ople who are poor and disadvantaged. Welfare brings some of our most precious values--involving autonomy, responsibility, work, family, community, and compassion--into conflict. We want to help those who are not making it but, in so doing, we seem to cheapen the efforts of those who are struggling hard just to get by (Ellwood 6).
Ellwood asks the essential question--should welfare be reformed or replaced? He notes that the country has gone through several attempts at welfare reform, or at least discussions of welfare reform with an eye to making changes if a good program can be developed. The conservatives have called for the elimination of welfare, and Ellwood rightly notes that no one expects this call to be heeded. What is being discussed is the imposition of new obligations and responsibilities on recipients, with the government in turn providing training or jobs. Ellwood considers these issues and notes that while they would help, they would not have more than a modest effect on the caseload and on the ability of the disadvantaged to provide for them
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