[Bullish]

We can let them starve, or ... we can send them checks and make the workers pay higher taxes.

Who's talking about sending them checks? Once their unemployment insurance (which they paid into) runs out they're SOL right? You can't get welfare unless you have dependent children under 18, or am I missing something?

[ClearCase_guy]

I'm not making any sort of recommendation. I just see a good 10% of the population having no financial means to speak of.

Unemployment? It's gone. Used up. It only lasts for so long.
Welfare? They don't qualify.
Mortgage? They lost the house a long time ago.
Job? Officially declared unemployable.

If America has something like 20 million people in that situation, then what happens next? The number of options is limited:

Civil unrest and violence as an army of the unemployed express their frsustration.
Mass starvation as people with no resources give up and die.
Politicians decide to expand the notion of welfare and send out a lot of checks so that there is neither unrest nor starvation.

I don't know what will happen, but I don't see how society can limp along indefinitely just doing the same old same old. At some point, something has to give.