Commentary on "Texas Social Services (or lack thereof)"

On Friday, April 26, 2013, Texas Government blog wrote an article titled "Texas Social Services (or lack thereof)" which I wrote a commentary on.

Dear Texas Government Blog,

I appreciate your blog article titled "Texas Social Services (or lack thereof)" and enjoyed reading about your experience with this issue. I have never personally felt the the negative effects of our poor welfare system, and am grateful you broadened my opinion.

I can definitely see that Texas' welfare system is flawed by reading your article, but I am curious to know how we rank in other areas of assistance. Meaning, are we educating our needy persons to help them succeed without the use of government funding? Also, what percentage of people are staying on welfare indefinitely, and how many people are using it to get back on their feet?

I firmly believe that instead of giving people money, we should reform our government spending to reflect a more "teaching" approach to poverty. As the old saying goes, "give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." I hope that instead of our government spending more money by simply giving it away, that they will provide needy families with schooling and knowledge on how to succeed in our society.

I agree with you that Texas needs to re-evaluate our welfare system, but I hope they utilize education in doing so. Another good way to help our poverty level is to have routine check-ups with people receiving benefits. This would help to take away money from people misusing it, and give it those that actually need assistance. I come from a small town and can tell you firsthand that a good percentage of people receiving food stamps misuse them.

Overall, we seem to have similar attitudes on this issue given that we dive a little deeper into the waters of welfare. I will continue to research this issue to get a better understanding of the situation.