I have often argued this very same point: The people who receive all the government benefits like food, housing, enrgy, EITC, and in Wisconsin, child care subsidies often are better off than people with higher EARNED income who do not qualify for any of these programs. I know people who go without any health and dental care because they make too much to qualify for medicaid, but too little to be able to afford insurance. These are the people I really feel for.
When I was younger I had a cousin who mirrored exactly that. Hubby and I both worked and had 1 child. My cousin had 4 children and had never worked. She received everything available cash, food stamps, medicaid..... plus she always had a boyfriend living with her as a ‘roommate’ which meant her money wasn’t interfered with plus they had his income. She always had a guy that worked.
She lived in better homes than we did (we owned ours, she always rented), drove better cars than we did, and her kids wore designer names.
At Christmas I would refuse to be around her because it made me feel bad for my kid that a bunch of welfare kids did so much better on presents than ours did.
The problem is those kids of hers all grew up. She now has no assistance of any kind since it was predicated on the children and has no skills to do anything other than work a very low income job. She doesn’t do too well anymore. WE on the other hand are very comfortable.
All those freebies killed her but no freebies motivated us to do better. Imagine that. ;)