Gov’t Dependents: The New Majority
The Bear on Mar 08 2010 at 9:10 am | Filed under: Culture, Politics
Welfare State: A major newspaper looks at the data and finds that Americans have become more dependent on government than at any time since the Depression. Something’s gone terribly wrong in our country.
We Americans pride ourselves on our independence. Our nation’s founding document even uses that in its title — the Declaration of Independence. But this spirit is fading with each new year, each new state and federal program, each new unkeepable promise made to a growing throng of citizens looking to government — not their own abilities, savvy, learning and hard work — to get by in life.
A Washington Times report underscores this shift. Last year, “for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes,” it has determined.
Transfer payments — unemployment, Social Security, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and other forms of government welfare — grew $231 billion last year to just over $2.1 trillion. Meanwhile, individual taxes shrank $325 billion to $2.1 trillion, slightly less (before rounding) than transfer payments.
Let that sink in for a moment: We, as a people, are taking more in welfare than we’re paying in taxes.
There are reasons for this, of course.
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