Posted on 08/16/2012 7:49:47 AM PDT by Perseverando
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.”
Let’s take the example of a single mom with two kids, 1 and 4. She has a $29,000 a year job, putting the kids in daycare during the day while she works.
As the above chart – via Gary Alexander, Pennsylvania’s secretary of Public Welfare — shows, the single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income and benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income & benefits of $57,045.
It would sure be tempting for that mom to keep the status quo rather than take the new job, even though the new position might lead to further career advancement and a higher standard of living. I guess this is something the Obama White House forgot to mention in its “Life of Julia” cartoons extolling government assistance.
Sorry, just found the article previously posted on FR with a slightly different title. “Under Obama, More Lucrative For Single Mom To Earn $29K Than $69K” - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2906308/posts
Socialism is the belief that we all will be better off if we live at the expense of someone else. But those who love the Ten Commandments will see how this must fundamentally violate the one that forbids Coveting and it is made possible via government to actually commit the Theft.
Since God defines sin as violation of His Law (1 John 3:4), socialism is a sin. The apostle Paul elaborates on coveting by stating it is also a form of idolatry, another sin. He does this in Ephesians 5:1-7. He plainly states that no person who covets can inherit the Kingdom of God. In other words, supporters of socialism are disqualified from receiving the free gift of salvation. Jesus says elsewhere that people who will not repent will die in their sins.
But most readers of this already know it. And the socialists are frantic to deny it even as they grasp at socialism to achieve “social justice” (yet another fraud).
This sort of insanity...propagated across numerous federal agencies, explains the un-ending propagation of Federal debts, and an irrational insanity that will end Western civilization....as exactly as intended.
My soon to be sister in law is one of these women. She has a 4 yr degree paid through financial aid, 3 kids from two different dads, and tends bar at night. Quit her high paying job years ago because it was too much stress actually having to do real work. Now she collects Medicare for her kids, child support, and welfare. She is an Obama supporter and a product of our culture. She won’t get a real job for fear she will lose the gravy train of free money and gov aid. Its disgusting to think our taxes paid for an education for someone who is a do nothing.
It’s a shame that when Bush had Republican House and Senate he did nothing too. What is it about politicians that result in getting NOTHING done.
I cannot put into words how much this steams me up. My wife works about 12 hours a day which includes a one hour each way commute. Also has “on call” status some weekends and nights.
Her daugher does not work, has a kid, collects benefits and has a much better life style which includes arising around 9, spending face time with her kid, and basically doing nothing else except scanning the various government sites for any benefits she may be “entitled” to. The last straw was the free cell phone.
Why work, or even bother getting married?
It is worse than you think - with a low income, she qualifies for Income Based Repayment of student loans, meaning a lawyer could work for a non-profit for 20 years, play in as low as $50 a month on a $200,000 student loan debt and after 20 years it is paid for! He would then be free to work for a high salary and have paid off a $200K loan for $12,000. A whole new generation of community organizers and we are paying for them
Actually, I’d like to get back to the day when a dad could earn $29,000 and support a family of four, including mom.
And this is why Milton Friedman (remember him? heavy duty free-market economist) pointed out that the only form of income redistribution which does not produce perverse incentives is a guaranteed minimum income (in the form of a monthly check to every citizen the amount of which is independent of the citizen’s assets or income, but which is then treated as taxable income).
Actually, shutting down every “poverty program” (both state and federal), tossing all the bureaucrats who run them onto the unemployment line, and replacing them all with such a system would be a huge blow for liberty. I know, far from ideal, but possibly politically feasible unlike the ideal of shutting them all down, replacing them with no government program, and reinvigorating private charity as a means of succoring the poor. It would get rid of the twisted disincentives vis-a-vis work the current system has which the posted article highlights, get meddling bureaucrats and social workers out of the lives of the poor, and cost less. (I’m guessing *far* less when the recapture of the benefit through taxation is considered, but I don’t feel like gathering data and running the numbers to confirm my suspicion.)
Inflation. $29K back in the day bought a lot more than $29K does now.
and don’t forget the “earned” income tax credit, better known as government subsidized minimum wage.
Of course anyone can wait until age 25 and go to college on the government's dime - until that age your parents income is considered, even if they are not helping you in any way. So I am hearing of kids working at minimum wage jobs, partying and just getting by until age 25 when they qualify for Pell Grants, other assistance from the schools, assitance with housing and food stamps. By then, most kids are already out of school and paying their own student loans and now getting to pay taxes to assist these kids in going to school for free. You would think more 20 somethings would vote Republican, wouldn't you?
it is a to the advantage of government to keep you on the dole once there. you are much easier to control when the government owns you body and soul. i fought like hell to get off welfare. the welfare people told me that i was being shortsighted and stupid.
And let us not also consider one can keep their adult children (ha) on their medical programs until age 26. That is probably not considered income either.
I trust you are working Triple Overtime to try and deter your brother from marrying this woman?
Certainly solves the mystery as to why single women are 2:1 Obama
Twenty-one years ago, I was a single mom making $17,000 a year and driving a clunker. I managed to buy a small house and raise my son without ANY government help. Today the house is paid for, the car is paid for, my son is a college grad with a great job, and I am barely making $30,000 a year. However, I have everything I need and more.
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