Posted on 01/28/2013 1:40:39 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Those who work for a living might want to put away shoes, hammers, and other hard objects to keep from throwing them through the computer. A new study shows that on average the government spends $168 per household on various assistance programs, one-fifth more than the median income of $137.
As the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee reported (after all, who else in government is going to do it?), welfare spending per hour per household in poverty is $30.60, which is higher than the $25.03 median income per hour.
The Weekly Standard points out that direct welfare payments are not taxed:
"After accounting for federal taxes, the median hourly wage drops to between $21.50 and $23.45, depending on a household’s deductions and filing status. State and local taxes further reduce the median household’s hourly earnings. By contrast, welfare benefits are not taxed.”
Welfare recipients never had it so good. This is not to say that poor people are rich, or that life is easy for everyone on food stamps or on some other form of government assistance. It’s just that conservatives would rather poor people be working, rather than paying their way through life on other people’s dime (which at this point, is their children’s dime). Work is not only more economically productive, but it offers more opportunity for people to improve their own lot — not to mention that working people are more likely to feel dignity and self-importance.
If welfare is inherently compassionate, then there is a Pavlovian ego-stroke for Congress passing even unsustainable spending programs. On the other hand, conservatives get demonized for suggesting there is so such thing as a budget, and that you can’t keep looting the private sector without negative consequences — like systemically high unemployment...
(Excerpt) Read more at ijreview.com ...
I haven’t seen Atlas Shrugged II yet, don’t tell me how it ends.
Just wow.
Yeah—I got it-—but I wish I hadn’t......I was much happier not knowing that.
Sorry ‘bout the multiple posts—’puters’s acting up this AM
Good luck getting anybody here to care about this!
Every time a debate starts here about ‘entitlements’ I post the link below. Follow it and download the .pdf report and you will become physically ill. It will quickly become apparent that the welfare problem makes Defense, Medicare, and Social Security look like parking tickets!
The good news is that I plan to get a new computer next week.
I’ve been on welfare twice in my life. Once, during the 1990-1994 recession, when I was on it for five months, and more recently, during this current economic Charlie Foxtrot, I was forced to go back on it for several months. I assure you that I don’t find being on the dole even REMOTELY pleasant, in fact it made me feel like some sort of criminal.
The only thing that bothers me more about the whole system is that in many ways it’s like a pitcher plant. It’s hard to get out of it, especially when all you can find is minimum wage jobs. There really has to be some sort of more effective methodology than “work or starve” on one extreme and the “nanny state” on the other, but the system really is broken.
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