Welfare, a blessing or a devilish trap ?
Welfare, a vicious trap: An idea to fixing the mess.
Let me start with pointing out why welfare can be considered a trap,
well trap might not really be a fair term, since trap would imply that
somebody made a mistake to be caught, in the case of welfare this is not necessary.
You only have to be a little unlucky to be caught in welfare, if you are going for welfare intentionally
then I think trap is a fair term.
Now let me explain why it is such a terrible thing in the current
implementation.
Say a perfectly ordinary individual has been a littli down on his luck,
and end up on welfare, he also do not have any great prospects to get a new
job, so he goes on welfare (which might not be that simple), he is now in the position
that if he gets a job that pays less than he gets in welfare, he will be very heavily taxed
depending on how the welfare system has been structured he could even be taxed at more than a
100% rate, okay let me explain.
Say he gets a welfare rate of 10000$ a year (hypothetically), now he gets a part time job paying a 1000$ a year.
Okay simply addition suggests that would be 11000$ a year, but that is utopian, we forgot taxes.
Okay let's assume he pays a 10% tax rate (hypothetically), this would make his income with
the welfare and the job 11000 * 0.90 = 9900 (the 0.9 is to get his 90% share of the whole thing.).
This would already be a terrible deal, but being on welfare we need to consider the reduction on the welfare
which I suppose would be a 100% of the income, I suppose in a fair system you would only have to consider the
reduction to welfare, and have a 100% tax, although the 10% arguably is worse.
Paying a 10% income tax across the whole thing would be more like a 100% and then a bit tax rate.
So supposedly the more realistic method for calculating the tax probably would be
income = 1000$
tax = 10%
= 900$
that might be decent if that is all the taxman takes, but I do suspect that there is a welfare reduction
of those some 900 waiting, which equals a 100% tax rate, if the
welfare is cut by the income before the tax was paid we are back at the 100% + rate.
A Possible way to start fixing the mess
I would suggest that the welfare not be income dependent, but time dependent
so you would get a number of months paid, any income you make in this period
will not be subtracted from the welfare, but when the time runs out you wont get more
money.
That would be a great model, but if people for whatever reason are unable to hold down a job
they should have some welfare, but this should be a different system.
I think making in time based with no punishment for getting a job would be a much better solution.
Anyway what do you think about this suggestion ?
Remember to leave a vote, follow me, and resteem it is much appreciated.
I think that someone at 10K in income would probably get tax money back rather than paying in, which constitutes another entirely different mess we have created (the tax system should not be a welfare program in and of itself). I am not sure a time-based system would work, but there may be ways to implement something like that. A tiered system of some sort I would imagine. Accountability is the greatest need in our current system, I believe. I don't mind helping those who need help, but giving money away is not always the best help. Every situation is different and it is difficult to tailor a state/national program that takes every factor into consideration and applies the program fairly.
I appreciate your input, also I am just trying to make something that could help fix this mess, at least I think this should illustrate some of the mess of a very generic welfare system.
It is not written with any particular country in mind just trying to highlight some problems.
That makes sense.
Also, everyone is welcome at the steemit meetup!
I think you are assuminng a very philanthropic purpose for welfare. In relaty welfare exist to maintain an ignorant class that can be tapped for laborers by governing athority. Simply shut off the welfare and sudenly the government has a large millitay, because the poor will have no other way to get food. Many people have stated what you are saying in many ways, but no politician has the power to change the way it works. If they did change welfare it would not function the way government needs it to.
This is written more as an abstract piece, so it is not written with any specific model for welfare in mind.
Well that suddenly clears my thoughts... I like Steem's method of 3 month time frame for Steem Power withdrawal in the event people experience hard times.