“Asked about welfare, they give me the same response I have heard many places this summer – first they say they only get food stamps. Then, they mention that the kids get free meals at school. Then they mention that they have the free cell phones they get for qualifying for welfare. Then they say, “Oh, yeah, I have the Medicaid card,” and then finally, yes, they do live in subsidized housing as a matter of fact.”   –Lisa Conyers in her most recent “Report from the Field” at The Liberty Project.

Lisa then goes on to question why the Harlem residents she was interviewing didn’t think of their welfare benefits as out of the ordinary or even as welfare. In this case, as in others, they seemed to truly feel “entitled” to these benefits and hadn’t really considered what life might be like without the particularly extensive system of overlapping programs that serve the Harlem area. This insight and the interview it came from are just one piece of a much larger research project recently taken on by The Liberty Project.

The Liberty Project  was founded in 1997 and focused at the time on defending the right to privacy. In a response to a series of ridiculous searches and seizures including one in which bubble gum was mistaken for cocaine, Philip Harvey, the organization’s’ founder started a media campaign to bring attention to the issue. Since then, the Liberty Project has grown significantly and, this past summer, launched a new research project with an eye to understanding how people all across the US understand and interact with welfare programs and the effects these programs have on how they view and feel about their lives. One unique focus of the project is that it zeroes in on Native American populations who find themselves increasingly economically dependent on such programs. Below is an interview in which Lisa talks with Southern Ute tribal member, Vince, about economic opportunities for tribal members and how things have changed since he was growing up.

As the lead researcher, Lisa sees the focus of her mission as one to “determine whether or not happiness and economic dependency on the state can co-exist.” This issue is explored extensively in the video interviews on the Liberty Project YouTube channel and Lisa even interviews some people working within the welfare system and some who have avoided becoming dependent. As we look towards the future and question how to transition into a society where there is no welfare state, we need to be cognizant of the major role this system still plays in the lives of many of our compatriots. The Liberty Project research offers an important window into the experiences of Americans whose lives are engulfed by the welfare state and some great insights that can prove useful when trying to talk to people about how one could possibly be against a system which is ubiquitous in so many lives.