[WarOnPrivacy]

> what it costs to scrape by is covered by government or charity, if they didn't do that the workers would die

I take this to mean the assistance covers the gap to prevent death.

I would amend that to note the following: We can exist in a state of profound poverty w/o assistance for a very long time without dying. Persistent Hunger and crisis-level stress kills very indirectly; it commonly takes decades.

source: me + 5 kids. a decade of hunger-level poverty in a red state.