Previously, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, accused able-bodied men in the United States of stealing national welfare by playing games. When he discussed the Medicaid bill in Congress recently, he denounced gaming as a "wasted time" and said that young people should regain their passion for work instead of playing games all day long.
Johnson's comments come as House Republicans push to cut the nation's Medicaid program. He emphasized the need to target men of working age who are capable of working, and criticized some beneficiaries for relying on medical insurance and evading responsibilities and wasting time on unproductive activities such as playing games.
Johnson believes that young people are wasting their time playing games at home and crowding out welfare space for disadvantaged groups. The Republican Party is pushing to cut the Medicaid program precisely to allow these young people to go out to work and regain the dignity of work.
"They're draining resources from people who really need help," Johnson said. "So if you could fix that... you could save a lot of money and get young people who are playing games all day long back to work."
However, according to data from the U.S. Health Policy Research Institute, 64% of Medicaid beneficiaries under the age of 65 have full-time or part-time jobs, and the average weekly gaming time of American gamers in 2024 will be only 7.5 hours. The gaming industry contributes an annual output value of US$120 billion to the United States and creates more than 500,000 jobs.
Johnson's remarks were ridiculed by netizens as "simplifying complex social problems into a toxic game", but avoided talking about structural difficulties such as corporate layoffs and the proliferation of low-wage jobs.