Welfare

“the meme is channeling a certain truth without really nailing the truth: the number of ‘lazy’ folks who are living for ‘free’ is in fact negligible—they are not necessarily the parasites the meme implies.” - L&L

“these flaws in welfare policies apply with special force to those who are just at the point of making the transition from poverty to self-sufficiency. These problems have long been known. So why have they not been corrected long ago? And what can be done to fix them now?” - IFS

“Each big anniversary of the 1996 welfare reform … sees an outpouring of retrospectives … It’s long been clear that single mothers flooded into the labor force after the reform, and that their income went up. What’s less clear is whether some particularly disadvantaged families were left behind, and how overall well-being changed for the affected households.” - IFS

“My thoughts about this man and his work are now entirely different. He didn’t waste his life at all. I have great respect for what this man did.” - P&D

“[A] a job provides, not just an income, but also a sense of purpose. It is not government handouts or parental support that make young people happy, but personal responsibility and a deep-seated conviction that the fruits of one’s labor make the world a better place.” - Acton Institute