I know you too well by now to think this was your position - but I do think you accurately reported a common conservative position.
I’d have to look it up, but I remember a study that showed that relatively few people stay on welfare forever, but most go in and out of it as their circumstances change. The decline in poverty and the lower number of welfare cases during the Clinton years, when wages were improving and unemployment was low, shows that laziness is not the biggest problem. Wouldn’t it be nice if jobs paid enough above the bare subsistence level so that we could peg welfare at the point where someone on welfare could live, but not thrive? But now we have working poor, and that sucks.
People should be able to survive decently on 40 to 60 hours a week. They shouldn’t be desperate for needed medical care or an education for their kids. I don’t think people realize how many jobs exist and don’t pay living wages or how many companies look for part time help to avoid benifits. I’d like all the people I encounter in and average week to be able to make a decent living. Folks at the grocery store. The garbage man. etc.
It hasn’t happened to me, but I do know it happened to various friends. The manager will juggle schedules so nobody ever gets a full 40 hours. That way, he gets to avoid paying benefits. Pretty sleazy.
I don’t think of it as sleazy. Things change. Our economy and our society changes and we have to decide what to do about it and what kind of society we want to strive for. A company makes a decision about whether two less experienced part time employees are more advantageous than one more experienced full timer. A company doesn’t owe it to their employees to provide benefits. We’ve just come to expect it. They have a right to cut expenses. However, when conservatives say, “Stop complaining, get an education and go out and get a better job” it’s a little ridiculous. Obviously everybody can’t do that. That’s not how a society works. We want and need people in all the positions that pay a less than living wage. Shouldn’t our society be structured in a way that let’s those people have a decent life?