What is Welfare? What is welfare? According to recent polls, most Americans consider this nation's welfare system “a failure and a disgrace” (LeVert 10). Most people use the word “welfare” to mean income support or public assistance programs designed to help people who are already poor. Although it is geared to poverty-stricken people, families, and children, most people have benefited from government aid or assistance programs, in other words, “welfare.” Poverty in America is a disease for which there is plenty of treatment, but no known cure. In the essay, “On Dumpster Diving,” Lars Eighner d