I really felt bad for this family until she turned the job down. In my mind, that changed everything. That's understandable to me; she'd essentially be paying

I really felt bad for this family until she turned the job down. In my mind, that changed everything. That's understandable to me; she'd essentially be paying to work. That would both worsen their immediate cash situation and make it harder for her to search for a decent job. The real problem is the ridiculous incentives caused by unemployment payments that immediately go to zero once you have any source of income. The point where I lost sympathy was when the guy was making a good salary and was determined to spend every cent of it. If you're living paycheck to paycheck in the best of times, you are going to get screwed, it's just a question of when.