[emersonbiggins]

...because there's no money like "free" money!
To be fair, this guy counts employment and contracting by the government, as well as SSI/Medicaid and the like as "receiving government income." Think of that what you will.



$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s US tax rates drop, government's reach grows
Study: 1 in 2 Americans now receives income from government programs.
By Mark Trumbull | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Maybe the era of big government isn't over, after all.

As Americans finish their annual tax-filing flurry to meet a Tuesday deadline, it is true that tax rates are lower than they were a few years ago. But according to a different yardstick, the federal government's reach is expanding.

Slightly over half of all Americans – 52.6 percent – now receive significant income from government programs, according to an analysis by Gary Shilling, an economist in Springfield, N.J. That's up from 49.4 percent in 2000 and far above the 28.3 percent of Americans in 1950. If the trend continues, the percentage could rise within ten years to pass 55 percent, where it stood in 1980 on the eve of President's Reagan's move to scale back the size of government.

...
more @
Christian Science Monitor article

[TommyJefferson]

Can you say "unsustainable"?

Maybe I'm the fool for not getting me a piece of that "free" pie.

[steam_cannon]

I think similarities can be drawn with this and the end of the Soviet and Roman empires...

An amusing thought, does that mean real unemployment is 50% Joking but not...

[Kingcoal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '.')..because there's no money like "free" money!
To be fair, this guy counts employment and contracting by the government, as well as SSI/Medicaid and the like as "receiving government income." Think of that what you will.

[wxman]

"Mr. Shilling's analysis found that about 1 in 5 Americans hold a government job or a job reliant on federal spending. A similar number receive Social Security or a government pension. About 19 million others get food stamps, 2 million get subsidized housing, and 5 million get education grants. For all these categories, Mr. Shilling counted dependents as well as the direct recipients of government income."

So, 2 in 5 are working or retired. And another 5 million are students. Kind of a sensationalized number, really. It isn't communism.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'T')hat's the problem, he's drawing to broad of a stroke. He might as well call anyone who recieves dollars a government employee because all dollars come from the government.

[bshirt]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '
')
Well, I wouldn't go that far, but certainly we could say that many people are employed by the bureaucratic machine, and many of those in positions of high pay, yet dubious value to society. I consider that "living on the dole," if only because a person's ineptitude and sloth has rendered them otherwise unemployable.

[Kingcoal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'T')hat's the problem, he's drawing to broad of a stroke. He might as well call anyone who recieves dollars a government employee because all dollars come from the government.

[vision-master]

I wonder if all this military spending ain't a much bigger problem?

[vision-master]

http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php ... &Itemid=61

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ongress prepares to vote on $100 billion more in war spending, this publication provides breakdowns by state and congressional district on the human and financial costs of the Iraq War. It also shows what a half trillion in Iraq War spending could buy each congressional district in local services.

[Tyler_JC]

The top 50% of American income earners pay 96% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay 70% of all income taxes.

It would not surprise me if half of the country is taking advantage of the other half.

Although I do not believe every member of that 52% is a net taker from the treasury. Or at least not a significant net receiver. Working for 40 years and taking one month of unemployment benefits hardly makes one "dependent on the government".

Interesting side note, the post office accounts for more than 1/3 of all executive branch employees.

[smallpoxgirl]

This is the same crap the Romans tried. Put the barbarians on the dole so they don't sack you. It worked. For a while. We've been doing it since FDR. Unfortunately, I think the collapse of our empire is the only thing that will bail us out of this. That will hurt. For a while.

[vision-master]

Rich getting richer & poor getting poorer.

[Commanding_Heights]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '.')..because there's no money like "free" money!
To be fair, this guy counts employment and contracting by the government, as well as SSI/Medicaid and the like as "receiving government income." Think of that what you will.

[Tyler_JC]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29tax.html?ex=1332820800&en=fb472e72466c34c8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

And the inequality has only gotten worse.

"While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.

The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent."

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'T')he top 50% of American income earners pay 96% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay 70% of all income taxes.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'T')he top 50% of American income earners pay 96% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay 70% of all income taxes.