Work disincentives hit the near-poor hardest (2022)
11 comments
·December 2, 2025N_Lens
I remember reading this book called 'The Losers' (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2114133.The_Losers) about a privileged man who has a car accident, becomes disabled and comes to rely on government support. The book looks at the lives of the working poor and actually poor, who rely on welfare cheques and other subsidies and highlights the social and psychological impacts of these systems of support. It was very disempowering and psychologically enslaving for the people living on these systems of support.
I know it's probably not intentional but I believe welfare in the US absolutely is rife with negative outcomes and negative incentives for people receiving support, it doesn't uplift and enable success, it keeps people trapped in poverty and a mindset of helplessness.
I come from Australia where the social welfare system has similarly degraded (Though not as bad as the US), and there are increasingly more dehumanizing aspects in engaging with the system just to receive a below-subsistence amount.
This article highlights one aspect of such disincentives, but I believe the problem is deeper and more systemic.
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potato3732842
>probably not intentional
All the current results were foretold by people screeching warnings about them 50+yr ago.
> deeper and more systemic.
Nobody's budget ever got bigger or headcount grew or government contract got more lucrative because people got off welfare.
paulddraper
I used to think the welfare system had a few bad apples.
Later, while working for a charity, I realized the truth.
Literally no one is immune to the character-destroying nature of entitlement programs.
abnercoimbre
Destroying the character of those administering the programs?
HarryHirsch
The decision to implement benefit cliffs is absolutely intentional, because income requirements that cause people to fall of medicaid or SNAP completely are sharp, and maybe 10 % of the population rely on those. Obamacare subsidies are phased out gradually, because half the country relies on Obamacare, and if there were issues around Obamacare, that would have repercussions at the ballot box.
It serves to have an underclass that politicians can dump on, it seems.
themafia
> because income requirements that cause people to fall of medicaid or SNAP completely are sharp
How often do pay increases perfectly keep someone in the gap? Presumably some of them will be large enough, through changes of jobs for example, that the family would completely jump that gap.
> because income requirements that cause people to fall of medicaid or SNAP completely are sharp
Why would it? This is perhaps intentional as well. Only allow the program to benefit half the country. I'm sure you can predict how that political split occurs and insulates politicians from the ballot box.
> It serves to have an underclass that politicians can dump on, it seems.
It helps keeps wages suppressed. Politicians want money. They don't care about "dumping" on you, they'll make any excuse they need to keep the money coming in.
afewscribbles
I cannot express the extent to which that picture at the top of the article with a baby “working” at a laptop upsets me.
I can see the beginnings of a hand of an adult at the bottom, but there is something so on the nose about such an image that it prompted a visceral response.
SapporoChris
https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/wo...
On the website there is cropping and it might be displaying differently on different browsers. I was able to recognize it as an adult at the computer holding a baby on their lap. I do not see any intent to show a baby working.
nsoqm
I think it’s amusing. That was probably the expected response.
I can't find the original tweet, but someone (half?) jokingly proposed a law that all benefits must be defined as continuously differentiable functions (thus making cliffs impossible).
"Yeah, I made $1M last year. Here's my SNAP check for six cents."