Re: I have studied the tables, and it is not that much. I could believe 0.9% reduction from 4.0%.
Look at table 6 on page 20. Definition 4 excludes transfer payments (Social Security, Veteran's Benefits, Educational Assistance, Railroad Retirement, Medicare, Welfare, etc.) and leaves 20% of households with 0.9% of the income. The top 20% get 55.6% of the income - about 60 times as much on a per household basis.
It's probably giving too much to able bodied adults who, in the words of Homer Simpson, "Don't feel like going to work in the morning". But our society would fall apart if the children in these households weren't fed, clothed, and educated - there would literally be riots in the streets.
No system is perfect, but I think our balance of "here you are" welfare and "get a job or starve" has been better than that of most societies. In recent years, we've been moving away from that balance, and I think it's starting to damage the economy. |
