Ever since the day America was discovered people have colonized the land looking for something more. Some of the many reasons people first settled in the Americas was to pursue freedom of religion, wealth, gold, land, and some came just for the adventure. But above all they came to obtain the American dream. The American dream is the opportunity to reach one's fullest potential by bettering themselves through hard work and determination. This collective goal has allowed many people in the past to reach success, but the American dreams attainability has been under question. It sometimes seems that the laws put in place to keep freedom protected often get in the way of obtaining it. In 21st century America, the American dream is unattainable
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However once they begin to rise into the middle class, the government starts giving less and less welfare to the recipients, and they begin to tax them more than before. A CBO article by Charles Hughes reported,” 10 percent of households just above the poverty line face a marginal rate higher than 65 percent. For each additional dollar earned in this range, these households would lose almost two-thirds to taxes or lost benefits. The comparable rate for the highest earners, households above 400 percent of the poverty level, is only 43.4 percent...”(Hughs). This system tries to decrease participants dependency of welfare as a source of income, but by taking their foundation out from under them, but by doing this they are only lowered back into the lower class. Some welfare participants find the system so unfair that it seems easier for them to keep their low income jobs and not try to move up in order to prevent themselves from losing their welfare benefits. The article, The Real Welfare Problem by Christopher Jencks and Kathryn Edin, stated that, “...the nation's 3.7 million welfare families confront an urgent problem: they do not get enough money from welfare to pay their bills. Nor can most single mothers earn enough …show more content…
Their main point of attack being that the only thing stopping citizens from achieving their American dream is their lack of worth ethic. They also claim that the welfare system enables people to be lazy, and that is why the system doesn’t enable people to move out of the lower class as it should. Paul Ryan, Chair of the House budget panel, is one who believes in these claims. He stated two years ago, “ We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives." (Ryan). However this statement is inaccurate.John Aziz decided to put Paul Ryan’s claim to the test, and he ran a study for his article Does Welfare Make People Lazy. He stated in the article,” The best way to measure whether the unemployed are behaving lazily is by examining the ratio of job seekers to job openings...The data shows decisively that the problem is not laziness at all, but a lack of job openings. There are still three jobseekers for every job opening. In the dark days following the 2008 recession, that ratio was as high as seven people for every job opening…”(Aziz). These results report that chances of a lower class citizen to find a job that they can work in order for them to get themselves out from under the poverty line is nearly
However once they begin to rise into the middle class, the government starts giving less and less welfare to the recipients, and they begin to tax them more than before. A CBO article by Charles Hughes reported,” 10 percent of households just above the poverty line face a marginal rate higher than 65 percent. For each additional dollar earned in this range, these households would lose almost two-thirds to taxes or lost benefits. The comparable rate for the highest earners, households above 400 percent of the poverty level, is only 43.4 percent...”(Hughs). This system tries to decrease participants dependency of welfare as a source of income, but by taking their foundation out from under them, but by doing this they are only lowered back into the lower class. Some welfare participants find the system so unfair that it seems easier for them to keep their low income jobs and not try to move up in order to prevent themselves from losing their welfare benefits. The article, The Real Welfare Problem by Christopher Jencks and Kathryn Edin, stated that, “...the nation's 3.7 million welfare families confront an urgent problem: they do not get enough money from welfare to pay their bills. Nor can most single mothers earn enough …show more content…
Their main point of attack being that the only thing stopping citizens from achieving their American dream is their lack of worth ethic. They also claim that the welfare system enables people to be lazy, and that is why the system doesn’t enable people to move out of the lower class as it should. Paul Ryan, Chair of the House budget panel, is one who believes in these claims. He stated two years ago, “ We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives." (Ryan). However this statement is inaccurate.John Aziz decided to put Paul Ryan’s claim to the test, and he ran a study for his article Does Welfare Make People Lazy. He stated in the article,” The best way to measure whether the unemployed are behaving lazily is by examining the ratio of job seekers to job openings...The data shows decisively that the problem is not laziness at all, but a lack of job openings. There are still three jobseekers for every job opening. In the dark days following the 2008 recession, that ratio was as high as seven people for every job opening…”(Aziz). These results report that chances of a lower class citizen to find a job that they can work in order for them to get themselves out from under the poverty line is nearly