As someone who grew up relatively disadvantaged, I think I probably know a larger percentage of those “taking advantage” over the the “average” American. Furthe

As someone who grew up relatively disadvantaged, I think I probably know a larger percentage of those “taking advantage” over the the “average” American. Further. I also used to volunteer regularly helping donate food, helping families, etc. I don’t think people realize how good “baseline” really is, compared to even 2-3 decades ago. Just as an example, most people can get free housing from the state provided some paperwork (again I helped quite a few people, including family members, with this.). I actually stopped volunteering in this space, BECAUSE I saw it being taken advantage of. Probably 75% of the people I assisted were capable of working physically. Now, mental faculties are a bit of a different issue, only probably 50% had the mental disposition to work a regular job. That being said most people can contribute something in exchange for wages. Unfortunately, many don’t because it’ll either cut their incentives there’s a valley between maintaining life quality off the state and the minimum wage. You have to make significantly more than minimum wage to have the same quality of life in some cases. You can even see stories of this with the pandemic (people making more on unemployment, so they don’t work). I’m also not arguing if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Just that, at least from my experience, it appears to be a thing. I also don’t think we are collecting good data on this, particularly for political reasons (or incompetence). If we had the real stats I’m sure people who need these programs would also be left without them (because programs would be cut). I really don’t know a good solution. Just that it really should be explored, because many people have an inaccurate understanding (again from my experience).