Thread by @besttrousers

I never understand this argument.

1.) There are psycho-social benefits to work beyond a paycheck.
2.) Therefore we should design anti-poverty programs to push people into work

I'd draw the exact opposite conclusion. If people want to work we do not *need* to push them to do it!

https://twitter.com/besttrousers/status/1366751176922984453

The only thing that makes sense to me is that people believe that there are psycho-social benefits to work, but poor people are *unaware* of them.

I don't think that makes much sense.

Some folks are pointing out that another possibility is that people are present-biased, and may not be willing to pay the sort term costs of working, even if the long-term benefits are strong.

This is an important point, but it doesn't suggest that we shouldn't have a child allowance benefits, which would do little to affect that trade-off.

Searching for work really does suck in a lot of ways. It's time consuming and it's demoralizing. Even highly qualified and highly motivated people will often engage in less work search than is optimal.

But a stingier welfare program doesn't make this better - here's a list of things that *do* work that I put together for @USDOL dol.gov/sites/dolgov/f…