That’s because there is an essential disconnect between handouts and not - I recall a time in my life where I crossed that threshold. I made just enough that everything suddenly got way more expensive. I lost my tax refund and had to pay.
I did the calculations and came to the realization that I could take a pay cut - and have more in pocket money by taking assistance. I have way more ‘in pocket’ money now because I worked my ass off - but that line is out there. For instance if my wife and I made around 10k less per year I could qualify for a nice house with programs that would set me up for about half my current rent - but I cross an invisible line that puts it outside my ability to save for at the moment.
Stuff like that hurts - but if you offer the same ‘assistance’ to everyone people feel it’s unfair. But then they get upset when they see others ‘getting’ stuff they don’t have. It’s really the argument for a ‘standard income’ that everyone just gets. Then no matter what you make you are better off - and the harder you work the better off you become. But ‘why would people work’ - yup - because if you are always better off by working (and not just cut out of the system) you have incentive. Honestly if someone is so lazy they are content with ‘just getting by’ having them not work (and half ass it) would be better for us collectively. Also I think people would be shocked to find out what it would take to hire someone working in fast food if they didn’t need it to survive. Outside of high paying jobs it would cut down on a ton of douchbaggary they teach for micro-managing people into miserable jobs on the low end (because they can get away with it due to people’s need to gain an income).
/shrug - it’s a long road to get there - but it’s an idea that will hit eventually when the amount of things we need people to do is so small compared to the amount of people. We certainly have enough wealth in the world to ensure people actually are fed and taken care of. You could argue the US is already past that point if you look at the unemployment numbers of people who have stopped looking for work, along with the number of less than full time jobs (because the labor pool is so deep you can hire 10 people for 3 spots and just give them all crap hours) - and the number of temp positions - and the number of people who have more than one job to get by. Shrink all that so that people get full time hours and you’d get rid of millions of jobs.
That’s really scary.
