Newsflash for Republicans: If you want more people to work, you need to increase welfare benefits
Today's Thom Hartmann on the News http://www.thomhartmann.com/the-news
Here's a newsflash for Republicans: If you want more people to work, you need to increase welfare benefits instead of cutting them. According to a huge study spanning 18 countries and 19,000 recipients, providing generous welfare benefits make someone more likely to want a job. The authors of the study explained that, “employment commitment was much higher in all the studied groups in bigger welfare states.” In other words, they found the notion of people on welfare being lazy was the exact opposite of the truth, and the higher the welfare benefits, the more people wanted to work. Based on this logic, Republicans should want to strengthen our social safety net, instead of destroy it. The idea that poor people just want to sit around collecting checks is a myth, and we've finally got the science to prove it. Nations with strong social safety nets have stronger employment than we have, and it's time rethink our history of demonizing the poor. We can afford to do better, and the science shows that it's in our best interest as a nation to do so.
Generous welfare benefits make people more likely to want to work, not less
Date:
March 31, 2015 Science Daily
Summary:
Generous welfare benefit levels make people who are not in employment more likely to want to work rather than less, new research suggests. "Many scholars and commentators fear that generous social benefits threaten the sustainability of the welfare state due to work norm erosion, disincentives to work and dependency cultures," the researchers say. "This article concludes that there are few signs that groups with traditionally weaker bonds to the labor market are less motivated to work if they live in generous and activating welfare states."
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150331074345.htm
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