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I seem to recall that unemployment pays better than minimum wage in many cases. If you qualify for unemployment or disability, why would you give up that benefi

I seem to recall that unemployment pays better than minimum wage in many cases. If you qualify for unemployment or disability, why would you give up that benefit and at the same time lower your income?

wahern 10y ago
From Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Mac: Unemployment runs out, what are you gonna do then? Dennis: Well then we'll just go on welfare. Mac: Welfare is for people who need it, like drug addicts and single mothers. It's not for over-privileged pieces of shit who want to waste millions in taxpayer dollars... Basically, 1) unemployment runs out; 2) it's difficult to get welfare unless you have children or have a disability, and being classified as disabled is more difficult than commonly believed, especially for younger people, even though it sometimes seems like every idle soul is drawing a disability check; and 3) since the Clinton-era reforms many welfare programs have a lifetime cap. FWIW, unemployment can pay better than minimum wage because unemployment is usually paid as a percentage of your earnings. But you'd need to have been making substantially more than minimum wage. Also, a lot of social programs are pretty good about proportionally cutting back on benefits as income grows. It's still a real problem with some programs (there are many, and they're byzantine), but I think it's exaggerated somewhat. It's like "write-offs" for taxes--most people have no understanding of them, and believe they function far differently than they do in reality. To quote another one of my favorite shows: Kramer: "It's a write-off for them." Jerry: "How is it a write-off?" Kramer: "They just write it off." Jerry: "Write it off what?" Kramer: "Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything." Jerry: "You don't even know what a write-off is, do you?" Kramer: "No, I don't. But they do. And they're the ones writing it off."

wahern 10y ago

From Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Mac: Unemployment runs out, what are you gonna do then? Dennis: Well then we'll just go on welfare. Mac: Welfare is for people who need it, like drug addicts and single mothers. It's not for over-privileged pieces of shit who want to waste millions in taxpayer dollars... Basically, 1) unemployment runs out; 2) it's difficult to get welfare unless you have children or have a disability, and being classified as disabled is more difficult than commonly believed, especially for younger people, even though it sometimes seems like every idle soul is drawing a disability check; and 3) since the Clinton-era reforms many welfare programs have a lifetime cap. FWIW, unemployment can pay better than minimum wage because unemployment is usually paid as a percentage of your earnings. But you'd need to have been making substantially more than minimum wage. Also, a lot of social programs are pretty good about proportionally cutting back on benefits as income grows. It's still a real problem with some programs (there are many, and they're byzantine), but I think it's exaggerated somewhat. It's like "write-offs" for taxes--most people have no understanding of them, and believe they function far differently than they do in reality. To quote another one of my favorite shows: Kramer: "It's a write-off for them." Jerry: "How is it a write-off?" Kramer: "They just write it off." Jerry: "Write it off what?" Kramer: "Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything." Jerry: "You don't even know what a write-off is, do you?" Kramer: "No, I don't. But they do. And they're the ones writing it off."