Welfare fraud is actually rare, no matter what the myths and stereotypes say:
If you take the people who say they want the government off their back, individualist in that sense, in the same polls, when you ask them if they want to see more spending on education, on health, on aid for mothers with dependent children, they say they support that. So, they also have social democratic inclinations even though they would not call it social democratic.
Take for example welfare. They are opposed to welfare. They are opposed to welfare because it has been demonized, especially by Ronald Reagan with his tales about welfare queens, Black women driving in limousines to steal your money at the welfare office, and all that business. People are opposed to that. But if you ask about the things that welfare performs, you get support for it. It is a complex mixture because of the nature of propaganda, of the dominant culture, and various conflicting elements of that culture. And, of course, it is not uniform by any means.
It is also worth bearing in mind that the United States in many ways remains what it was before World War II— largely a traditional, conservative backwater by international standards. Things have changed somewhat since the Second World War, but only for part of the population.
Another manifestation of this is that a large part of the Trump vote, those people who voted for Obama in 2008 and voted for Trump in 2016, are saying, “We don’t want this system anymore. We want it changed. It is harmful to us.” Which it is. Real male wages are about what they were in the 1960s. Much of the population, the working class, the lower middle class, this population has been essentially cast aside. Nobody represents them, the policies are harmful to them and have taken away their meaningful jobs, taken away work, dignity, hopes for the future, security, and so on. They are resentful and want to change it. That has been showing up in many ways across both Europe and the United States, and it is dramatic.
Noam Chomsky
From Mothers’ Pensions to Welfare Queens, Debunking Myths about Welfare
The Rise and Reign of the Welfare Queen
Researcher links government assistance program to much earlier origins of welfare stereotypes
How Bill Clinton’s Welfare Reform Changed America:
But based on several studies of TANF and its beneficiaries, “it barely reaches even the poorest Americans, and has all but ceased doing the work of lifting people out of poverty,” according to the Atlantic. “‘Welfare reform’ didn’t fix welfare so much as destroy it, and if similar changes were applied to Medicaid and food stamps, they would likely do the same.”
Bill Clinton gutted welfare and criminalized the poor, all while funneling more money into the carceral state.
Report: 70% of Food Stamp Recipients Work Full-Time
Americans believe benefits fraud is common for SNAP:
Experts say that deliberate SNAP fraud is uncommon because of the rigorous application process and multi-step eligibility review. In 2016, the Congressional Research Service determined that for every 10,000 households participating in SNAP, about 14 contained a recipient who was investigated and determined to have committed fraud.
Who Is Really Responsible for Welfare Fraud?:
In other words, don’t take a single example or casual observation of welfare fraud and claim it represents the tens of millions of poor who receive welfare benefits.
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While welfare fraud committed by the poor appears to be low, the federal government has long recognized businesses being the true criminals.
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While these are some of the better known examples of large scale welfare fraud, they are not the only ones. The above cases alone represent over $25 Billion in welfare fraud recovery. The criminals having the greatest impact committing welfare fraud against the government are not the poor, but the privately owned businesses that take advantage of them.
Brett Favre Is The Welfare Queen Republicans Warned Us About
Dispelling the Myth of Welfare Dependency
The Myth of Welfare Dependency
The Facts About Americans Who Receive Public Benefits
Busting the Myth of ‘Welfare Makes People Lazy’
Economists tested 7 welfare programs to see if they made people lazy. They didn’t.
SNAP:
Here’s What Most People Don’t Know About ‘Being On Food Stamps’
How Big Food Corporations Take Advantage of SNAP
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 