Work is about either 2 things: getting ahead financially so that you and/or your children can enjoy a higher quality of life - or the pride in doing something useful and meaningful while improving your ability to enhance your community. There are precious few jobs available in the private sector that offer the latter - especially if you want to get paid enough to subsist on. There is much work that needs to be done to make our communities better places to live in; the government is being hijacked by special interests and our tax money used to enrich those who bankroll political campaigns and no one is either big enough and/or willing enough to take on these challenges in the private sector.

The bottom line for big money is that the influx of new people forced to seek employment only helps keep wage and benefit levels low. Reagan Democrats who whine about "welfare bums" had better not be complaining about the lack of opportunities for good paying jobs. Neither should they whine about "preferences" to get these "bums" to work. Republicans are already lobbying for "special" wage scales for former welfare recipients. Given the choice between minimum wage and "special" wage employees for minimally skilled positions you know who will get the jobs and who will make the profits.