With Saskatchewan's minimum wage now at $7.95/hour as of this month, I really don't see why someone would
want to be on welfare. Welfare is something like $350 a month for one person, which is nothing compared to a full time minimum wage job which is over $1,000 a month after taxes.
A crappy bachelor apartment in Regina's ghetto runs about $290 a month (I'm sure utilities are extra) so that leaves very little for food. Even if someone uses the food bank (hey that's what it's for), it's located a good 4 kms away from the poorest end of the city. Have you ever tried carrying groceries as a pedestrian? It's not very fun, even in mild weather. All the while, society keeps expecting you to get a job (a person on welfare needs to get an "unemployable stamp" every month).
Minimum wage is adequate
if your are single. If you have children, that's a whole new story. Childcare is really expensive (try $750 a month for an infant) so it makes no sense to work for $1,000 a month. I guess you can say that people shouldn't have kids, but poverty often means lack of education.
Also, people are often thrown onto the street bacause of reasons beyond their means. I know people that were kicked out of their parents place because of their sexual orientation or deadbeat parents. You
could try to find a job, but remember it often takes days or weeks to find a full-time job. Meanwhile you're hungry, have no place to sleep, and are highly susceptible to joining gangs, etc (because at least that's one family you can rely on). At least welfare is immediate, but you have to have a mailing address first!
And honestly, I think the bureaucrats that run the welfare program cost way more money than the actual $350 cheques that are given out. I'm sure our government funded
Saskatchewan Transportation Company (which hasn't seen a profit since 1978) costs taxpayers
way more money than funding homeless people.
I also find it really interesting that society opens their arms to help mentally disabled children, but as soon as you hit 16 or 17 years old and have no supporting family, suddenly we just think they should all die off. Really sad.
Linear Mode
