Making Drug Tests Required to be on Welfare?
This facebook group caught my eye as friends on both sides of the aisle were joining it, so I joined it as well to see some point of views on the topic. EDIT: The linked page has since been taken down, and this one is in it’s place: Click Here
It sounds like a good idea doesn’t it? On the surface, yeah, it could sound like a good idea. But when I thought about it more, it doesn’t seem like that good of an idea after all. Think of all of the checks and balances that would need to be put into place to try and save a little money.
One of the biggest arguments in the group is, “I needed to pass a drug test to get my job, why can’t they get tested for getting on welfare?” Cost would be the simple reason. When an employer hires someone and puts them through a drug test, they pay for that cost of the hospital doing that service for them. If a system would be put in place for drug testing welfare recipients, the government would have to pick up the tab on millions of tests to be done, which would in turn increase the costs of the welfare system as a whole.
You are probably thinking, why wouldn’t it decrease the costs? This could be debated, but my belief is that there are more non-drug using people that need the welfare system when they fall on bad times than there are people on drugs that fall onto the system. In the end, we would be paying more for testing, than the people that are denied would save in spending.
Now, what would happen to those denied welfare due to them using drugs? How would they make a living? They would most likely go to a life of crime, drug dealing, prostitution, etc. to try and make ends meet. This would also cost our tax payers more money to cover the costs of these citizens. We are not just covering their welfare now, but we are covering the costs of them being processed through the courts and then put into the prison system.
What about legal drug abuse? There are some people that use the system and abuse the money that they get on legal drugs such as nicotine and alcohol instead of feeding their kids. How would this idea govern that?
What about corporate welfare? How would this idea be extended to that area?
All in all, this will never be more than just an idea the more you think about it, and will never make it through any congress or senate.
Unfortunately, the group on Facebook supporting this has devolved from what sounded to be a good idea on the surface to something that is bringing out the hate and racism in droves.
The current system is being abused, yes… but that is the nature of the beast. If there is a system, someone out there will abuse it. This system just happens to carry a stereotype with it where people are looked down on as a result of their misfortune. It all comes down to how you enforce regulations on how to make sure that the people that need it, receive it.
There are ways to deal with people who are abusing the system, turn them in. http://www.ucowf.org/
Of course there are alternative groups out there we well, such as this one.
Stand for what you believe in, look into the issues and don’t blindly follow them.
SaumZ
