4 ms·
The "Welfare Queen" exists largely in the imagination of the right. Even in areas of the US with relatively generous public assistance, the difference in standa
by suresk 14y ago
The "Welfare Queen" exists largely in the imagination of the right. Even in areas of the US with relatively generous public assistance, the difference in standard of living for someone who relies solely on welfare versus someone with even a moderate income (much less "rich") is so large, no rational person would choose to live on welfare just to avoid the taxation that resulted from having a high income.
I certainly don't agree with tax policies designed to punish or discourage high incomes, but this is pure hyperbole.
- fpgeek 14y agoI suspect the grandparent comment is pure sarcasm.
- suresk 14y agoIf that is the case, I apologize and feel a bit sheepish. In my defense, I live an incredibly conservative area in the US, and many of my neighbors honestly believe this exact thing, so it isn't obvious sarcasm to me.
- MartinCron 14y agoI really thought that saying something so obviously false would be easy to detect as sarcasm/satire.
- robotresearcher 14y ago> this is pure hyperbole. I'm pretty sure it was satirical.
- jacoblyles 14y agoThere certainly do exist people that face a negative return to marginal work, due to the phase out of public assistance with income. I'm not really sure what "welfare queen" means, but there are plenty of people that face strong incentives to stay on public assistance and little help to get off of it. I wouldn't necessarily place all the blame on them, though.
- eli_gottlieb 14y agoThere certainly do exist people that face a negative return to marginal work, due to the phase out of public assistance with income. This is largely because either their state-government is incredibly stingy (see: Texas) or because their potential wages are incredibly low.
- MartinCron 14y agoAs a sibling pointed out, someone didn't get the joke. :)