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Well I do. Some teenager girl w/o much family gets knocked up and now she's fucked, living on the dole for life, despite her work ethic or desire to be a productive member of society.
It's not right, and it's purely because of our flawed welfare system.
Think of how much cash this country could save by simply remediating this one situation and allowing those single mothers to transition to the workforce full time and pay all those taxes?
Think of how much cash this country could save if we incentiveized full time work for those on welfare instead of penalizing it?
Think of the future generations we could save from being brought up in an environment of welfare dependency...
I'm not talking in terms of political idealism; I'm talking about the realities of these programs. They are designed, either by purpose or by default, to keep those who want to work dependent, and give those who don't want to work, no incentive to do so.
Speed
And you think most people on welfare WANT to work!!??
I think you and I are living on a different planet.
I think you're generalizing.
Food stamps recipients have increased something like 60% in the past 4 years. You think every one of those people just decided to start gaming the system?
There are no numbers to show leaches vs. those genuinely down on their luck, but it's surely not a coincidence that the economy is poor and more folks start collecting entitlements.
Now, how many of those folks want to work, but will keep getting offered more crap NOT to work full time?
How many of those people might have already turned down full time work because our welfare system rewards minimal work effort?
Anyway, the point I'm making is that we can reduce entitlement spending by simply managing these programs in a way that incentives full time employment instead of penalizing it.
In 1990ish, my father lost his job as a warehouse manager/shipper. He collected partial unemployment and worked a job at a retail store. My mother went back to work and he worked as much as he could, but with a mortgage and a family, it still wasn't enough and we really struggled for a year or so. My mother told me she even tried to get us food stamps for that period, but because they were working we didn't qualify.
We were discussing this time a few years ago and he told me that he had sat down and figured out that had he not worked the part time job, he would have actually taken home something like another $20/week that he would have saved in taxes.
He told me that the $20 would have really helped, but he couldn't bring himself to just NOT work...it just wasn't in his blood.
How many people, faced with a similar situation would tough it out and work...for less money?
That's the problem. We pay people to not work, or work little, then penalize them for working too much; there is no incentive to transition to full time employment. Ever.
Speed