Hacker Read top | best | new | newcomments | leaders | about | bookmarklet login

If you are willing to pay the welfare costs when these people can't hold a job any longer then sure.


sort by: page size:

People holding government jobs and on welfare would say "yes, definitely".

Do youmean that if someone doesn't want to work he can easily get welfare ?

Of course not. They're just people responding to incentives to make the best choices they can. I don't judge anyone on welfare or not.

Those people are already not working. So, instead of spending more on officials and offices and paperwork determining if they can have welfare or not, let's just give them the money directly.

I don't see how your comment is a counter-argument. Those who will work will indeed be paid more than a welfare check is worth. But you should still be able to live decently on a welfare check.

This argument is deeply flawed. What if they were unemployed? Taxpayers would be subsidizing a lot more.

No. The government is still having to provide welfare because the company is shirking it's responsibilities.

I'm sorry, but I will not accept the argument that it is ok for a company to have their employees on welfare. They are a for-profit entity. I should not be subsidizing them because they choose not to pay their employees enough.


Not if they don't have access to welfare without contribution.

Perhaps. But a person with only one kid? Doing a job that the company needs to have done, even if no great skill is required? If that person doesn't make enough for food and rent, then I repeat, it is the company that is on welfare.

And if someone is incapable of producing more than $15/hr worth of value with their labor, should they remain perpetually unemployed and dependent on welfare? Or should they earn what they can and allow for public benefits to top them up to a survivable standard of living?

That's what welfare is, provide a living to those unable to compete otherwise.

Sure, and it's a disincentive to work. The welfare program you describe taxes those $100 of earnings at a rate of 25%. Fewer people will be willing to do $100 of work for $75 than would do it for $100.

Or working in the other direction, that welfare program represents a standing offer to people working for $100 that it will pay them $25 to quit.


Absolutely. Now add the absence of a welfare system that is meant to alleviate the distress.

I'm pro welfare, and jobs programs for poor people and old people, but could we just pay them to sit at home instead?

Yea I've been on welfare myself and it wasn't enough but I wasn't trying to make a job out of it and applying for all the different extra plans and what not, I was just trying to find a new job.

I'm saying that if someone is working full-time for a company, and they still require welfare, then that company is at fault.

If you want to give them welfare, give them welfare. It's better than subsidizing inefficient systems that distort the market.

Yes, necessarily. Because welfare is means-tested.

You’d rather be collecting welfare than making $150k?
next

Legal | privacy