Do you think Government Dependency is a problem? - Granite Grok

Do you think Government Dependency is a problem?

Welfare-WagonFrom End of the American Dream comes this question:

“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?”

It goes on to talk about the safety net vs what I call the Govt hammock with the soft cocooning that eventually either convinces one to just lay there – or traps them there.  Yes, I have used the former (as I have said many times before) – a hand up.  And I have known those that have answered that question above with a resounding “YES!”  The carrot is dangled out there, by the policies of the Left, who believe that government kindness is only kindness offered by their mindset (without ever saying thank you for those that actually fund them) – it is only one’s sense of morality that says “thanks for the hand up – no longer needed” or (in the cases I have seen) “you owe me more – I want more”.

So EofAD lists some of the reasons why Americans are falling into that dependency disaster that the Government offers (reformatted, much left at the above link, emphasis mine):

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.

The Left doth protest too much when they say “YOU are cold-hearted and selfish!” but again, the only thing that is important to the Left is that they think they’ve done good (again, via someone else’s money and detriment), their intentions are good – but being accountable for those results are immaterial.

Today, the American people collectively receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes…And what does this say about our society?  At one time, our nation was known for our Protestant 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…

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.

And remember, there is NO lockbox with money in it.  Starting with LBJ (if I remember right), permission was “given” for departments to “borrow” from the trust fund with IOUs.

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

That would be senior citizens, those on SSDI themselves directly or children receiving it due to a passed parent.

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.

But we keep being told that the economy is GREAT by the Obama Administration – under his ministrations, our economy has been healed!

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 percentof all immigrants that have been in the United States for at least 20 years are still on welfare.

And Obama has now made it clear that the amount of redistribution is WAY to little – YOU will be made to care and nothing says “caring” like making you pay for them (while having less to pay for your own families).

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.

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

And what will happen when people realize that is an impossibility?

Please feel free to share your thoughts on all of this by posting a comment below…

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