Issue 63 Welfare to work April 25,2013

What is welfare to work program? Well, it is a welfare program designed to get people off welfare by finding them a job. The approach is straight forward and relies less on government and more on the jobs market to have the poor get jobs suitable to their skill level. From there they move up in the company as they gain skills or move to a new company with the work experience they gained, thus increasing their income.

Jobs first approach: The program has no long term training programs. At most those in the program should only spend a week in a class room. There they learn all attributes and skills needed to land an entry level position. This includes their appearance, their résumé, and proper speaking and even how best to show up on time. Using these skills (the basic skills people use at every job or to get a new one) the applicants are placed in the entry level position of a job that has an opining. From there is all up to the now working individual to keep the job until they are ready to move on to a new one or advance in position. It is really just that simple.

We can use private companies: Instead of using a mass of government workers to facilitate the welfare to work programs, we can use private companies. This of course is cheaper as you only have to pay them for their successes and not their failures (let alone their wages and retirement). How it would work is as simple as the jobs first approach to the program. Here, the private company would receive requests from other companies looking to fill various positions. At this point the private company administering the program would request any new applicants to the program and then match them to the appropriate job. They have the applicants go through the basic training (the welfare to work training plus any additional training the company making the request hires them for) and then are sent off to their new job. If the applicant manages to complete the probation period, then and only then will the private company be paid. This insures no corruption at any level of the process.

Conclusion: This same approach was used under Mayer Giuliani of New York City. Needless to say it worked very well as the amount of people impoverished decreased. He coupled this program with one to have more police on the streets and interact with the community more. Part of that was bringing the homeless to homeless shelters (if they have not committed a crime as a portion of the homeless in the city have. Those brought to the shelters had access to the program and thus both crime and poverty decreased in New York. Giuliani created a success story to say the least. So it becomes a why not moment in our history and the history of any nation with a welfare system. Let’s get them out of poverty and get them working.