Since it is considerably less expensive to live in Manhattan, Kansas than in Manhattan, New York, a better way to look at the value of welfare is to compare the equivalent-wage value of the welfare package to the typical Kansas wage. In Kansas, the value of welfare benefits available to a single mother with two children is 77 percent of the average wage. Looking at it another way, welfare benefits can actually exceed the amount paid by alternative entry-level jobs in Kansas. As the debate over welfare reform heats up in Kansas and across the country, one goal seems constant across the ideological spectrum. Nearly everyone agrees that a major goal of welfare reform should be to encourage recipients to leave the welfare rolls and enter the workforce.
Some people believe that people who receive welfare are lazy.
While that may be true for some, surveys consistently show that most recipients would rather work. The answer is, millions of people on welfare are making a perfectly rational decision based on the economic incentives they face. In Kansas and many other states, welfare benefits are far more generous than commonly thought and substantially exceed the amount a recipient could earn in an entry-level job. Surveys have found that nearly 70 percent of welfare recipients are not currently looking for work. So staying on welfare, in case after case, is the economically prudent decision to make.