> Jahleel's mom wants him to do well in school. That is absolutely clear. But her livelihood depends on Jahleel struggling in school. This tension only increases as kids get older. One mother told me her teenage son wanted to work, but she didn't want him to get a job because if he did, the family would lose its disability check.
But people hate the idea of giving people money when they "don't need it." So for each dollar someone makes that pushes them above bare sustenance, a dollar is taken away. In some perverse income ranges, more than a dollar is taken away.
The only way around it really is to either give people nothing, or to provide a basic income. Most people hate the idea of both of those: if you give people nothing, you in a very real sense end up starving people. You can pick and choose who gets aid, but that immediately adds a bunch of administrative overhead and encourages gaming the system. A basic income, though, gives Bill Gates free money from the taxpayers, and is very, very expensive.
All told, I prefer the BI, but that has a load of difficulties.
This system is completely messed up.