Today I asked my self if some of the benefits that the government is offering are actually helping people out or are they just acting as incentives to make people want to be involved in the welfare system...

WILL EXTENDING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS GIVE INCENTIVES TO PROLONG UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS ?





I found this article where the authors actually believe that extending unemployment help will only make people want to stay unemployed rather than find a job...
"Increasing benefits can serve an important humanitar-ian aim among needy groups. However, there are those among the unemployed for whom such benefits can pro-vide reduced incentives towards seeking immediate em-ployment. Among these recipients, some may respond by not seeking employment at all. As shown above, investi-gators have sought to determine whether the number of those who become more selective is significant"

"As noted by many writers, increases in unemployment benefits can provide reduced incentives for the jobless to seek jobs. The job seeker may increase his overall qual-ity standards in demanding a new job, the Match-Quality Hypothesis. The seeker can, and does, become more se-lective. This, in turn, increases the duration of unem-ployment for those receiving benefits and, all other things given, increases the level of unemployment among those as well. Surprisingly, only one person with the MQH trait is needed to produce a slight bulge in unem-ployment duration, and hence in total unemployment. Available empirical studies provide evidence consistent with these predictions. In addition, these behavioral traits appear to be empirically valid regardless of the culture of the work force. "
This makes sense because if you think about it if they benefits keep raising the amount that is given to the unemployed, there aren't going to be many jobs out there that they are qualified for that will give them the same amount of money. Thus increasing the time of their unemployment because they become some what picky and demanding of where they want to work. and we shouldn't blame these people, its only logical to want to stay unemployed if this is paying more than any of the jobs that you can actually get hired at.

http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=8698