The Social Security Act of 1935. 
Posted on 04/15/2007 9:23:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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.
That two-decade shrink-the-government trend now appears over, if for no other reason than demographics. The aging baby-boomer generation is poised to receive big payments from Social Security and government healthcare programs.
"New Deal programs persist," despite the Reagan revolution and its aftermath, says James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas in Austin. "They persist because they are largely successful and highly popular."
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.
Many Americans, in surveys, say they don't like the way their tax money is spent. And a majority now says, in a reversal from a year ago, that their federal income taxes are too high, according to an April Gallup poll.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
the entire government is on the tax payer dole. it is not he government’s money... it is the people’s. there.
2 late
“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.”
Is this what a decade of Republican rule in congress and six years in the White House get us?
What does Shilling consider to be a job dependant on government spending? The company I work for has a number of governmental clients (fed and state), of course we also have every single Fortune 500 company as clients. Is my job dependant on government spending? Given that that accounts for 20% of his 52% I think we need the term defined.
A valid question.
Half???? Well, there’s the dim voters.
New Deal programs persist because the sponge off of one segment of society and give to another. The spongers then vote for continued sponging.
Aging baby boomers. Will only get worse.
Yep.
worse than SS....federal, state, county and city civil service pensions........it’ll make the SS crisis seem gentle by comparison.....
He forgot to mention the farmers who get paid not to grow certain crops and teachers who work for local school districts but whose paychecks are covered with federal education money.
HOW DO WE TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK?!!
When was the last time you saw geriatrics riot ??
here come the baby boomers....hopefully most have saved a penny or two on their way towards old age and wont need government assistance. heopfully!
Yup. Though I figure if the Dems had it the % would be higher.
Choose the devil or the deep blue sea.
F.D.R. is one answer.
How many of those are NON CITIZENS (ILLEGALS!)?!
When you've realized the task is futile, read Claire Wolfe’s, 101 Things to Do ‘Til the Revolution.
Ah,let’s see now.I’m disabled,no I’m a welfare recipient,oh hell I’m a disabled,welfare recipient so just send me my damn checks huh ???
First, give it back to the Indians. Then take it away from them again.
News flash. It is bound to be up because the “Boomers” started retiring a few years ago. All the BS the media prints about the boomers will start retiring in a few more years is just that, BS.
The boomers were born from 1944-1958 and they have been retiring for the past 2-5 years. From 55 yrs on you loose alot of them to disability and many have passed 62yrs.
It will get much worse in the next 2-5 yrs.
Yep. But don't worry we'll keep pressing the Demopublican levers just like we always have.
Democrats are already talking about a 15% tax on all IRA's and 401K's ..... what's the point again?
Well, there was that South Park episode. It was weird. When we were going through a family crisis with my dad when it became it apparent that he was "a danger to himself and others" with his driving, I happened to see the "Red Dawn" based South Park episode about "seniors" taking over while I was staying in a motel during a crisis-related sojourn.
This cast "seniors" in the role of the Russians in a take-over of South Park precipitated by an attempt to revoke driving privileges. I was quite amazed to see something that came so close to my immediate concerns, and I appreciated the empathy.
Of course, it is my generation that is now on deck for the end game, and I make my plans accordingly ... don't tell anyone.
I’m in that younger group...
Same here (b. 1960)
I suspect the figure is actually a lot higher, when you count public schools and federally subsidized college student loans. People who use those things don’t like to think of them as handouts, but they’re handouts just like all the others. Most people with children in public schools aren’t paying anywhere near their district’s per-child expenditures in taxes. And for the few people who are, they’re still be sucked into the big scam of recirculating private citizens’ money with government strings attached.
If somebody who has two children in public schools is actually paying $40,000 a year in property and other taxes that end up in their school district, and the district $20,000/year per student, they may feel like it’s all perfectly fair and they’re getting their money’s worth for their taxes. But actually they are being forced to subsidize the government’s program of taking people’s money and giving it back to them, subject to all sorts of conditions that the people wouldn’t have wanted if they’d been free to spend their own money as they pleased.
...sorry for the hasty wording there. Our older Baby Boomer peers received more in wages, having benefitted from earlier domestic production then having helped to shut much of it down behind them. The age for getting Social Security checks is later for younger ones. IMO, we should all work as long as we can, though, and never give up on getting jobs or starting businesses.
true, most people aren't aware of the coming problem. I read some time back that the unfunded Federal, State and Local pension obligations are over $20 Trillion. I don't know what it will take to return the government our Founders intended.
ping
What if a percentage of what people pay into the SS system is mandated to go directly to that taxpayer’s natural parents? It would incentivize having children, raising them to be productive earners and make paying into the system more palatable. In addition more children would reduce the need for illegal alien labor. Anything at this point is better than watching everything collapse into some unrecognizable soup.
Civil War seems to be about the only remedy that is left. Not advocating one just making the observation.
If you can get your 401K out of the country ... .do it now.
Doing our best with moderate exercise every day to get/stay in shape and doing ongoing technical studies seems to help. As for wanting to hire us often, employers won’t have any good alternative choice for long.
bump for later reading
This is why New Jersey is the “canary in the coal mine” for the rest of the country. New Jersey is arguably the most corrupt state in the union, fully owned and operated by the education mafia. Everybody knows it, but everybody continues to vote for the likes of Corzine and the rest of the scum because they are either in on the corruption or they want a piece of it.
That, of course, is insanity since it completely negates the whole idea of personal retirement savings plans in the first place. Coming from the scumbag Democrats, however, it certainly is believable.
By the way, I noticed you didn't include pensions. Why would the Democrats exclude pensions from their tax-hiking scheme?
Society got more complex. The founding fathers could not have anticipated the infrastructure needed to maintain a modern country.
The Social Security Act of 1935.
Because I hadn't heard it .... give them time and I'm sure some demokrat dimbulb hellbent on sucking the life out of this country will put it forth for 'due consideration'
Actually, I guess I should have added /sarc to my post.
The scumbag Democrats will not include pensions in their tax-hiking schemes because pensions are what union members have. IRAs and 401ks are what “rich” Republicans have.
Regards,
LH
Geriatrics don’t need to riot, they vote.
Did you forget the sarcasm tags? The Founders are not the problem. The problem is bad people choose not to follow the rules. The founders over and over admonished that, in so many words, only smart good people can live by the rules they created. Which is not surprising considering they basically codified 99.9% of the world's wisdom and well, dumb bad people don't get the world's wisdom.
Point is, complex society ain't got squat to do with any of this except that it, complex society, gives dumb bad people an e.z. out to bypass the rules.
Individual Responsibility, Limited Government, Free Markets, Private Property plus the Bill of Rights and the Constitution can handle 99.9% of the present US's complexity. Unfortunately, only about 2% of us can tolerate Individual Responsibility, Limited Govt, Free Markets, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.