Have to include the social costs of higher food prices, cost of bureaucrats employed to hand out the money and cost of illegals coming in to take the jobs that people on welfare have no incentive to take.
Quote from peilthetraveler:
Well about .1% of people on welfare are caught cheating the system, but there are about 10 times as many allegations. Believe it or not, there are all sorts of systems in place to catch cheats. Some of the systems are set up to catch cheats within a month or two and there are other systems that take as long as 2 to 2 1/2 years to catch up to them.
These systems flag the people and cut off their benefits and send them a letter telling them they suspect them of cheating and give them options to pay the money back, or call and explain the situation if they are innocent and there was a mistake. But for arguements sake, lets say that 100% of all allegations are cheats and they have no excuse. So I think we spent 1 trillion on social welfare programs last year so 1% is about 10 billion dollars, which would mean cheats are costing every person about $32 per year or just under $3 per month. I think $10 billion dollars is a reasonable amount to suspect because there are probably many who never get flagged because they dont file taxes(they dont make enough or they just dont file for whatever other reason) and they dont have bank accounts, trading accounts or any other accounts attached to them.
So thats your answer...they are costing you approximately $2.68 per month. About enough to buy you a large french fry at McDonalds.
Quote from futurecurrents:
A common theme of the right is this idea that they're paying large amounts of their taxes to support "parasites" and the "entitled class". They commonly have bumper stickers that say "Work harder..you have to support those welfare folks".
I was wondering if any one of these people ever tried to figure out what percentage of their taxes are wasted on welfare cheats. I assume most of them think that the social safety-net is justified for the truly needy.
Anyone want to take a guess? I have a figure in mind, but I'll withhold my guess so as not to turn this into a insult contest right away.
Quote from Eight:
If you count all the people on welfare that really would be working if their life actually depended on it as cheats, then probably 90% of them are cheating..
Quote from rew:
Yup, the real problem is all those women who think it's perfectly normal to have a child out of wedlock, collect food stamps, AFDC payments, Medicare, and rental subsidies as if that constituted a "job", and have a daughter who does the same thing. All perfectly legal.