A welfare program that would allow those not recieving the benifits to not need to lose out significantly:
Those who make too little money to support themselves with bare living essentials, or those who just like the simplicity of the program, will be given the option to enter the welfare program. This program will allow them to improve their standards of living to having the bare essentials plus a certain level of extra income. However, this will not be provided by regular monetary compensation. Instead, the folk will be given jobs, jobs at government facilities. The government facilities will produce items the government deems necessary to improve the standard of living of the nation: as an example, medicine production, education, and road construction and maintenance. As these jobs will be provided to them, they will lose some of their freedom that those not partaking will be left with; they will be assigned to jobs where they are needed rather than where they want to or feel comfortable working (as an example, if someone has aspirations of working in restaurants, but the government has no need for restaurant workers, that person will have to work elsewhere, where the government needs them. Also, if someone has skills in steel production and wants to make a healthy living producing steel, but was laid off, and the government can’t use those skills, that person will have to learn new skills. The government will pay attention to peoples skills and wants though, and provide when possible).
Bare essentials will not be provided through monetary compensation, but rather directly. Housing will be provided in efficient government apartment complexes. Food will be provided through meal plans at a government cafeteria. Transportation will be on government busses. Clothing and other near-essentials will be provided from government facilities or purchased from free market facilities, depending on which the government feels will be better (if there are enough people to fill jobs making government clothes, then the facilities will be government run. If there is too little, then some or all clothing will be purchase elsewhere). Healthcare and basic and job specific education will be provided. The workers’ labors will provide for the needs of other workers in the program so that all needs are met by all members, as in a near self-sufficient commune. The facilities will be put into operation with the help of government funds from the social system given by others (government run ‘charities’ will collect money from those who want to help the impoverished). They will then not only provide products to the members of the welfare program, but to the free market, in which they will provide income to the government for continuing the program as well as other areas of social provision.
The folk will also recieve monetary compensation to put them above and beyond the bare essentials. They will recieve a small stipend, if the program can afford it, for their own personal purchases from the free market. They will also, more importantly, have a stipend put into an interest bearing account. This stipend would be there merely for allowing the folk to save up enough money to break out of the welfare system and reenter the free market. If they never leave the system, the money will be used to finance bare essentials for their retirement.