The Welfare State in the U.S. The gift that keeps on giving.
A new report shows that free government handouts, aka the Welfare State has led to long term declines in the labor face.
"We know that the social welfare programs in general reduce rates of poverty, but they don't a very good job of enabling people to escape poverty" said Michael Tanner, senior fellow with the Cato Institute.
Unfortunately, the way the system is set-up, millions of Americans are making just enough to not have to work. Going back to work doesn't help, it actually makes things worse.
"Imagine if you started losing your benefits as soon as you earned $20,000 a year, and you were currently earning $19,000" Tanner told KTRH, "Would you take a job that paid $20 or $21,000 if you lost all your benefits at that point? Are you really better off?"
The answer is usually no, and now it's going to get worse. According to the report, Joe Biden's 'Build Back Better' massive green new spending deal will add more handouts, and will only add to the labor shortage in our nation right now.
"The Build Back Better plan has a number of other programs that are going to exacerbate the problem" Tanner said, "We don't want to simply paper over the problems we have with social welfare benefits. We need to be looking at better ideas."
Bottom line, we need policies that will incentivize working, not discourage it.
Photo: Getty Images