Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

by Noam Chomsky

What about Aid for Families with Dependent Children? Well, for one thing, it’s dropped very sharply since 1970, even without “Welfare Reform.” I mean, compared to 1970, maximum A.F.D.C. benefits for an average family had fallen by about 40 percent in real terms by 1995.27 In fact, we always hear in the media and from politicians how there’s so much welfare for the poor in the United States, but the reality is that the United States is completely off the international spectrum in this respect—we give far less than any other industrialized country.28 Well, A.F.D.C. still has around nine million young children on it; these guys want to take five million of them off. Alright, those are children— average age: seven.29 And if you just look at the families who are receiving welfare under the program, what you find is that a substantial number of the mothers are young women who’ve been raped, or abused, or never had any educational opportunities, and so on. Well, under the current dogmas, their children, seven-year-old children, they have to be taught “fiscal responsibility”—but not Newt Gingrich’s constituents. They have to keep being funded by the public.30 So Bill Clinton and all these others are talking about “welfare reform” these days—but no one’s suggesting that we put executives to work: they’re going to keep getting welfare, it’s only poor mothers who are supposed to be forced into “work obligations” [i.e. parents must obtain jobs or lose benefits after receiving welfare ...