Welfare has become a way of life for many; I would love to see statistics regarding how many 2nd and 3rd generations of families are receiving government checks - it has to be a very high percentage.
The safety net has become a lifestyle.
Those are called PWR's (Professional Welfare Recipients).
I think it is perpetuating as I have seen, unfortunately with a friend of mine. A prime example of this type of abuse. She was of the type most of you would want to support - to a point. Her husband died when her two youngest were 4 and 6. From the time I met her (1994) until 2 months ago, she has not worked, other than 4 hrs. a day as a bank teller, and that only occasionally.
She loves to spend money and the money she made from her social security check (which could have partially defrayed college expenses for the kids had she used her free time to train for a good career) was squandered on very lavish lifestyle. Her husband's insurance paid for a $200,000 house free and clear (back in 94 in the SW, that was pretty good.
Now that she has lost the "wages" from her 19 yr. old son, she has completely cut off his support. Her daughter is 16 this summer, so she will now lose her own personal "paycheck" and in 3 years she will lose that of her daughter. So, as of two months ago, she has finally found the time to train for a lucrative job in the cosmetics industry. She will have her certification and will make about $25/hr. about the same month/week that her own personal "paycheck" stops coming. After 12 years of laziness! Her late husband was a car salesman, and for 2 years of his life, before his death, he made the max amount for ss. So her benefits were very high. Back in 97 I think her net was $4500/mo. which does not sound too great in today's $, but if you think back to then, and with a house payment not necessary.... With a master's degree and 60-70 hour work weeks, I could never have dreamed to live her life style. I used to think, well, she's my friend and I don't want to begrudge her the help, but I wonder how many more of these "social security parasites" there are and what their impact is, because that high level support can go on for almost 2 decades.