mwengler comments on Rationality Quotes November 2012 - Less Wrong

6 [deleted] 06 November 2012 10:38PM

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Comment author: mwengler 16 November 2012 04:15:35PM 1 point [-]

the meaning or source of the $ amounts if very unclear to me. Is there more on it somewhere?

Comment author: [deleted] 16 November 2012 05:57:54PM * 3 points [-]

$150/mo for SNAP (i.e., food stamps) is in the right ballpark; the average in 2011 was $133.85/mo.
$700/mo for SSI is an overestimate; the average benefit for those under 18 (i.e., "some high school") was $621.30/mo.
I couldn't find an average benefit estimate from the department of labor for unemployment insurance, but sufficiently many sources claim on the order of $300-500/week, possibly before taxes. $1500/mo is perhaps reasonable.
I don't know where he's getting the jail number from, but some random googling suggests that the average cost per inmate of American prisons is something like $20k-40k/year. Presumably he means minimum security prisons (as he uses the example of an incarcerated marijuana user later).