Social Safety Net

In a wealthy society it is morally repugnant to allow any citizen to fall below a minimum standard of living. While some argue that without the incentive of dying in the street to encourage us to take on jobs, the majority of people would choose a minimum standard of living instead of any attempts to better themselves.

While this dim view of human nature is demonstrably false, perverse incentives do exist when means-tested safety net benefits are phased out in a way that entry-level employment causes significant net loss of income when the value of those benefits is considered. This is why modern best practices prefer universal safety net benefits like universal basic income and universal health care.