Generations Lost

In the early 1700s, U.S. founding fathers created this country on the grounds that every man, woman, and child should have the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, and the right to pursue wealth. Over the last 2 centuries, many U.S. citizens have taken full advantage of those freedoms. In the majority of metropolitan cities and rural areas in the United States where economic and employment opportunity are not thriving, various social programs for low-income families are used to subsidize the standard of living. The two most popular programs are Supplemental Security Income (SSI), provided through the Social Security Administration, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), provided through the state welfare system. These two programs can have a short-term, positive impact on low-income families survival in a poverty-stricken community. Time has shown that an underlying problem exists with social programs of this nature. The researcher believed that the hidden problem is, when an outside entity provides the necessities of life, such as food, shelter, and healthcare, year after year, multigenerational beneficiaries tend to evolve. A multigenerational beneficiary is a family that receives federal or state benefits from one generation to another