I think even if you take a wildly more cynical approach, a substantial amount of welfare is still worthwhile. When people run out of money, society ends up payi

I think even if you take a wildly more cynical approach, a substantial amount of welfare is still worthwhile. When people run out of money, society ends up paying for it, whether it's because those people steal and go to prison or end up in the hospital. If you spend $1B in welfare and half of it gets stolen, it's still a great investment if it take down the societal costs of dealing with poverty by $2B.