I prefer to do both
Provide a safety net and a means to improve your lot in life
Statistics aren't on your side.
The ever increasing number of people going on welfare has been steadily increasing the last four years. If you consider that improving someone's quality of life, I'm not sure we can take you seriously.
You mean food stamps, right?
Because if you mean TANF you would be wrong. People going on welfare and TANF has been decreasing since 1996.
We spend half of what we used to on TANF/welfare.
"The cash assistance portion of TANF has fallen to $9.6 billion in 2011, down from $20.4 billion in what were mostly cash benefits in 1996, according to an analysis by CLASP, a low-income advocacy group. The average number of people receiving payments per month is 4.6 million, down from 12.6 million."
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/09/news/economy/welfare-reform/index.htm