From The Economic Collapse Blog
The following are 20 signs that the culture of government dependence has gotten completely and totally out of control....
#1 If you can believe it, 48.5% of all Americans now live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was less than 30 percent.
#2 Way too many Americans believe that the government should just swoop in and solve all of their problems. For example, the plight of a single mother named Angel Adams made national headlines recently. Over the years her relationships with three different men have produced 15 children, and she was recently found living in a single motel room with 12 of those children.
As you can see in the video below, Adams is looking for the government to come in and rescue her. The following is what Adams told one reporter....
“Somebody needs to pay for all my children and my – for all my suffering. Somebody needs to be held accountable, and they need to pay.”
#3 The amount of money paid out to individual citizens by the government today is absolutely staggering. In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income.
#4 According to a recent ABC News report, suicides in rural America are spiking, and experts say that cuts to Medicaid are partly to blame....
“Kathie Garrett, co-chairman of the Idaho Council on Suicide Prevention, says the problem has gotten only worse since the recession. "The poor economy and unemployment—those put a lot of stress on people's lives," she explains. To save money, people skip doctor visits and cut back on taking prescribed medications. Cuts in Medicaid have reduced the services available to the mentally ill.
"I personally know people who lost Medicaid who've attempted suicide," says Garrett.
#5 By the end of 2011, approximately 55 million Americans will receive a total of 727 billion dollars in Social Security benefits. In future years, this dollar figure is projected to absolutely skyrocket.
#6 When you total it all up, American households are now receiving more money from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.
#7 It is being projected that the federal government will account for more than 50 percent of all health care spending in 2012.
#8 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today,one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
#9 According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security systempaid out more in benefits than it received in payroll taxes in 2010. That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.
#10 The federal government is expected to "take care" of their workers far better than the private sector does. If you can believe it, the average federal employee in the Washington D.C. area brings in total compensation worth more than $126,000 a year.
#11 Last year, federal employees "earned" approximately 447 billion dollarsin total compensation.
#12 Spending by the federal government accounts for approximately one thirdof the GDP of the entire Washington D.C. region.
#13 The federal government spent more than 50 billion dollars on "housing assistance" in 2009.
#14 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run outfive years faster than they were projecting just last year.
#15 The total cost of just three federal government programs - the Department of Defense, Social Security and Medicare - exceeded the total amount of taxes brought in during fiscal 2010 by 10 billion dollars.
#16 Right now, there are more than 45 million Americans on food stamps. That means that approximately one out of every seven Americans is dependent on the federal government for food.
#17 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.
#18 Sadly, one out of every four American children is now on food stamps.
#19 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.
#20 According to one study, "64.3 million Americans depended on the government (read: their fellow citizens) for their daily housing, food, and health care" during 2009.
The following chart from Heritage Foundation shows that by 2049, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will consume 100% of taxes.
This excerpt from Professor Higgs (previously at quote of the day) has been so relevant…
As the ranks of those dependent on the welfare state continue to grow, the need for the rulers to pay attention to the ruled population diminishes. The masters know full well that the sheep will not bolt the enclosure in which the shepherds are making it possible for them to survive. Every person who becomes dependent on the state simultaneously becomes one less person who might act in some way to oppose the existing regime. Thus have modern governments gone greatly beyond the bread and circuses with which the Roman Caesars purchased the common people’s allegiance. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the only changes that occur in the makeup of the ruling elite resemble a shuffling of the occupants in the first-class cabins of a luxury liner. Never mind that this liner is the economic and moral equivalent of the Titanic and that its ultimate fate is no more propitious than was that of the “unsinkable” ship that went to the bottom a century ago.
The laws of economics will not allow for its persistence, whereas beneficiaries will revolt over any cuts.
The ultimate end of the welfare state extrapolates to chaos or dystopia.
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