3/30/2005

Why Should I Work?

Why should I work when I end up getting less of a government grant for school as a result? Why should I work when I could get my rent for free through subsidized housing? I have a friend who decided, a while back, to quit his job so he could focus more on his schooling. As a result, the government takes care of him and his wife through various welfare programs that are available to low income families. Am I gaining more of an economic benefit than my friend by working while going to school? I know I could get better grades if I could stay at home and study more and live off of government programs. Would better grades and less work experience be better then a lot of work experience and lower grades? Would I be abusing government programs if I do what my friend is doing? I personally think I should work and avoid living off of welfare programs as much as possible. I hope that my future employer(s) feel the same.

4 comments:

Dr. Tufte said...

This is a juicy one. At some point in Fair Play Landsburg says that he is going to pay Cayley for good grades rather than let her work.

Personally, I always worked when I was in school, and in retrospect I have a lot of regrets. Most of that effort wasn't worth it. On the other hand, it's not clear to me how much a marginal improvement in my GPA of (say) 0.1 points would have done for me either.

Here's what I think about my own kids (my oldest is 6). I think they should work a bit if they want to. I am absolutely sure that they need more coaching on where to work and how to weigh their options.

As to government help, the really apalling thing to me is that there is no sense in which you are compensated for performance. If the government had any interest in doing good, they would reward people who did well when funded by the government.

Matthew said...

Dr. Tufte said that the government should reward people who did well when funded by the government. I completely agree! There are some people who legitimately need to be on welfare for a time period to get them on their feet, but they need to be set loose after a certain time. It seems as if the government rewards people who perform poorly on welfare with more welfare, and “rewards” those who do well on welfare by kicking them off of welfare. Why should these people try to get off welfare when that seems like a punishment? Punish them when they don't get off welfare in the specified time frame!

Jordan said...

Dr. Tufte said:

"Personally, I always worked when I was in school, and in retrospect I have a lot of regrets. Most of that effort wasn't worth it. On the other hand, it's not clear to me how much a marginal improvement in my GPA of (say) 0.1 points would have done for me either."

I think in a major way it depends on the kind of work you do. If you have to sacrifice some study time to get an internship that will help you apply what you are learning, then I think the sacrifice is well worth it. But if you're sacrificing study time to flip burgers, then it might be time to weigh some options.

Dr. Tufte said...

I think we see professors do quite a bit of what Matthew likes.

The analogy is that professors are the government for a class. Many times they'll help you out in a pinch. If you actually use that to get back on your feet and do better, they'll often "bump" your grade for you. I'd like to see the government do this with welfare recipients.