of Denny Hecker or Tom Petters.

The world is a complicated place and in order for everyone to have a chance, we all have to look out for each other.  I think its time that we get over the stereotypes that are all too prevalent in our political rhetoric and work toward solutions that have a positive outcome... for all of us.

-Dave Mindeman,  mnpACT!