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Government Dependents Outnumber Those With Private Sector Jobs In 11 U.S. States
Government Dependents Outnumber Those With Private Sector Jobs In 11 U.S. States
Courtesy of Michael of Economic Collapse
America is rapidly becoming a nation of takers. An increasing number of Americans expect the government to take care of them from the cradle to the grave, and they expect the government to dig into the pockets of others in order to pay for it all.
This philosophy can be very seductive, but what happens when the number of takers eventually outnumbers the number of producers? In 11 different U.S. states, the number of government dependents exceeds the number of private sector workers.
This list of states includes some of the biggest states in the country: California, New York, Illinois, Ohio, Maine, Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, New Mexico and Hawaii. It is interesting to note that seven of those states were won by Barack Obama on election night. In California, there are 139 "takers" for every 100 private sector workers. That is crazy! The American people have become absolutely addicted to government money, and it gets worse with each passing year. If you can believe it, entitlements accounted for 62 percent of all federal spending in fiscal year 2012. It would be one thing if we could afford all of this spending, but unfortunately we simply cannot. We are drowning in debt, and we are stealing more than a hundred million more dollars from future generations with each passing hour. No bank robber in history can match that kind of theft.
Yes, we will always need a safety net. There are many people out there that simply cannot take care of themselves. We certainly don't want to see anyone sleeping in the streets or starving to death.
But if the number of people jumping on to the safety net continues to grow at the current pace, the net will break and it will not be available for any of us.
For example, the number of Americans on food stamps grew from about 17 million in 2000 to more than 47 million today. It nearly tripled in just 12 years.
What will happen if it nearly triples again over the next 12 years?
The federal government even has a website (benefits.gov) that guides people through the process of figuring out what welfare programs they can take advantage of.
Overall, the federal government runs nearly 80 different "means-tested welfare programs" and more than 100 million Americans are already enrolled in at least one of those programs.
Yes, I realize that figure is very hard to believe. I had a hard time believing it when I first came across it.
And it is even more shocking when you realize that the figure of 100 million Americans does not even include those who only receive Social Security or Medicare.
Today, there are 56.76 million Americans on Social Security.
To support all of those Americans on Social Security, there are only about 94.75 million full-time private sector workers.
So there are just 1.67 full-time private sector workers to support each American that is on Social Security.
Medicare is also growing like crazy. As I wrote about the other day, the number of Americans on Medicare is expected to grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.
How much farther can we push things before the entire system collapses?
In order to support this exploding entitlement system, we need a lot more Americans to be working good paying jobs.
Unfortunately, millions of good paying jobs continue to be shipped overseas and they aren't coming back.
We are even losing good jobs to our own prisoners. The United States has the largest prison population in the world by far, and the exploitation of that low wage labor pool has become a boom industry in America. Even Microsoft and Boeing are using prison labor now. Just check out this video.
Meanwhile, there are millions upon millions of law-abiding Americans that cannot find jobs and that cannot take care of their families.
So poverty and dependence on the government are absolutely exploding. We have a system that is so messed up that it is hard to even put it into words. The middle class is being viciously shredded, and most Americans just continue to applaud the politicians from both parties that are doing this to us.
Our economy is being gutted at the same time that the welfare state is experiencing unprecedented growth. Instead of giving us real answers, our "leaders" just continue to borrow, spend and print more money. We are about to hit the debt limit again, and the Obama administration is saying that we should just do away with the debt limit permanently.
Most of our politicians don't seem to understand that they are systematically destroying our economy and the bright futures that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.
But there are some politicians out there that get it. Unfortunately, many of them live in other countries. For example, Canadian MP Pierre Poilievre seems to have a firm grasp on what debt is doing to the United States. The following are some excerpts from one of his speeches...
"By 2020, the US Government will be spending more annually on debt interest than the total combined military budgets of China, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey, and Israel."
"Through government spending the indulgence of one is the burden of another; through government borrowing, the excess of one generation becomes the yoke of the next; through international bailouts, one nation's extravagance becomes another nation's debt."
"Everyone takes, nobody makes, work doesn't pay, indulgence doesn't cost, money is free, and money is worthless."
You can see his entire speech right here.
And if we continue down this path it is most definitely true that our money will eventually become worthless at some point. Just today I was down at the grocery store, and a can of chili that I was able to get on sale for 75 cents a couple of years ago now has a "sale price" of $1.69. If the Federal Reserve keeps recklessly printing dollars, eventually we will be fortunate to get a can of chili for 10 bucks. Things cost too much already, and the Fed seems absolutely determined to cut the legs out from under the U.S. dollar.
Unfortunately, printing money is the only way that we are going to be able to service the gigantic amounts of debt that we are accumulating.
According to Chris Cox and Bill Archer, two men who served on Bill Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, there is no way in the world that we could raise taxes high enough to pay for all of the obligations that we are currently taking on. They say that even if we taxed all corporations and all individuals at a 100% tax rate on all income over $66,193, "it wouldn't be nearly enough to fund the over $8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities."
Are you starting to get an idea of how much trouble we are in?
We don't have enough money to pay for all of this.
We are broke.
Our current economy is a debt-induced illusion, and we will soon be waking up to a tremendous amount of pain.
Are you ready?
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How about linking the level of welfare funding the the inverse of the proportion of working-age citizens that are directly employed/full time in the US? Then link the amount of guest workers directly with the same proportion (with a minimum based on the highest level in the last decade) before any increases can take effect.
Not only would incentives work to seek out people to do profitable work - it would be on terms that, for a change, would favor the person seeking work or holding a job.
i thought you were going to talk about JOBS. there isn't anyone in CA who has a nickel in their pocket they didn't earn working for the government. (that includes all those FB people who wouldn't have a thing if the washington wall street connection hadn't plugged them into that rather dubious IPO) now corrections officers are eligible for PTSD claims. the CA public employees union was second only to Goldman in campaign contributions, during obama1. (Goldman got to frontrun their investment portfolio -(boy were they mad when they found out, but they didn't do anything...)
Yesss my preciousssss... Pppppprogressivism at its finest hour. Lets throw a few more rich guys on the fire. Geniuses like bamy (the community organizing token in chief) and chewy must be thrilled.
Sometimes in their lives makers are takers and vice versa. Right now the economy is wrecked so many makers have been converted to takers. Who wrecked the economy? The takers? The makers? Who?
Who wrecked the Economy?
The Government. Most in govt haven't a clue where money comes from (many of them think THEY make it by owning or having Ben own the printing press).
Large corporations come with gifts in hand to buy legislation for tax exemptions - that's how you get GE paying 0% taxes on $11 or $12Billion made OVERSEAS - jobs went offshore, taxes never paid - but congressmen and senators have their campaign war chests overflowing from the likes of GE. And BTW, when these congresscritters retire or lose an election, they get to keep their war chests. And your $5 or $500 contribution to any of them counts for shit - they will always vote for the wishes of their masters who contribute 10's of thousands of $$.
Several weeks ago it was reported that Apple paid 2% (??) on its' income earned overseas - a week ago or so it was reported that Google had the same kind of 'problem'
WHO can pay for the EMPIRE when all these taxes are offshored?
If you're busy repairing bicycles, take a look in the mirror.
re takers and makers - Sure, some move between having jobs and having no jobs at no fault of their own, but the govt would prefer more takers for easy vote buying via ObamaPhones etc. Once they have the votes, they can vote more power (ie ObamaCare) for themselves.
Does this wreck the economy? Of course! Do they (the govt) care? Obviously not - they care about their power, their money, not whether the "people" are doing better.
Pessimistic versus Optimistic????? Realistic is whats needed.
Can this trend be reversed? History indicates otherwise.
Plan accordingly, that's all.
Further for Bicycle Repairman.......
Let's say you're a bang-up repairman and have some marketing skills, and from 1 repair shop you grow to 4 shops in your town, fair enough.
But now you go to your city councilman and have him legistlate that no more than 4 bicycle repair shop city licenses can be issued and you contribute to his bid for mayor. You build on that and have a nationwide chain of repair shops with no competition (Crony Capitalism).
But you say "shit, I'm having to pay all these wages, pay for healthcare for my employees, this is costing me MY PROFITS" and you decide to ship your repair jobs to Mexico - 10's of thousands of trucks hauling your bikes across the borders every day.
And because you've made the big bucks, you don't waste your policitcal contributions on local coucilmen, you buy and own key congressmen and senators that have legislated that bicycle repairs made outside the US are tax free. The congressmen and senators don't care that they'll have to pick the pocket of some other schmoe that didn't contribute to their campaigns, they only care that you do, in a much bigger way. But for you, $5mil in total contributions is peanuts compared to the 100's of millions you're not paying in taxes.
Meanwhile, senator A and congressman B are providing Free bicycles to their constituents, who vote for them every season, and taxpayer X, Y & Z never complain because it was sold as a program to provide equality to the poor non-bicycle-owning children in the country.
And now we have so many programs like the free bicycle program, the country is broke but the 'bought voters' are happy with their free shit.The workers are dulled by normally bias and NASCAR/NFL/beer and couldn't care less about a fiscal cliff if they even know about it.
Liberty and Freedom, bought and sold by willing participants all; the Producers, the Predators, and the Parasites.
If you have to ask, you really shouldn't be here.
Duh, rhetorical question.
"Our current economy is a debt-induced illusion..."
On a brighter note: so is everybody else's.
Two posts in a row without a stock-pumping or gold-bashing article from some dingle-douche academic. A little late but hey, it's ok because somebody important thinks you're the shit.
I like this questions on the gubbermint benefits site:
2 Choose the option that best describes where you live:Private residence Nursing home (cost paid by Medicaid) Jail or correctional facility Other facility
I'd have to answer 'Other Facility.' This place is an insane asylum. The neighbors don't know the half of it.
LOL....2 paragraphs in and i can not read any longer it's just too funny and comical...and full of all the catch phrases that try and incite shock and awe about what i've been saying was gonna happen for 20 fucking years now.
LOL.
this IS corporate rule my friends.....but go ahead and blame the poor among us.
hey guys??? WTF? this was the fucking plan, no? who can tell me with a straight face that this is a shock to anyone? THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALL THE JOBS ARE SHIPPIED TO CHINA.
this is by design NOT chance, it's not rocket science.
Pretending no longer works bitchezzz. It's over. Bend over Amerika the Lords wants you as their bitchezzz.
No need to bend over. They're slick enough to do it in your sleep. And dog knows most of us are already asleep anyway.
So that explains the dreams I've been having...
It's over.
It's not over yet. People still use dollars, still save them, and dollars are no better than Euros, pounds, yen...
It's all about maintaining confidence in the system, the currency...keeping borrowers paying back and new ones borrowing.
Once confidence goes, maybe we can start correcting things...
Once confidence goes, which is pretty much has, we will see the slow unwind of the financial system, which is based on confidence.
The pendulum has swung from confident citizens to confidence artists.
Used to be that in America family and charities helped those who needed help.
"Yes, we will always need a safety net. There are many people out there that simply cannot take care of themselves. We certainly don't want to see anyone sleeping in the streets or starving to death"
Now it is a given that big brother is responsible. FxxK that, lets get back to the old days.
The old days, like during Charles Dickens?
Maybe some debt prisons?
A few more Oliver Twists roaming the street?
Yeah, the good ol' days.
Maybe a huge rise in bank robberies like during the Great Depression. That's entrepreneurial spirit at it's best!
Dickens wrote fiction based on the worst side of humanity. Apparently things sucked in Jolly Olde Victorian England, nonetheless.
I was raised in a place so small that you had to drive 10 miles to the traffic light. And it was only a 3 way flasher. Back then and there, the adults used to take it upon themselves to help the neighbors when their circumstances wore a little thin. We knew each other and were willing to more or less trust that we wouldn't be taken advantage of any more than we were willing to be taken advantage of.
Churches spent some of their $$ helping the community and their congregations, rather than giving it to stop abortions and gay marriage for example. More churches are working for Caesar than Jesus these days, or so it seems to this non-believer.
There were private charities funded by local people who owned businesses in the community. The family that owned the factory, the family that owned the mine, the guy who owned the dress shop, etc. Those people don't own those things anymore, the Internationale has taken them all over and closed most of them.
THAT is the local wealth that I was speaking of. We can't afford to help those who are worse off than us when we're all worse off.
FYI, debt prison is back in several of the Untied Snakes. It happens when somebody falls seriously in arrears in their credit arrangement. The banksters file suit in county court. It's their job to tell the lucky somebody that there's a court date and somebody had better be there. If somebody doesn't show up in court, a contempt of court summons goes out and the lucky somebody gets thrown in jail at the next traffic stop or driver's license renewal.
Often, the bankster's agent certifies that they have notified somebody of their court date, even though they never actually went to the expense of sending the registered letter or having a goon deliver it in person. And since you can't believe somebody when they say they never got a notification, they do the jail time instead. After all, a notary public signed the statement of service, and they would never falsify a document.
Of course, this could never happen in America.
Washington, Minnesota, Pennsylvania; maybe. But not in America.
BTW, Dickens reportedly delighted in making his readers feel miserable. That's how he knew he was doing his job well.
American families and charities had enough slack to help the needy back in the day when we all had jobs. Then globalization took the manufacturing jobs away. What's worse, the malls and box stores killed the Mom and Pop stores that funded a huge portion of those charities.
We have sown myopic finanacial seeds and are now slowly going blind.
Don't worry, my friend.When Uncle Scam dies of a stroke, nature will be in balance again.
Regretably my sun tzu friend, Uncle Sam will not go without taking everything and everyone down with him.
Not only SS food stamps, etc.
What about all those working for government contractors and subcontractors?
All those whose economic livelihood depends on the spending of government employees?
All those in, supplying or selling to, the MILITARY are government employees.
What about businesses that exist ONLY because of some government rule? Driving schools? Insurance? Home inspections? etc.
Much more than just 11 states.
This is not even a real economy at all: it's a POTEMKIN ECONOMY - hollow in the middle.
Myself and my brother owned a share of a business with a friend of his. The gentleman left to strike out on his own, to pursue those "fat, profitable government contracts" that brother and I had refused to chase. Within three years, he was flat broke, begging to be allowed to come back as a lowly foreman. He was a nice guy, and knowledgeable in the trade, but I refused him. Not out of malice, but because I could never be sure if he would do it again, taking more of our people with him. When you take on government contracts, THEY BECOME YOUR PARTNER. They tell you who you can, and can't hire, want to see your books, etc. It was never worth it to me. Dealing with them is a pain in the ass too, as one can imagine.
I once had a small government supply contract. It took them 120 days to pay.
So about a year later, the same department guy needed to clean out his budget before yearend and sent me a P.O. for some stuff. I told him to come down with a cashiers check or cash. The guy says, "but we're the government".
I grinned and told him that was why I wanted cash.
40% of some walmart store sales are to welfare recipients....you think they want to change anything? think again my friends.
without welfare many grocery and retail stores would BK within 6 months.
As would the tumors wearing bank nametags.
Fraud street would collapse, perhaps the greatest thing that could happen this era
Without welfare, many grocery and retail stores would be looted and burned within 6 days.
But that only works once as the Rodnet King rioters found to their chagrin. "We's so mad we going to burn down our business and house"
Quite ironic, eh?
Yo.
One reason I avoid WalMart like the plague...never a lack of really really classy peeps.Yo.
One of the most dangerous places in any city is the local Walmart parking lot. Don't believe me? Research it yourself.
found the last 30 20rd boxes of 7.62x39(.25 cents a round) for sale in US there an hour ago-place isn't all bad
Tyler, can you tell me if our President get this type of info from his economic advisors? Do the politicians get this stuff? (are any of them smart enought to understand it?). If so then someone tell me how they get away with ignoring the truth...are Americans that stupid?
He's too smart to attend his briefings, remember? He'll only attend if there's a photo op. We are so lucky to have such a brilliant leader at the pinnacle of power.
What would you suggest we do with politicians who were all duly elected into their offices? 49% of America is not only not stupid but getting more and more fed up with the untenable situation these lying bastards have gotten us into, especially this latest lying bastard at the very top.
ZH is a great place to learn things that are levels deeper than commonly found or known. The MSM not only doesn't cover economics & finance competently, they shill for the administration.
I hope to live long enough to see we the people take forceful extrajudicial action to rectify these egregious excesses.
long pitchforks
Yes :(
Restructure our broken economy so that there are decent jobs out there that a person can live on and you might see the number of "takers" radically decline. Most people prefer to work. They just have the quaint notion that you should be able to live a moderately decent life from the wages you earn.
But once the choices are reduced down to getting treated like a dog while slaving for minimum wage or taking the government dole, then they will take the dole.
Our economy is being "restructured". Unfortunately.
How do you propose to force companies to pay their employees more? Protectionism? Coercion? Government violence?
I have an easy solution that I've been pushing for awhile now. This is how you force companies to pay more:
Institute a law forcing mandatory PROFIT SHARING. 50% of any profits by the company go equally to all workers.
Reward the people doing the work and not the people with the money and power.
It requires no taxes, no "redistribution", just pay workers (that includes all workers globally) that help to make the profits. Not just fat ass rich people sitting on their yacht collecting dividend checks.
But alas, our idiotic country seems to think it's a god-given right for a billionaire to leverage the poor labor markets for their own gain. After all, that's "the market".
Grow up.
You are very ignorant. Are you so stupid to think that those profits all go to the CEOs? Ever heard of dividends? Allot of money must go back into R&D, or the company will lose any competitive advantage. If the company is private, then the owners are taking all of the risk of running a business. All the workers have to do, is show up and do their jobs. All companies, regardless of being public or private have a slew of costs that you are obviously unaware of. Doing business in the USA is very expensive, margins are tight. What you suggested IS REDISTRIBUTION. You are a pinko and don't even realize it.
Uh, I said PROFITS, not REVENUE.
If a company is unprofitable or marginally profitable....they share nothing with the workers but the wages.
Why should capital have such leverage?
Why should workers toil while capital just sits back and does nothing but takes profits?
Is it socialism? REALLY?
No it's just changing the rules of our capitalism.
Are you suggesting someone that WORKS for those profits does not deserve a share of those profits?
If a company is making excessive profits they are either A) not paying workers fairly or B) charging too much.
Socialism takes from others that are unrelated to a business. This scheme pays workers that are directly responsible for the profits.
I laugh because we are a Casino society. Everyone thinks it's all fair to make tons of money without working for it.
Talk about takers, no one is a bigger TAKER than someone that makes money on money. Talk about redistribution of wealth.
But I understand who is on ZH, it's all casino investors that think having money affords you the right to leverage those without money.
Hey, Battery, "Needs to be", Charged!
He is talking about profits and not revenue.
Forward!
My socialist friend
I disagree. People want dope. That's all. And a job where they can make enough to buy their herb and get the NFL network on cable without breaking a sweat. "Working like a dog"? Many jobs go unfilled around here becuase they are a bit hard and require the worker to PISS CLEAN. Which is a huge handicap, apparently.
I know no one that has lost their job during the great recession that pisses clean and works hard. I know several that are glorified bums, and have had a hard time making ends meet and every week is a struggle. But at least they have their ganja and can wake n' bake daily.
Excuses are lies.