I suspect that many of these men are actually engaged in some sort of money-making activity, but prefer not to talk about it. It could be legal, it could be illegal, or it could be on the margins.
Something as simple as giving people rides to the airport, or doing handyman work through a Craigslist ad, can bring in some cash money that does not register in any government statistics.
“engaged in some sort of money-making activity, but prefer not to talk about it. It could be legal, it could be illegal, or it could be on the margins.”
Right now I’m rebuilding some classic cars. Am I employed?
You are correct. I personally know of men who do the handyman
thing for cash and make a good living off of it. There are a lot of single woman homeowners out there and they are more then happy for have guys like that around.
My wife let me know YEARS ago, when I retire she’s putting me to work as a handyman.
The high powered professional women she knows are almost always single by middle age, and will pay in BLOOD to get someone to do the typical mundane chores for which THEY are not trained, and would normally be done by an even marginally competent husband.
It’s like Paul Harvey used to say: “Never before could someone become so successful on so little.”
You’re right. Many of these men are working but they’re not reporting it.
In Maine, when they began to require able bodied people to work, volunteer or enroll in work training to get food stamps, they had an 80% drop in the program.
That tells me that these people were busy doing something that paid more than what they were getting in food stamps.
BTW - more than half of those people were smokers spending an average of more than $100 a month on cigarettes. Imagine what they were spending for other kinds of smokes.