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Years ago, my father moved to a small town within commuting distance of a large city because he wanted the rural life for his family. The town asked him to serve as Justice of the Peace because they didn't have many college educated prospects for the position.

Turned out one of his duties was to help the underemployed and unemployed get better jobs through networking. In those days, JFK was still president and LBJ's Great Society program hadn't yet gotten traction, so most towns which were around actually had local committees of townspeople set up to do this sort of thing. The JP was automatically on that committee.

One guy was a pretty good mechanic and another town six miles away needed a pretty good mechanic. Dad and the committee hooked them up and the guy was delighted to see a decent increase in income in return for a short commute. That is until shortly after his first paycheck, he discovered all the government bennies he would lose.

Long story short is things were this bad even before LBJ and they've gotten worse since. Back then the slackard class was mostly native born and at a manageable level. Local town committees were actually in place to at least report on the abuse.