I would take idleness off the table as a lifestyle option and test all public assistance applicants for drugs. If you seek welfare, you’re going to have to show up every morning and put in a day’s work. If addiction is part of the problem, we’ll find that out and work on it.
The devil is in the details. Finding work for all these folks will be a challenge, especially in major metro areas. If it’s makework, so be it; there should not be a scrap of litter, a trace of graffiti, or an unscrubbed surface in any city with a large welfare population, and if the makework runs out, we can hand out picks and shovels and dig subway tunnels by hand.
The point is not to be punitive. The point is threefold: to make getting and keeping a real job preferable to welfare; to get rid of welfare cheats; and to make little Cassie, Maria, and Lakeesha think twice, and then twice again, before getting pregnant to begin with.
When I was a kid, the national rate of illegitimacy was about 5%. Then government stepped in as the great enabler. We have to stop enabling. Obviously we don’t want anyone going hungry, but assistance should not be free.
Which party do you see actually running on a platform like that and do you think they would be elected?
The concepts of "shame" and "social sanctions" have totally gone by the wayside. We celebrate it now on TV programs, such as "Teen Mom" and "Honey Boo Boo."