Wisconsin Welfare...If you Dare!

There are somethings I like about this plan but overall I am disappointed with its limited aim. On the one hand I kind of like the idea behind it but I am concerned with its lack of results and I wonder how effective it can be in the job market. I understand that all of its benefits are hard to measure in the cost analysis but my biggest concern was that a program like New Hope combined with the existing welfare system just isn't enough. I guess I wonder what the point of funding programs that can't truly fix the problem. Part of my critique of New Hope has to stem from how ideologically split its mission was. I don't think you can help people when the members who make up its governing body had such differing opinions on what the programs goals were and how it should operate. I also think another problem was that the job market did not necessarily need the people who were unemployed because there is a nearly infinite supply of people who can handle the type of work many of the participants wanted. How do you fight against that? I guess this article gave me the feeling that in practice society doesn't have a place for everyone, even those who are more that willing to work. The CSJs were a great temporary solution but as far a long term solution, I do not feel as if a program like New Hope was enough to start creating substantial results.

The second topic I would like to address is my overall feelings on the ideologies that created and guided the direction of new hope. I feel as if there were two sides to the debate. It was the limited view of liberals and conservatives. Even though there were wide disagreements between the two I did not think either side could really come up with a plan to fix the problem. Then why only examine the problem through these ideologies? This has been a large problem for me throughout this unit. Why not try to discover what works regardless of the ideology behind it? I guess I wonder why we try to adhere to single philosophy and then base all policy decisions around it. Why should we declare ourselves libertarian, egalitarian, or utilitarian? Why don't we attack every problem as if it has a solution that is not dictated by ideology but instead by what can practically work the absolute best. Look at the health care issue as well. The plans that were created in our case studies and medicaid, fixed some of the problem but they didn't go all the way to actually create policy that corrected the health care system and again they were dominated by the narrow views our country excepts. There was no real experimentation based on other global health care successes. I feel as if our political system is stagnant and unwilling to use true experimentation because of the reliance on limited methods and beliefs.