As always, Tam at View From The Porch, nails it. Has there ever been a better paragraph than this:
When unemployment pays almost as much as the available jobs, work is disincentivized. Remember: If you want less of something, like tobacco or income, tax it. If you want more of something, like tobacco or unemployment, subsidize it. (And if you want proof that our government is crazy, roll those two sentences around in your head for awhile…)
Hat tip to The Whited Sepulchre for the initial story.
Adaptive Curmudgeon 
Yup. One of my former neighbors stated outright that she would never get a job because it would reduce her welfare payments and then she asked me for twenty bucks (again). She was miffed when I told her she could borrow twenty dollars after she paid back the first twenty I had loaned her. Didn’t see much of her after that and I never did get my money back. I considered it money well spent.