While still in its early stages, welfare reform has already been judged a great success in many states, at least in getting people off welfare. It’s estimated that more than 2 million people have left the rolls since 1994.
In the past four years, welfare rolls in Athens County have been cut in half. But 70 percent of the people who left in the past two years took jobs that paid less than $6 an hour. The result: The Athens County poverty rate still remains at more than 30 percent--twice the national average.
For advocates (代言人) for the poor, that’s an indication much more needs to be done.
"More people are getting jobs, but it’s not their lives any better," says Kathy Lairn, a policy yst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington.
A center ysis of U.S. Census data nationwide found that between 1995 and 1996, a greater percentage of single, female-headed households were earning money on their own, but that average income for these households actually went down.
But for many, the fact that poor people are able to support themselves almost as well without government aid as they did with it is in itself a huge victory.
"Welfare was a poison. It was a toxin (毒素)that was poisoning the family," says Robert Rector, a welfare-reform policy yst. "The reform is changing the moral climate in low-income communities. It’s beginning to rebuild the work ethic (道德观), which is much more important."
Mr. Rector and others argued that once "the habit of dependency is cracked", then the country can make other policy changes aimed at improving living standards.
According to the passage, before the welfare reform was carried out, ______.