Japan VS American Welfare

I got to thinking as this terrible tragedy hit Japan...where are the riots? Where is the looting? I remember Katrina. I remember other tragedies that hit the United States, and the takers were taking to the streets to get what ever they could for free. I remember even riots over Rodney King turning into grab-fests. So, what is the difference?

I decided to look up Japan's Welfare system. I found a very interesting article in the New York Times (not the most conservative rag). Here's a direct link: http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/10/world/welfare-as-japan-knows-it-a-family-affair.html

In a nut shell, you don't get any Welfare unless you're over 65. It doesn't say if you can apply if you're disabled or not. It does however, give some statistics. Only 0.7% receive benefits. They compared that to the United States: "compared with the 4.8 percent of Americans who get grants from Aid to Families With Dependent Children or the 9.7 percent who receive food stamps. About 2.3 percent of Americans receive grants through the Supplemental Security Income program, which serves the elderly, blind and disabled." I looked up the population of the United States: 307,212,123. I did the math, that's a total of 16.8%, or 51,611,636.66. That's a lot of people on government aid. I have to wonder how many are here legally, but that's another discussion. My son gets SSI because he's mentally/permanently disabled. If I take his check amount, and multiply it by the number of people on welfare (knowing that a lot of people will make much more than this), I get the outrageous number of $33,444,340,555.68. What is that? $33.4 Billion? I get confused going that high.

The Japanese Welfare system emphasizes family support first. You are to get aid from your family before you go to the government. Can you imagine that working here? I imagine there would be smaller families among the poor, so it wouldn't go over well. Right now we encourage people to have more kids than they can financially support because the more kids you have, the more money you get.

Japan also has a lower unwed pregnancy rate. Theirs is 1% while ours is 30% and climbing. They have fewer drug addicts and their unemployment rate is lower. Perhaps this is due to a higher pride ratio. They have a concept of shame, where I believe America is losing it's concept of shame. Now it's common for some factions of American society to be proud that they can game the system and get money from the government and live without working. The Japanese have a high work ethic.

I am not writing this to be anti-American. I myself have a high work ethic. I learned it from my father (and my mother). But this article states that the way Japan does their Welfare system does not encourage dependence on the government. It actually strengthens family ties. You treat your children well if you know they'll be taking care of you. You treat your parents well if you know you may need to go to them for support should something happen unforeseen financially. If you want to see how our Welfare system has encouraged dependency on the government, suggest taking it away and watch for the riots. And you can't blame it on the socialists. Apparently Japan has a higher redistribution of wealth that we do, too. I'm not sure if that means the government does it, or just generations pass their wealth on to their children instead of spending it.

Perhaps when President Obama looks to cut the budget, he should revamp our Welfare system. I wonder how many millions/billions/trillions he could save if he just made it where you don't get welfare or food stamps unless a doctor determines (on threat of losing his license - gotta remember Wisconsin) that you are disabled? Or what if they only paid for 3 children? I remember when I lived in Missouri, there was a law coming out that they were raising the number of children covered to 8. There were women going out and getting pregnant just so they could deliver under the deadline and get more money from the government. If you pay for 8 children, and someone who isn't married has 8 children just to get benefits, is that right? America with it's Welfare system has raised a generation of takers and gamers. Let's game the government, see if I can get disability and not even try to get a job.

And I know where I'm coming from. I have family (a sister-in-law and her husband) who are dirt poor. They currently live with his grandmother. If I weren't paying 2 mortgages, I'd support them more. They try hard. He goes from job to job, but at least he tries to work. He has too much pride to apply for any government aid. When he has a job, he has money, when he's between jobs, he doesn't. We gave them a huge food basket (from all members of the family) for Christmas. I don't usually help out with money, because she's not very responsible with cash, but we do with other things.

It's time America took responsibility for it's own. We need to help out our family members and try to shame people that are on assistance. I remember when people would try to hide the fact that they were paying with food stamps. Now it looks like any other credit card. Perhaps all the cashiers could say, "Oh, is this food stamps?" when they take the payment.