Re:Suspicious discontinuities (2020)
by dragonwriter on Wednesday March 20, 2024 @02:01PM
(#39770026)
> I have never understood why things like this don’t use some sort of sliding scale, rather than absolute dividing line.
They often do use sliding scales, but that’s more complex (and expensive) to administer, and (because of multiple interacting programs) ends up not actually solving much of anything. Also, because of the way things (including available funds) work, but even ignoring budgeting for the increased admin cost, a sliding scale probably would start stepping down from full benefit where a sharp cutoff is, that would probably be more like the middle of the sliding scale, so if you “barely squeaked in under the limit” on the sharp cutoff version, you’d probably get far less benefit under a sliding scale system.
They often do use sliding scales, but that’s more complex (and expensive) to administer, and (because of multiple interacting programs) ends up not actually solving much of anything. Also, because of the way things (including available funds) work, but even ignoring budgeting for the increased admin cost, a sliding scale probably would start stepping down from full benefit where a sharp cutoff is, that would probably be more like the middle of the sliding scale, so if you “barely squeaked in under the limit” on the sharp cutoff version, you’d probably get far less benefit under a sliding scale system.