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