Yep, had a neighbor who works for the town highway dept. basically say to me, “hey, if we get laid off due to budget cuts, we’ll just go on welfare”.
Here they would never agree to go on welfare; they are our upper middle class since the real jobs left (better pay & benefits than most in the private sector), and could never adjust to the loss of income. Here in NJ public employees are practically the only Americans having children and buying homes.