I simply don't understand why most welfare systems weren't reformed years ago. At the moment they are a strong disincentive to the first dollar earned. A supplement which phases out at a rate somewhere between 25c and 33c per dollar earned would be a far more humane system which would encourage people to pick-up less reliable work and transition into employment, whilst also helping the perennially low-waged.
My suspicion is that Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy is at play. It would mean that much of the bureaucracy which surrounds welfare could be dissolved, and the administrative state wouldn't want that, would they?
and I suspect you are spot on w.r.t. Pournelle's Law -- more current examples are the FBI, FDA and the Dept of Education whose budget & spending increase each year yet our students score in lower quintiles than other OECD countries.
I simply don't understand why most welfare systems weren't reformed years ago. At the moment they are a strong disincentive to the first dollar earned. A supplement which phases out at a rate somewhere between 25c and 33c per dollar earned would be a far more humane system which would encourage people to pick-up less reliable work and transition into employment, whilst also helping the perennially low-waged.
My suspicion is that Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy is at play. It would mean that much of the bureaucracy which surrounds welfare could be dissolved, and the administrative state wouldn't want that, would they?
and I suspect you are spot on w.r.t. Pournelle's Law -- more current examples are the FBI, FDA and the Dept of Education whose budget & spending increase each year yet our students score in lower quintiles than other OECD countries.