As for those lazy people, 73 percent of enrollments in America’s major public benefits programs are from working families. They work in jobs that pay wages so low that their paychecks do not generate enough income to provide for life’s basic necessities. McDonald’s workers alone account for $1.2 billion in federal assistance used per year, every year. And of course those working people who depend on public assistance to survive pay taxes themselves, same as everyone else. Know that McDonald’s CEO Donald Thompson last year took home $13.7 million in salary, $5.46 billion in personal profits and $5.5 billion in stock.
Reducing or cutting benefits to "lazy workers" also affects benefits to their children. Almost 22 percent of American children under age 18 lived in poverty in 2012. The percentage of children under age five living in poverty is over 25 percent. Almost 1 in 10, or 9.7 percent, live in extreme poverty. A better solution than public assistance to working people? If McDonald’s doubled its employees’ salaries, a semi-livable wage of $14.50 an hour to take them off public benefits, a Big Mac would cost only 68 cents more. They can pay more. They just don't want to.
