‘Tanner calculates that the federal government lays out $44,544 for a “poor” family of three, and that state and local governments throw in another $20,610 (some of which, I assume, comes from federal block grants). This means that a family of three can, in theory, get $67,154 from the government in housing, health care, food, and cash assistance. So here’s the big question: why bother working?
Then there’s the other big question: with all these handouts, why hasn’t poverty been eliminated? ‘
Exactly!
Don’t forget that most of that money probably sticks to the fingers of various bureaucrats and the amount that actually reached the “poor” is much less.