25 years after welfare reform, let’s revisit “the magic bureaucrat”

The Uncertain Hour

Marketplace

Government, News

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s been 25 years since our country upended its welfare system – and so we’re looking back at our very first episode.

We spent that first season of “The Uncertain Hour” reflecting deeply on what welfare had become. Each of those episodes can still help us understand what’s happened to one of our nation’s oldest safety net programs, on this anniversary of its so-called “reform.”

In this reprise episode, we tell the story of the “Magic Bureaucrat” — the former director of a suburban county welfare office who helped launched the welfare reform movement 25 years ago, with the aid of a self-produced pop album.

Check out the whole first season to learn more — from the story of a woman who exposed the racism built into the welfare system from its early days, to an investigation of some of the very surprising ways states have spent federal welfare funds in the last 25 years. Money has gone to marriage counseling workshops, college scholarships for middle-class families and religious “crisis pregnancy centers” that try to steer women away from abortions.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm holding in my hand a CD produced in the early 1990s.
0:04.4	It's called Work Makes the Difference.
0:07.5	The cover of the CD is Hot Pink and Purple,
0:10.6	very 90s geometric patterns on it,
0:13.2	and the people behind it, the producers,
0:15.2	the songwriters and the performers.
0:17.2	Well, let me just read a couple of the credits for you.
0:20.8	First off, there is Lawrence E. Townsend,
0:24.2	director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services,
0:29.5	and below that, there's just a credit line for
0:31.9	the Income Maintenance Division staff.
0:34.6	Now, if you're unfamiliar with the jargon of government safety net agencies,
0:38.6	basically these people all worked for a county welfare office.
0:43.2	They made the CD. Here's just a taste.
0:46.2	Well, fair, just a temporary way of a lie.
0:54.3	You don't have to stay there for the rest of your life.
0:59.3	Your time.
1:02.8	I'm going to tell you the strange story of why this CD got made,
1:06.8	who made it, who its intended audience was,
1:09.8	because it says so much about the mindset at a moment in our history
1:14.4	that we're still grappling with as a country.
1:16.8	Make it change, join the work force, don't be afraid.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.