The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

272 THE FREEMAN Mayplicant's statements."7Instead of trying to reform thissituation, the Department ofHealth, Education and Welfareseems mainly concerned to defendit. It has published and circulatedwidely a booklet called WelfareMyths vs. Facts. This turns legitimatecriticisms into "myths" bygrossly overstating them, and thenproduces questionable answers.For example:"Myth: The welfare rolls arefull of able-bodied loafers."Fact: Less than 1 per cent ofwelfare recipients are able-bodiedunemployed males."This figure, implying that itwould have a negligible effect onwelfare to find jobs for these men,is incredibly low. It is apparentlyachieved by treating any physicalimpairment, however trivial, as aqualification for family relief; itignores employable women; and itignores the fact that the averagerelief family consists of 3.7 persons,who would move off the rollsif the breadwin'ner went to work.Another example:"Myth: Once on welfare, alwayson welfare."Fact: The average welfarefamily has been on the rolls for 23months.... The number of longtermcases is relatively small."A 23-month average for familieson relief is hardly something to becomplacent about, even if the figureis accurate. The Department'sown charts show that more than athird of those on welfare have beenthere three years or more. Moreover,the Department's averagedoes not count "repeaters." If afamily were on relief for, say, 23months, off a month, back on foranother 23 months, and so on, itwould not raise the·average. Nordoes any figure based on relief atany given point· in time count theprospective 're~aining period eachcase will be on the rolls. Alreadyfamilies have been found on relieffor three generations. 8Small wonder that PresidentNixon, in his State of the Unionmessage of January, 1971, calledthe existing American relief system"a monstrous, consuming outrage."I)• FOOTNOTES •1 Statistical Abstract of the UnitedStates: 1971, table no. 430, p. 271, andSocial Security Bulletin, December 1971.2 See Social Security Bulletin, December1971.3 Human Events, December 13, 1969.4 New York Times, February 16, 1972.1) These examples were cited in an article"Welfare Out of Control" in U. S.News & World Report, February 8, 1971.By coincidence, Time and Newsweek alsocarried long feature stories on welfare intheir issues of the same date, coveringsimilar material.6 Time, February 8, 1971.1 U. S. News & World Report, March1, 1971.8 An excellent analysis of the HEWWelfare Myths vs. Facts pamphlet appearedin The Wall Street Journal ofJanuary 27, 1972 by Richard A. Snyder,a member of the Pennsylvania Senate.