How Welfare Helps Moms Establish Careers
Last updated: June 26, 2012 by Susan
Amanda Lamon was just 18 when she found out she was pregnant. People all around her told her that it would then be impossible for her to pursue a career, saying “there’s no way you can do that with a child” or that “you won’t make it through medical school.”
She not only completed medical school but was named valedictorian of her class and earned a spot as chief resident doctor. She will soon begin her new career as a full-time doctor at the Palomar Medical Center in North San Diego, California.
Lamond would not, however, have been able to gain her degree without help.
She moved in with her parents to minimize living expenses and obtained financial aid from the CalWORKS welfare program to help pay for the bills. If CalWORKS were not there to cover for basic needs, Amanda Lamon would have been forced to get demanding but low-pay jobs just to put food on the table. Now the aid from both her parents and the CalWORKS program had allowed her to reach her goals.
This is exactly why welfare programs need to be bolstered, not slashed. These programs give people a shot at a better life and are not just self-gratifying charity movements. The money they provide allows people to focus more on improving their lives and building careers instead of grasping at straws to make it through the day.
And more importantly, welfare is there to help people recover from financial disasters in their lives – whether it was their fault or not. The alternative is doing nothing to help people improve their lives, which will do significantly more harm than good to America as a whole.
Sure, we might save a few billion dollars here and there, but the damage to our economy – lost revenue in taxes, surge in crime rates, ballooning income disparity – can be measured in the trillions.
And that’s not even getting into our moral obligation to help those in need.