Societys Restraint To Social Reform :: essays research papers

Societys Restraint to Social Reform     Of the many chatted words in the social reform vocabulary of Canadianstoday, the boundary workf ar seems to stimulate much debate and emotion. Alongwith the notions of self-sufficiency, employability enhancement, and workdisincentives, it is the concept of workfare that causes the most tensionbetween its government and business supporters and its anti-poverty andsocial justice critics. In actuality, workfare is a contraction of the conceptof "working for welfare" which basically refers to the requirement thatrecipients perform unpaid work as a condition of receiving social assistance.     Recent debates on the subject of welfare are far from unique. They areall simply contemporary attempts to decide if we live in a just society or not.This debate has been a major concern throughout history. Similarly, theprovision of financial assistance to the able-bodied working-age poor hasalways been controv ersial.     On one side are those who articulate the feelings and views of the poor,namely, the Permissive Position, who see them as victims of our society anddeserving of community support. The problems of the poor range from personal(abandonment or death of the family income earner) to the social (racialprejudice in the job market) and economic (collapse in the market demand fortheir often limited skills due to an economic recession or shift in technology).The Permissive opinion reveals that all participants in society are deserving ofthe unconditional legal right to social security without any relation to theindividuals behaviour. It is believed that any society which toilette afford tosupply the basic needs of life to every individual of that society but does not,can be accused of imposing life-long deprivation or death to those needyindividuals. The reason for the needy individual being in that situation,whether they are willing to work, or their actions w hile receiving support havealmost no weight in their ability to acquire this welfare support. This viewis presently not withheld in society, for if it was, the stereotype of theTypical Welfare Recipient would be unheard of.     On the some other side, the Individualists believe that generous aid to thepoor is a poisoned chalice that encourages the poor to pursue a life of povertyopposing their own long-term interests as well of those of society in general.Here, high values are placed on personal choice. Each participant in societyis a prudent individual who is able to substantiate his own decisions in order tomanipulate the progression of his own life. In conjunction with this opinion,if you are given the freedom to make these decisions, then surely you must