Eating the Welfare State

While I was fascinated by the issues brought forward by the documentary Eating Welfare, I was confused as to what exactly the main focus of the actions taken by the student organization was. It was refreshing to see such an oft-ignored but incredibly pressing issue being addressed so directly. However, the actually progression of the documentary and the lack of a lot of context within the film itself left me confused. I do not have much background in the specifics of welfare laws, and I was having difficulty following how the Personal Responsibility Act and other new laws affected those who were on welfare. Since I did not know how the welfare system functioned before these new laws, I did not really understand the magnitude or even the kind of change that occurred as a result. Therefore, because I did not understand what changes occurred, I could not fully comprehend the impetus for organizing around this one issue.

Moreover, this documentary in conjunction with a variety of other readings we have recently done often discuss welfare. For the most part, welfare is portrayed as a liberating force, especially for women operating within patriarchal cultures, and grants women a certain level of power within their families. However, I do not remember if any of these articles critically examined the welfare system or even acknowledged the pitfalls in the broken U.S. welfare system. Even though, again, I am not very well-versed in the specifics of welfare law, I am acutely aware that welfare is incredibly inadequate in addressing poverty.

For instance, in Lora Jo Foo's overview of that status of Hmong women in America, she notes how women often use welfare as a means to self-sufficiency (151). Nonetheless, despite explicitly noting how this success is based on the welfare system, Foo does not even acknowledge that the welfare system is often capable of failing. If so many women become self-sufficient as a result of welfare, I think it is important to at least acknowledge that this avenue is unavailable for some women for whatever reasons.

Nonetheless, I greatly appreciated the point made towards the end outlining the importance of continuing welfare programs. I forget who made the point, but essentially, the speaker stated that welfare allowed women who would otherwise have to spend their time working for income for their families' subsistences to be physically present and to take care of their families. She also compared the difference afforded to tax breaks to middle class married women with children and to welfare. This point really illustrated the reason why welfare was a valuable resource for families, and I feel like if this point had been made earlier in the film, I would have been more engaged during the rest of the film.