Reply To: Why does the government give benefits to kollel yungerleit?

Thanks guys for your input. I didn’t mean for people to become defensive about this topic; I just wanted to see what the Coffee Room consensus is on these questions. It looks like there are three schools of thought:

(a) Perhaps from a general political viewpoint kollel people are less deserving of welfare than general recipients, however, if I were President (@commonsaychel sorry don’t want to be in Congress after all, despite syag’s contention that i already began running a campaign) I should still support the system because it spiritually benefits my people and perhaps enriches the entire country. I hear. I have some issues with this, but I actually get it.

(b) perhaps kollel yungerleit are theoretically less deserving than the General Welfare Recipients but The government should never make qualifiers on who is eligible for entitlements. This is the Democratic Party’s position. However the Liberals are just saying that there is no need to make work requirements because they believe that having a social net does not deter people from working. And this may be true in the general world and the post-kollel frum world. But Kollel families are different, and this is based on anecdotal evidence, but it seems like many people stay in kollel because they have medicaid and snap. I’ve heard of a few people that left kollel and began a career when they got disenrolled from Medicaid.

(c) kollel yungerleit are just as deserving as General Welfare Recipients. I would say that this is probably true of many (ie the wives have middle to high income jobs). But IF there’s a substantial subgroup of kollel yungerleit that is disincentivized to be employed because of their welfare, then that’s a structural problem with welfare. And then we would have to get down to the nitty gritty of this and make a new thread “empirical data…” but i don’t think anybody’s interested.

(D) NOYB apparently believes that receiving welfare should be like receiving a prize in 4th grade – you deserve it if you’re “good”. 1 apparently believes in some twisted form of Keynesian economics. And Syag believes that I’m moronic, disgusting and definitely a nonkollel person for the sin of writing that kollel yungerleit are mosser nefesh to go through unbearable financial lachatz so they can learn as long as is physically possible (“deliberately poor as a lifestyle”). What made you think I don’t value that??? Because I don’t think the right venue for that is taxpayer aid??? I 100% value a kollel life over American hedonism /chasing after money. would it make you happier if from now own I use more yeshivish language? Sad.

(e) @n0mesorah. I was initially under the assumption that federal aid for education is a poverty reduction program that helps poor people get good careers. After doing some research, it seems like you’re right that all the federal government wants is postsecondary education l’sheim postsecondary education and the Pell grants have nothing to do with helping peoples’ careers.