SJS, there is NOTHING wrong with getting paid in cash. Not in my opinion, and not in the opinion of the IRS. There are circumstances that require it. Not reporting those cash payments, however, is illegal.
You are of course, correct. I should phrase that better.
Not trying to get a job, is a valid and legitimate response to incentives. I have no problem with that. Make it sweet enough and I won’t work a day in my life.
The programs are set up to help people that need it. I think there should be sweeping reforms. One way is to have an employment office where if you turn down a job for an illegitimate reason, you don’t get benefits. If you arent willing to do some hard labor (and that might be literal or figurative), then why should I pay for you to sit around doing nothing? There is nothing wrong with being a grocery bagger at ShopRite, but there is something wrong to me with doing nothing to get MY money.
Now that I am paying taxes, I would prefer the government use the money on an Avreich somewhere so that he can sit and learn and not on some study that tries to learn the eating habits of the Playtapus off the coast of Australia.
There are plenty of good uses for our tax money – repairing our roads, educating our children etc…but my tax money is NOT there to support people learning in Kollel. That is what my maaser money is for. And taking advantage of the system (especially in such a bad economy), is going to break the system.