No, it doesn't include government workers. If we included them, then it would be far higher. There are about 100M people who currently receive food stamps and other food aid from the US government. There are 63M who receive SS benefits. So there are some 160M receiving some kind of government payment. Most of these folks are not working and paying taxes. There are about 160M people who are working according to the BLS, although the majority of new jobs created under Obama have been part time workers. So if you do the math, that's about 50%. Even if I'm off by 5-10%, that's still a huge number of people who receive cash from the government and don't pay anything back in.
Put aside for the moment whether or not you believe in helping people. I most certainly do and I have nothing against welfare. But let's be practical for a second. How do we pay for all this and is it sustainable? Can 50% of the population be expected to carry their own families and the families of others who aren't working? Is it right for the 1 worker who has a job to have to figure out how to provide for his own family, his own retirement, and take care of his elderly parents, while also having to pick up the tab for another family he doesn't even know? How long can he sustain that before it breaks him?
I know the solutions. We need to stop all the wars, stop supporting every other country, stop subsidizing oil and gas companies, stop coming up with giant new blood sucking gestapo organization like Homeland Security, stop printing money like it's going out of style, and stop pretending that deficits don't matter. In short, we need to grow up and be responsible. Nothing in life is free. Once we acknowledge that, we can figure out how to prioritize the dwindling assets this country has left and funnel it to the industrious people and the downtrodden, instead of to the already wealthy parasites on Wall Street, the oil and gas companies, and the military industrial complex. |
