Posted on 02/21/2012 4:32:12 PM PST by Kaslin
The government is at full throttle to present the economy as improving especially in light of the upcoming election. At the same time, there has been a stunning rise in dependency as most recently presented by the Heritage Foundation.
Heritage defines dependency as significantly depending on the government for help in two of the following basic expense items: housing, food, shelter, income security or higher education.
At the end of 2007, Heritage conservatively estimates there were 59.4 million Americans significantly dependent on the government.
By the end of 2010, this number had risen to 67.3 million, an increase of nearly 8 million. It is likely that another two or three million were added in 2011, for a net increase of 10 million to 11 million over the past four years.
It is not a coincidence that the number of people participating in the labor force has comparably declined over the same period.
At the end of 2007, participation in the labor force was 66% of the available working age population, with a labor force of 146.2 million.
By the end of 2011, it was 64%, with a decrease of 5.4 million workers to 140.8 million. The official number of unemployed people rose from 7.7 million at the end of 2007 to 13.1 million at the end of 2011, without any accounting for those who were "too discouraged to look for work."
Nevertheless, as the government has included fewer and fewer people in the category of searching for work, the official unemployment rate continues to fall because both the numerator and the denominator used to make that calculation are losing equal amounts.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
because it’s addictive?
Free money is a very powerful drug.
It’s a fools paradise as America prints money for the govt to give away to its citizens (and illegals too).
I really believe without the borrowed money, 2009/10/11 would have looked as bad or worse than 1929/30/31.
The other problem is these transfer payments artificially inflate demand for goods and services making them more expensive for the rest of us.
That, or perhaps the economy is really not growing as it is being claimed?
Congress have been deep into the Hopium for some decades now.
“Unemployment benefits are creating jobs faster than practically any other program......
“It injects demand into the economy,” Pelosi said, arguing that when families have money to spend it keeps the economy churning. “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.”
See, that’s why... /hugesarc
ML/NJ
Using twisted liberal logic, more people on the government dole, the better the economy!
Why? They need to sell papers, too.
Tax revenues are down which means earnings are too. The “jobs” suck. The economy is worse. The debt makes growth slow.
Pelosi said welfare checks boost the economy. That’s how they figure it.
They want more people on welfare because that’s more money boosting the economy.
“Why Is Dependency Growing?”
Because the brilliant, really really smart, absolutely intelligent, omniscient, genetically superior Progressives are in charge.
/S/
“Why Is Dependency Growing?”
Because the brilliant, really really smart, absolutely intelligent, omniscient, genetically superior Progressives are in charge.
/S/
The economy isn’t improving. I created a Biflationary Index for my new book to see where the economy really is by nulling out the Ministry of Disinformation numbers back to 1948. When you factor in a number of dimensions from participation rate, to real interest rates, to gold as an inflation proxy better than CPI, taxes, etc. You get a chart that is absolutely hideous. We have not turned the corner either. http://www.futurnamics.com/biflation.php
According to the MSM, the alphabet soup networks and the cable liberals propaganda channels, it's NOT growing, and the amounts spent to deal with total dependency does not keep increasing relentlessly.
We know two things. The income threshold to qualify for total dependency keeps rising. And total welfare recipients now take in more than many working full time.
But the propaganda marches on.
On the History Channel2 two or three days ago, on The Presidents, from 2005, President Johnson's Great Society was praised as a huge success; it included the following : the war on poverty immediately reduced the poverty rate by 50%!
UNTIL THE SPENDERS REDEFINED 'POVERTY' and it's been rising out of sight ever since.
Isn't that great?
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