111 Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have a Job and America Spends More Than a Trillion Dollars per Year on a Social Safety Net for Them

Liberty Daily ^ | Jul. 5, 2026 | Michael Snyder

[Pete Dovgan]

Did you know that the number of Americans that are out of work right now is far higher than it was at any point during the Great Recession? I know that sounds crazy, but I will prove it to you in this article. A whopping 111 million Americans do not have a job, and we are spending more than a trillion dollars a year on the social safety net that supports them. Of course we cannot afford to do this, because the national debt has already reached 39 trillion dollars and it is growing at an astounding rate. If we do not fix our economy, disaster is inevitable..........

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS:

[Pete Dovgan]

We already have socialism wherein 111 million Americans live off of 150 million that work. We don't have enough Americans 'pulling the wagon', and way to many riding it. The welfare costs at least 1 trillion a year, plus the 1 Trillion a year in interest, and then another 1 trillion a year for illegals. That's now close to HALF of the Federal Budget.

States need to become responsible for 'Welfare', it's a State's 10th Amendment responsibility. The Federal government has to get out of the NGO and welfare business.

[Salman]

Using the safety net as a hammock.

[TheThirdRuffian]

The figures seem to include homemakers.

That needs to be backed out of the numbers.

[BuchananBrigadeTrumpFan]

From your math, it appears that we’re past the point of being able to vote our way out of it. (And the judges won’t let anyone deprive them of their “right” to their welfare benefits.) So ...

[Opinionated Blowhard]

In the sweet old country where I come from

Nobody ever works, nothing ever gets done

We hang fire

We got nothing to eat, we go nowhere to work

Nothing to drink. We just lost our shirt

I'm on the dole, we ain't for hire

Say what the hell? Say what the hell?

and Hang fire . . . .

Back when the Rolling Stones took a turn to the Right, they put out Hang Fire. They were singing about lazy, Socialist England of the late 1970s but it applies to the US now.

[Kudsman]

Somewhere along the line we lost the “you don’t work, you don’t eat” ethos. I wonder who started that trend?

[ealgeone]

This needs to be broken down by age groups and households.

An example....my daughter, who is married, doesn't have a job. But her husband does.

Yet she's counted as unemployed.

I myself am retired so I fit in the 111 million "out of work".

Really need some better metrics on this.

[Carry_Okie]

Capital replaces labor.

[Dilbert San Diego]

That occurred to me too, that the 111 million includes retired people. It’s a big distortion of statistics to talk about retired people in the same category as actual unemployed people or people who are on public assistance and don’t work.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

It’s simple: we keep importing foreigners who work more cheaply.

If you want jobs available for these 111 million Americans, then the people who aren’t Americans need to leave. Simple as.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The situation is hopeless and a lot of people are going to have a very RUDE awakening when the SHTF. Many are so clueless about a household budget, and couple THAT with so many being LAZY and so many so used to being given everything FOR FREE.

When the SHTF I’m expecting riots in the cities and when they’ve destroyed all of that, I see the mongrels heading out to the countryside to harass those of us who have always paid their way through confiscatory TAXES.

TAXATION IS THEFT! INFLATION IS THEFT! Don’t kid yourselves; Mother Government is in the BUSINESS of THEFT and wealth redistribution.

It’s not going to end well. It never has ended well for any other country that’s gone broke.

[SoCal Pubbie]

In late 2009, more than 15 million people were unemployed. Somebody’s numbers don’t add up.

[volare737]

Uhhh….we have about 30 million more people (at least the ones we know about) than we did back then…

[ripnbang]

You see where this is going, right?

[TheThirdRuffian]

Yeah in typical Liberty Daily fashion, they are playing with the math to push an agenda. I happen to agree with the agenda and point here but it’s unnecessary dishonest reporting (again, typical of LD).

The numbers include:

Stay at home moms (and dads, fwiw)
People proving health care to family members
Retired people who have saved up plenty

A real analysis would be working age people, excluding the above categories (at least).

It would still be a depressing number, but not sensational enough for LD.

My only surprise in the article is the LD didn’t find a way to complain about Jews causing the problem, which is its usual go-to.

[MinorityRepublican]

Yes but how many of them are Baby Boomers. We’ve had a low birth rate since the ‘70s so because we want to have Social Security so we should be at 450 million today.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Oops, I read that as 11 million! So I goofed, but 111 are not “unemployed.” That’s one third of the population. Those 111 million must include retirees, children, those in prison, etc.

[ripnbang]

Technically, I’m unemployed though I have a retirement/pension...and I’m not eligible for SS, yet. So these numbers are way off track.

[MinorityRepublican]

It’s a big distortion of statistics to talk about retired people in the same category as actual unemployed people or people who are on public assistance and don’t work.

Not really. No. They collect Social Security and we are paying for it through taxes.

[ripnbang]

But when they are dishonest with the numbers, the main point, a valid one, gets lost in the noise.