No surprise there. Most social programs are very productive with good returns.

It's just much more efficient to teach and reward than let it get bad and punish. Jails, for example, are super expensive. An inmate not only produces nothing, but also costs 10s of thousands of dollars. Over here, that averaged £50k a year per inmate when the average income was close to half that.

Which is why I laugh at the recent migrant boat bs where the government is spending a similar amount of money instead of putting people through skillup programs and such.