A keen look at Chapter 2 reveals that, most Americans detest being associated with poverty and any terminology associated with it. In that sense, most people detest social welfare owing to the stigma that comes with it. Any association with social welfare is sufficient to lower people’s dignity, and is considered disreputable. However, it is puzzling how individuals associate social welfare with poverty, and the stigma that comes with it. Poor individuals are often deemed lazy, and always expecting material and financial assistance. For instance, third world countries have relied on handouts and free goods from Western nations for long. However, that should not be interpreted to mean they are lazy. Countries in the West are endowed with industries, military power, better health conditions and they produce enough for their people. By the virtue of getting handouts, third world nations feel stigmatized, especially because they have nothing to offer in return for the benefits.
Perhaps, the foregoing scenario explains the rampant embracement on the concept of individualism. In often cases, individualism breeds capitalism. Most Americans are simply rational, self-interested, and acquisitive individuals. The rules of the game are that, one has to compete fairly with others for resources. Individuals believe in working hard to attain success, anything contrary is abhorred. In its context, individualism thrives on personal effort to attain success or failure. Probably, this explains why individuals are suffering from depression and other societal pressures, considering they take responsibility of events that were beyond them. for instance, people blame themselves whenever their children fail in school, they fall sick, or their marriages fail to work.
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Indeed, most Americans have failed to embrace the fact that social welfare was majorly triggered by dependency. Prior to the current industrialization, religion and family offered assistance to sick people, and the jobless among others. In that sense, individuals should avoid associating genuine cases with poverty. As revealed in Chapter 2 Social Welfare: Basic Concepts, some situations do occur when individuals are unable to carry out their roles in ways that satisfy both themselves and the society. In such a state, social welfare becomes the only solution. Americans should rise beyond the school of thought that people make bad decisions to become dependent. Granted, most Americans would admit that their current social or economic status happened because of factors they could not control.
Undoubtedly, most Americans believe in meritocracy as the ideal approach of handling issues in the society. according to them, by the virtue of having social welfare, some individuals benefit more than the others do. The American society should aim at making all individuals self-reliant by eliminating poverty and as such, there will be no need for more social welfares. However, people opposed to this idea feel that, social welfare helps in maintaining cohesiveness and morale within the society. it is difficult to imagine a society without universal programs such as Medicare, Social security, V.A benefits and unemployment insurance among others.
In a world dominated by capitalism, social welfare plays a significant role, considering that individuals who lack means providing for themselves are assisted. Poverty is real in the American society and one way of mitigating it is by taking measures such as the ones of giving out health insurance covers and free education among others. this is well illustrated in Chapter 2 Social Welfare: Basic Concepts, through efforts by the government to come up with services for people who are economically dependent, and services of individuals dependent because they are unable to fulfill roles as defined by others. such a move simply shows that, the authority values all people, regardless of their economic contribution.
