[legion]

Let's look at the "abusers" and "those who could work but do not".

Sure, the cost of smoking them out might be high initially, but by smoking them out, a standard is set that that kind of behavior is not acceptable--leading to less people likely to abuse the system, and the cost of finding them goes down.

Here's a related example. Let's say we have two big corporations. Company A and Company B. Because they are big companies, they are the targets of all sorts of lawsuits. Company A's approach is to settle each case, because the cost of settling each case is less than the cost of litigating. Company B fights every case, even if they are in the wrong. Guess which one has lower legal costs? Company B. It is not the target of as many lawsuits because it has a reputation for fighting them. Company A has higher legal costs because lawyers know they will settle, and therefore target them more often.