Poverty And Unemployment

The Constitutionalist Party believes that what the impoverished in America really need is not money, but a way to make money themselves. Currently in America, the Welfare system exists as a sort of "safety net" to comfort the lives of those who have fallen upon hard times or situations. This only serves as a temporary solution, since it doesn't help those who are impoverished find a way to improve upon their current situation, it only makes their current situation a bit better. What Welfare is doing is creating a culture of poverty, since those who need Welfare are not being aided in getting off of Welfare, resulting in dependency upon the government.

Any time an American becomes dependent on the government for their livelihood, their freedom is abridged. The goal of any social program should be to enable the people of America to become more self-sufficient so that they may lead and fulfill their own lives instead of depending upon others for financial support. Even worse, those who depend upon a government program for financial aid become easily manipulated by political candidates into voting to continue such programs that continue their dependency, often in exchange for losing even more freedoms elsewhere. Also, the mere act of taking the tax money earned by others to sustain this dependency is reducing to ability of those who work and are fruitful from making the most of their efforts to improve and fulfill their own lives.

The best resource to create self-sufficiency with is education. Education in the form of job training enables the beneficiary to get a job, become productive, and support themselves, which should be the goal of any social program concerning the impoverished.

The Constitutionalist Party therefore recommends the following:

  1. That Welfare be supplied only under the condition that the individual receiving the benefits be enrolled and involved in a state-funded job placement program that will aid the individual in finding a job or educate the individual in a trade skill that is in demand in that area and then help them find a job. Since the goal is to make the individual productive in order to earn their benefits, it would not be counter-productive to allow for those still unable to find a job through this process to continue to receive benefits while enrolled in volunteer programs for charities and other non-profit organizations.

  2. To eventually make the job placement system be on a nationwide basis, so that applicants are able to find work anywhere in the United States instead of only being restricted to the opportunities in the state of residence.

  3. To eventually have Welfare benefits be treated as a non-interest loan from the government that the recipient would pay back over comfortable periods of time. This is a way the recipient can repay their debt to the taxpayers for the support provided while the individual was doing what was necessary to make themselves self-sufficient again.

  4. To encourage private aid to the poor, those who donate to poverty-related charities should receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits for their contributions. The CP opposes giving federal funds to private charities.

  5. The federal government involvement in subsidizing businesses and attempting to manipulate the unemployment of America through economic redistribution only creates more problems than it solves, and the CP actively discourages more federal programs that seek to do this.


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