"Rich voters continue to trend Republican, rich states trend Democratic."

[Goofball]

To further Lemur's point, here is my welfare story that I have direct experience with: I have a family member who is currently on social assistance (what Canadians call welfare). She is on social assistance because she is elderly and has severe health problems, so she is unable to work. She is not quite old enough yet to start receiving her Canada Pension Plan (I think you call it Social Security in the US) benefits yet. She receives $650/month from social assistance, which is the maximum payable to a single (no dependents) person in my province. Her rent is $800/month, and it is a pretty shitty apartment. I and some other family members have been giving her money every month so she can pay her rent and feed herself. We have to give her the money in cash, because our system considers family help to be "income" and if they knew she was getting it they would claw back her social assistance payments dollar for dollar based on the amount we were giving her. She has been receiving social assistance for a little over one year now, and has been audited twice by social workers, who forced her to provide her bank statements to see if she was receiving any other income. So, Xiahou, if you have coworkers who think they would be better off on welfare, believe me: you can safely tell them that they don't know what the hell they are talking about.