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Meagan Glowa
7640460
Soc 3380, G.Olsen
Without a Net:
Perspective on the Lacking U.S Welfare State
This book, Without a Net : Middle Class and Homeless (with kids) by Michelle
Kennedy, gives a captivating and concerning perspective on the modern welfare
state of the United States. This book tells a true story of how easily it is to fall
through the cracks into homelessness and poverty in the U.S and how difficult it is to
escape even with the social policy in place meant to better the lives of Americans.
From the perspective of Michelle Kennedy it seems as though the U.S social policy
and the welfare state is meant to discipline women who decide against the norm
and control them, although it is not often talked about in this in this way, there seem
to be underlying ideologies in place. This paper will discuss how the U.S welfare
state is neglectful and disciplinary of women who decide to leave their husbands in
order to better their and their children’s situation, how through the system the
government attempts to control people in poverty and how Kennedy’s situation
compares to other women in welfare states around the world such as Canada and
Sweden.
Kennedy’s story starts off with the explanation of her privileged life and how
her parents provided her with everything she could possibly need, growing up such
as a university education, a car and so on. She was a well off middle class women
with an education but decided marriage and taking care of kids was her first priority
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when she quickly became pregnant. When reading this at the beginning it is hard to
imagine how she could have gone from such a comfortable situation to such an
uncomfortable one so rapidly. Her story is reminiscent of many women’s journeys
to homelessness in the U.S who act against the status quo of staying married and
venturing away without what the government would call a sufficient reason
according to social assistance qualifications. This is because the U.S welfare state
provides the bare minimum and only to people who desperately need it, desperate
based on their definition is arguable considering Kennedy had to live in her car with
children for months because she could not obtain food stamps, reduced housing or
government child care assistance. Through her story there are constantly examples
of how the current U.S liberal welfare system does not provide well for people,
especially women who decide to leave their marriage and dependence on their
husband, in pursuit of a more fulfilling life. The only way a women can get social
assistance is if she has a job providing insurance, or if she depends on a husbands
income. In the book, Kennedy sets out for a job at the insurance company after she
works at a bar for a while, in order to better provide for her family and receive
benefits. “well, it’s not mixing drinks anymore, but it’s a decent job, and I can’t beat
the benefits”(Kennedy 2005 p.193). This event shows that for a women to provide
for her family and get private health insurance ,she must pursue a demanding job
and take time away from her children. This sets women up for disaster if they decide
to act adversely. In Canada Healthcare is provided universally and so women can
work part time and still be able to be with their young children while being able to
rely on getting the healthcare they need. This would not be difficult for the United
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States to implement into their country as Canada has a very similar welfare state to
them, the only problem with implementing it is the fight that the private insurance
companies would put up with it. this is because the insurance companies make
massive amounts of money off of people who buy their insurance because they do
not have a job that has benefits. This is a huge problem in the U.S and is part of what
may make people homeless. In Kennedy’s case after her child was attacked by a dog,
she was very lucky that she was able to get insurance through the hospital finance
office otherwise the bills for her child’s surgery would have put her even further
into the hole.
Along with this notion of weak social policy in the U.S, the title “Without a
Net”, sheds light on the welfare state that women in these situations are provided
with and the lack of a “safety net” for them when life gets tough. Kennedy
experienced this first hand on her journey to protect her children and attempt
provide a better life for them without her husband and she in turn worsened their
lives life temporarily because of the lack of social policy in place for her and because
of her previous dependence on him. We see a very alarming lack of social child care
assistance in the U.S when Kennedy is forced to leave her children sleeping in the
care with no direct supervision because nothing is in place for her to receive
childcare. and she needs to works in order to provide for them. Single women in the
United States are not provided with the tools they need in order to better
themselves without many peoples help. This is so very apparent in the book when
Kennedy applies for food stamps and the women is demeaning saying “ if you like, I
can set you up with a financial counselor, and she can help you budget your money
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better” (Kennedy,2005. Pg95) as if she is not trying hard enough already and again
on page 146 when she tries to apply for housing assistance and the counselor asks
about the husband whom she left and where he is and why he’s not in the picture,
making her feel senseless for leaving him. Social policy should be in place to help
women and children and empower them, but in Kennedy’s case the system only
prevented that. The U.S welfare state doesn’t take into account women that want to
go on their own regardless of how their husband treated them. Unfortunately for
some women they are abused and this is why leave their husband but some just feel
life could be better for them and their children without the husband and in
Kennedy’s case the U.S policies in place show how they discipline these women for
making these decisions and making them work for a better life.
This way of thinking about women and their roles in society and their
contributions has slight similarities to the form of a male breadwinner state that
excludes women to an extent from the labour market, makes them dependent on
their partner and makes their main responsibility to care for children and the
husband (Olsen, 2002 p.80-82). This idea of the Male Breadwinner state can be
observed in Germany, although women are still provided with more support then in
the U.S, in the form of income supports and social services with the expectation of
women in traditional roles (Olsen, 2002 p.81). If the United States in fact has these
underlying ideologies, they should at least put in place a better welfare system for
women so they do not feel helpless and dependent.
From a Structural Marx perspective, the government may be acting in the
interest of the capitalist class through oppression of women and making them feel
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like they need to depend on the husband and stay in the home, because capitalism
depends on this unpaid work (Olsen,2013). They reinforce this by not providing
government assistance for women who want need to act against the status quo, just
as in Kennedy’s case. The outcome of this being that women are oppressed and
capitalism thrives from it. ’Thus in the United States, where feminism and women’s
organization have been the strongest, women have the fewest and most meager
social supports in place”(Olsen2002. P141). This quote gives perspective on just
how oppressed women have been despite all of their actions to fight for their rights.
This book also demonstrates how poverty is not often talked about in the U.S
and is a way to control society through shaming and making people feel lesser if
they are in these situations, therefore keeping them down. The promotion of life in
the U.S is centered on consuming goods and if you are not able to you are made to
feel as if you are not part of or contributing to society. The United States has a
Liberal Welfare State; Meaning that the individuals must look after themselves and
their protection without much support from the government. If you are unable to
consume goods or have nice belongings then you are looked down upon and seen as
less of a person. U.S policy and the welfare state promotes the idea that if you are on
welfare you must not be a hard working person and consequently must be punished
because you are not contributing to society by finding a job, however it is known
how difficult it is to find a job in these times. Although in Kennedy’s case she lucks
out. as she obtains a job at a bar and is able to provide the bare minimum of food for
her children. “I do not want to be associated with the really poor people. I am not
really poor. I just don’t have a house”(Kennedy 2005, p.93). We can see from this
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quote how engrained in her mind the idea of being poor and what it means. This is
the ideology the government promotes in order to discipline and control people
who have fallen into poverty making them fight to get back on their feet without the
government’s help, which is clearly very difficult and somewhat unethical because
people should have the necessities without question. This ideology of keeping quiet
about impoverishment and homelessness shows how unaccepting the government
has tried to make society of homelessness and therefore associating it with negative
connotations.
The fact that in U.S history there was no occurrence of a feudal society in
which there was mutual dependence and a sense of caring for each other no matter
where the power lied, tells of where this way of thinking originates. For examples
some of the U.S social policy such as workers compensation, originated from
working class and industrialization when workers began suing their bosses and
compensation was put in place to protect the capitalist’s money. ”(Olsen, 2013).
These ideologies are imbedded in history originating from the poor laws that were
implemented in the U.S during the crisis of The Great Depression as well
(Olsen,2005 p.97). The idea of not wanting to provide too much for people in the
case that they stop working and depend on social assistance, is still is very relevant
to social policy making today. They feel if the government doesn’t provide people
with enough to live then people will be deterred from becoming dependent on social
programs. We can clearly see how this ideology does not work to keep people out of
financial trouble, with Kennedy and her journey from being a privileged middle
class women to being broke and homeless and cannot even receive social assistance
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when she asks for it causing her to be homeless for much longer then anticipated.
Another example of this ideology of homeless people being lazy, is shown when the
cop interrogates her and interrupts her and her children sleeping in the car. “ Be
careful, and please try to find a place to live” (Kennedy, 2005 p.85). The cop judges
her for being homeless and does not help her either only advices her to try to find a
place to live which is exactly what she had been doing the whole time, but
government assistance hasn’t allowed for it or helped her one bit. This instance is so
telling of how engrained liberal ideology in the United States is and how there is an
emphasis on helping yourself only, no sense of community or increased
responsibility or intervention by the government for its people. This has stark
contrast to the ideologies in more developed welfare states such as Sweden.
If Kennedy and her children lived in a more developed welfare state such as
Sweden, which is a social democratic welfare state, their life and journey away from
her husband would have gone much smoother and more successful. She would be
able to provide her children with a better life then when she depended on her
husband. In Sweden’s welfare state one of the main goals is to better women and
and children’s lives and also to reduce child poverty as well as increase life chances
of all people. The government feels that regardless of what the reason was for
leaving the husband or that there never was one in the first place, women should
have an all encompassing network of support in place and in turn a true life chance
same as men. By implement ideologies such as this one, and putting a welfare
system in place to follow, Sweden has accomplished a better standard of living for
all of its citizens. In addition, the amount of poor in Sweden is much less, 5.6% of the
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population (Olsen, 2013) then that of the U.S, 17.3% (Olsen, 2013), because they
often are not stuck in poverty long because of comprehensive social programs.
Also in Sweden, their parental leave is more generous and also requires an
amount of time spent by the father with the child. This creates, for the father, a time
to bond with the child and in turn could help with childcare making for more
equality for women, by increasing the father’s knowledge of how to care for the
child. In Kennedy’s story we see how the divide between father and child can be
very wide when policies such as this are not implemented. Because of this divide
Tom , Kennedy’s now ex- husband was not able to care for the child adequately due
to lack of knowledge and bond and this resulted in frustration in their marriage, one
of the reasons that lead to Kennedy to leaving him. This could have been very
different if the U.S welfare state provided citizens with an adequate and all
encompassing parental leave like that of Sweden.
To add to child care policy, both Sweden and Canada provide citizens with
income security in order to care for a child. In Canada there exists the child tax
benefit, which increases family income by proving a monthly cash payment to
families to assist in the expenses that come with childcare. This could have benefited
Kennedy and her children greatly if it existed in the U.S. Sweden goes even further to
provide a greater amount of money through their child allowance which really helps
families and specifically single other raise their children if she is unable to get a job
because of lack of time to work. The United States has no such assistance and in turn
families really suffer and have to work more providing them with less time to care
for children.
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Kennedy mentions at the end of the book in her epilogue that there were a
couple of social programs she could have gone to for help. These programs however
are not government , they are community organizations “unfortunately (or perhaps
fortunately ),very few of these organizations are government related”(Kennedy
2005, p.209). This fact is concerning for the amount of homeless people in the
United States. How come they do not put in place government organizations to help
these people? This is could have to do with historical ideology of not giving
assistance as they feel people will become dependent on it. From this quote, when
she says perhaps fortunately they are not government organizations, she may be
addressing the fact that the government has such poor security provisions for
people who live in poverty and want help but cannot get it from the strict guidelines
the government has them follow. These community organizations don’t follow
guidelines like the government, they provide for all who need them. This is how the
U.S welfare state should strive to act as food, shelter and water, which Kennedy had
to pay for in the midst of her homelessness, are a life necessity and it is only ethical
all people should have them.
We see proof that this thought does not have to be the only way a capitalist
society can function and there is a way to increase equality and also have a
successful economy. In Sweden the government does not rely as much on the free
market to increase the well being of all and reduce inequality like the United States
does (Olsen,2013), which ,maybe explains why they are going through an economic
crisis currently. Sweden has tried to keep in place its very successful and supportive
welfare state to provide for people. This quote shows why they may be doing so;
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“…some research suggests that there is no relationship between economic growth
and welfare state expansion, or even that the relationship is positive”(Olsen, 2002
p.194). As globalization increases Sweden continues to provide a supportive welfare
state for citizens and has possibly proven to be less effected by economic crisis then
the people of the U.S.
All things considered this book shows the unfortunate reality of the lacking
U.S welfare state and social policy that the government has put in place for people
that have fallen into poverty from acting against status quo of biased historical
ideologies. As shown, many other developed countries such as Sweden, and Canada
have a more supportive welfare states, which create a better living environment for
all residents man, women and child and have proven to drastically reduce
inequality. The sort of security programs mentioned would have been very helpful
to Kennedy’s situation and probably would have helped her get back on her feet or
prevented her homelessness from happening in the first place. This book provides
perspective on the U.S welfare state regime and what should be an ethical amount of
social assistance that the government should provide. Clearly this amount that the
U.S government is currently providing is not enough because it is easy to go from
middle class to instantly homeless, as in Kennedy’s situation. If the United States just
copied the most simple social policies from other developed welfare state nations
such as Sweden or became more like Canada with just universal healthcare they
could break the chains of old fashioned ideologies in which they currently govern
on, and could provide a better life for their citizens and better, happier country over
all.
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References
Kennedy, Michelle (2005) Without a Net : Middle Class and Homeless(With Kids) in
America. New York : Penguin Books.
Olsen, Gregg M. (2013). Power, Politics and the Welfare State. [PowerPoint slides
and lectures]. Retrieved from
https://jump.umanitoba.ca/cp/ips/grouptools/fileshare/FileshareIndex.jsp?
groupID=61853
Olsen, Gregg M.( 2002)The Politics of the Welfare State: Canada, Sweden and the
United States. Canada : Oxford University Press.
Olsen, Marvin E. and Martin N. Marger (eds)(1993). Power in Modern Societies,
Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.