Ha. Most don’t see the connection. They see someone buying “sh*t” and using food stamps for “food”. What they don’t see is if they were buying everything with “their own money” they wouldn’t hardly contribute to any other businesses aside from the grocery store.
What I am seeing is some families forgo work because wages less than what they get if supported by government. That can hold even when they have have two nearly full time jobs. They have to factor in things like child care expenses and insurance. My tech is having his wife drop out of work force to save money. Money they would spend otherwise on child care comes close to what she makes. Keeping their income lower also makes so they get help with health care. If they would make just a little more, they would have even less money to spend owing to how the setup works.
Now it’s getting scary. That’s exactly the problem. The system doesn’t flex at all. If your working usually you don’t qualify for anything. If your not you get it all. It’s a crazy system that seemingly works on paper yet falls far short in real life. My son is now in kindergarten but for the previous 5yrs I’ve paid real close to $60k in daycare alone. It’s nuts. The entire system is so far off the rails it’s sickening.
Years ago I figured out that my wife and I made a little more than the year before. We actually ended up losing money because it threw us into a higher tax bracket so I had to pay more. The systems have since been improved but not much.
We have been in that zone for several years.
