Then you aren't grasping the modern era.
No one in the oilpatch is deciding to drill or frack a new well based on whether or not the U.S. is in a federal budget Sequester or not.
No, you’re not grasping the modern era.
“In 1960, U.S. government transfers to individuals totaled about $24 billion in current dollars, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. By 2010 that total was almost 100 times as large. Even after adjusting for inflation and population growth, entitlement transfers to individuals have grown 727% over the past half-century, rising at an average rate of about 4% a year.”
In 1960, the US population was 180 million people. With 24 billion dollars in government transfers, this means that the average person received 133 dollars a year. About the price of a dryer for every man woman and child in America.
Today, that amount would be the equivalent of 1000 dollars then, or in today’s dollars, the equivalent would be 7,869 dollars.
That’s not just per household. That’s per person.
That’s the equivalent of 38 weeks of work at minimum wage working 30 hours a week.
America has a serious entitlement problem, when benefits allocated per person approach part-time wages for an entire year. It works out to about 50 percent of fulltime minimum wages.