The U.S. welfare system sure creates some crazy disincentives to working your way up the ladder. Benefits stacked upon benefits can mean it is financially better, at least in the short term, to stay at a lower-paying jobs rather than taking a higher paying job and losing those benefits. This is called the “welfare cliff.”
Let’s take the example of a single mom with two kids, 1 and 4. She has a $29,000 a year job, putting the kids in daycare during the day while she works.
As the above chart – via Gary Alexander, Pennsylvania’s secretary of Public Welfare — shows, the single mom is better off earning gross income of $29,000 with $57,327 in net income and benefits than to earn gross income of $69,000 with net income & benefits of $57,045.
It would sure be tempting for that mom to keep the status quo rather than take the new job, even though the new position might lead to further career advancement and a higher standard of living. I guess this is something the Obama White House forgot to mention in its “Life of Julia” cartoons extolling government assistance.
You people are something else. Do you know why most people with families are on welfare? Medical Insurance. Trying dishing out the high cost of prescriptions and supporting a family. Of course in a free market people might actually be able to afford prescriptions but it’s illegal to get out of country where people actually have a free market. This system is rigged and if you look back its rigged by the true trickle down economic people. The people that ravaged the economy for bush. Bush the guy who made people famous for the obama phone. Ignorance is rampid , you should really pay attention. All people need medical care and that’s a fact but those people who are so against entitlements don’t tell why they are out of control . The same people who point to liberal environmentalist for high cost but use the same so those drug companies making their stuff like their 30yr old inhalers get a new patent raising it from 6bucks to 70bucks, just because of one ingredient for the ozone depletion. How caring for the bleeding heart conservatives who paved the way for that one. Thats about an extra cost of a billion dollars so far. Funny how ignorant people call a free phone the obama phone when bush created that one. The earned income credit is also a bush thing. It’s welfare and nothing more. If you would take that away and give people medical care they would be searching high and low to make money.
Theres no such thing as a conservative anymore and Morons on this blog show why people like pretty Sarah Palin or the great Mitt Romney who don’t know which truth to tell when are all that that party has to offer. No Integrity thanks to you and your lack of facts and education we have Obama. It is you who have put him in office and now you through out what these conservative media tell ya to think. “liberal media” “obama phone” “bleeding hearts” and terms such as these are for you “dumb dumb” people who spend more time blaming and hating and not expecting qualified candidates with integrity. You spend more time propping idiots like Ted Nugent and his gun and “pooping pants” comments and ironically that’s what he did to get out of going to vietnam. He is the mentality of the Republican Party and what’s left is Obama. At least with him dishing all the food stamps I can reduce my food cost by 50% each month by finding a crack head to sell them to me. Thank you very much. Now go listen to good old Rush so you can feel like you are smart and have a big wiener. And this nation was not founded on god it was founded on liberty. You god people actually are the dumbest of all. If there is a god you will be the one going down below for treating what you were blessed with with ignorance.
You are so naive!!! Look, Listen and learn!!! Get out of your cocoon and see what is really going on. If you have NO money, even though you are working, you get entitlements and you are part of the problem. If you are working and saving and making it on your own, you are part of the solution!! Single Mothers (not ALL) are the worse abusers of legal gouging. Single Father comes home with the paycheck while single Mother brings home the entitlements!! Talk about a win win situation….for THEM!!
Oh, the irony of your entire post.
“Ignorance is rampid…”
Glad you pointed out that irony, Damon….I was itching to do it myself, and when I scrolled down you had beat me to the punch!
The earned income credit is also a bush thing.
Yes, ignorance is “rampid”!
This to me is just crazy! What state is this in? As a single mom myself from Ohio 17,000 a year NO Benefits. Maybe they must pay people just to live in PA. What bugs me is most of the people who are against benefits are pro-life. Well you cant have it both ways. If your not willing to help people then you cant force them to have babies. Shame on Susan for thinking single Fathers all work and dont get help. Oh and just maybe most of the single mothers would not need benefits at all if they would just get serious about child support instead of wasting money on years of court dates with not a penny paid. Lets look at the BIG picture instead of what somebody else misleads you to believe.
What bugs me is most of the people who are against benefits are pro-life. Well you cant have it both ways. If your not willing to help people then you cant force them to have babies.
This is complete non-sense. Abortion is baby killing pure and simple. Also, if you subsidies bastards, you get more bastards, making your bleeding heart “solution” part of the problem.
Lets look at the BIG picture
Of course, that way you don’t have to actually look at the real people your non-sensical policies are damaging. Don’t pay attention to people, that’s thinking way too small. Focus on the big picture and whitewash the horrible effects on the small picture of individuals.
What bugs me is most of the people who are against benefits are pro-life. Well you cant have it both ways. If your not willing to help people then you cant force them to have babies.
This is complete non-sense. Abortion is baby killing pure and simple. Also, if you subsidies bastards, you get more bastards, making your bleeding heart “solution” part of the problem.
Lets look at the BIG picture
Of course, that way you don’t have to actually look at the real people your non-sensical policies are damaging. Don’t pay attention to people, that’s thinking way too small. Focus on the big picture and whitewash the horrible effects on the small picture of individuals.
Wow, I’d just love to live in a state where a single mom gets $18,000 a year to pay for her childcare starting before she even has a job right up til she’s earning $43,000 a year, and another $8,000 a year to pay for housing and $7,000 a year to pay for energy (she must rent a very big house and have trouble closing the windows!), right up until she’s earning $29,000 a year. Is this Superman’s Bizarro World?
Maybe I should be clear – I was being sarcastic. This chart is obviously a job application for its author to get right-wing consulting work, which is what its author is doing now. No single mom could ever get more than a small fraction of those benefits in real life. Each one is the absolute maximum available to anyone in extreme cases, added up as if they’re routine for everyone. It’s just red meat for the willing-to-ignore-reality conservative base.