Means testing (making sure benefits only go to poor folks) is such a colossal waste of time and money. And it creates perverse incentives where becoming slightly less poor can lead to a huge drop in benefits.
If we gave everyone food stamps, and we raised marginal tax rates a tiny little bit, then we would not need to spend any effort on validating who was and wasn't allowed to receive them. It would remove the stigma of having them. It would enable people to just get them without having to apply or understand paperwork.
The willingness to disguise cruelty as "just following the rules" in America is astounding.
I never understood why these thresholds are hard thresholds in the first place. It should make sense for the reduction in benifits to reduce gradually but it's pretty rare to see a policy like that
If we gave everyone food stamps, and we raised marginal tax rates a tiny little bit, then we would not need to spend any effort on validating who was and wasn't allowed to receive them. It would remove the stigma of having them. It would enable people to just get them without having to apply or understand paperwork.
The willingness to disguise cruelty as "just following the rules" in America is astounding.