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 describes what life is like scavenging for food, and living on the street.