Dr. Tom Boland:

We should give people the maximum discretion. I know we are all concerned the State might be wasting money on people who are simply not committed or motivated to find a job. However, I would argue the number of people who do not have that internal motivation is small because the carrot of a better wage is a huge carrot. If the carrot is so good, there should be no need for sticks as such. I would suggest the downside, because of the stress it causes to people and the way it pushes them into suboptimal employment, is that even the threat that people might have something suspended is not worth the motivation factor that might be applied to those few who lack any motivation whatsoever.

The intended consequences of sanctioning when it was brought in was to make sure people got back to work, but the unintended consequences have been that it pushes down wages and makes people less happy and more depressed in a non-clinical sense. It affects their day-to-day lives and subjective well-being and it wastes their time. It also drives them into political alienation. People feel the State is not taking care of them. When I see people at these particular protests around the country, I often think this is to an extent or degree because they feel alienated from the State. What social welfare does as an ideal is bind us all together to say, "We will take care of you, not conditionally but no matter what."