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"Welfare queen" is a pejorative phrase used in the United States to refer to people, usually women, who are accused of collecting excessive welfare payments through fraud or manipulation. Reporting on welfare fraud began during the early 1960s, appearing in general-interest magazines such as ''Readers Digest''. The term dates from 1974, and gained extra currency in the American lexicon during Ronald Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign shortly after he described a woman from Chicago's South Side abusing welfare - though Reagan never used the term "welfare queen" when referencing the woman.〔 Since then, the phrase has remained a stigmatizing label placed on recidivist poor mothers, with studies showing that it often carries gendered and racial connotations.〔 〕〔 〕 Although women in the United States of America can no longer stay on welfare indefinitely due to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, the term continued to shape American dialogue on poverty.〔 ==Origin== The idea of welfare fraud goes back to the early-1960s; although the offenders in those stories were typically male or faceless.〔 There were, however, journalistic exposés on what would become known as welfare queens. ''Readers Digest'' and ''Look'' magazine published sensational stories about mothers abusing the system. Some of these stories, and some that followed into the 1990s, focused on female welfare recipients engaged in behavior counter-productive to eventual financial independence such as having children out of wedlock, using AFDC money to buy drugs, or showing little desire to work. These women were understood to be social parasites, draining society of valuable resources while engaging in self damaging behavior.〔 Despite these early examples, stories about able-bodied men collecting welfare continued until the 1970s, at which point women became the main focus of welfare fraud stories.〔 The term was coined in 1974, either by George Bliss of the ''Chicago Tribune'' in his articles about Linda Taylor, or by ''Jet Magazine''. Neither publication credits the other in their "Welfare Queen" stories of that year. The term "welfare queen" is often incorrectly stated to have been coined by Ronald Reagan, and incorrectly attributed to a 1976 in a radio commentary. During his 1976 presidential campaign, Reagan would tell the story of a woman from Chicago's South Side who was arrested for welfare fraud: "She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and is collecting veteran's benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. And she is collecting Social Security on her cards. She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000." Critics Paul Krugman and Mark J. Green have argued that the story grossly exaggerates minor cases of welfare fraud. ''The Washington Post'' reported that Linda Taylor may have been the women who inspired Reagan's story. Linda Taylor was "known as the Welfare Queen, as she is credited with taking in more than $150,000 a year in welfare benefits...(detectives allege that she ) had at least 26 aliases, with identifications to match; was listed at more than a score of telephone numbers; could show her address at more than 30 locations in and around Chicago; owned a portfolio of stocks and bonds under various names and a garage full of autos, including a Cadillac, Lincoln and a Chevy wagon; had three Social Security cards; was wed to several husbands who had died; had recently wed a 21-year-old sailor at a nearby naval training center; and was about to leave on a Hawaiian vacation." Taylor was ultimately charged with committing $8,000 in fraud and having four aliases. She was convicted of illegally obtaining 23 welfare checks using two aliases. She was sentenced to two to six years in prison. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Welfare queen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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