In my opinion I do not think that most people who receive welfare could get along without it. I say this only from what I have seen, and experienced. I have been in the welfare system before and it was because I needed it. I was pregnant, single, and basically living on my own (with a friend from time to time) I had no job and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I stayed on welfare until my son was about four months and then I got up and got a job and I have been working ever since (my son is now three) I’m not patting myself on the back because this is what you are suppose to do, work to take care of your family. But some people become so lazy and dependent on it that they lose the motivation to work. I remember I use to see some people in the welfare office who looked healthy and alive and I’d ask myself why they can’t go get a job? Maybe it was because they had about four or five kids on them and was getting a nice lump of money for each child. Some people would say, “well if they didn’t have so many kids maybe they could take care of their family” and you know what I agree with that statement to a certain degree, but at the same time, its too late to say all of that so lets look at what that person can do from that moment on to make their life better and be a better example for those children. Because if a child grows up and sees their parent(s) mooching off the system, then hey they might want to grow up and do that too, therefore continuing the cycle. I believe that those people who are on welfare should only be allowed to be on it for a certain amount of time before its time to get up and join the work force. They should not be allowed to milk the system for all its worth while everyone else has to bust their butt trying to make it by. They should start out slow with maybe part time work until they feel confident enough that they can work full-time if the work is out there. a lot of the problems with young mothers who are on welfare is that they don’t have a baby sitter, I think they should get help for that as well, there are a lot of programs that are out there that will help but they along with the welfare system are messed up. For instance the waiting list for these programs to help mothers with daycare are way too long, I waited for up to two years to get help with child care. I had to work full time to keep him in daycare and most of my pay was going to pay for his school so I had no money to really do anything else, I couldn’t go to school because I had to work to keep my son in school so it ends up being a cycle. And I couldn’t get assistance because I was working full time, wait but I still had no money because it was going all to his school…if you work full time at your job I don’t think that it’s fair that they deny you assistance. If you really need it, why don’t they give it to you? Why do you have to be dirt poor to get any type of assistance? What about those people who are working long hard hours, who are going to school to try and make life better for their family, but it's still not enough? Shouldn’t those people get help? If the government is upset that people are taking advantage of the system then it’s their fault for enabling these people who are on it. If you work and or go to school and it’s not enough, then you should get help. If you have no job no formal education and have kids (or not) and you really want to turn your life around then you should get help to do just that, turn your life around but if it starts getting to the point where you are not looking for a job and are not trying to save the little bit of money you do get then you should be taken off. You shouldn’t get hundreds of dollars to just waste a month. You should have to go to job programs (which I believe they do now) but they should have people be on top of these people who really want to do something with their life. The people who are assigned to cases aren’t doing enough in my opinion, maybe it’s because they have about fifty cases and its only one of them, I don’t know but something has got to change.