Why would anyone have a problem with working 80 hours a month

Demand for reform would be even stronger if the public understood how generous social-welfare benefits are. In reporting household income, the Census Bureau doesn’t count 88% of transfer payments made to households that are defined as being poor. The census doesn’t count refundable tax credits (for which the beneficiary receives a check from the Treasury), food-stamp debit cards, free medical care through Medicaid, or benefits from about 100 other federal transfer payments as income to welfare recipients. When those benefits are counted as income, 80% of those who are today counted as being poor are no longer poor, and almost half have incomes equivalent to American middle-income earners.

A mandatory welfare work requirement for able-bodied adults receiving welfare benefits, a requirement that the Census Bureau count all transfer payments as income, and a mandate that all federal agencies use the same income measure when determining eligibility for welfare would be major steps toward righting the nation’s finances.

Requiring all able-bodied Americans to work as a condition for receiving welfare would do more than reduce the deficit. It would bring people back into the economy, the source of prosperity and economic independence. A job is the best nutrition, housing, healthcare, education, child-care and general welfare program.

Americans overwhelmingly support an effective mandatory work requirement for able-bodied adults receiving welfare benefits. That’s evident in public opinion polls and ballot measures; in purple Wisconsin almost 80% of voters supported this in 2023. The bipartisan effort to reform Aid to Families with Dependent Children during the Clinton administration was a success.

After counting all transfer payments as income to the recipients and taxes as income lost by taxpayers, and adjusting for household size, the average households in the bottom, second and middle quintiles all have roughly the same incomes—despite dramatic differences in work effort. With the explosion of means-tested transfer payments, the portion of prime work-age persons in the bottom quintile who actually work has fallen to 36% from 68%.

Poverty and Welfare | Cato Institute

Truly eye opening.

 

Not surprising @Amiga runs away to hide for cover when constant receipts are shown. His feelings have to override the facts.

After counting all transfer payments as income to the recipients and taxes as income lost by taxpayers, and adjusting for household size, the average households in the bottom, second and middle quintiles all have roughly the same incomes—despite dramatic differences in work effort. With the explosion of means-tested transfer payments, the portion of prime work-age persons in the bottom quintile who actually work has fallen to 36% from 68%.

 

It truly is an eye opening quote, because the bottom quintile means ... 25%.

Of 110 million Americans who are prime work age (25-55), the 28 million Americans in the bottom 25% have the same income including beenfits as the 56 million above them. And has a result the percentage who actually work has fallen by half. Not a big deal, according to @Amiga , who completely ignores basic human psychology to virtue signal.