Your question was heavily loaded, and misses the time dimension. Today's unemployed HS student might be tomorrow's un(der)-employed head of household. So don't

Your question was heavily loaded, and misses the time dimension. Today's unemployed HS student might be tomorrow's un(der)-employed head of household. So don't dismiss it as "gas money". Trying to create a total order by comparing the two alternatives goes down a bad road. There's always someone in need, but if you try to optimize the entire economy around that one story, you will have a disaster. Maybe it's best to just have more jobs, period, even with low pay? And then make up for needy cases some other way?