The CATO Institute has just released a new study “The Work Versus Welfare
Trade-Off: 2013”, which analyzes the total level of welfare benefits on a state by state basis. The authors, Michael Tanner and Charles Hughes, show that welfare pays more than a minimum-wage job in 35 states and, moreover, in 13 states, it pays more than $15 per hour. The authors recommend that Congress and state legislatures strengthen welfare work requirements, remove exemptions from working and narrow the definition of work. Also many states should consider shrinking the large gap between the value of welfare and work by reducing current benefit levels and tightening eligibility requirements.
Clearly welfare benefits as well as disability payments, through the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program of Social Security, have grown too large and have become a disincentive for many people to find a job. Getting something for nothing is a moral hazard which induces an attitude of entitlement and helplessness. It also causes the labor force participation rate to shrink and therefore hurts the economy.
Tightening up welfare payments and disability income are among the many actions
which Congress could take to speed up economic growth and lower government
spending. We need more representatives in Washington who understand that change is needed and who can advocate effectively for policies which will get this done!
It Does Not Add Up
Jack Heidel's blog on fiscal responsibility
It Does Not Add Up 
This is my 2nd summer in PA where I come each summer to work on invesgtment properties that I hold. Once again I see store parking lots full, ever obese humans lined up at fast food, lots of idle men sitting on porch steps and near no one wishing to work for the $10/hour that I can pay. I only find men over 50 willing to work. There is a growing generaltion of Obama slugs appearing everywhere. At the bank yesterday in the after noon I noted 3 men in their 20s with rings in their ears and noses, hats on backwards, wearing expensive outlandish costumes and high priced shoes jestering with each other. It was clear that not only had nothing to do but that they had money to both waste on such clothing and drugs. Yes, I am a 30 year military officer veternan that saw 7 near deaths in behalf of this nation. I am disappointed in our youth and their prositution to the Obama way of life.
What you are observing is the result of lax enforcement of work requirements for receiving welfare benefits (or perhaps the nonexistence of such requirements). I suggest that you go visit the director of your local public assistance office and tell her/him that you personally are looking for employees for entry level jobs and ask the office for referrals. If the outcome of such an approach is unsatisfactory, then contact your local congressman, or perhaps your local newspaper to complain. I’d be very interested to know how an approach like this works out!