Raise the Hammer

It may not have been clear, but I was attempting to agree with earlier statements of yours -- that it's terribly demoralizing and disincentivising to have money cut because you found a little bit of work.

That's for people who really want to work. I was agreeing with you on that very intentionally.

The other side of that are people who used to work, but then realized welfare is a lot easier - and similar money for them. They're people who have received a ton of coaching, help, encouragement, mentoring and support... but have trashed all of it for the easy way.

For example, I also have a (young, healthy, middle-class) relative who used to work, but takes his welfare cheque as a free ride to sit on the couch all day (and drink it. This situation is not helped by his enabling parents and partner). To him, it's free money - why waste a good thing when he can BS his way through the system and make a few bucks that way? (This is one of the relatives I told never to move to Hamilton if he ever wanted his life to change... this happens in other cities too, obviously).

Another couple I know in Hamilton used to both work - fairly crappy jobs. But likewise - lots of help, encouragement, assistance, favors. They decided to stop working altogether last year and get by on the welfare and assistance they could get for themselves and their five kids. Why work? It's harder and you don't make much more money. They gave up thinking things could ever get better. (But they still have a giant buy-now-pay-later TV and the rest... until that comes due).

If there was a better incentive for these people to work (whether that's a higher minimum wage or a clearer/easier path to higher education or knowing how to pay off their current debts instead of bankruptcy or whether that little bit of money is even worth making), they would probably still be working. As-is, it's easier for them to sit there and have that time with their beer or their kids or their thoughts or their TV. And I can easily see how you get to that place, when you work hard and not a d* thing changes.

Comment edited by Meredith on 2010-04-23 17:32:58