Welfare is proving a hard habit to break. Those who want to do something about the problem could take some basic lessons from a group currently on the front lines.

The Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education (CURE) opened its recent Empowerment Conference in Los Angeles with the simple statement: "We must do something." That is, "we," not the government, and "do," as opposed to talk, or commission new studies.

Talk of government grants was met with skepticism. Nobody wanted to become a puppet manipulated by governmental strings. Instead the hundreds in attendance, from community- and faith-based organizations, discussed ways to fight the economic and moral depletion that has threatened their communities for decades.

In the economically insecure times following the Great Depression, Americans gratefully allowed the federal government to step into the role of problem-solver and social caretaker. Public entitlement programs burgeoned with the onset of Roosevelt’s New Deal and, later, Johnson’s Great Society. Individual responsibility and community support were lost in a swamp of federal "anti-poverty" programs. But nearly 35 years after the War on Poverty began, we are far from being poverty free. The redistribution of almost $7 trillion in taxpayer money has produced a poverty rate that is actually higher today than
in 1965.

Michael Bauman, author of What Went Wrong With Welfare and speaker at the CURE conference, pointed out that you get what you pay for. When you tax something, you get less of it. When you subsidize something, you get more of it. Poverty is not always about money—if it were, it wouldn’t exist $7 trillion later. Chronic poverty is at least partly about behavior, and welfare teaches the wrong lessons.

Welfare checks are higher the more children a single mother has. Not surprisingly, out-of-wedlock births have increased from 5.3% of all births in 1965 to 32% in 1998. According to a 1996 study conducted by the Cato Institute, a welfare recipient living in Washington, D.C. in 1995 was receiving the pre-tax equivalent of a $13.99 hourly wage in benefits. The prospect of a $5.15 per hour minimum-wage job makes remaining on welfare seem like sound financial planning. But the lessons a job teaches—diligence, patience, punctuality, responsibility—are lost, along with the opportunity to move beyond that minimum to self-sufficiency and responsible living.

In 1996, Congress took the first steps toward ending this destructive pattern and authorized state control over reform specifics. In some states, reforms have been an overwhelming success. Virginia, for example, has seen a drop in the welfare caseload from 74,000 to 35,000, and those 39,000 who have left welfare have earned, spent, and saved over $130 million. Wisconsin has decreased its welfare rolls by more than 75 percent by implementing a powerful incentive structure based on work and accountability. Nationwide, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) caseloads, formerly Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) have been reduced by 38 percent since the 1996 enactment of the federal welfare reform law.

As heartening as these success stories are, welfare reform has significantly affected only one major program, AFDC. There are 78 additional federal programs that provide cash and non-cash assistance, and they remain virtually unchanged. Welfare spending amounts to more than $11,000 for every poor person in the United States. That is the equivalent of more than $44,000 for a family of four—far more than the federal poverty level of $16,700 for that same family. As long as the legislative focus remains on governmental solutions to the welfare dependency crisis, substantial reform is unlikely to occur.

Organizations like CURE are raising their voices and demanding a different tactic based on individual responsibility and community support. Private community-based organizations are growing and mobilizing, and government should either involve them—no strings attached—in a serious fight for reform, or get out of the way and let them do their job.

We’ve seen what a welfare state has done in the last 35 years. Give taxpayers a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for charitable donations, and let individuals and communities solve individual and community problems. Without hindrance, groups like CURE will break the welfare habit and revive civil society.

*Joanna Elachi is a research assistant for the California-based Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Enterprise and Opportunity.

For additional information, contact Naomi Lopez at (415) 989-0833.