Welfare Reform: Failure & Remedies

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Assesses accomplishments and damage created by the 1996 welfare reform. Schorr provides an informed examination of the sources of welfare reform its successes and considerable failures, and the economic and social forces that shaped the 1996 we fare reform. He summarizes developments in the history of welfare that led to an overwhelming public call for reform. Having participated in many of these developments as a high government official and as a policy practitioner, Schorr brings a unique perspective to these issues. Assessment of accomplishments and damage rests on reports, research, and extensive data. Concluding that the 1996 legislation was the wrong way to go, Schorr explores underlying policy issues; Should all mothers be required to work at all times How do we define poverty How are wages related to welfare--to frame solutions. In the process, Schorr underscores why welfare recipients are not a population distinct from the working poor population; that low wages, poor welfare, and our unequal distribution of income are tightly linked; and that reforming welfare will require major economic and social changes. Schorr offers a chilling forecast of the society we will have if we continue on our current course and, as an alternative, outlines deeply changed more constructive policies. Must reading for scholars, students, and policy makers as well as those in the general public concerted with social welfare policies.

Reviews

"Alvin Schorr presents a readable and convincing account of the impact of the recent radical changes in America's welfare system on real live human beings. He tells us what went wrong, but, importantly, he provides an agenda for change, an outline of actions that could deal with existing and emerging inadequacies in American's safety net. This book by one of America's social welfare statesmen can help inspire us to renew the struggle for the fulfillment of the American dream for all who live within its borders."-Rashi Fein Economist Social Medicine Department Harvard Medical School
"As a social worker, policy maker and scholar, Alvin Schorr has spent his life advocating for poor families. From works such as Slums and Social Inequality to Common Decency: Domestic Policies After Reagan, his understanding of the lives of the poor, and the public policies that affect those lives, is unparalleled. In Welfare Reform: Failure and Remedies, Schorr provides a thorough background of the history of welfare policy in the United States. He also provides critical insight into the implementation of recent welfare reform' policies that have resulted, for the first time in 50 years, in the virtual elimination of the social safety net. Schorr's sympathetic portrait of the lives of poor families, helps us see more clearly the depth and extent of the hardships these families endure as a result of current federal welfare policy. For anyone who accepts without question the claims of the success of welfare reform, this book provides an invaluable dose of reality."-Paul Wellstone United States Senator
"Welfare Reform is a passionate, sweeping, and accessible examination of poverty and social policy in 20th Century America, a sobering analysis of where we are today, a frightening picture of where we are heading, and a set of intermediate steps and long term solutions--all contained in a little more than a hundred pages, plus dozens of value tables and charts. Insightful and provocative, drawing upon a diverse wealth of sources, Schorr argues that society should make it possible for young children to have their mothers at home, that wages will have to be raised before welfare policies can be improved, that reduction of inequality itself will improve health and mortality, and that means-tested programs. His conviction that policy will change, and recommendations for how that is to be done, provide critical support for all who are working to reduce poverty."-Henry A. Freedman Executive Director Welfare Law Center
This highly readable book is a must read for the educated public, which too often ignores the dialogue on poverty and the consequences of failing to provide a safety net of economic and social supports for the poor. All levels and collections.-Choice
Welfare Reform: Failure and Remedies is an important contribution to the public policy discussion surrounding welfare reform. The book is well written, provides numerous data sources, and makes and important argument concerning the nature and need for welfare and for avenues to ameliorate its necessity. The book should prove useful for those scholars and practitioners interested in welfare policy and as a companion text in undergraduate and graduate courses in public policy analysis and social welfare policy.-Contemporary Sociology
"This highly readable book is a must read for the educated public, which too often ignores the dialogue on poverty and the consequences of failing to provide a safety net of economic and social supports for the poor. All levels and collections."-Choice
"Welfare Reform: Failure and Remedies is an important contribution to the public policy discussion surrounding welfare reform. The book is well written, provides numerous data sources, and makes and important argument concerning the nature and need for welfare and for avenues to ameliorate its necessity. The book should prove useful for those scholars and practitioners interested in welfare policy and as a companion text in undergraduate and graduate courses in public policy analysis and social welfare policy."-Contemporary Sociology

Author Bio

Alvin L. Schorr is Leonard W. Mayo Professor of Family and Child Welfare Emeritus, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.