Thanks for the response. I have two reactions:

First, I’m afraid your anecdotal evidence relating to the people you’ve encountered who you feel are satisfied being on the dole isn’t representative. A variety of studies that looked at the effects of the unemployment supplement program have concluded that most people have opted to return to work, giving up the added income, given the opportunity.

And second, citing China as the seeming prototype of a state that I might be suggesting is a bit over the line. How about considering some of the Nordic countries, or at least sticking to democracies (for as long as we keep ours)?You’re confusing socialism with totalitarianism. The US is not at the very top of the list in terms of a variety of quality of life measures (which I would expect to be correlated with happiness). A resistance to a policy that strenthens the social safety net merely because of it’s association with “socialism” feels really inappropriate to me. Do you really want to consign those who are unable to meet their basic requirements to a life of either begging or crime? Seems like that’s a course that’s sure to be more costly and create more problems than one that treats these people more humanely.