The Life of Julia — Barack Obama (http://www.barackobama.com/life-of-julia/)

The U.S. welfare system sure creates some crazy disincentives to working your way up the ladder. Benefits stacked upon benefits can mean it is financially better, at least in the short term, to stay at a lower-paying jobs rather than taking a higher paying job and losing those benefits. This is called the “welfare cliff.”

Julia’s mother: Why a single mom is better off with a $29,000 job and welfare than taking a $69,000 job | AEIdeas (http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/07/julias-mother-why-a-single-mom-is-better-off-on-welfare-than-taking-a-69000-a-year-job/)

This newest link is in response to an older article (published in May 2012). It does bring up something I have been peeved about & and have mentioned in postings in the past (prior to Obama and Biden)…. In my opinion, our government encourages society to take no moral responsibility for matters that are their moral responsibility. For example, many years ago, there was a secretary in my office who was expecting her 2nd child. She wanted to make sure that her paperwork was in order to receive her day care vouchers after the child was born. So I asked her, is the father of baby #2 the same as baby #1? She said yes. I asked if she was living with the father of her children. She said yea. So, I asked her, are you 2 planning to get married? She said that she wasn’t planning to get married because she’d loose her benefits provided by the state – and there was a long mess of benefits being provided to her. I’ve worked with many people receiving public assistance in the past and often I have found out that dad is living in the home with mom who is getting free housing and the reason they never married and perhaps never will is because of the benefits provided. I have also found in some instances that the father makes a decent hourly wage that if considered at the time the unmarried female applied would have disqualified her for those benefits.

In addition, we have the earned income credit and I have seen where it has been requested that hours be kept at a part-time level so that the person is able to get that subsidy/credit at the end of the year. I realize that not everyone on public assistance abuses it but I have found more often than not, they do. Basically, they are working part-time and getting full time pay with the credit being handed to them at the end of the year.

I thought the basis behind “The Life of Julia” was poor and nothing more than supporting documentation to our broken moral compass in society in the way our government supports it.

It definitely needs to be reformed. However, these "entitlement" programs are NEEDED. This is what seperates us from 3rd world countries. Does it need to be seriously looked at for issues such as you described above? I don't think anyone would refute that. Some people will always require assistance, and I understand that too. But when the system is so easy to take advantage of, where is the incentive to progress?

Does it need to be seriously looked at for issues such as you described above?

I think random checks and verifications need to be done - the same way the IRS randomly audits tax returns might be an idea.

But when the system is so easy to take advantage of, where is the incentive to progress?

That is the big problem. First, the earned income credit needs to go... you should never get more back in taxes than you put in the piggy and time limits on how long you get benefits. Additional children once on the system should not be covered.

I was just surprised they would use this as any sort of leverage here... sad really.