from ... with great pains being taken to 'snip' out all content that was not purely financial / economic.
(snip)"Dependence on government is at an all-time high, according to a new study by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The annual Index of Dependence on Government — which the authors score based on how much money was spent on services that were not always traditionally offered by the federal government — found that government dependency jumped 8.1 percent in 2011. Most of the assistance went toward housing, health and welfare, and retirement, according to the survey.
Since the 2008 index, the American people’s dependence on government has grown a whopping 23 percent.
One in five Americans — or slightly more than 67 million — now relies on federal assistance, at a cost of $2.5 billion annually. That’s the highest in the country’s history, the authors wrote. The index also found that Americans who depend on federal assistance receive an average of $32,748 in benefits, about $300 more than the nation’s average disposable personal income.
Overall, about 70 percent of the federal government’s budget is directed to individual assistance programs. And nearly half of the population, or 49.5 percent, don’t pay any federal income taxes, according to the survey.(snip)
(snip)William Beach, index co-author and director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, added in a statement that “at some point, this unsustainable fiscal model will collapse.”(snip)
It should be pointed out that the cite of 67 million ( 1 out of 5 ) Americans now being 'dependent' on gov't spending means that 67 million Americans do not have an 'official' source of income, thus 'officially' are 100% dependent on gov't checks / benefits. And this figure does NOT count gov't workers, whose incomes are also 100% dependent on gov't spending. The Heritage study also states that some 91 million Americans are now receiving some sort of gov't checks / benefits, but only 67 million are solely dependent on gov't checks / benefits as their only 'official' source of income.
It should also be pointed out that, according to new Heritage studies, US federal spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Extended Unemployment, Food Stamps, Housing assistance, College assistance, and other social welfare / retirement programs now consume 70% of total US federal spending. And this cite, with a few exceptions, does not include state and local gov't expenditures now also directed toward these social welfare / retirement programs.
Some 'talking heads' have also pointed out that the $32k 'equivalent cash value' of typical gov't benefits received by those with no 'official' source of income is now higher than the average after-tax income of working Americans. The not so veiled point was, of course, that it now 'pays better' not to work at all than to work at an 'average' job. Admittedly there are some 'distortions' in the $32k average number, since the 'equivalent cash value' received by any given individual benefit recipient could vary widely.
The same 'talking heads' have pointed out that the percentage of working Americans who are not actually required to pay income taxes has now risen to a record 49.5%. And that statistic does not mention that, beyond not having to pay in, some number of that 49.5% actually receive an IRS 'payout' in the form of tax 'credits' that is funded by higher earning actual income tax payers ( which is not included in the $32k average cost of gov't benefits figure ).
Full details of the new Heritage study are available at ... including some very interesting charts and graphs like this one.
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