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Slaves to Government

By Doug Bandow on 3.9.11 @ 10:19AM

How much longer can we claim to be a republic when we are beholden to government for our livelihoods? Reports CNBC:

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.

Adding to this dependence is one of the great dangers--or opportunities, in the eyes of the Left--of ObamaCare. It is a vast new entitlement to hook middle-class Americans. Once they are receiving federal subsidies and "benefiting" from federal rules, they will have trouble imagining a world in which government does not manage their health care.

The American republic is at risk. There isn't much time.

View all comments (4) | Leave a comment

Aarradin| 3.9.11 @ 11:38AM

70% of federal spending is payments to individuals.

In dollars, it comes to just over $2 Trillion per year.

It amounts to 16% of US GDP, up from 12% just two years ago.

Think about that. We now live in a country where 1 out of every 6 dollars earned in the entire economy is confiscated by the irresistable force of the IRS for the sole purpose of giving it to someone else.

gsr| 3.9.11 @ 12:22PM

Most social programs exist in order to buy voting loyalty among the population, for politicians. It's all about central planning versus individual's running their own lives and the never ending compulsion among libs/progressives, to equalize outcomes among the population.

LarryK| 3.9.11 @ 12:32PM

I remember seeing a tombstone with the words,
"Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty free at last". Well that gentleman may be free from taxes but he still is called upon to vote democrat!

Dale Cord| 3.10.11 @ 11:43AM

The United States debt stands today March 10 2011 at 35 Trillion dollars.Believe it or not! Watch these Democrats and Republicans by 2012 run for a hiding place like a cockroach does, when the light is turned on in the minds of a "Comatose America". No amount of US dollars will be able to buy food,gas,or any of the comforts we are so dependent on in our daily lives. Obama, Soros and their cohorts will be the first to jump ship on Air force One. With the Clintons,Bushes, Reeds,Polosi's all running along side to get on board.Their destination? any nation with the same (please take care of us and tell us how we can live mentality) as the American citizens.