[…] according to studies, every dollar spent on WIC saves three dollars in future hospital costs. Every Junior Cheeseburger you pay in tax money earns you three Junior Cheeseburgers later on. Meanwhile, poor children get to continue to live, and you don’t have to suffer the embarrassment of explaining to foreign visitors why the richest country in the world has so many filthy children with rickets.

The biggest waste of taxpayer dollars on welfare is, ironically, the money we spend on trying to prevent people from getting welfare: for example, every time the government tries to save money by preventing drug users from collecting benefits, enforcing that law ends up costing more than it saves. Studies repeatedly show that welfare recipients use drugs at a lower rate than the rest of the population, because it turns out that drugs are super expensive. This makes the vast majority of the mandatory drug tests given to welfare recipients pointless. […]

Furthermore, giving benefits to the unemployed stimulates the economy, particularly when the economy is already in the shitter. It’s pretty straightforward: if you give money to people who are on the verge of total destitution, they’re going to end up spending it immediately, because they’re probably way behind on rent, bills, and the food necessary to chase off the relentless specter of fatal starvation. That money goes right back into the private sector.