{"id":128438,"date":"2015-10-25T15:46:15","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T21:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/25\/welfare-doesnt-promote-laziness.html"},"modified":"2015-11-05T10:40:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T17:40:55","slug":"welfare-doesnt-promote-laziness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/25\/welfare-doesnt-promote-laziness.html","title":{"rendered":"Welfare doesn’t promote laziness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Handouts, it is claimed, promotes lazy dependency on the part of "those people." Why would they work if they get free phones and big dole checks can can sit about on their butts while we hard-working working folk slave away on our behalf. If only we trimmed back those programs to a bare nothing, and throw on some stringent work-or-else incentives, then everyone would find work and the moral character of the nation would be improved.<\/p>\n

The problem is, the facts don't support the idea that welfare promotes laziness. Are there folk who "exploit" the system? Sure. But they are seriously in the minority. Analysis of the facts indicates that making welfare stingier and more difficult to get doesn't actually cause people to go back to work.<\/p>\n

But it seems unlikely that the facts will cancel the "common sense" that folk who want to cut the programs rely on. That further trimming social safety nets is done by reducing taxes that impact the wealthiest has, of course, no part of the equation.<\/p>\n

As Galbraith noted as far back as 1963 (http:\/\/goo.gl\/iMJso3<\/a>): "The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe Myth of Welfare’s Corrupting Influence on the Poor – The New York Times<\/a><\/span>
\nStudies rebut a long-cherished belief in America, on the right and left, that welfare encourages bad behavior by the poor.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Handouts, it is claimed, promotes lazy dependency on the part of "those people." Why would they work if they get free phones and big dole checks can can sit about on their butts while we hard-working working folk slave away on our behalf. If only we trimmed back those programs to a bare nothing, and … Continue reading “Welfare doesn’t promote laziness”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,77,376],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-economy","category-taxing-spending"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128957,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/22\/welfare-programs-dont-promote-laziness.html","url_meta":{"origin":128438,"position":0},"title":"Welfare programs don't promote laziness","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 22-Nov-15 10:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"A look at benefit programs both in the developing world and elsewhere indicates that well-designed and properly incented cash hand-out programs have little effect on work done, or actually encourage recipients to go out and find better-paying jobs.While there are doubtless always people who game the system (whether with welfare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38508,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/19\/some-welfare-facts.html","url_meta":{"origin":128438,"position":1},"title":"Some Welfare Facts","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 19-Aug-13 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"I dislike the headline for the article below, if only because it immediately polarizes the discussion (\"Oh, well, the Right believes all sorts of myth\" \/ \"Typical Lefty propaganda.\")\u00a0The bottom lines for welfare, in my opinion (and there's very little in the below article that doesn't back that up):1. There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127859,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/01\/the-new-american-way-of-life-isnt.html","url_meta":{"origin":128438,"position":2},"title":"“The New American Way of Life” isn’t","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Sep-15 4:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This particular bit of welfare trolling is just as reliable and accurate as you would expect any email \/ Facebook meme to be. While there is a certain segment of the population who really want to believe that able-bodied \"poor\" folk are \"sponging off the system\" in a legal but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30235,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/12\/science-is-as-optional-as-gravity.html","url_meta":{"origin":128438,"position":3},"title":"Science is as optional as gravity","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 12-Sep-12 2:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We live in a crazy time, when facts and reasoned, evidence-based conclusions are considered as optional (and probably demonically-inspired) opinions, whims, and conspiracies. \u00a0That would be bad enough if our survival (as a civilization, if not a species) is increasingly dependent on said facts.(h\/t +Donald Mclaughlin)Reshared post from +Evo TerraI\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10230,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/12\/end_of_the_stone_age.html","url_meta":{"origin":128438,"position":4},"title":"End of the Stone Age","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Mar-07 3:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Evidently \"Stone Age\" is now considered offensive, at least in anthropological circles when describing primitive peoples. Oh, wait, can't say \"primitive,\" either. The phrase \"stone age\" has been labelled offensive...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136838,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/25\/fleeing-to-a-better-life.html","url_meta":{"origin":128438,"position":5},"title":"Fleeing to a better life","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Jun-18 11:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Consider the irony. A country famously founded by a search for a better life -- freedom of conscious, economic opportunity, etc. -- has no clue why people flee here.Anti-immigration folk have focused on bogus results -- \"they're stealing our jobs [that none of us want to work in]\" and \"they're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128563,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128438\/revisions\/128563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}