This blog serves as my Stage 8 blog for my Texas State and Local Government class; this will also unfortunately be the last blog I get to write for this class! :-( I would like to take a moment and say thank you to my professor and classmates for making this semester a great adventure and a great time! I feel like I have learned a lot!
This blog will be in response to Kaileymein’s, or Kailey, blog entitled “WIC”. WIC, or Women, Infants and Children, is a social government program that is designed to assist needy families when they can not provide basic needs. In the blog Kailey details her experience with WIC and how her mother used WIC as a stepping stone to get back on her feet. The second paragraph goes into Kailey’s purposed limitations on the WIC program. Kailey states:
“I think there should be limitations on the program because there are a lot of people who get it and settle, they don’t learn their lesson the first time and receive more welfare the more children they have. First things first if you live in the US and can’t speak English you should not be eligible for any government welfare. How do we let people get by living their entire lives here and not ever being required to learn how to speak English but yet living from the support of taxpayers?”
She goes on to say that she searched several of the State’s WIC websites and discovered that Texas appears to be in the minority by putting both Spanish and English on its WIC website. Kailey does not detail what states she searched, or their proximity to the Mexican border. Kailey does mention her belief that “these people” have cell phones, cable, and nice shoes…which appear to represent to her that the system is being abused by the people it was made to help.
Kailey finishes her blog with:
“But I can say that after living in Texas I see a pattern, most of the people aren’t using it for assistance while they better their lives, their having multiple amounts of children when they couldn’t even take care one in the first place. They are staying on the welfare and doing nothing because they know the government will be there to help, maybe this is one reason Texas is ranking among the lowest of the states?”
Surmising her feelings, it would appear as if Kailey is facing the basic issue that most people who have problems with social programs have. Do we allow for people to use and abuse WIC, or do we disallow it and quiet possibly disregard the people who actually need it? Surely this is an ethical dilemma that we have all though about. She is frustrated that people can walk into a WIC office and get help, and meanwhile burn the rest of their money on luxury items that most “legitimate” workers can not afford. Kailey at the beginning of her blog states that her mother used the WIC program to help establish herself and get back on her feet. This seems to show that Kailey does acknowledge that the program is, at least some of the time, working properly. It would seem that Kailey is expressing the majority opinion of the critics of WIC and other social programs. Which is typically “somebody should do something!”, yet solutions of any value are rarely offered.
I have applied for and received WIC benefits during my son’s younger years and can say two things about it. Primarily, WIC helped me out greatly. When you pay $15 for a can of formula, $20 for diapers, and much more money on everything else a baby needs, it’s nice to have a little help! Secondly, I have seen the non-English speakers Kailey references. I have seen the 3 or four kids and have seen them receive nearly every social service offered by our state! In contrast to Kailey’s general opinion though, I’m not sure how luxurious the users of WIC are living. WIC in itself doesn’t allow for enough formula to feed an infant for a month, does not pay for diapers, and the food it pays for is supplemental. (IE not comprehensive enough for a month long supply of groceries) I would like to note that this and Kailey’s blog is regarding WIC, not comprehensive state benefits such as TANF and food stamps. So, how do we fairly balance out this issue? We can’t let children, our legacy, starve…but can we let the abuse continue? Perhaps a better idea would be for better administration and regulation of our social programs. WIC should be allowed to be a crutch for the family that needs it, but it should not be considered a way of saving money just because you can! The dual language issue could be addressed as a factor of the growing Hispanic population is Texas, and should be addressed on the education level versus a level of social service. I did find upon visiting the Texas WIC website that you have to click on a link to make the eintire page Spanish, and the original format appears in English.After all, we can’t help people if they don’t know help is there, and we can not justify hiding the services our government offers because some people are abusing them. It simply means that we should better detect and prosecute those that abuse the system, and keep the benefits for those that can use them! We should also better enable the people that use our social services to find employment, so they can legitimately work their way up the ladder and into success and most importantly off of state social services. For as a wise man once said “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”.
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