The ratio of government handouts to wages and salaries in the United States is now at an all-time high. According to TrimTabs Investment Research, government handouts have reached a level that is equivalent to 35 percent of all wages and salaries in the United States. Considering the fact that this figure was only 21 percent back in the year 2000 and only 10 percent back in 1960 that is very frightening. The sad truth is that today the American people are more dependent on direct government payments than they ever have been before. What this does is that it takes formerly independent Americans and transforms them into “sheeple” and pets of the government. Today we have tens of millions of Americans that eagerly await the crumbs that the federal government tosses them each month. This is one reason why our national debt is exploding, but our politicians like this system because it enables them to buy votes. Meanwhile, the federal government and the international corporations that dominate our economy have rigged the game so that power and money are becoming increasingly centralized in their hands. As a result of the system that the “big boys” have developed, millions of small businesses across the country are being absolutely crushed, the standard of living of the middle class is gradually being destroyed and more American families slip into poverty ever single day. What we need to do is to dramatically reduce the power of both the federal government and the big corporations so that small businesses and individuals can thrive once again, but instead “activists” such as Michael Moore are out there demanding even more taxes and even more government handouts.
Not that a “safety net” is a bad thing. We simply are not going to allow tens of millions of Americans to starve out in our streets. However, it has gotten to the point where the majority of American families are now dependent on the U.S. government in one form or another and that is very, very wrong.
More government handouts are never a long-term solution to anything. Handouts do not give people dignity. Handouts do not teach people to be independent. Handouts do not enable people to live the “American Dream”. Handouts are not the path to prosperity.
What the American people need are jobs and an environment where small businesses can thrive. But instead, the federal government has allowed the big global corporations to ship millions of our jobs out of the country and the federal government continues to burden our small businesses with an endless array of new taxes and regulations.
Who is successful in America today?
It is the big boys. Everyone else is being crushed.
This is what the founding fathers tried to warn us about. They did not want the federal government to have much power at all, and they were deeply suspicious of large corporations.
But we have turned our backs on the principles of the founding fathers.
We should be figuring out how to get back to the America that our founding fathers originally tried to create, but instead all of the attention is being given to “activists” such as Michael Moore who are calling for even more taxes and even more government handouts. The following video is of Michael Moore giving a speech to protesters in Madison, Wisconsin on March 5th, 2011. His speech was entitled “America Is Not Broke”….
Yes, the “little guy” is being absolutely crushed in America today. But for people like Michael Moore the solution is always to tax the middle class more and to pass out even more government handouts.
That isn’t going to solve anything. Most of the ultra-wealthy have turned avoiding taxes into an art form. A third of all the wealth in the world is now held in “offshore banks“. Many of our largest corporations don’t pay a dime in federal taxes even as they pass out multi-million dollar bonuses to their executives.
Raising taxes in most definitely not the answer. Those that have mastered the art of avoiding taxes will continue to do so no matter how high you raise them.
The truth is that we need to shut down the IRS and scrap the current tax system entirely. It simply does not work.
What we need to do is to get the federal government and the big corporations under control and transfer the power back to the American people.
That is what our founding fathers intended. They intended for the common man to be empowered to start businesses, create wealth and pursue happiness.
But instead tens of millions of Americans have become addicted to government handouts. When large numbers of people give up and willingly become wards of the government that is not good for society.
Unfortunately, more Americans today are dependent on the U.S. government than ever before. Just consider the following statistics….
-According to TrimTabs Investment Research, social welfare benefits in the United States have risen by $514 billion over the past two years alone.
-As 2007 began, only about 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but today over 44 million Americans are now on food stamps.
-Over 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid.
-Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 American is on Medicaid.
-53 million Americans received $703 billion in Social Security benefits in 2010.
-Right now the U.S. government is either writing or guaranteeing well over 90 percent of all mortgages in the United States.
-It is being projected that extended unemployment benefits will cost the federal government $34 billion over the next two years.
-30 U.S. states have borrowed a total of $41.5 billion from the federal government just so that they could continue paying out unemployment benefits during the recession.
-Entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare now account for 58% of all U.S. government spending.
But what else should we expect? The federal government has been using a sledgehammer to endlessly pound away on the capacity of small businesses and individuals to create wealth and jobs and opportunities. The business atmosphere in the United States is now so toxic that it is amazing that any small businesses have survived.
Most Americans find themselves with no other way to make a living other than to work for someone else. But the big global corporations have discovered that they can make much larger profits by getting rid of American workers and by shipping our jobs overseas and our politicians are allowing them to get away with it.
The truth is that both political parties don’t have the answers. Neither party seems to have any clue about how to stop millions of jobs from leaving the United States and neither party seems to have any clue about how to create a business environment inside the United States where individuals and small businesses can actually thrive.
How much longer will it be before we all finally admit that we are experiencing total system failure in this country? Should we all just quit trying and sit on our couches waiting for the next government handout? The truth is that there aren’t nearly enough jobs for all Americans anyway.
The middle class is dying and the establishment has us all fighting with each other. The left and the right are busy fighting about taxes and budget cuts while the ultra-wealthy continue to enjoy massive profits and incredibly low taxes in the globalized economic system that we have allowed our politicians to create.
Yes, there are tens of millions of Americans that are deeply suffering right now and they need to be helped.
But government handouts are never a long-term solution to anything. What we need to do is to massively reduce the power of the federal government, massively reduce the power of the big corporations and stop businesses and jobs from being shipped out of the country. We also need to create an environment in the United States that is very favorable to small businesses. That would give our country a chance to start creating good jobs again.
But instead, we continue to allow our politicians to destroy our economy. We actually have 10 percent fewer middle class jobs in this country than we did just ten years ago. The middle class is being systematically destroyed. All of the wealth and all of the power are slowly being transferred into the hands of big government and the big corporations.
The vast majority of the rest of us are being transformed from strong, independent, prosperous Americans into dehumanized sheeple that can’t wait for the next government check to come in.
Does anyone out there actually believe that this is what our founding fathers originally intended?
400!!! 400 people own as much wealth as the bottom 150 million. People like you won't be happy till we are all sleeping in cardboard which you will probably start taking mortgages on as soon as you figure out people have to have some shelter. We are now a member of the oppressed that we so fiercely defend in light of the demand for democracy. FDR said this:
“A government that cannot care for its old and sick, that cannot provide work for the strong, that feeds its youth into the hopper of industry, and that lets the black shadow of insecurity rest on every home, is not a government that could or should endure. Any business unable to make a fair return except by child labor, long hours, dog’s wages, lying and cheating, is not a business that this country wants or needs”…….FDR
It's as true today as it was then and people are either too young to remember or too stupid to think that he is the man that pulled us out of the great depression and set the rules in place to regulate so it would never happen again. PS, You're a jerk.
Get over yourself. This country is broke. It won’t be able to take care of it’s old and sick for much longer plus it’s not the govt’s job to provide work. The govt should get out of the way and let business create the jobs. That’s how capitalism works. The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money. That’s what America has turned into, s Socialist State and it’s bankrupt. Out of control money printing has devalued our dollar and will eventually destroy our way of life. Don’t count on the gov’t to take care of you. They will be too busy taking care of themselves and blaming everything and everyone else for our problems. They are the problem! I agree with you on SS and unemployment though. They aren’t entitlements, Washington has raided the SS fund and left IOU’s. We the taxpayer, will be left holding the pile of debt while the rich and politicians wash their hands of all of this. This is what you get when you depend on govt to take care of anything. There isn’t one govt agency that’s not out of control with spending and they won’t stop until we take our country back. So stop playing the blame game and learn how to take care of yourself. This wasn’t created by only Democrats or Republicans. They both share the guilt for what has happened to America. Politicians of both parties sold their souls to special interest groups and screwed the people they were supposed to represent. God help us!
SS, medicare and unemployment are not government handouts. I paid into these programs my entire working life. The only welfare going on in this country is Corporate welfare. SS Cola has been frozen for 3 yrs and Obama promised to freeze federal wages for another 5 yrs. Probably exempts both houses. People have lost their jobs, and everything they ever had, including their rights we worked so hard to earn. I realize too many Americans have drunk the GOP poison kool aid. Few middle class families or poor or elderly have survived this great corporate takeover, but to have someone like you rub our faces in it, there should be a law… oh, that's right, laws are for everybody but the GOP, then it's few take all.
dear friend
I agree with many points you mentioned in the article.
solution is very limited, though it seems very radical and stunning :
(1)Tax rates must be reduced to " zero level "if possible, minimal flat rate. it must be "equalized " for every economic factors of productions (capital,enterpreneurs, labour, and earth/soil).. other discussions are irreleveant have no meaningful results.
(2) Political parties (even powerful ngo's) are indeed companies firms, but never pay taxes though they make, non-risky, very profitable businesess.:)Their status must be turned into "merchandisin company "..considering their "company formation costs" "legalized budget spendings(revenues?) .
Duing any tranistion process some "compensation" payments may be necesarry for the poorest layers of the society, because of ongoing syphoning of decades (legalized budget spendings by periodical political leadership) The system is very problematic in many places of the world.
Best regards
I was interested in learning about the methodology of how the study was conductedd, so I followed the link to TrimTabs. It led me not to TrimTabs, but to a CNBC page called "Fast Money". I did a search on TrimTabs and found their site, but I did not see any link to the report cited in this blog. Their specialty seems to be studies of market liquidity.
I question the source cited, I have no idea of the methodology used, and I have not previously heard Medicare included in the category "wages and salaries".
When you start with a premise that is at best suspect, the case you build on that premise is suspect. A bit of logic and rational thinking would be most welcome.
You missed the whole point of Moore's speech. He never advocated higher taxes and never said "the solution is always to tax the middle class more and to pass out even more government handouts." He just wants to take the country back from the people who got bailed out by us and then bought a majority of the representatives so they wouldn't have to pay their fair share of taxes. You have much more in common with Michael Moore than you realize.
I don't understand the concern. The American government isn't providing any service that other governments
aren't providing. It's just that they seem to have more trouble than other governments and pay more than
most others to do so. Look outside America for ideas. The rest of the world has ideas many of which are
better than those now used in the U.S.
Did the anonymous writer of this article even watch the Michael Moore video? I did. This "activist" said nothing about taxing the middle class as the writer claims he did. I am neither a follower nor an opposer of Michael Moore; however, most of what he said about the state of this country is absolutely correct, and even in agreement with some points in this article, and some very good points were made here. On some important points, though, this article is very misleading and biased — and I agree with Dona Gould, who posted that Social Security, Medicare and Unemployment are not handouts, and to classify them as such is inflammatory. We paid for those programs and the government needs to honor its obligations in a responsible manner. Yes, the country needs to be returned to what the founding fathers wisely intended — and not continue to be the best government money can buy for those who can buy it.
I support your assertion 100%. Yhis bull___ is more rightwing nut blather at worst; or, simple non undertanding at best. Either way it's worthless.
How much is the government subsidizing industry. Payments to farms, oil , defense also are government handouts. No one seems to want to talk about cutting these back.
Who is the author of this article? Although I don't disagree with much that he or she is saying I don't usually lend much credibility to unsigned publications.
Great point!
The Economic Collapse Blog
You're not including the wages of gov't employees in that 35%. If you did, it would be well over 50%. The US has become a dictatorship of the bureaucrats and politicians. And we-the-people are the ones responsible.
sorry about that – it's there now