Posted on 09/19/2012 8:36:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
In November 2008, the Americans who turned out to vote in the presidential election outnumbered the Americans who turned out to work full-time by more than 14 million.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 118,423,000 Americans worked full-time in November 2008. According to the University of California at Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project, 132,645,504 people turned out to vote in that month's presidential election.
The presidential election voters outnumbered the full-time workers by 14,222,504.
In that election, then-Sen. Barack Obama won 69,297,997 popular votes and Sen. John McCain won 59,597,530. The 14,222,504 margin between presidential voters and full-time workers exceeded Obama's popular-vote margin of 9,700,467.
The ratio grows when you focus solely on full-time private sector workers.
On average over the course of 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic's Current Population Survey, there were approximately 120,030,000 full-time workers in the United States, and 18,528,000 of them worked for federal, state or local government. If you subtract these 18,528,000 full-time government workers from the 120,030,000 in total full-time workers, it leaves approximately 101,502,000 full-time private sector workers.
The 132,645,504 people who turned out to vote in the 2008 presidential election outnumbered the nation's 101,502,000 full-time private sector workers by 31,143,504.
It was not always this way.
In 1988, 1996 and 2000, full-time workers outnumbered voters. In 1988, there were 95,899,000 full-time workers and 91,594,693 voters. In 1992, the balance tipped the other way, with 104,405,155 voters and 97,847,000 full-time workers. In 1996, full-time workers again outnumbered full-time voters, 104,691,000 to 96,456,345. And in 2000, full-time workers outnumbered voters 114,076,000 to 105,586,274.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has published the month-by-month number of full-time workers going back to 1968. In the five presidential elections from that year through 1984, voters did outnumber full-time workers. But the American labor force had a different composition in 1968 than it did in 2008. In November 1968, 57.6 percent of the American population 16 or older worked. That was not tremendously different from the 61.4 percent who worked in November 2008.
In November 1968, however, only 41.8 percent of American women 16 or older worked. By November 2008, that had grown to 59.4 percent.
By contrast, in November 1968, 77.6 percent of American men 16 or older worked. By November 2008, that had dropped to 67.3 percent.
As of August, only 64 percent of American men were working.
What happened? Why did the percentage of American women working climb while percentage of men declined?
Liberals might point to this as a sign of societal progress, the success of women's liberation.
A better explanation may be this: Women are being driven into the American workforce -- and men are being offered a way out -- by the demise of the traditional family and the rise of paternalistic government.
In 1965, the federal government spent 17.2 percent of gross domestic product. In 2012, it will spend 24.3 percent.
In 1969, 2,878,000 Americans collected food stamps. That was about one for every 23 Americans who worked full-time. In 2011, 44,709,000 Americans collected food stamps. That was about one for every 2.5 Americans who worked full-time.
In January 1969, 1,302,608 Americans collected federal disability insurance. That was about one for every 50.5 Americans who worked full-time. In January 2012, 8,595,967 Americans collected disability. That was about one for every 13 Americans who worked full-time.
For tax year 2009, according to the IRS, 140,494,127 Americans filed tax returns but only 81,890,189 owed any income tax.
At the height of the Reagan era, a higher percentage of people who filed tax returns paid taxes and a larger actual number of Americans paid income taxes. In 1986, 103,045,170 Americans filed tax returns, and 83,967,413 of them -- or 81.5 percent of them -- paid income taxes.
The problem in America today is not that the rich don't pay their fair share in taxes. Nor is it solely that some pay no taxes at all.
The problem is that government has divided America into two camps: those who work and pay, and those who take and take.
I don’t mind those now retired who contributed during their earlier life by working. They deserve to be able to vote.
What I object to is to any who did not pay into the system or (skin in the game).
Those should not be allowed to vote.
I also think anybody that votes for Obama after these 4 miserable years should be required to take a citizenship test and, if not passed, should have citizenship removed and deported.
IMO, once you have died, your voting rights should be stripped away.
should be required to take a citizenship test and, if not passed, should have citizenship removed and deported.
or should be required to take a citizenship test and a psycoligical test for sanity then committed.
Was that in and of itself significant? Or were other characteristics of life in the early 1800s more meaningful?
Uh, crips need not apply ~ yeah, that’s gotta’ be our motto for the future ~ bet that’ll get a lot of folks voting for us (NOT)/s
John McPain seemed to be the happiest loser ever. And people in AZ must have agreed: they kept him on board.
“Income taxes” is a term of art used by the IRS. It refers to a specific type of tax on income. It is not the only federal tax on income. Almost everyone who works pays payroll taxes, which are a flat 15.3% of income. There is no exemption for low earners, only for high earners. Those who earn above about 120,000 don’t have to pay any more above that level.
Payroll taxes represent 40% of all taxes collected by the federal government. These taxes are not sequestered-—they pay for all the expenses of government, just like income taxes. So it is not fair to say that people who don’t pay “income taxes” are not paying a fair share of the nation’s tax burden.
Bookmark
Do any of the other forms of taxes offer an earned income credit? Deductions for dropping kids like puppies? Does any lawyer advertise on TV to offer relief from Payroll tax debt?
News flash. People who work pay all the taxes you cited and income taxes on top of that. People who don't work don't pay payroll taxes and get earned income credit for existing.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Representation without Taxation is as bad of a problem as Taxation without Representation. When non taxpayers interests are represented on an equal footing with taxpayers, it is the taxpayers representation which has been damaged and diluted.
When voters figure out they can vote in politicians who will give them more free stuff, then it is beginning of end of the republic.
One needs no ID or proof of citizenship to receive Obamacare, but if you have proof you are a US citizen, the IRS will hunt you down and make sure you buy inflated health insurance to pay for the indigent and non-citizens.
EITC
The Earned Income Tax Credit gives back most if not all, and then some, of any FICA or payroll tax.
IN THEORY, those “taxes” are more like forced savings - Social Security, medicaid, etc. The fact that Congress steals them and pisses them away doesn’t change that.
And a lot of those people who pay these “payroll taxes” get them back, and MORE in the “Earned Income Tax Credit.”
I wonder how many of those voters were dead at the time.
So, I propose a simple plan. If you contribute more than you take back, you get to vote. If you get more from the government than what you contribute, you don't get to vote.
I’ve said this before, and my opinion hasn’t changed.
If you get food stamps or assistance from the government in any way yopu should lose your right to vote until off it.
Period.
If the election commission are honest they will take persons of the registration list that have passed away
Slight amendment: 12.4% of the payroll tax stops at the ceiling for FICA, which is $110,100 this year. However, the rate is actually 8.4% this year, due to the temporary reduction in FICA taxes.
The remaining 3.9% is for Medicare, which has no upper limit, at least on wage income.
Neither tax is imposed on unearned income like interest, dividends, and capital gains.
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