Deck 20: Welfare Is Ruining This Country

Question 1

The Second Thoughts welfare essay, notes that social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare are ______.

A) not linked to financial need
B) best thought of as massive public assistance programs
C) directed exclusively at the eligible poor
D) not really a financial drain on our federal budget

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What is the primary driver of dependency rates?

A) food insecurity
B) low income
C) disability
D) old age

Answer 2

A

Question 3

When viewed historically, welfare ranks ______.

A) have been growing consistently
B) have always been relatively small
C) consist mostly of adults with disabilities
D) None of these choices are correct.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Welfare rolls in the United States have always included a large percentage of Americans.
B) Through history, U.S. welfare rolls have always been quite sizeable.
C) U.S. welfare rolls have grown dramatically since the Great Recession.
D) Most poor families today are not welfare dependent.

Question 5

The purchasing power of TANF benefits ______.

A) has risen in recent years to stay pace with inflation
B) has remained stable
C) has fallen since the program's inception
D) brings families above the poverty line

Question 6

That TANF is a block grant program means ______.

A) states have no flexibility in how they fund their assistance programs
B) states all receive equal federal funding
C) states have great flexibility in how they spend their funding
D) only "core" assistance program receives TANF monies

Question 7

Proposed changes by the Trump administration to the SNAP program include ______.

A) giving families more cash assistance
B) giving families more food stamps
C) giving families boxes of food
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 8

Over the last 10 years, the income gap ______.

A) has remained unchanged
B) has decreased
C) has increased
D) has largely disappeared

Question 9

The way TANF is structured ______.

A) recipients face time restrictions on their assistance
B) there is a work component to receiving assistance
C) program monies are issued by the federal government as block grants
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 10

In their essay on welfare, Ruane and Cerulo note that ______.

A) the welfare population in the United States is growing at a rapid rate
B) the typical welfare family is quite large
C) minimum wage jobs are often too costly for the poor to accept
D) the new welfare to work program has made significant strides in providing childcare for the working poor

Question 11

According to the essay on welfare, the decline in the TANF caseload over recent years ______.

A) is a sign that the country is doing a good job reducing poverty
B) is a sign that the "safety net" for protecting those in need is shrinking
C) families are quite successful in pulling themselves out of poverty
D) "deep poverty" has largely been eradicated in the United States

Question 12

In general, Americans tend to believe that ______.

A) inequality provides incentive for individual effort
B) hard work can save one from poverty
C) poverty is a personal trouble rather than a social issue
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 13

Intergenerational upward mobility ______.

A) was prevalent in the United States during the post-WWII years
B) can still be taken for granted in the United States
C) is expected to increase in the years ahead
D) tends to increase during times of economic recession

Question 14

The current federal minimum wage ______.

A) is adjusted annually to keep the average worker above the poverty threshold
B) is not enough to keep a family of three out of poverty
C) is currently set at $15.00 an hour
D) is adjusted annually to stay ahead of inflation

Question 15

Between 2008 and 2012, 54% of SNAP assistance lasted ______.

A) 1 year or less
B) 2 years
C) 3 years
D) more than 5 years

Question 16

The working poor ______.

A) are individuals who have spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force but have incomes below the poverty level
B) are anomalies--if you work in the United States, you are not poor
C) are poor because they cannot or will not work full-time hours
D) tend to receive better health-care coverage than the nonworking poor

Question 17

In recent years, as the percent of Americans receiving TANF assistance has declined ______.

A) so too has the poverty rate
B) the percent of children living in poverty has increased
C) so too has the number of U.S. millionaires
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 18

TANF is structured to ______.

A) assure that all U.S. workers have adequate health-care coverage
B) assure that recipients are motivated to leave the program as quickly as possible
C) delay recipients from entering the job market until they have completed their educational goals
D) assist working parents with the challenge of finding affordable day care

Question 19

What standard is used by the federal government to determine the number of families living in poverty?

A) the poverty threshold
B) a family's ability to afford life necessities
C) a family's total assets
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 20

Which of the following is(are) true of TANF?

A) It is touted as a "welfare to work" program.
B) It imposes a lifetime limit of 20 years of support to qualifying families.
C) It currently has a larger caseload than the previous AFDC program.
D) It is touted as a "welfare to work" program and it imposes a lifetime limit of 20 years of support to qualifying families.

Question 21

Since 2013, the wealth of the top 1% increased by 3%, while ______.

A) the wealth of the bottom 90% increased by 1%
B) the wealth of the bottom 90% increased by 2%
C) the wealth of the bottom 90% decreased
D) the wealth of the bottom 90% remained unchanged

Question 22

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that most of the Top 10 occupations projected to have the largest growth in the years ahead will be ______.

A) high-wage occupations
B) low-wage occupations
C) occupations requiring graduate degrees
D) occupations requiring college degrees