1/3 of all Incomes are Gov't Paid

[durangout]

Very interesting article stating that 1/3 of all incomes in the US are funded by the various gov't welfare progrms. 1/3, that is an interesting number. Where have I heard that before? That's the number of spirits that followed satan giving up their free agency for a garanteed salvation. Is that not exactly what those on welfare roles (in general, I realize there are exceptions) are doing?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41969508" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages
Published: Tuesday, 8 Mar 2011 | 3:59 PM ET Text Size By: John Melloy
Executive Producer, Fast Money


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Government payouts—including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance—make up more than a third of total wages and salaries of the U.S. population, a record figure that will only increase if action isn’t taken before the majority of Baby Boomers enter retirement.



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.

Last month, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a $61 billion federal spending cut, but Senate Democratic leaders and the White House made it clear that had no chance of becoming law. Short-term resolutions passed have averted a government shutdown that could have occurred this month, as Vice President Biden leads negotiations with Republican leaders on some sort of long-term compromise.

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“You’ve got to cut back government spending and the Republicans will run on this platform leading up to next year’s election,” said Joe Terranova, Chief Market Strategist for Virtus Investment Partners and a “Fast Money” trader.



Terranova noted some sort of opt out for social security or even raising the retirement age.

But the country may not be ready for these tough choices, even though economists like Schnapp say something will have to be done to avoid a significant economic crisis.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last week showed that less than a quarter of Americans supported making cuts to Social Security or Medicare in order to reign in the mounting budget deficit.

Those poll numbers may be skewed by a demographic shift the likes of which the nation has never seen. Only this year has the first round of baby boomers begun collecting Medicare benefits—and here comes 78 million more.

Social welfare benefits have increased by $514 billion over the last two years, according to TrimTabs figures, in part because of measures implemented to fight the financial crisis. Government spending normally takes on a larger part of the spending pie during economic calamities but how can the country change this make-up with the root of the crisis (housing) still on shaky ground, benchmark interest rates already cut to zero, and a demographic shift that calls for an increase in subsidies?

At the very least, we can take solace in the fact that we’re not quite at the state welfare levels of Europe. In the U.K., social welfare benefits make up 44 percent of wages and salaries, according to TrimTabs’ Schnapp.

“No matter how bad the situation is in the US, we stand far better on these issues (debt, demographics, entrepreneurship) than other countries,” said Steve Cortes of Veracruz Research. “On a relative basis, America remains the world leader and, as such, will also remain the world's reserve currency.”

[Col. Flagg]

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why other nations continue to loan us money and why and how the dollar remains the world's reserve currency when this country is all about consumption, borrowing and spending, all while we drown in over $100 TRILLION in debts and unfunded liabilities, while we continue to bail-out Wall Street and the big banks with tens of TRILLIONS, while our debt ceiling continues to be increased year after year and all while the almighty, omnipotent 'Fed' prints TRILLIONS out of thin air in stimulus packages, bail-outs and welfare for the banks?????? =)) Just what do you have to do to get the world to turn their backs on your fiat, phony, funny money and bankrupt nation? )

[Jason]

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why other nations continue to loan us money and why and how the dollar remains the world's reserve currency when this country is all about consumption, borrowing and spending, all while we drown in over $100 TRILLION in debts and unfunded liabilities, while we continue to bail-out Wall Street and the big banks with tens of TRILLIONS, while our debt ceiling continues to be increased year after year and all while the almighty, omnipotent 'Fed' prints TRILLIONS out of thin air in stimulus packages, bail-outs and welfare for the banks?????? =)) Just what do you have to do to get the world to turn their backs on your fiat, phony, funny money and bankrupt nation? )

Other nations???? ....OR other central banks????

[durangout]

I guess 'cause the rest of the world is worse off than we are and the minute the "shell game" stops the entire world falls into collapse?

[Rincon]

Removed

[Jason]

I guess 'cause the rest of the world is worse off than we are and the minute the "shell game" stops the entire world falls into collapse?

....hyper-deflationary collapse!

[durangout]

According to Wikipedia, (for what it's worth), out of 131 nations we are in position 36 for public debt. 35 countries are worse off than us. It's a world debt epidemic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... ublic_debt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This link shows per capita debt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... ernal_debt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


If 1/3 of the people receive a living from government it skews the elections, because most people vote for the party which puts money in their pockets. So approximately 1/3 of the votes are already dedicated to the liberal party before the election process even begins.

There is no doubt about it.

[Teancum-Old]

So if 1/3 of the all incomes are paid as handouts by the government, and another large percentage of people are employed by the government to hold cozy, do-nothing jobs, and still another percentage is wheeling and dealing for large government subsidies/bailouts for their own businesses.... Combining all that, what total percentage of the entire economy is supported by the government?????

No wonder we are in so much debt. Probably 90% of incomes are made on the back of the other 10% and pulled out of thin air by the Fed/Treasury. Sad indeed.

[Rensai]

So if 1/3 of the all incomes are paid as handouts by the government, and another large percentage of people are employed by the government to hold cozy, do-nothing jobs, and still another percentage is wheeling and dealing for large government subsidies/bailouts for their own businesses.... Combining all that, what total percentage of the entire economy is supported by the government?????

No wonder we are in so much debt. Probably 90% of incomes are made on the back of the other 10% and pulled out of thin air by the Fed/Treasury. Sad indeed.

Your in the right ball park. I've read that nearly half of all paychecks now come from the government either directly, or indirectly through contractors, etc. If that's even close, add that to the 35% on welfare and you're at 85% of all incomes! That is why a fix is impossible. Even if someone in government had the backbone to stand up and propose the massive cuts we'd need to correct this, the people would revolt. There is nothing that can be done to fix this mess now. Let the bread and circuses continue as long as they can, but the end of this mess is clearly coming soon and any talk of recovery is ludicrous. There's nothing to recover when most everyone is eating government cheese one way or the other.

[Jason]

So if 1/3 of the all incomes are paid as handouts by the government, and another large percentage of people are employed by the government to hold cozy, do-nothing jobs, and still another percentage is wheeling and dealing for large government subsidies/bailouts for their own businesses.... Combining all that, what total percentage of the entire economy is supported by the government?????

No wonder we are in so much debt. Probably 90% of incomes are made on the back of the other 10% and pulled out of thin air by the Fed/Treasury. Sad indeed.

Your in the right ball park. I've read that nearly half of all paychecks now come from the government either directly, or indirectly through contractors, etc. If that's even close, add that to the 35% on welfare and you're at 85% of all incomes! That is why a fix is impossible. Even if someone in government had the backbone to stand up and propose the massive cuts we'd need to correct this, the people would revolt. There is nothing that can be done to fix this mess now. Let the bread and circuses continue as long as they can, but the end of this mess is clearly coming soon and any talk of recovery is ludicrous. There's nothing to recover when most everyone is eating government cheese one way or the other.

Amen! We've outsourced our production and survived on debt for the past decade plus....and now the chickens are coming home to roost!

Watch the opening battle live here -
http://www.livestream.com/theuptake" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....got to add a little more adrenaline to the politicking with 30,000 people chanting in the background...

Capitol Chaos: Lawmakers Get Death Threats

MADISON - The State Department of Justice confirms that it is investigating several death threats against a number of lawmakers in response to the legislature's move to strip employees of many collective bargaining rights.

Among the threats the Justice Department is investigationg is one that was emailed to Republican Senators Wednesday night. Newsradio 620 WTMJ has obtained that email.

The following is the unedited email:

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we've had enough. We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it's going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it's a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn't leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so "high" on Koch and have decided that you are now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won't tell you all of them because that's just no fun. Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it's necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families and themselves then We Will "get rid of" (in which I mean kill) you. Please understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel that it's worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!

http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/117732923.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

85%....how does that line go again about democracy....something along the lines of two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner!

[Rincon]

Removed

[durangout]

He must have an incredible sense of humor.

[1984Orwellherenow]

Dudes, exports and imports have both increased substantially over the last 10, 20, 30, etc. periods. Yeah, we buy too much stuff from overseas. So why does everyone think a reversal is going to be a terrible event? Also, we produce so much more today than we did yesterday.

I think it's beautiful to see the all the blessings the Lord has poured upon this nation, and I'm so thankful for everything I have!