It Doesn’t Pay to Work (At Least in PA)

[cwo_ghwebb]

In the wake of President Obama’s re-election victory, there has been a lot of discussion about makers and takers. Mitt Romney said on a conference call with supporters, among many other things, that Obama bought a lot of votes with “gifts” to various constituencies, an evidently true observation for which he mysteriously was maligned by Bobby Jindal and others. The truth is much worse than Romney suggested or than most people imagine: the middle class is right to feel bitter and betrayed. Those who work for a living have been sold out by federal and state governments that have created a welfare system gone mad.

ZeroHedge has the grim numbers:

[I]t is now more lucrative – in the form of actual disposable income – to sit, do nothing, and collect various welfare entitlements, than to work. This is graphically, and very painfully confirmed, in the below chart from Gary Alexander, Secretary of Public Welfare, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (a state best known for its broke capital Harrisburg). As quantitied, and explained by Alexander, “the single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income & benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income and benefits of $57,045.“

It Doesn’t Pay to Work | Power Line

The facts also support the trend of why those on welfare, pumping out a couple of illegitimate children each, tend not to marry. Can't endanger government benefits.

Some good charts to support the claims made in the editorial.

[SamSpade]

When I lived in Massachusetts, my boss lived next door to a woman who was receiving lots of government assistance - she did not work and she had three kids. During my time working for him, we had to redo her apartment (as her apartment was rented from HIS boss) and that's when I learned most of this. Since her kids were out of control, and she seemed to be ill often, we were concerned that she would be better off working.

Which was when we found out that she received benefits that exceeded what I was being paid as a laborer. So her biggest hurdle was that, in order to continue to live in her apartment raising three kids, to pay for daycare and get off government assistance, she'd have to be paid around twice what I was being paid to do (which ironically was to tear down and rebuild the apartment).

And we also learned - she had almost NO JOB SKILLS whatsoever. I don't think she could even have waited tables or run a register.

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I understand the need to care for the needy, but this woman, by virtue of the system, was placed in a situation where it was more expensive in the short run to get her out of it - and we had the additional hurdle of trying to motivate her to change her situation.

[GURPS (Premo)]

Originally Posted by SamSpade

And we also learned - she had almost NO JOB SKILLS whatsoever. I don't think she could even have waited tables or run a register.

----------------------------------

I understand the need to care for the needy, but this woman, by virtue of the system, was placed in a situation where it was more expensive in the short run to get her out of it - and we had the additional hurdle of trying to motivate her to change her situation.

make her a ward of the state, and remove her voting rights

[Dakota (Premo)]

2nd thread today to support my strong desires to see women raised with encouragement and skills to support themselves.

When you really sit back and think about it, our government rewards those who are immoral and lazy.

[cwo_ghwebb]

Originally Posted by Dakota

2nd thread today to support my strong desires to see women raised with encouragement and skills to support themselves.

When you really sit back and think about it, our government rewards those who are immoral and lazy.

One of the ideas regarding society and where it's heading is that the current entitlement programs, as designed, promulgate more of the same behavior from the children of those who utilize the safety net. And yet, have no desire or intent to improve their lives.

[SamSpade]

Originally Posted by Dakota

2nd thread today to support my strong desires to see women raised with encouragement and skills to support themselves.

When you really sit back and think about it, our government rewards those who are immoral and lazy.

It certainly doesn't do enough to discourage it.

Normally, I would think it would be enough to require that you MUST work to receive benefits, but in the case of women, they typically bear the additional burden of having to care for the children. For instance, a single parent is more likely to be a woman, and for her to work for her benefits, they need to at least exceed the cost of daycare - otherwise, it's just digging a hole even deeper.

I do think we need to massively rethink the way we educate our children, especially at the higher levels. We're still partly stuck in the idea that we are teaching people to "think", to provide them with a well-rounded education, that our job is the classical idea of education for its own sake.

What we need is to ensure our next generation is educated and skilled enough to take on a job and succeed in it. What we are getting is people who can't make it as a contestant on "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?".

Now part of that is, we do teach our kids stuff like the body parts of an insect or the botanical breakdown of trees and leaves and flowers - but not a one of them can change a tire or handle a budget. I used to think that kind of stuff was important, but we need to look at what schools are now supposed to do. Time was, learning all that stuff "educated" you, but your future was pretty much working in Dad's butcher shop or hardware store.

If you ever take the time to see how other nations teach their kids, you might see something of what I've seen - they're preparing the future workers - not rubber-stamping the same useless education on everyone.

[itsbob]

Originally Posted by cwo_ghwebb

It Doesn’t Pay to Work | Power Line

The facts also support the trend of why those on welfare, pumping out a couple of illegitimate children each, tend not to marry. Can't endanger government benefits.

Some good charts to support the claims made in the editorial.

I came from PA where the welfare state is alive and well. Generations of families there on some kind of assistance, and entire familes (multi-generational) that all see the same doctor, have the same diagnosis and get the same SSI benefits.

Try to convince a kid that joining the military is in his best interests when his parents hang out with their friends and drink, eat and party all day on their welfare payments. I heard DOZENS of times how their plan was to do exactly what their parents do..

Moving into the area I thought it would be a GOLD MINE for a recruiter.. High unemployment, no future, no jobs, no careers.. coming from a very successful stint in New England where the unemployment was low, jobs paid well, and had great benefits.

You can't compete with sitting on your ass and drinking and partying.. and making more money than serving in the military ever would.