21 Facts That Prove That Government Dependence Is Out Of Control In America

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The End of The American Dream blog,

If you could stay home and watch television, play video games and hang out with your friends all day at government expense, would you do it?  Of course most Americans that collect money from the government each month are not abusing the system.  Many truly are incapable of taking care of themselves, and others are just receiving government benefits (such as Social Security) that they feel that they have earned by a lifetime of hard work.  But with each passing year the number of Americans jumping on board “the safety net” continues to grow rapidly, and a lot of these people should be able to take care of themselves.  Today, the American people collectively receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes.  And remember, the federal government uses our money to build roads, inspect our food and fund the military as well.  So what does this say about our economy?  Could it survive without all of these debt-fueled transfer payments?  And what does this say about our society?  At one time, our nation was known for our work ethic.  What would our forefathers say about us today?  The following are 21 facts that prove that dependence on the government is out of control in America…

1. According to a Congressional Budget Office study that was just released, approximately 60 percent of all U.S. households get more in transfer payments from the government than they pay in taxes.  Here is more about this stunning report from Mark J. Perry’s Carpe Diem blog

Some additional analysis and commentary will be provided here that reveal a yet-to-be discussed major implication of the CBO report – almost the entire burden: a) of all transfer payments made to American households and b) of all non-financed government spending, falls on just one group of Americans – the top one-fifth of US households by income. That’s correct, the CBO study shows that the bottom three income quintiles representing 60% of US households are “net recipients” (they receive more in transfer payments than they pay in federal taxes), the second-highest income quintile pays just slightly more in federal taxes ($14,800) than it receives in government transfer payments ($14,100), while the top 20% of American “net payer” households finance 100% of the transfer payments to the bottom 60%, as well as almost 100% of the tax revenue collected to run the federal government. Here are the details of that analysis.

 

cbo1

 

The figures in Row 6 in the table above (and displayed in the graph above) show the amount of federal taxes paid by the average household in each income quintile minus the average amount of government transfers received by those households in 2011. For each of the three lower income quintiles, their average government transfer payments exceeded their federal taxes paid by $8,600, $12,500, and $9,100 respectively, and therefore the entire bottom 60% of US households are “net recipients” of government transfer payments.

2. About 70 percent of all government spending now goes toward dependence-creating programs.

3. From 2009 through 2013, the U.S. government spent a whopping 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs.

4. The percentage of the U.S. population that gets money from the federal government grew by an astounding 62 percent between 1988 and 2011.

5. 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.

6. According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.  Sadly, that figure does not even include Social Security or Medicare.

7. Currently, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States.  By 2050, that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.  Supporting all of those senior citizens is going to be extraordinarily expensive.

8. Right now, more than 64 million Americans are receiving Social Security benefits.

9. Right now, more than 54 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare.

10. Right now, more than 70 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid.

11. The number of Americans enrolled in the Social Security disability program now exceeds the entire population of the state of Virginia.

12. If the number of Americans on Social Security disability were gathered into a separate state, it would be the 8th largest state in the entire country.

13. 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.

14. At this point, the federal government runs about 80 different “means-tested welfare programs”, and almost all of those programs have experienced substantial growth in recent years.

15. The number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 17 million in the year 2000 to more than 46 million today.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. Today, the number of Americans on food stamps exceeds the entire population of the nation of Spain.

19. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds 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.”

20. 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.

21. Most Americans are not earning enough to support themselves and their families without government help anymore.  The following are some statistics about wages in the U.S. from a Social Security Administration report that was recently released

-39 percent of American workers made less than $20,000 last year.

-52 percent of American workers made less than $30,000 last year.

-63 percent of American workers made less than $40,000 last year.

-72 percent of American workers made less than $50,000 last year.

In order to have a middle class, you have got to have middle class jobs, and those are disappearing from our system very rapidly.

As a result, the number of people that are financially independent continues to drop.

So what will the future look like?

Will the government eventually have to take care of almost all of us?

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Golden Oxen
Golden Oxen

My brain just went TILT from the article.

Pretty scary article and all facts, no opinions.

Obama is letting stay another 5 million Friday to help solve the problem.

llpoh
llpoh

The natural state of humans is to have to struggle mightily to survive. In the last 100 years or so, folks have come to believe that ain’t so – that folks are ENTITLED to 40 hour, or less, work weeks, ENTITLED to food, water, medical care, big screen TVs, fast food, aircon, heating, etc etc etc.

And let me tell you – it is bullshit. It is hogwash. Humans are entitled to NOTHING. There are certain inalienable rights, but nowhere are there entitlements to ‘stuff’.

People have lost the understanding that they have to earn to survive. They have no right to survival without earning. I have no de facto obligation to help anyone. If I choose to do so, because of my own beliefs or out of compassion, that should be entirely up to me. I might acquiesce that society has an obligation to children, and perhaps the severely disabled, but that is about it. Old folks ain’t my frigging problem – they should have provided for themselves, or their families need to do it. Not my problem.

But to force me at the point of a gun to provide for people that are not earning enough off their own efforts is theft, pure and simple.

We need to return to a system of reap what you sow. If you do not sow enough, it is not my problem. It is as simple as that.

The current system will fail. It is failing. It simply cannot survive. The parasites – be they the “poor” or the elite and powerful – cannot continue to consume the actual producers of society ad infinitum.

I am over it – I am heading off into the sunset to my doompalace shortly enough. A few more months and it will be complete. Acres of solitude and good neighbors and ponds with fish and a vegetable garden and a few four legged meat producers and energy self-sufficiency and a few million gallons of water and a nice still (for aromatic oil production of course – I would NEVER use it for, say, alcohol) await me. I will run my business from afar. It will not do so well without me, and I have begun to downsize it so that managers have a chance of keeping it going. I have cut it by almost half in the last year or so, dumping customers and products that are not extremely profitable.

Fuck this bullshit. I have done my time, and I have done my bit. Time for others to step up. If they do they do, and if they don’t they fucking don’t. It will not matter one little bit to me, and my kids have had a leg-up enough that I believe they will get through what comes one way or another.

Fuck it. I am gonna have me some fine likker and enjoy myself.

And this warped world can kiss my red ass.

yahsure
yahsure

OK,Just cut the survival help off. And wait for the riots. I thought Ebola was going to help with the excess populations in the cesspools-city’s. Maybe Furgeson will touch off mass violence. I’m still waitingf for a computer nerd to take over an armed drone.Maybe fire on a crowd of protesters and we would get a change of government real soon.

Hollow man
Hollow man

So the excellent schools and colleges are producing assets sucking parasites. Wonderful.

Chicago999444
Chicago999444

Ilpoh’s post is dead on.

b b

Well I made some foolish mistakes when I was younger. I will be probably still be working right up to the time I die.I have made peace with my future. I still hate paying taxes. That’s the biggest bitch of all.

llpoh
llpoh

bb – I am sure I am not alone in saying that I am stunned, simply stunned, to find out you made mistakes when you were young.

That is not unusual. The key is to reverse track before it is too late.

I was an absolute hellion until my late 20s. That said, I always took care of business and had a long-term plan. I never let my youthful stupidity derail me from the track I was on. I got my degrees, and laid a solid foundation of experience during my twenties. My predilection for wine, women and song always came after those things were taken care of. How I survived burning the candle at both ends is a wonder of the world.

It is ok to make mistakes. But a young person has to have a plan, and stick to it. The mistakes will happen, but they need to be kept separate from the responsible portion of your life.

overthecliff

Yep! only the 4th Turning will force a reset. Time will tell what form that will take. If it comes to it take some of the bastards with you. See you all at the bottom of the cliff.

TJF
TJF

llpoh, will you have internet connectivity in your Galt Gulch? When it all goes to shit, but before things go dark, it would be nice to read how nice it is at your place.

Same goes to HSF and any others that have a bug out plan in place with a place to go to ground.

TE
TE

“…16. 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….”

See what happens when we decide to regulate and offshore our small businesses?

People lose jobs and incomes.

Sad that everything coming out of town hall’s, state buildings and WDC continues to pile on and force more business to leave.

I so envy your Galt’s Gulch Llpoh. I can only wish that my spouse saw things the same way. I used to pray for it, but after 10 years I’ve realized that my prayer will not be answered. Not sure why, as if that matters, but there it is.

@bb, the best humans are not those that never made mistakes, nor dug their own holes. The best humans are those that did both but made the CONSCIENCE decision to fix it.

I’ve always told my employees that. Though I would prefer 100% quality, 100% of the time, the reality is it cannot happen. So, if you want to stay on my good side, I will never ding you for making a mistake. However, if you double down on it, or cover it up, or try to blame others, THEN I’ll show you the door.

Mistakes are human. Overcoming them is divine.

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