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Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41969508 ^

Posted on 03/08/2011 1:51:02 PM PST by kcvl

Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.

Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year, up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960, according to TrimTabs Investment Research using Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

“The U.S. economy has become alarmingly dependent on government stimulus,” said Madeline Schnapp, director of Macroeconomic Research at TrimTabs, in a note to clients. “Consumption supported by wages and salaries is a much stronger foundation for economic growth than consumption based on social welfare benefits.”

The economist gives the country two stark choices. In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, “either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion,” she said.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: debt; entitlements; npftl; spending; welfare
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1 posted on 03/08/2011 1:51:05 PM PST by kcvl
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To: kcvl

I think a lot of the “recovery” is fake.

I’m trying to find stats on how much Social Security tax is being collected (by month).

I think this would be a good indicator of how many folks are working and at what wage.

A lot of the factors in the headline “unemployment” rate are manipulated.


2 posted on 03/08/2011 1:53:58 PM PST by nascarnation
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To: kcvl

That is the goal you know. Once it’s up over 50% the socialists will have won.


3 posted on 03/08/2011 1:54:10 PM PST by refermech
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To: refermech

You are correct, when the retired/sick/nonworking exceed the producers, it’s bonne nuit.


4 posted on 03/08/2011 1:57:34 PM PST by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: kcvl
This explains all those shoppers at Walmart on the days their welfare checks come in.
5 posted on 03/08/2011 1:57:44 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ("If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." -- Barry Soetoro, June 11, 2008)
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To: kcvl

I want my cheese, too.


6 posted on 03/08/2011 1:58:52 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: kcvl
Let's see if I have this right?

People pay into SS and Medicare nearly all their adult lives, the Congress steals the fund and it then becomes a "Handout"!

Oh, yeah, I get it now!

7 posted on 03/08/2011 1:59:55 PM PST by FixitGuy (By their fruits shall ye know them!)
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To: nascarnation

I just keep moving my money out of the country.

Until the Regime is removed.


8 posted on 03/08/2011 2:00:13 PM PST by Uncle Miltie ("And did you exchange a walk on part in a war, for a lead role in a cage?")
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To: kcvl
Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare

I'm offended.

When I was selling I had my taxes confiscated and in 1997 the Feds took over $350,000 of my cash.

I've run the numbers and if I were permitted to take my own money back from the feds in a lump sum, they would have had to pay me $ 3,300,000 instead they keep my money and I get about $ 2 grand a month.

Not counting lost interest, I'd only have to live until I am 210 years old and then I'd break even.

So when I see this shit, equating me {and many just like me} to ghetto dwelling welfare gummint hoes, my dago blood boils.

If I could get this author in my grasp, I'd be either in jail, the hospital or the morgue.

9 posted on 03/08/2011 2:11:25 PM PST by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages, in honor of Standing Wolf.)
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To: USS Alaska
When I was selling I had my taxes confiscated and in 1997 the Feds took over $350,000 of my cash. I've run the numbers and if I were permitted to take my own money back from the feds in a lump sum, they would have had to pay me $ 3,300,000 instead they keep my money and I get about $ 2 grand a month

But isn't that the point of the article, to show how dependent the system makes us on government payouts, especially those, who if left alone, could have done without the government disbursements. Yes, if they hadn't taken so much of your money in the first place, then you wouldn't need the SS payouts-that's what should make your blood boil.

10 posted on 03/08/2011 2:15:21 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: wac3rd
And fait accompli... Not sure on the spelling??
11 posted on 03/08/2011 2:15:27 PM PST by refermech
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To: refermech

What Does Government Do? The single biggest job the Federal Government undertakes today

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2677480/posts

What’s the biggest single job the federal government undertakes?

National defense? Nope.

Homeland security? Wrong.

Transportation? Not even close.

Law enforcement? No way.

Education? Getting colder.

Foreign aid? Are you kidding?

Nope, the biggest single thing the federal government does these days is ... cut checks.

Lots and lots and lots and lots of checks that go to individual citizens — $2.3 trillion worth last year alone.


12 posted on 03/08/2011 2:18:20 PM PST by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: FixitGuy

The point is once there are enough people taking government money they will just vote themselves a raise whenever the need it. Kind of like now.


13 posted on 03/08/2011 2:18:51 PM PST by refermech
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To: kcvl

35% of all income - what an shocking, amazing figure.

If you had asked me, I would have guessed 10+%.


14 posted on 03/08/2011 2:22:16 PM PST by PGR88 (I'm so open-minded my brains fell out)
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To: USS Alaska
I must admit, I'm with you, Toots. To now be equated with those who have never contributed one blessed thing to society, who have always been the “victims” makes me want to slap somebody senseless. I am far from aggressive, wouldn't hurt a fly, but I guess the Scots/Irish in me (little though there be) makes me want to box somebody’s ears and wash their mouth out with lye soap.

And, yes, I get it that we should be mad at having had our money extorted, but the fact of the matter is we had no choice and now they are making us ashamed to have been duped out of what would have been our retirement funds. I hope the younger generation gets a break, but it appears they will be extorted as we were.

15 posted on 03/08/2011 2:27:23 PM PST by Constitutions Grandchild
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To: kcvl

Gotta love CNBC for telling it like it is—”HANDOUTS” make up a third of US wages. Not sanitized terms like “transfer payments.” “Handouts”, as in someone sitting on their lazy ass with their hand out looking for money from someone else.

Seriously though—this shows how much the Welfare State has rotted most Americans’ self-sufficiency and why we are having such a hard time taking necessary, common sense steps in Wisconsin. The average American is addicted to the heroin of government handouts.


16 posted on 03/08/2011 2:36:33 PM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("The time will come when Winter will ask you what you were doing all Summer" -- Henry Clay)
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To: kcvl

And almost half the country does not pay ANY federal income taxes.


17 posted on 03/08/2011 2:39:31 PM PST by SonofReagan
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To: kcvl

And I see people still hold on to the notion that they are simply getting back what they paid in and so this really isn’t a handout. Sorry but that ship sailed long ago. You were paying taxes for 20, 30, 40 years that went to pay some one else’s handout. Now you are asking the younger generation to pay you a hand out. No one paid into any special account and you aren’t getting back anything. Its simply your turn at the public teet.


18 posted on 03/08/2011 2:40:02 PM PST by Opinionated Blowhard ("The time will come when Winter will ask you what you were doing all Summer" -- Henry Clay)
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To: kcvl
No PITY FOR THE LAZY!!!
19 posted on 03/08/2011 2:43:40 PM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: refermech

Refermech is right. This Cloward-Piven strategy isn’t just gonna implement itself folks! Apply for your “God-given Right” to someone elses labor, ... TODAY!


20 posted on 03/08/2011 2:45:02 PM PST by PENANCE
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