system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why doesn't the government hire the unemployed rather than give handouts?

As in have projects in which the government hires the unemployed whilst at they same time they are looking for jobs.

Wouldn't this be more productive on a whole for society?
gpt
They've done it before, i.e. the make-work projects in the Great Depression. 

But the thing is, welfare usually pays the bare minimum, just enough to keep people alive. Government jobs typically come with higher pay and all kinds of benefits, plus retirement. It is cheaper to pay people welfare and let them not work, than to hire them to work and spend much more on them.