Comment by kiba
6 hours ago
Social programs often compensate for massive distortion in the economy. For example, SNAP benefits both the poor and the businesses where SNAP funds is spent on, but that's because a lot of unearned income goes to landowners, while preventing people from employing laborers and starting businesses. SNAP merely ameliorate a situation that shouldn't had arise in the first place.
So, yes, reasons other than efficiency explain why people aren't working, as well why there are still poor people.
Only the relatively tiny homeless population is poor by historic standards. And that’s almost exclusively mental health issues and addiction.
Now we can set arbitrary thresholds for what standard of living every American should have but even knowing people on SNAP it’s not that low.