III Welfare, Workfare, and Incentives to Work In a story entitled “Problem of the Poor,” New York Newsday stated:

Liberal critics and welfare-rights groups point to [New York’s] high poverty rate—60 percent above the national average—citing inadequate welfare benefits, a lack of public housing and other holes in the safety net. Yet New York has provided some of the most generous welfare benefits in the country, both in terms of the amount of benefits offered and the number of people covered. . . . The level of cash benefits in the basic welfare program is 50 percent above that of the median state in the United States.