GSU study: Welfare programs discourage work, marriage

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by DONNIEANDDONNA417

believe or not some people think its owed to them

I agree. And a disproportionate number of those people are in the 1%.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Absolutely true, CW.

Sure, we can and should point out that corporate welfare is egregious. I completely agree and consider it outrageous. That needs to come to a screeching halt.

However, that by no means excuses or eliminates social benefit abuse by individuals. That also completely stinks and it is by no means a minor issue.

Dismissing the opinions of those who are upset by such abuse is not good strategy. People are genuinely upset by it and with good reason. It touches a nerve of unfairness if you are working hard and struggling to take care of yourself and your family and you see others who are not doing the same.

Telling people to forget about it, that it's not a real problem, that their concerns are false or based on inappropriate motives is just dumb.

A major problem with welfare, the way it is set up in America, is that it is threshold-based: If you make more than $X per month, you lose Y benefit entirely. Well, for people who are just inside that threshold, they actually have a negative incentive to earn just a little bit more. I say, change it to a sliding scale where it phases them off slowly.

Example (and these are just random numbers, not in any way shape or form designed to reflect reality): Let's say that if you make less than $500 a month, you qualify for $50 worth of food stamps per month, and if you make $501 or more, you get nothing. I say, change it to something like the following:

-Make $400 or less per month, and you get the full $50 benefit.
-Make $400.01 to $600 per month, and your benefit is 150 - 0.25I, where I is your monthly income. (So $500/month would yield $25 in benefits.)
-Make $600 per month or more, and you get none of the benefit.

Again, these are hypothetical numbers that I just made up. Of more importance is the fact that the benefits start to drop off slowly, once you start making more than $400/month, and--this is the important part--they drop off at a rate less than the rate that the income grows. That way, as someone starts to get on their feet again, the support *slowly* weans away as opposed to being yanked out from under them.

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

I agree. And a disproportionate number of those people are in the 1%.

Oh you mean the people who fund the government?

The top 1% of US taxpayers pay almost as much in federal income taxes as the entire bottom 95%, and half of that bottom group paid no taxes at all in 2010 | AEIdeas

[atlantagreg30127]

The topic has strayed long ago away from "Atlanta specific" and more into social issues and it's been discussed in length before in that appropriate room. Seek out current threads in social topics and add to those but this is not the place for this any longer.