Welfare, Social Security, and Medicare - Essay Example

Another thing to think about is that some people are either ok with or are used to being poor, so long as they have their basic needs taken care of. In America, you can be considered to be living below the poverty line and still have your basic needs taken care of. So how we define poverty in America is important to consider also. Also, we should consider that not everyone is going to spend the money they get from welfare wisely. The money could be used on things like drugs or alcohol instead of on things that will improve that person’s overall quality of life.

So I believe that in order to fix the poverty problem we need to fix the unemployment problem. I hope that Social Security and Medicare will be around when it is my turn to collect but I am also not getting my hopes up. Recently the government came out with a report that projected that the Medicare trust fund for hospital care will be insolvent by 2024 and the Social Security fund will be insolvent by 2036 (“Social Security..”) There are a few things that are responsible for this: the ratio of those putting money in to Social Security to those collecting is shrinking, the rising expense of healthcare costs, our recent economic problems, and government spending.

You would think that if a person is putting money into Social Security and Medicare all their lives they would easily have enough money to live on when they retire, which is why I feel that our Social Security and Medicare problems are mostly the result of mismanagement of taxpayer money and out-of-control spending by the government.