Posted on 04/02/2010 11:30:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Over the last two years, there has been a massive increase in the number of people who have no place to turn except to the government. Enactment of the Obama administration’s health care reform legislation demonstrates the growing power of this burgeoning constituency—a constituency which will reap a disproportionate share of the $1 trillion in new health care spending over the next decade.
There are many ways to measure the expanding multitudes of those in need. From February 2008 to February 2010, the number of unemployed men and women doubled from 7.4 million to 14.9 million.
In addition to these almost 15 million unemployed, the number of people who say they want to work, but who have given up trying, grew from 4.8 million to 6.2 million over the same period. Added to these are the people working part time who cannot get regular jobs: this population grew from 4.8 million to 8.9 million. Altogether, this makes a total of 30 million Americans out of work or under-employed.
The numbers are bad enough, but there is a growing consensus among economists that the unemployment problem is likely to become structural—no longer a temporary phenomenon.
One of the most striking indicators of the potentially enduring unemployment status of many of those now out of work is the increase in the number of people who have been without jobs for six months or more. These people have the hardest time making it back into the workforce, and the growth of this population suggests that more and more people who lose a job face the danger that unemployment will become permanent.(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Oust the Democrats. Back when the GOP was in charge, people had jobs.
Read the whole article. Current voting trends and other factors favor the big government statists (including RINOs) and if nothing changes the Republic is doomed.
Oh I know. The number of net taxpayers in the USA overall has been shrinking for the longest time. I would dare say the 2008 election was the result of having a majority of people in this country either on some sort of government assistance or being exempt from income taxation.
Interest rates. It’s hard to get negative approvals when governing in a 0% interest rate environment, but Obama is below 50% already and the bad stuff hasn’t even happened yet. The government can’t hand out free goodies without cheap money.
Don't believe me?
How many people here on FR would forfeit all they've paid in the system if Obamacare, Social Security, and any other government program we criticize were ended today?
The Ubanga/Democrat base: atheists, pinky-ringed union thugs, welfare grandmothers, abortion enthusiasts, “victims”, condom-throwers, race hustlers, Boy Scout-hating lesbians, hand-wringing college professors, Hollywood drunks, parasites, losers, and all the rest of the America-hating goofballs.
Like dear old Dad always said, “Once the parasites outnumber the hosts, America is done.”
The best card we have is that central planning doesn’t work. Natural law trumps big government.
Only net taxpayers should be allowed to vote.
Darkwolf377: “How many people here on FR would forfeit all they’ve paid in the system if Obamacare, Social Security, and any other government program we criticize were ended today?”
I haven’t paid anything into Obamacare, yet. That’s easy to forfeit. As for Social Security and Medicare, I’d definitely decline to participate (even at my age) if they’d return my contributions dollar for dollar.
Conservative candidates should give serious thought to Social Security and Medicare. These are popular programs with millions of people dependent on them. Yet, they open the door to wealth redistribution. If, for example, SS is constitutional, than pretty much ANY form of wealth redistribution is constitutional.
Some people are infuriated about Obamacare’s individual mandate. Even though the individual mandate may not stand up in court, keep in mind the federal government could have easily increased taxes to whatever amount it wanted and regulated all private insurance companies out of existence. The 16th Amendment and a warped Commerce Clause are all they needed!
I think conservatives should oppose all forms of wealth redistribution, but we should also be pragmatic. In the short term, that means trying to fix SS and Medicare to be self-sustaining. In the long term, it means giving people the option to opt out with private retirement plans.
It took us 80 years to get here. It’s not going to be changed back over night.
Thirty yearts later the time is rigt and conservatives are ready.
Please don't sink into dispair. WE WILL DO IT !!!
What can be done?
Stop destroying businesses with endless tax and regulations.
Stop rewarding people who don’t work.
Stop punishing people who do work.
There’s a difference.
The mill stone of debt isn’t going to go away. Either the debt stays with us or our currency is no more.
We cannot escape it, and we are only accelerating the rate that we’re digging our grave as each day goes by.
I’d happily do it. I’ve paid in more than most. I figure it is all lost anyway. If I could stop the bleeding I’d take it and build a new future.
Unfortunately, central planning states can exist for decades. The Soviet Union survived for seven decades before collapsing. Had the Soviet Union not attempted to sustain military parity with the US it might have lasted another 20 years. Along with central planning comes an oppressive government which will rule its citizens at gunpoint.
Of course you would--ANYONE would do that if they were told "We'll hand you over a check to cover all you've put in." There's no sacrifice involved--you'd be GETTING a check.
But there isn't a chance of that--"The money's spent/committed"--and back to my point, NO ONE is going to say "If we return the system to pre-Social Security days, I'll just take the loss."
And again, THAT is why these programs will never end.
We need to eliminate/reduce our debt. Obama is doing the opposite. He is exploding our debt. We are headed for either a deeper depression (we are in a mild one now) or very high inflation — worse than the 70s. We’ll see which one wins.
The time to prevent this problem was about 20 years ago. Now it is to late for anything but taking our medicine.
A lot of people here are right wing and naturally want to blame Obama for EVERYTHING. I like this, because it reflects the thinking of the population at large and hopefully he and many Democratic Party office holders will be thrown out on their backsides.
That said, Obama did nothing to cause this economic collapse. He is worsening it terribly, but he did nothing to cause it. This was 40+ years in the making and he has NO power to fix it. He can only be or make it worse. He is making it worse.
Nothing can be done to reverse the current trends in the short term (5 years, maybe more). Good fundamental capitalism would reverse the trend in the longer term. We are racing toward all-out Socialism. You do the math. As long as a huge portion of the electorate is getting free handouts, this trend will accelerate.
I hear you, but it really ain’t a question of “will they give it up?” How can they (we) get the money when there ain’t any? That is the question. The answer is easy. We won’t.
Carter handed out free goodies but then interest rates hit 18 % and inflation hit 12 %. Do you think OBamgi would remain popular then ? Good luck with that program
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.