CEOs who receive billions in subsidies want to keep their subsidies, but cut Social Security and other welfare programs.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Folks on welfare make more than anybody under 30k a year after taxes.

Are you comparing yourself to what a family of FOUR makes on welfare? How Ben-like (aka, intellectually dishonest)

[Ben Kenobi]

Are you comparing yourself to what a family of FOUR makes on welfare? How Ben-like (aka, intellectually dishonest)

So how much would a single man make on welfare? I bet it's more than my take home.

[Ben Kenobi]

Your pants are on such fire, I'm surprised you can move so quickly to move those goalposts.

Still waiting for that Friedman cite.

[Felch]

So how much would a single man make on welfare? I bet it's more than my take home.

Then do the rational thing and quit your job.

[N35t0r]

Still waiting for that Friedman cite.

How droll. You 'demand' the cite, yet when you pull a number out of your ass and get called on it, not do the same you asked of others. Very christian.

[snoopy369]

I don't think a single man would make anything on welfare. Welfare is primarily AFDC (aid for families with dependent children) ... Unemployment insurance perhaps but that's (normally) time-limited and related to losing a job without cause.

[DinoDoc]

Unemployment insurance perhaps but that's (normally) time-limited and related to losing a job without cause.

I call bull**** on there being a timelimit on unemployment.

[snoopy369]

OK, here are some actual, you know, details.


I don't know what size of family that is for - perhaps a single mom with 2-3 kids I would guess. A maximum of 55k a year or so (depending on wage income - a zero income household looks like it gets around 45k a year), but a lot of that is targeted (childcare being the largest portion, up to $15k it looks like). 55K a year in an urban environment is not a lot to raise a family with, particularly as a single parent who has to spend a lot on childcare (hence it being the largest single portion).

http://www.welfareinfo.org/programs/

Some of the programs they qualify for explained in more detail.

I don't think anybody is really comfortable living on that - the zero income earner gets about $5000 in cash, which is not much to buy clothes and other necessaries, not to mention any theoretical 'luxuries'. This person probably can't afford a car, meaning their job options are highly limited, and they have to use public transportation (which runs even on reduced faires probably 80-100 a month, so that's over $1k already gone of the $5k).

[snoopy369]

I call bull**** on there being a timelimit on unemployment.

Why would you say that? One of the major things Obama's done is to extend unemployment insurance - normally it's not more than six months or so (varies by state).

See http://www.ides.illinois.gov/page.aspx?item=33 for example - maximum of 25 weeks per year in normal circumstances.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I call bull**** on there being a timelimit on unemployment.

Why would they have to pass unemployment extensions if there weren't any time limit?

FWIW, I know people who have run out of unemployment because their time was up.

[DinoDoc]

Why would you say that?

99 weeks gives me some indication that any "limit" is soft and elastic at best.

[snoopy369]

During recessions they extend it, as well they should. Even a 100% free market capitalist should understand that sometimes people are hurt through no fault of their own.

In any event you missed apparently the '(normally)' part there...

[MrFun]

I don't think a single man would make anything on welfare. Welfare is primarily AFDC (aid for families with dependent children) ... Unemployment insurance perhaps but that's (normally) time-limited and related to losing a job without cause.

QFT

I would not qualify for any welfare assistance, even though I'm unemployed, because I'm a single man with no children.

[DinoDoc]

During recessions they extend it, as well they should. Even a 100% free market capitalist should understand that sometimes people are hurt through no fault of their own.

A study published by two labor economists, Stepan Jurajda and Frederick J. Tannery, looked at employment histories for unemployment insurance recipients in Pittsburgh in the early 1980s. Unemployment rates got quite high in Pittsburgh in those days, reaching 16 percent at one point, and staying over 10 percent for two and a half years.

The chart below summarizes their findings for Pittsburgh.

The chart displays the fraction of persons (in Pittsburgh) receiving unemployment benefits who began working again, as a function of the number of weeks until their unemployment benefits were scheduled to be exhausted. For example, a “hazard” value of “0.04″ for week “-14″ means that, among unemployed persons with 14 weeks remaining until their benefit exhaustion date, 4 percent of them either began working a new job or returned to their previous job.



Very few people started working during the two to three weeks prior to the exhaustion of their unemployment benefits (weeks “-3″ and “-2″ in the chart). But almost 30 percent started work just a week later (19 percent started a new job, 10 percent returned to a previous job).

“Demand” may have been lacking in Pittsburgh in the early 1980s, but that did not stop unemployed people from responding to the work incentives presented to them by the unemployment insurance program (economists also looked for this pattern during a Swedish recession, and found it there too).

Do Jobless Benefits Discourage People From Finding Jobs?

[snoopy369]

@DD - Sure, which is why they don't extend them indefinitely (and they will probably shut off the extensions soon, perhaps as soon as the next budget). I suspect that graph overstates things significantly (a lot of people probably take poor jobs that don't pay enough, but are better than nothing), but it's not exactly a surprise - you pay people not to work, they won't work.

That doesn't take away from the fact that if there are strictly less jobs available, due to a socioeconomic condition that is affecting the entire country, you probably need to give people a helping hand for a little while so they don't drown.