Laws of Economics Trump Entitlement Programs

With the exponential growth of entitlement programs, I have come into contact with the recipients of government aid, welfare, disability, Medicaid, more and more frequently. The most consistent thing I have noticed is that in most, but not all cases, the person needed some sort of assistance and in nearly all cases, the recipients has assisted themselves by cheating on the rules in some way.

Sometimes it is cash work "under the table." Sometimes it is phony rent receipts. Sometimes the rules discourage marriage by couples living together, because one partner would lose the benefits of the public dole. Sometimes it is lackadaisical efforts to find a job before unemployment runs out.

Usually these folks are not all that shy about their falsifications. Fraud is so common.

The lesson here is, again economics. If the government has a pot of money and a program to give it away, folks will go after that money by fair means or foul. Pots of government money create industries and the industrious who work to get their hands on the money.

They may not be honest, but they are not lazy or stupid either. They are industrious about getting their hands on money, an job they obviously deem more profitable for the effort involved than other endeavors.