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 ...
Which is the biggest part of the problem. If you don't contribute, you have no interest in the efficiency or effectiveness of the system.
If you want to reduce poverty, tax it; don't incentivize it.
(Sarah Palin is free to use my new word, incentivize, free of risk of copyright infringement.)
The ol ‘socialism for me, not for thee’ style ‘consevative’ thinking there..
Sure they get their medical and living expenses covered by the government for a long time.. But hey, they ‘paid’ for it right? Hahahah.
Age 49 and working (and having tax money stolen) since I was 16 and somehow I have never received a penny of government handout money. What a fool I must be.
I was talking to a lady at work about what I see at Walmart every time I go there (pay cash by the way). She just couldn't believe that most of the big-filled grocery carts were for EBTers.....
On the way home, I again ended up in line there by a young skinny female in pajama top and bottoms (at least they looked like it but were expensive because of the "pink" this or that logos) in her slippers with her momma in tow taking care of the older meal-ticket, and what appeared to be the young baby daddy. He obviously couldn't afford a belt; his pants were drooping - he had on fleece lined slippers. He also looked like he'd just jumped up from the Xbox while on the couch and rode with honey and momma and the two kids to Wally's.. TWO CARTS FULL, momma got her slim fast (12 cans), plenty of junk food, etc. BD (baby-daddy) had darlin go one aisle over to get the right color lighter....
Neither one had a ring - why you can't get the benefits if you are married, of course! Neither one obviously works (or worked - they were too damn young for that)....it was just heart breaking because they are socializing this concept to their children (one baby new, and one a year or so old) and making it acceptable to them. The government has done its level-best to make sure there is no stigma attached to selfish laziness like this.
This isn't a race thing; they were white as most of them are up here in the North Georgia mountains. It is a prevalent national sickness and it has destroyed us and we will not recover from this. It is just a matter of time. The time when people like me say bullshit and stop working and paying taxes and join their lazy asses in line for whatever we can get that somebody else has to pay for.
Was talking to a guy the other day who told me his sister has been on extended unemployment benefits for two years, and has collected over $55,000 during that time. Says most jobs she could find would not pay her enough to walk away from that. I am sure it is by Obama’s design.
The only hand out I ever got was in the chow line in the mess hall...that snaggle-tooth ‘cook’ {I use this term very loosely} slopped some yellow stuff down on my partitioned metal tray....he called them eggs. (I thought that is kinda related - I thought they were something the chicken shat out after peckin up a bunch of soured corn.....)
Not everyone of SS/Medicare have paid into it, here in lies the problem.
Bullshit and you are definitely and opinionated blowhard.
The government took my money for over 40 years, over three million dollars worth and I'm getting about 2 grand a month and you say it's my turn at the teat.
If we were together right now in the same space, the amount of oxygen being consumed would be reduced.
The younger generation is not giving me a handout, you blowhard on this you nitwit.
The feds confiscated my money, and now you asshole, accuse me of being a teat sucker.
You need to hope, we never meet.
[I hope the younger generation gets a break, but it appears they will be extorted as we were.]
It’s gonna be far, far worse for us. Gen X and Y are going to enjoy a lower standard of living than the baby boomer generation, pay far more in taxes than your generation, and get no Social Security or Medicare. We’ll probably be advised by gov’t end of life counselors to get a life ending shot when we stop producing for the collective.
He will then become the next Moahmar Gadhafi (BTW - I just love the name and the context with which he can be referred to. There are just so many variations, ANYTHING you type is arguably correct - ha ha).
I think the total amount they contribute equals maybe 6 checks, when SS was instituted life expectancy was lower than the retirement age, now you have people collecting for decades.
Wow.
Social Security is a retirement benefit, NOT a handout.
This whole idea that people “paid in” for their Social Security—that way too many people on FR buy into—really gets my goat. Any one of us could say that about any taxes we paid. Many of us—especially industrious, productive people who presumably post here—pay a fortune in taxes. I don’t like it but it is what it is. I never expect to “get back” what I pay in taxes. I view it as money down the rat hole. I make no distinction between general taxes and “Social Security” taxes. I am conservative enough to realize that a special “Social Security” tax is simply a government lie to get you to pay more taxes. There is absolutely no difference between your Social Security tax and your other income taxes. They aren’t put into a special account or in a vault. They are spent on general government spending. The Social Security taxes that you paid in the 70s went to pay for Gerald Ford’s and Jimmy Carter’s budgets. The Social Security taxes you paid in the 80s and 90s went to pay for Ronald Reagan’s, George Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s budgets. Include Social Security payments to people who are now dead. Now its your turn (or at some point will be your turn) at the public teet. The one difference is that now the Ponzi Scheme is crumbling and you hate that idea. Just like a Maddoff investor, you are realizing that you paid into a scam and want your money back. But just like a Maddoff investor, you aren’t going to get it no matter how much you scream and rage about it. I know this—I know I will be screwed but someone has to take the hit and stop the massive scam that is the Welfare State and Social Security. That is what being responsible is—not keeping the scam going so it crushes our kids. Its us taking the hit.
One of the major contributors to this welfare state has been . . . . . . well, welfare. How many unwed women are paid increasing amounts of welfare money for every child they download? We, the taxpayers, pay for EVERYTHING for these women and their kids.
It’s past time to draw a line in the sand. Unwed mom with one kid, no problem. If she wants more kids, she doesn’t get the taxpayers to pay for them, they come out of HER pocket. We could go a long way toward ending the entitlement mentality by stopping the increased welfare payments everytime an unwed, unemployed woman downloads another kid to increase their welfare check. Let’s end this now!
EXCELLENT POINT!
I don't have "dago blood in me", but you are spot-on.
It's not those that had their wages/earnings confiscated to fund the "forced retirement savings" of Social Security that's driving it broke....it's the robbing of the funds for OTHER handouts, leaving IOU's, and paying to those who've NEVER paid in (illegals, SSDI-phoneys, etc.).
Same with the Medicare Fraud that's paid out.....and they blame the retiree's for it all?
This country needs a do-over.
"....Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance..."
None of these are welfare. Social Security, in particular, is a retirement benefit.
What you must do is stand up for yourselves and not be quietly led to the slaughter. Don't let them give you Medicare, you deserve better. You deserve to have a say in what happens to you. You have been raised with an acceptable education (after all they can't say you don't have a degree). They can't marginalize you at every turn. Pull out of the system, kiddo. Stay out as much as you can. I never thought I'd hear myself tell anyone to do this, but fly under the radar as much as you can and don't ever let anyone tell you you don't know what you're doing. I believe in the strength of each and every one of us. Take a look at Cajun country down south — they didn't have to be rescued. They rescued themselves. Women today can learn to do anything (it isn't exactly glamorous) but by damn, when your left standing in only the diamonds you have on, ;-) you'll learn to pick yourself up, and God help anyone who stands in your way. You'll learn to use every tool in the toolbox AND do it better, all while keeping your makeup in place when it needs to be. I love men, but I don't ever have to take a back seat to one or anyone else.
Egads, you sound like one of those Hollyweird socialist pukes who thinks they should be the ones who get to decide to keep their money and who shouldn’t. Fact of the matter is, it’s not up to you, pal, to say whether someone “deserves” benefits from a fund they paid into (and were forced to do so), no matter how many resources they have now amassed. FR is slipping.
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