Mark Mallokent
23.12.2006, 09:24
I'm talking about "the Wisconsin Miracle". American commentators refer to it as such, because, in just 12 years, a conservative administration, led by Governor Tommy Thompson, was able to cut the state's welfare roll from 98,000 to just 7,000. In the 1980s, Wisconsin was an archetypal blue-collar region, which had fared badly after the decline of its smoke-stack industries. As unemployment rose, so did welfare payments and all the state taxes needed to foot the bills.
By 1986, local traders were placing advertisements in the Wall Street Journal urging entrepreneurs not to come to Wisconsin because it was so bad for business. Wisconsin's welfare payments were the highest in the Midwest. As would-be claimants from other states poured in, they met businesses going the other way, trying to escape. It was chaos.
In desperation, the electorate turned to Thompson, a radical who promised a complete change of direction. His subsequent welfare reforms have done more to lift people out of poverty than any amount of well-meaning charity. Thompson had a single premise: "Every fit person can do something." On this basis, Wisconsin became the first state to introduce work requirements for welfare recipients. As he said: "If Wisconsin is going to offer them a ladder, then we require them to use the ladder."
This included linking parents' welfare cheques to their children's record of attending school. Truancy resulted in benefits being cut. If a child missed half a month's schooling, that portion was deducted from the family's welfare payment. Keep the children in school and they have a better chance of breaking out of the cycle of ignorance, unemployment and despair. Simple, isn't it?
Thompson stopped incentivising teenage girls to become single mothers and started jailing those fathers who dodged child support payments. Most importantly, he brought in a requirement for welfare claimants to find a job within 24 months or lose their benefits, i.e., "welfare was not a way of life".
In order to receive a welfare cheque, Wisconsinites had to be enrolled in a jobs programme and spend a minimum of 20 hours a week looking for work, performing community service, or improving basic skills. Those who didn't go along with this, didn't get paid. If a participant did only 16 hours a week, then the welfare cheque would be cut by a quarter. No participation meant no cheque. Nothing.
To help genuine job seekers, Wisconsin provided childcare, healthcare and transportation. It removed the roadblocks to self-sufficiency.
Hier die Quelle:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=QKFGHRI2MMMY1QFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ 0IV0?xml=/opinion/2006/12/22/do2201.xml
By 1986, local traders were placing advertisements in the Wall Street Journal urging entrepreneurs not to come to Wisconsin because it was so bad for business. Wisconsin's welfare payments were the highest in the Midwest. As would-be claimants from other states poured in, they met businesses going the other way, trying to escape. It was chaos.
In desperation, the electorate turned to Thompson, a radical who promised a complete change of direction. His subsequent welfare reforms have done more to lift people out of poverty than any amount of well-meaning charity. Thompson had a single premise: "Every fit person can do something." On this basis, Wisconsin became the first state to introduce work requirements for welfare recipients. As he said: "If Wisconsin is going to offer them a ladder, then we require them to use the ladder."
This included linking parents' welfare cheques to their children's record of attending school. Truancy resulted in benefits being cut. If a child missed half a month's schooling, that portion was deducted from the family's welfare payment. Keep the children in school and they have a better chance of breaking out of the cycle of ignorance, unemployment and despair. Simple, isn't it?
Thompson stopped incentivising teenage girls to become single mothers and started jailing those fathers who dodged child support payments. Most importantly, he brought in a requirement for welfare claimants to find a job within 24 months or lose their benefits, i.e., "welfare was not a way of life".
In order to receive a welfare cheque, Wisconsinites had to be enrolled in a jobs programme and spend a minimum of 20 hours a week looking for work, performing community service, or improving basic skills. Those who didn't go along with this, didn't get paid. If a participant did only 16 hours a week, then the welfare cheque would be cut by a quarter. No participation meant no cheque. Nothing.
To help genuine job seekers, Wisconsin provided childcare, healthcare and transportation. It removed the roadblocks to self-sufficiency.
Hier die Quelle:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=QKFGHRI2MMMY1QFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ 0IV0?xml=/opinion/2006/12/22/do2201.xml