While Janet McCabe intelligently discusses the economic effects of the dividend, she's wrong to assume that "the dividend program is a way of reducing welfare and social service costs." Welfare, maybe. But social service? I lived in the Bush and had close contact with the troopers while I was there. Both what they told me and what I observed myself made one thing clear: there's a spike in alcohol consumption, crime, accidental death and suicide in the two months after PFD time. There's also a rather massive amount of vanity spending: rocket bomb snow machines, extravagant Christmas presents, a family trip to Disneyland, a $2,000 miniature dog, and what, for a kid, was enough drugs to set himself up in business. (All those are real cases). I don' suppose the PFD ought to end because some people abuse it. But I can tell you the troopers hate this time of year.