Is Welfare Too Generous For Some?

For John, BLUF:  It is decades since the "Great Society" and we still don't understand welfare.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I am not a big fan of Boston Herald Reporter Howie Carr's style in presenting the news, but he is a force in local discourse.  Here he talks about the size of welfare payments, "Mass. earns distinction as freeloaders’ paradise".

Skipping the personal scathing attack on the Governor in the lede, we skip to the meat of the issue:

Do you make $50,540 a year?  Because that’s how much you need to earn, pre-taxes, to live the same lifestyle as a hypothetical local welfare family.

That’s the finding of the libertarian Cato Institute in a new study, and we’re No. 3 in the generosity of our largesse to the non-working classes.  The only places ahead of us are Hawaii, which Obama refers to as “Asia,” and the District of Columbia, which isn’t a state.

Most People will respond that this is outrageous.  My response is to ask if these numbers are real.  Here is the announcement from the Cato Institute, which says that welfare recipients in 35 states do better than minimum wage.  The study can be found here. If we go to the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Family Assistance web site, we can see their report, "Characteristics and Financial Circumstances of TANF Recipients, Fiscal Year 2010".  One interesting point is the few number of two parent families receiving Temporary Need for Needy Families.  Some states have none.  Is that a sign of the value of two parent families or a failure in some states?  Incidentally, the web page has two attachments.

By the way, here is a list of state minimum wage laws.

A friend of mine wrote the other day:

The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever, to 46 million people.  Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us, "Please do not feed the animals."  Their stated reason for the policy is because, "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves."

Thus ends today's lesson in irony.

This is a very complicated issue and it involves issues of not just economics but also culture.  What is our duty to generosity to the lest fortunate and what is our duty to our fellow Citizens to not spend their tax money in ways that encourage indolence or merely salve our consciences.

Regards  —  Cliff