In Toledo, 150 women and children invaded welfare-department headquarters last month, tumbling workers from their chairs and tossing mounds of paper work onto the floor. In Boston, 50 others staged a raucous sit in at the Massachusetts Statehouse, refusing to budge until police carted them away. Forty-four more were arrested last week in Cleveland when they took over the big welfare offices on St. Clair Avenue. Such demonstrations by the welfare poor have become commonplace. Even as politicians and taxpayers bitterly complain about spiraling welfare budgets, those on the receiving end are demanding—and receiving—far more.
In the past, hugely prosperous decade, no fewer than 2,900,000 people have been added to the dole, so that today, 9,000,000 Americans are receiving welfare. The bill has risen even faster: excluding social security and other Government insurance plans, the cost of welfare to all levels of government is $5.5 billion a year. Of this, the Federal Government pays a little more than half, the cities about 12%, and the states a third. Many of the cities, including local government in the suburbs, are discovering that welfare is threatening them with bankruptcy. In a little more than two years, New York City has added enough people to the rolls to constitute another Miami. Some 20,000 more are added each month, and by the end of next month, 1,000,000 people—one of every eight New Yorkers—will be on welfare. Other cities have shown similar increases. There is only one consolation. The huge expenditures are at long last forcing a re-examination of the system that Economist Milton Friedman aptly dubs "illfare."
A Welter of Programs
Though the Federal Government follows its contribution with overall guidelines, rules and benefits vary enormously from state to state, city to city. In Cleveland, 80% of those who apply for welfare are accepted; in Houston, only 30%. In one important program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, New York State offers benefits of $71.75 per person, as compared with $8.50 in Mississippi. No one knows how much the wide welfare gap between North and South has contributed to the migration of poor Southern Negroes to big-city ghettos—but it must have been a factor.