The Earned Income Tax Credit is nothing more than a wealth transfer scam to take money away from those who Earned it and give it to those who didn't............Ronald Reagan's biggest mistake.........
The problem is, I think it's rare that people actually use payments like that for what they should be used for, namely helping oneself climb the ladder.
When I was a broke single parent, the EITC helped me get a computer and I proceeded to teach myself digital graphics design (I was already an "old media" artist), which enabled me to get progressively better jobs. But I knew plenty of people who used that money simply to splurge.
The EITC was enacted in 1975.