Does welfare make people lazy?

Conservatives often claim that it does. It's not that simple.

Job seekers
(Image credit: (David McNew/Getty Images))

In recent years, there has been a steep decline in labor force participation — essentially, the percentage of working-age adults who are either working or trying to get work. The House Budget Committee's recent War on Poverty report largely blames this trend on increased spending on anti-poverty programs, which supposedly reduce many people's incentive to work.

This echoes arguments that many conservatives have made for years — essentially, that the social safety net has been turned into a welfare hammock. Taken to its extreme (and it often is), this line of argument suggests that welfare recipients are cashing in on an easy ticket to a comfortable life in which they opt out of work and instead spend all day smoking dope or playing video games or creating welfare babies to get bigger welfare payments.

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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.