Posted on 03/01/2009 1:44:11 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
In social-services jargon, Debra Autry had “multiple barriers to work” when the state of Ohio told her that she had to start earning her welfare benefits. Autry had been out of work and on public assistance for more than two decades, and she lacked many of the skills necessary for a modern economy. She was a single mother, too, like most welfare recipients, with three kids at home. Autry was skeptical about working in the private sector, so the state placed her in a publicly subsidized program that had her cleaning government offices in exchange for her benefits. Disliking the work, Autry landed a cashier’s job at a local Revco drugstore, arranging her hours around her children’s school day. After the CVS chain bought out Revco, she enrolled in the company’s program to learn how to become a pharmacy technician and eventually began working in that position, which typically pays between $25 and $30 per hour. Autry’s hard work inspired her children. Her daughter just earned a degree as a physical therapist, while one son is in college and another is working full-time. “I was on welfare because there were no jobs that interested me,” she recalls. “But once I had to go back to work, I realized there’s a future if you want to better yourself. It was the best decision I ever made.”
Autry’s story is the kind that reformers dreamed about back in 1996, when President Bill Clinton signed the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, often referred to as the welfare-reform act. That legislation, drawing on earlier innovations in Wisconsin and New York City, time-limited aid and required some recipients to work, seeking to end the culture of long-term dependency that no-strings-attached public assistance had helped foster.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
I absolutely ADORE that little video, LOL!
I’d love to send that in email...is that possible?
That's what I made in 1989 when I started at my former place of employment, with a college degree in management. It was a slow job market, and not in New York, but still!
Must be nice not having to work unless you find a job that interests you. All the time living off the hard work of others.
That LEPT out at me, too.
I’m going to ask my Boss about that tomorrow:
“Say, Boss? You know, this job doesn’t really INTEREST me. so I’m quiting and going on the dole right before our busiest time of the year. OK?”
(Actually, I love, love, love my job. I’m one of the ‘lucky ones.’ You know, those of us that think PREPARATION meeting OPPORTUNITY results in LUCK? LOL!)
Regardless of the success of Gingrich’s welfare reform in the 90s, we’re heading back to the past- welfare as we once knew it.
There is a bundle of money in the Porkulus for medicaid, subsidized housing and food stamp program increases, and it is my understanding that work requirements are being reduced and states will be encouraged to sign up more recipients.
You are correct. And Wisconsin will be the first state at the trough.
Welfare = bus loads of Leftard Voters. Who’s the fool now? Yep. Me and you; the MULES hauling the wagon.
Welfare Reform has been successful.
Time for Zero, San Fran Nan, and Reedy(sic) to screw it up.
Great post, thanks.
Despite the adulations, your graphic is getting tiresome. Especially for those of us on 56K dial up lines.
Ahhhh, let me see a pharmacy tech makes between $25.-$30. an hour. Hmmm sounds more like the pharmist pay to me, but what do I know. If true all I can say is “Damn, I knew I should have applied when I saw that CVS ad a few years ago offering to train pharmcy techs.”
Can we assume this article was written by one of those professional journalists? Pharmacy techs start at just under $10 per hour and after 20 years get up to about $15. I found that information in about 1 minute.
$25/hr isn't a lot of money for New York city. You couldn't live in Manhattan on that..
Pharm Techs around here make $12-$15 an hr to start.......
I love it!...Yup on dial-up, saved and sent to others..LOL
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