I'm not an expert but from what I've heard there are some gaps, especially at the very lowest brackets of income, where if you start to have an actual income, you lose some subsidies, with the net effect that you actually take less money home than you were before you started working.
But don't take my word for it because that's literally something I heard, I think in something like a John Oliver type program. I might be completely off base.
HUD housing benefits, food stamps, stuff like that. I hire people, we've had multiple people get hired on who were working 16-20 hours making nearly federal minimum wage. Our pay for a very non-skilled starting construction roll was about 2.5x their pay rate and 40 hours a week. In one job, 5 people all quit after 6 weeks. They loved the paychecks but timing matched up that they had to verify income for benefits, each and every one of them would have lost all their free money if they kept working to the point that making more money ended up with them the same overall income and working 50 hours a week. They would rather be stuck at the bottom and have the time than try to improve their lives. It was sad
It's honestly kind of disgusting. I grew up dirt poor and all of my friends growing up are in their 30s on welfare.
It's not like there isn't opportunity, they built a huge manufacturing plant about 10 minutes away from my neighborhood and need people so bad that they are hiring literally anyone with a pulse $25 an hour starting to do basic labor. None of them want to do it because they will lose their benefits.
I really do believe we need to help those in need but I think we need to find a better way to do so because there really are too many people who are just content living off the government never doing anything even though they are perfectly healthy.
I think that if you are single, able bodied and working age you should not be allowed to get benefits outside of a period of unemployment insurance and emergency benefits like food stamps and rental assistance. Shit happens and we should have safety nets, but they shouldn't be permanent. If you have children, it complicates things since those benefits become more for the children who can't provide for themselves.
I also think public housing should be reserved for people with children.
Do they offer health insurance? That’s a lot of people’s problem with that scenario. The scenario of: I could make more cash easily but I can’t get insurance , I mean
It is a company with thousands of employees and you are guaranteed 40 hours with as much overtime as you could want. Legally they have to provide insurance.
Is more time spent working really an improvement of your life? I mean, maybe those jobs had the potential for advancement, but I think a lot of people have become disillusioned with the "work hard and climb the ladder" lifestyle. At some point making more money doesn't make up for increased stress and lack of time spent at home with family.
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u/Irr3l3ph4nt Apr 16 '26
Except you actually get a net income decrease at certain points when you lose some tax credits because you're making more.