THIS CAN’T GO ON…

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18 Stats That Prove That Government Dependence Has Reached Epidemic Levels

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The American Dream blog,

Did you know that the number of Americans getting benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million? In other words, the number of people that are taking money out of the system is far greater than the number of people that are putting money into the system. And did you know that nearly 70 percent of all of the money that the federal government spends goes toward entitlement and welfare programs? When it comes to the transfer of wealth, nobody does it on a grander scale than the U.S. government. Most of what the government does involves taking money from some people and giving it to other people. In fact, at this point that is the primary function of the federal government.

Just check out the chart below. It comes from the Heritage Foundation, and it shows that 69 percent of all federal money is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs…

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So when people tell you that the main reason why we are being taxed into oblivion is so that we can “build roads” and provide “public services”, they are lying to you. The main reason why the government taxes you so much is so that they can take your money and give it to someone else.

We have become a nation that is completely and totally addicted to government money.

The following are 18 stats that prove that government dependence has reached epidemic levels…

#1 According to an analysis of U.S. government numbers conducted by Terrence P. Jeffrey, there are 86 million full-time private sector workers in the United States paying taxes to support the government, and nearly 148 million Americans that are receiving benefits from the government each month. How long can such a lopsided system possibly continue?

#2 Ten years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had jobs outnumbered the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin. But now the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have jobs.

#3 The U.S. government has spent an astounding $3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs over the past five years.

#4 Today, the federal government runs about 80 different “means-tested welfare programs”, and almost all of those programs have experienced substantial growth in recent years. In fact, President Obama has increased welfare spending by an astounding 45%.

#5 Back in 1960, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages was approximately 10 percent. In the year 2000, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages was approximately 21 percent. Today, the ratio of social welfare benefits to salaries and wages is approximately 35 percent.

#6 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the total number of Americans on food stamps has gone from 32 million to nearly 47 million.

#7 Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps. Today, about one out of every 6.5 Americans is on food stamps.

#8 It sounds crazy, but the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the entire population of the nation of Spain. The number of people on welfare (>100 million) exceeds the population of Germany. The number of people on disability exceeds the population of Greece.

#9 According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps is now greater than the combined populations of “Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”

#10 According to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, 43 percent of all immigrants that have been in the United States for at least 20 years are still on welfare.

#11 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, more than 70 million Americans are on Medicaid, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#12 The number of Americans on Medicare is projected to grow from a little bit more than 50 million today to 73.2 million in 2025.

#13 Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.

#14 If the number of Americans enrolled in the Social Security disability program were gathered into a single state, it would be the 8th largest state in the entire country.

#15 In 1968, there were 51 full-time workers for every American on disability. Today, there are just 13 full-time workers for every American on disability.

#16 It is being projected that the number of Americans on Social Security will rise from about 62 million today to more than 100 million in 25 years.

#17 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.

#18 According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program each month. Back in 1983, less than a third of all Americans lived in a home that received direct monetary benefits from the federal government.

It is a very troubling sign that the number of people on government assistance is now far, far greater than the number of people with full-time jobs. This is not a sustainable situation. The federal government is already drowning in debt, and yet more people become dependent on the government with each passing day.

The long-term solution is to get more Americans working or starting their own businesses, but the federal government continues to pursue policies that are absolutely killing the creation of jobs and the creation of small businesses in this country. So our epidemic of government dependence is going to continue to get worse.

And many of these programs are absolutely riddled with fraud and corruption. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Natural News article…

To understand the extent of this fraudulent waste, go no further than Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who raked in $20.8 million from Medicare in 2012 alone. Dr. Melgen isn’t the only one bathing in the fraud of this crony government program. Medicare dished out over $1 million to almost 4,000 doctors in 2012, according to the new data release analyzed by The Washington Post.

Jonathan Blum, principal deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is calling on the public for help in identifying fraud. He says, “The program is funded by and large by taxpayer dollars. The public has a right to know what it is paying for. We know there is fraud in the system. We are asking for the public’s help to check, to find waste, and to find potential fraud.”

Instead of fixing their own problems, they want us to help them do it.

Just great.

And of course they always want more of our money to help fund these programs. In fact, according to Americans for Tax Reform, Barack Obama has proposed 442 tax increases since entering the White House…

-79 tax increases for FY 2010
-52 tax increases for FY 2011
-47 tax increases for FY 2012
-34 tax increases for FY 2013
-137 tax increases for FY 2014
-93 tax increases for FY 2015

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Obama budget with the lowest number of proposed tax increases was released during an election year: In February 2012, Obama released his FY 2013 budget, with “only” 34 proposed tax increases. Once safely re-elected, Obama came back with a vengeance, proposing 137 tax increases, a personal record high for the 44th President.

The more we feed the monster, the larger and larger it grows.

And yet poverty is not decreasing. In fact, the poverty rate has been at 15 percent or greater for three years in a row. That is the first time that has happened in decades.

Barack Obama promised to “transform” America, and yet poverty and government dependence have just continued to grow during his presidency.

Not that anyone really believes anything that he has to say at this point. In fact, one recent survey found that only 15 percent of Americans believe that Barack Obama always tells the truth and 37 percent believe that he lies “most of the time”…

A Fox News poll released Wednesday shows that six out of every ten Americans believes that President Barack Obama lies to the American people, at least some of the time. A plurality – 37% – say that he lies “most of the time,” while another 24% say he lies “some of the time.” Another 20% say he lies once in awhile, while only 15% say that he never lies.

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And taxes are eating people alive….

These Are America’s Most And Least “Taxing” States

As Bloomberg reports citing Tax Foundation data, as of Jan. 1, nine states don’t levy income tax on wages, and eight have a flat tax. Brackets in which taxes kick in differ by state, as do exemptions.

Here are the highest “taxing” states in the US:

California 13.3%
Hawaii 11%
Oregon 9.9% (a, b)
Minnesota 9.85%
Iowa 8.98% (b)
New Jersey 8.97% (a)
Vermont 8.95% (tie)
Washington, D.C. 8.95% (tie)
New York 8.82% (a, c)
Maine 7.95%

And the lowest:

Pennsylvania 3.07%* (a)
North Dakota 3.22%
Indiana 3.4%* (a)
Michigan 4.25%* (a)
Arizona 4.54%
Colorado 4.63%* ** (d)
Kansas 4.8% (a)
New Mexico 4.9%
Alabama 5% (a, b): tied with Illinois*, Mississippi, New Hampshire* (c) and Utah

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-18/these-are-americas-most-and-least-taxing-states-and-everything-inbetween

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flash
flash

Simple , but packing a terrible wallop of truth.

“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Herbert Stein

bb

AWD ,..but what can we do about it ?Not a damn thing .Even after everything collapses they we still cry for more taxes to fix the collapse.Anyone know if Tennessee has s state tax?The information on internet is a little confusing.Thanks

Chicago999444
Chicago999444

Sometimes I feel like I’m one of maybe 5 people left in the country who isn’t: A. buying food with a LINK card; B. getting my rent paid by a Section 8 voucher; C. on Medicaid; D. a landlord COLLECTING rent paid by a Section 8 voucher; E. working for some federal, state, or local government body; F. Collecting a government pension; G. getting paid $15000 by government-backed banks to vacate the foreclosed $400K condo I’ve been squatting in without making payments since 2009; or H.. Collecting disability.

Then I talk to my neighbors and they feel the same way. Everybody knows at least one person, and usually a number, who is in some way getting a benefit paid for by the taxpayers. And the only people we know who feel that their incomes are adequate or feel secure enough in them to do things like buy a car or a house with a mortgage, let alone spend money on anything discretionary, are government employees.

OUTTAHERE
OUTTAHERE

While reforming things, let’s limit ALL politicians to ONE term. PERIOD! No more “career” politicians, something that the Founders never envisioned since people went to DC to actually serve their country AND THEN GO HOME.

Also, let’s get down to brass tacks on who should have the “right” to vote. Since everyone on the government tit of entitlements will continue to always vote for whoever promises them the most “benefits”, let’s make it the Law Of The Land that only people who actually have skin in the game get to vote. That would be people who own real property (house and/or land) or a business get to vote since they are the ones that bear the brunt of most taxes other than income. I would also consider including anyone gainfully employed for at least one year prior to election day.

All of this would have to be verified to a local official organization composed of volunteer citizens ahead of election day. Upon verification of eligibility, including photo ID, the potential voter would receive a card of eligibility that would have to be presented, again with a photo ID, at the voting location before they could vote. Is this in any way, shape or form unreasonable considering that the fate of the country should hinge on honest and fair elections? I think not.

All of this will probably be a moot point for a couple of decades if things fall apart before any of these ideas could be put in place, but it’s fun to think about in theoretical terms.

Chicago999444
Chicago999444

Outtahere, I talk to too many clueless “property owners” and “business people” to believe that limiting the franchise to these select categories would have a positive effect.

In fact, since our oligarch rulers are the biggest property owners and most “successful” business people, and are also the people who profit the most from welfare programs, I have deep misgivings about giving this segment of the population anymore control than it already has.. which is almost total.

The people who give us our greatest entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists, artists, philosophers, and other achievers are not either the welfare poor, or the entitled rentier rich, but our middle classes, many of whom are renters for life and are employees. This is the class that is being decimated by policies that expand the welfare state and use it as a conduit to convey profits to the “rentier” rich who make their profits by skimming every financial transaction in this economy, including every swipe of a SNAP or LINK card, and whose control of our financial system has rewarded the rentier class at the expense of the productive rich who invent and produce at great financial risk and no guarantee of reward. Our middle classes will only be further disenfranchised by limiting the vote to “property owners” and “business owners”.

What we need is a philosophical revolution, but that won’t happen because the people who need philosophy the most, our productive middle classes and business class, disdain the study of philosophy as irrelevant and useless. This is due to the complete takeover of philosophy by collectivists of one stripe or the other, with their only opponent being the much-despised Ayn Rand and the equally disregarded free market economists and philosophers, such as Van Mies and Hayek. I can promise you that the overwhelming majority of MBAs you will meet, including many top executives, either don’t know who the great economic philosophers who preceeded Rand even are, or are openly hostile to their ideas and feel they have much more to gain from the Mercantilist Crony Capitalism that has completely displaced and destroyed the free market that existed for maybe a couple of decades in this country.

Zarathustra

AWD says:

Something must be done, this cannot go on until everything collapses. It must be stopped.
_______________________________

It’s way too late. Bring on the collapse and the sooner, the better.

bb

Mr. Z ,is right .Far to late for any meaningful change.Only a complete collapse will change things.

IndenturedServant

This can’t go on….. Oh really?

Actually it can go on. And, it WILL go on. I know it. You know it. They know it.

It WILL continue to go on for one simple reason…….it works for them. No matter how broken the system appears to be to you and I, the fact is that it works for them. They built the system. They implemented the system. They control the system and it continues to enrich and empower them. Do you really believe they are going to do or accept anything that interrupts that?

Twenty nine years ago, back in high school, I became fascinated by how the govt was able to manage so much debt. I asked all of my teachers about it and none could provide a satisfactory answer. After high school I got busy building a life for myself and pursuing other interests but in 2007 I once again became interested in that same question. This time I used the internet and books mentioned on the internet. I found my answer……It can’t. However it will continue to juggle incomprehensible amounts of debt right up until the very last minute.

Like many of you, my journey to enlightenment revealed much more than I ever really wanted to learn. I’m talking about the lies, cover-ups and corruption of history and facts. All you really need to do is be a student of history to know what is going on and what is coming next. There really is nothing new under the Sun.

After seven years of near constant reading, I sincerely doubt we are anywhere near the end of this “American Experiment”. Without a doubt we are closer to the end than we are to the beginning. However, taxes can and will be increased even further. Bail-ins have yet to begin. Almost unbelievably, money printing continues unabated but if you understand the nature of our fiat currency system and ALL fiat currency systems, thin air printing is a requirement of functionality. We the sheople still hold a collective $25+ trillion in private retirement accounts that “they” have yet to tap. Trillions of dollars of other assets are still out there to be misappropriated for their benefit at the time of their choosing. I estimate that TPTB still have at least $100 trillion dollars at their disposal and despite an increasing rate of depletion, it will still take 10-25 more years before their reign of terror is over. Once TPTB are deposed and scurry away like roaches when the lights come on, we will enter the new Dark Ages.

That is the main reason for my reduced participation here. The full realization of our situation finally hit me in February and I found myself at a crossroads. I could continue to study and absorb doom porn in the slim hope that some solution might be found or I could get on with what is left of my life.

I’ve made the choice to get on with my life mainly because I cannot change or control the larger forces that are shaping human life on Earth at the moment. At 47, I figure I’ve got maybe 15 to 25 years of enjoyable, quality living left to do if I’m lucky and I don’t want to waste it. I doubt that anyone will miss my participation in the few online forums I frequent nor should they. I offer no real insight or wisdom. Truth is I learn far more than I have the ability or inclination to teach.

It is appropriate that over this Easter holiday I am experiencing a sort of resurrection of my own in beginning to live my life again. I’ll still keep my ear to the ground and post from time to time but I’ve still got attainable dreams to pursue before I’m reduced to dust.

El ILEGAL
El ILEGAL

IndenturedServant says:

“At 47, I figure I’ve got maybe 15 to 25 years of enjoyable, quality living left to do if I’m lucky and I don’t want to waste it.”

Stucky had the same conversion a few months ago. No one can live in the near-constant gloom and shadows. I am surprised your so young. Leave the gloom and doom to us old folks. Go out, have fun. Here’s a tune for you, I_S:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=my2ig7mGHtE&list=RDmy2ig7mGHtE

El ILEGAL
El ILEGAL

Darkness, Darkness”

Darkness, Darkness, be my pillow, Take my head and let me sleep
In the coolness of your shadow, In the silence of your deep
Darkness, darkness, hide my yearning, For the things I cannot see
Keep my mind from constant turning, To the things I cannot be
Darkness, darkness, be my blanket, cover me with the endless night
Take away the pain of knowing, fill the emptiness with light
Emptiness with light now

Darkness, darkness, long and lonesome, Is the day that brings me here
I have felt the edge of sadness, I have known the depths of fear
Darkness, darkness, be my blanket, Cover me with the endless night
Take away this pain of knowing, Fill this emptiness with light now
Emptiness with light now

Darkness, darkness, be my blanket, cover me with the endless night
Take away this pain of knowing, fill this emptiness with light now
Oh with light now.
Darkness, Darkness, be my pillow, Take my head and let me sleep
In the coolness of your shadow, In the silence of your deep
In the silence of your deep
In the – oh oh yeah
In the summer baby
come on come on come on baby…

N8
N8

Completely agree AWD but just getting it done…

N8
N8

It will still take 10-25 more years before their reign of terror is over. The can will be kicked as long as they can but I highly doubt 25 years and a lot of days I doubt 10.

I agree though enjoy what you can while you can.

OUTTAHERE
OUTTAHERE

Chicago
Even oligarchs get only one vote, supposedly, no matter how much property, houses or buildings they own, so the bulk of the voting public will still be what’s left of the middle class. The middle class will always bear the brunt of everything from paying more and more taxes to finally having enough govt. rammed up their asses to finally take action against the entire renegade regime, and I’m not talking just about Obummer and Co. It’s all of them! They ALL have to go!!!

IndenturedServant

EL ILEGAL, yeah I’m only 47. Fucking ankle injury (and my own stupidity) robbed me of ten years. Living with that motherfucker to the last possible step made me old before my time. While I regret it, it did give me the “down time” to discover and swallow the red pill. I don’t regret that. I’ve always had a feeling that things are “fucked up and bullshit” but I had no idea just how bad it was/is. What really chaps my ass is not so much the fact that the whole thing was a sham but rather the fact that nearly everything I’ve been taught my whole life has been a fucking lie.

With the ankle problem largely behind me, (knocking on wood) it’s time to get back to what I would have been doing had it never happened.

El Coyote
El Coyote

Until the night of Oct. 27, 1982, Eileen Brennan lived as though she were Little Mary Sunshine all grown-up. The flame-haired actress with a colleen complexion took her cues from the role she had created off-Broadway a quarter of a century ago. Like Little Mary, Brennan had a dirigible perkiness that no sorrow could puncture, no depression deflate. She combined chipper optimism with an overlay of brassy charm that made her popular in a show business world where there are often no friends, only contacts.

Brennan had just finished dining with Goldie Hawn that October night when her world collapsed. On a Venice, Calif. boulevard, darkened by a temporary power outage, Brennan stepped into the path of an oncoming car and was hurled into a ghastly abyss. She suffered a catalog of injuries—smashed legs, a fragmented jaw, a broken nose, an eyeball wrenched from its socket. All the bones on the left side of her face were broken.

Those injuries slowly and painfully healed. The nightmare really began when Brennan, taking the pills her doctors prescribed, realized that she was an addict. To break this pharmaceutical stranglehold, she entered the Betty Ford Center for a six-week treatment in August 1984. “It was my only hope,” says the 50-year-old actress with candor. “I had reached the stage where I was taking anything I could get my hands on.”

Immediately after the accident the drugs were an absolute necessity. “That was the worst pain I have experienced—including labor,” she says. Her former husband, British-born poet-photographer David Lampson, was shaken when he arrived at Brennan’s bedside the day following the collision. (Divorced in 1975, the two remain close.) Says Lampson, “When I saw her, there were no facial features left. It was horrendous. She looked rather like E.T. on a pillow.” Brennan remained hospitalized for another two months. Initially she was treated with shots. When pills were prescribed, she received at various times Percocet, Valium, Ativan and Darvocet. “I do think the medical profession has something to answer for,” says Lampson. “She had tremendous mood swings. Literally, there would be laughter one minute and tears the next.” With her release from the hospital and the cancellation of the TV series Private Benjamin, in which she co-starred, she cracked.

Brennan’s return home heightened her fears and insecurities. “I got so paranoid,” she says, “I had a door put into my bedroom that led to the outside, so if anything happened, I could get out of the house.” Pals such as Hawn and Brenda Vaccaro visited regularly. Lily Tomlin dressed up Brennan’s sons, Sam, now 13, and Patrick, 12, as her lounge-lizard character, Tommy Velour, to amuse Brennan. Richard Pryor sent over tapes of his shows for entertainment. But laughter was not the best medicine for Brennan. She relied instead on a variety of painkillers, antidepressants and antianxiety pills. “I went through the Percocet at first,” she says. “I was always pretty good at getting it.” Although friends cared for her sons, the boys were not spared Brennan’s agony. “I told them exactly how I felt. We’ve always been honest with each other, probably because I’ve been in therapy for years,” she says. At one low point she cried to her sons, “Kids, I’m sorry. I just can’t help it. I want to die.”

By the time Brennan was offered the pilot for her current ABC series, Off the Rack, in January 1984, she was nearly recovered physically—she still has no feeling on the left side of her face and her left leg remains stiff because of an implanted steel plate—but was deeply addicted. “I began to play games with myself—hiding the drugs, taking them on the sly. I would change pills. I’d say, ‘Well, I won’t take Darvocet or Percocet, I’ll take Ativan or Valium.’ ” Returning to work meant kicking the drugs entirely.

Brennan entered the Betty Ford Center the week before her 50th birthday. “I spent the first two weeks crying,” she says. “I was ready to leave every day.” Twice-daily group therapy sessions revealed Brennan as a woman in turmoil. “I was hit by a car. I almost died. My show was taken away from me. I was frightened,” she says. Little Mary Sunshine could not just breeze through with a smile and a wisecrack. “You’re so naked there,” she says. “All of those defenses of being witty and charming don’t count. I thought I was taking drugs because of the physical pain. I learned I was chemically dependent.”

Nowadays the only pills Brennan takes are vitamins. She has maintained that postclinic discipline through support groups. “It’s talking things out with each other. I don’t stuff my feelings with pills, I share them,” she says. She also remains close with Mary Tyler Moore, who was at the Betty Ford Center at the same time. Brennan’s professional outlook has improved too. Her performance in Off the Rack has received critical approval and the network is pondering a fall pickup. According to Brennan, her acting has been affected by the experience. “No question about it. I trust myself more,” she says. “I’m not looking outside for reinforcement.” At home, she adds, “My sons think I rose from the dead.”

Physically, she may never match her former self. “I’m not as light on my feet. Things I took for granted, such as getting in and out of cars, are much more difficult.” In other respects, she has found a comforting calm. “Everyone hits bottom their own way,” she says. “Mine came through my accident, which led to my pill addiction, which led to my birth. I say birth rather than rebirth because I feel born new. I reestablished a spiritual connection that is lost when you are taking any kind of drug. Strangely enough I wouldn’t have missed my accident. It just knocks me out to say that, but I mean it.”

IndenturedServant

N8 said:
“The can will be kicked as long as they can but I highly doubt 25 years and a lot of days I doubt 10.”

I don’t expect things to sail along like they have for the last decade for another 10-25 years. I’m sure that a world war or civil war or even both will erupt but it will be 10-25 years before the nightmare is what you might deem “over”. Even then the vermin will still largely own and control all the remaining desirable land and resources just like the first Dark Ages and with no more frontiers available for expansion, the human race will descend into the final Dark Ages of Regression.

I’d like to live long enough to see how it turns out but by then we’ll be communicating via carrier pigeon and courier and “news” will be hard to come by. Gonna be a lot fewer people around by then too.

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