“Welfare can be many things.” “There’s a whole lot of all that going on.”
Boy is that the truth. After I commented, I went on our state’s welfare page and am very confident that my family could live comfortably on welfare (if I lost my job). If I lost my job AND had Tuberculosis I would have it made!
And I think that is the answer to your question about where all the workers went after COVID. Many went home, had the business closed, or just decided they like staying home better than going into the office. COVID gave them the excuse not to work. Various forms of welfare gave them the means to get by. They can live check to check relatively comfortably and lazily. If they need extra income they go into the underground ‘cash’ economy, where they join the ranks of those not paying into the system.
Its a house of cards that will collapse, once it’s strangled the decreasing percentage of working tax payers.