Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages

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.
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21 comments:

  1. First of all, social security, medicare, and unemployment come from our own wages in the first place. Second, there is no hope for recovery.We can not magically create more jobs, more growth, more wealth. It just doesn't work and we should accept that, given the declining inputs of things like oil and other resources, we are heading down the downslope of the graph of growth, a place where old economics needs to be tossed out the window.

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  2. "Even as the economy has recovered, social welfare benefits make up 35 percent of wages and salaries this year"

    ""Even as the economy has recovered"" !!

    Why can't you people see that things are better now and will continue to improve?

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  3. 5:39 can you see that a "recovery" sounds ABSURD with those stats? Or are you lost in space too..

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  4. As well as government deficit spending the trade deficit has been running for decades. To finance that trade deficit bill foreign loans are now in short supply,

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  5. If America still had a decent commodity manufacturing industry it may have been possible for America to export its way out of the trade deficit bill trouble.

    But that old industrial base and productive jobs have already been exported by their ‘free trade” for capital owners to the third world. Competition with the cheap labor imports by high waged American workers is now very difficult if not impossible.

    Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of U.S. Wages!
    Strictly speaking ,countries like Libya, Iran and Venezuela are not true socialist states but more like handout states that divide up externally won profits ,oil revenues, in a more egalitarian way than countries like Saudi. These oil export countries with externally derived incomes can afford to be “socialist” in distributing the foreign transfers of wealth with handouts .
    America can not now afford its own “Corporate State Socialist” subsidies to business as well as a subsidized, lazy ,unproductive of real wealth labor aristocracy.

    Marx defined his socialism (a transition stage to "real" Communism) as “from each according to their ability to each according to their work”.
    Of course it was expected that the work was to be actually productive of real wealth, not simply services workers consuming wealth as in the US.

    The development of a “socialist” or “welfare state” in America with a subsidized labor aristocracy ,was only possible under the dollar hegemony system ,dependent on working people getting a cut in a consumer economy that was also built on foreign transfers of forein created wealth and credit supply to America.
    Supplemented by the governments ability to print money deficits spent on services, including subsidies to the military industrial complex, for wars ,well paid government workers and dole subsidy handouts to the underemployed with family benefits subsidies for the lower middle class in a de-industrialized America.

    With the implosion of the dollar hegemony system, the Ponzi foreign credit supply, the purchase of US treasuries and other property bonds in America began to die .
    The Ponzi US could not keep up with the interest payments on its government and foreign owned corporate and private debts.

    Socializing the losses of the finance sector required even more Government money printing.

    Trillions of dollars in new corporate state handouts were the final straw on top of the old accumulated government debts to treasury bondholders of government deficits. The so called “national debt’, that broke the back of the Governments ability to finance its old services by deficit spending.
    Government now finds because of the necessity of continuing bailouts for an insolvent failed capitalism it cannot afford its old handouts to the subsidized labor aristocracy.
    The housing property and mortgage bond markets, the basis of the perceived asset value and prosperity of the middle class are continually falling.
    Housing construction workers joined the ex industrial workers in a search for now non-existent jobs.
    Now the Americans are finding that without those foreign transfers of wealth and easy credit ,on top of paying for the bailouts for the ruling elites, they have become a nation of debt peons.

    Now people cannot afford the cheap labor commodities in wall mart as credit card debt and re-finance of underwater housing is no longer cheaply available.
    as foreigners perceive that with all the wild money printing the future of the dollar value appears very bleak indeed.
    The government and banksters of the corporate state demand “Austerity” from all but, especially from employees and those dependent on government ‘socialist” handouts so that government can continue to afford the business bailout system.

    It is clear though that will not be enough, that the government and the criminal partners at the Fed will either try and inflate away the dollar value of the old debts by money printing or be forced to default on the bondholders and bankster handout debts.

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  6. 4:00 "We can not magically create more jobs, more growth, more wealth."

    But we can "magically" create money! LOL

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  7. I have a 27 yr old temp working with me for a few days.
    Get this
    He told me he has 5 kids
    He got $8000 tax returen for the earned income tax credit.
    He gets $700 a month in food stamps.
    AND, he gets subsidized housing, and NICE 3/2. for $180 a month.

    Thats $22,000 in benifits!!!!!!

    And he is bragging about it.

    That does NOT include the free medicaid
    Or the free cellphones for him and his baby popping wife.

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  8. That 27 year old would get a nice increase for his family if he and baby factory were not married. The system loves those single moms and floods them with public money.

    Immorality = profit in this nutty freak-show called the usa.

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  9. It's important to understand that politicians are conflating Social Security with welfare and all entitlements. The fact is Social Security is sound. Today it takes in more then it pays out. It has $4 trillion that the government borrowed and will have to pay back when it is needed. Your Social Security retirement is not in trouble. Medicare is underfunded. Either they will have to increase that portion of the payroll tax to provide more funding or they will have to subsidize it from the general fund. All other forms of "entitlements" are essentially welfare and totally funded from the general fund. The federal government spends $1.2 trillion a year on welfare. THAT is the part of entitlements that cannot be afforded any longer. The politicans are trying to blur the difference between Social Security and welfare because they want to raid the Social Security funds. There will be hell to pay if they cut Social Security with the intent to fund welfare. Cut welfare!!!

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  10. 6:14-- if abortion was easier, and religion didn't rule their lives, he wouldn't have 5 kids living off taxpayer money.

    Meanwhile, the headline is completely wrong. Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance are not welfare. For SS, people pay into the system for 45 fucking years before they can collect. Medicare--that's gov't health insurance and people have money taken out of their SS to pay for it. Unemployment insurance is insurance, you idiots, and it's paid into by both workers and employers.

    The point you should actually pay attention to is the impoverishment of America. The very rich have taken most of the money through a variety of ways, including the Wall St. bailout. The rest of us are left to desperately search for a decent-paying job in order to pay bills and send the kids to school. And in case you've been too busy watching Charlie Sheen, there aren't enough decent jobs because the Republicans give tax credits to companies that outsource.

    And for the zillionth time, could you please remember that the giant corporations aren't paying their fair share of taxes--and in some cases pay no taxes at all? ExxonMobil made over a billion dollars, paid no income tax at all, and got a tax refund! When these fuckers pay tax is when I'll worry about giving that money to people on welfare.

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  11. Corporate tax is never paid by the corporation no matter what the rate. IT IS PAID BY THE CONSUMER.

    Don't you people ever get that simple fact? They will get theirs and you will pay for it every time you reach for your wallet to buy their service and goods.

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  12. 1:50 I totally agree. The big corporations will NEVER pay because they can continually raise prices forcing the consumers to pay more & more,therefore covering any "corporate tax" they incur.

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  13. That;s Because -----------------------------

    CONSUMERS

    are just that

    CONSUMERS

    Not

    Makers

    Or Thinkers

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  14. Yes, no attempt to tax the big corporations and their owners should be made as its all mostly just honest monopoly profit returns for hard working capital. Just their full entitlements not to pay any real tax as big patriotic American businesses and monopolies!

    And as these corporations lobby and control government they can pass on any attempt to tax them onto the backs of the ordinary people anyway.

    Big business should therefore not be taxed at all .

    And that’s a nice threat ,to pass on any actual taxes on business to the people, that some repeat here on behalf of big business !

    So don’t even try it socialist punks !!

    Government should get out of the way of big business except to socialize their losses with bailots in the bad times so that the profits can continue to roll in.

    In the American way.


    Americans should just give willingly , get over it ,love Austerity and move on , as the recovery is bound to fire up soon, over the next decade or two anyway!

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  15. Barack Obama recently challenged a group of business and labor leaders to come up with some great ideas for creating more jobs inside the United States on the exact same day that he was pushing hard for Congress to approve the new free trade agreement with South Korea which will send even more of our factories and jobs overseas. Here's your good paying jobs!!!

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  16. 8.02
    Here's your good paying jobs!!!
    Off to Korea !
    It is no good whining nostalgically about the good ol days. Now that the Ponzi cheap credit party is over.
    Do not view things only from your own simple American “Workerist’, marxist “class” , job income needing , selfish perspective.
    Think of the Amerikan recovery!
    Have faith in capitalism and free trade.
    Remember its capital that made America great.
    (and the Souths gonna rise again .Yeehaah ha ha ha !)
    Capital just cannot afford to keep these high paying jobs in America and make a profit too. That’s now an economic fact of life.True under The republican sock puppet Bush and still true now under the Democrat sock puppet Obama.
    But you want to blame all the results of decades of this bi-partisan free trade export of jobs economic policy only on Obama?
    Not American capital!
    Are you a Redneck Republican Psycho ?
    The Ruling Elite run MSM advises ‘anger management” for your Tea party type .
    That you can just go out and blame and kick an Hispanic “job stealer” ,if your feeling temporarily frustrated, underemployed and living on food stamps ,because capital has exported American industry and high paying jobs.

    But, think of the great profitable investments and advantages American capital and wall Mart can gain in Korean manufacturing with even more open free trade.
    One door opens and another factory door slams in your face .
    That’s an economic fact of life too.
    Progress!
    Korean Hi- tech goodies will be even cheaper than all that shitty quality old American or Chinese crap!
    The Koreans make a mean TV .
    When it comes to educating hard working workers , computer technology ,memory ,chip production and the like Korea is one of the most advanced countries in the world !
    Especially when compared to a now industrially degenerated dumped down America .A country that once claimed to have had the advanced technology to be able to land plastic walled lunar modules on the Moon and to transmit pictures of spacemen playing put- put golf in “slow motion”space.

    Golly…
    Quality, American miracle ,Gomer pyle style space videos transmissions that you could believe in !
    Those were the good days when American technology could kick State Capitalist Socialist Soviet butt!
    But now, in an insolvent technologicaly backward America its back to lack of work ,depression time and...

    “Buddy can you spare a dime”.Because "I lost the job and lost the house too".

    By the way .
    A Begging Business Tip for Americans :
    Look out for and wave your tin Dixie cup at a Korean Tourist or even a visiting Chinese capitalist in America out to buy up a cheap Mc Mansion.
    And remenber to rattle the spoon.

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  17. 11.59 Says,sorry 5.59 but ,you might notice that nowhere in that post were you reffered to as a moron,jackass or idiot just a crisisism that you appeared to be playing party politics .

    What I posted was an attempt at some humor in attempting to point out as you say ,that indeed ordinary Americans are being set at others throats on class and race lines ,
    but refusing to look at the hypocrisy of all the sock pocket politicians of either party , not at the economic reality ,of what these politicians of BOTH parties have done for decades in de-industrializing America and exporting productive jobs for the free trade profits of capital.

    But now its still playing at party politics like blaming Obama and insulting each other in the ideological belief that the ‘golden age” economy and the prosperity and jobs of the baby boomers generation can easily be restored if only American ‘idiots’ and ‘morons” all simply agreed to support one or other brand of the sock puppets . But Obama or Bush its same- same Elite rule economics .

    These old party politics are the common beliefs of the baby boomers and the Tea party types that ‘new “ political parties for imposing ‘Austerity” on working people the Youth and the poorer people in society would guarantee the affordability of their own future pension entitlements and ensure a recovery of the now bailed out but still insolvent Great Ponzi economy!

    But the material basis of that old baby boomers prosperity in industrial wealth producing America ,when God was in heaven , videos showed man was on the moon ,the army was in Vietnam fighting for “American freedom” and the Blacks accepted their assigned proper economic place in the system ,is long gone.

    All that is left ,are some attempts to revive the old now out of date discredited party and ideological race politics of a previous era as empty ,but now irelevent, meaningless insults .







    .

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  18. 4:55 Thank you for your comment. So here is the $64,000 question, what is considered a living wage? Does it only cover food on the table, a roof over "your" head, pay utilities, fuel, and healthcare? Are you supposed to have enough left over for vacations, saving accounts, and all the fun electronics part of it too?

    This is the dilemma, say everyone was paid $50,000 (it could be any number),all being equal. At some point wouldn't people still find themselves in the same predicament? People who save and don't spent outside their means would still continue to do well, while people who are not good money managers be right back in the same situation? You can't legislate how people spend.

    Also, this is no way meant to be adversarial, just trying to figure where people are coming from. Look forward to your answer.

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  19. One more thing! Are we obligated as a society to pay for people who don't or won't work? Not due to some impairment.

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  20. That is both a philosophical and religious economic question!
    Am I my brothers keeper?
    People make their living the best they can in the conditions and economies they are born into in the mode of production and wealth distribution as established by earlier generations. Tribal, slave society feudal capitalist etc. Later they may come or be conditioned to believe that they agreed to that system by birth as say Americans and it was all natural, fair and a just contract law system in the best of all possible constitutional worlds.

    Some say that everybody is entitled to a share of the natural wealth of the productive earth, but find the earlier generations have already claimed title to the land and its natural resources gained by whatever means including the violence of conquerors, but usually pretended for ideological reasons to be the result of their own ancesters work since Adam got original title and from the results their own hard work to boot .
    They therefore seek rent claims from everybody else for owning title to its use as Capital and the rent incomes derived from that , like as if they were Adam or God himself. These are the old hard boiled ‘Papist” conservative creationist types.

    Some say OK forget about the titles and their incomes , but I still want the productive fruits of my own labor as a living wage . But the title owners say we own the means of production and you may only work if we choose by renting your labor to us in a “mutually” profitable way. These are modern Calvinist Protestant capitalist creationist conservative types that proclaim a Protestent work ethic That unlike the old Catholics and theoretically pure modern Muslims think Usury is OK too as it is also only the just rents due to owners of accumulated wealth money employed as capital .
    All the old title owners who naturally like the old ways tend to be conservatives and attack the liberals as social or a “society” viewpoint that does not agree with established since Adam property rights of the individuals or the capitalist profit concept, the rights of slaveowners etc.
    In that fair system for property owners ,working people are only entitled to the leftovers after profit and rents have got their due .And if they can live on that good luck to them!
    Some of these people also support the ‘libertarian” religion of free enterprise for capital especially if it is the rights of silver. In bad unprofitable times in this system .there is therefore sadly at times some underemployment or a lack of jobs.Some even get cheesed off with the entire work system and are bribed to keep them from becoming troblemakers.
    Some humanistic liberals and soft hearted socialists then say:
    BUT whatever .. and despite all that ideological and realistic economic stuff …
    everybody should get a “living wage” whether they are productive workers or not as the “human right” of even secular non-religious people ,according to the constitutional Bill of Rights by right of being human according to Supreme Deity of property and modern non Monarchial contract law. Some of these liberals claim to be old fashioned Americans but are really only shamefaced agnostic supporters of that Supreme Being god from the earlier non monopoly capitalist era.
    Thay do not agree with the method of wealth distribution in a Corporate State where even the losses of the titleholders to property , share owners, and the debts to Usury god of debt are socialized.
    But as you ask, how is a just “living wage’ to be determined even from a capitalist or any even from a religious point view?
    Atheistic ,Marxists materialists, reject all those “diabolical” religious and liberal agnostic justifications and even the “Libetarians” for hard working capital theorists as just so much capitalist vampire bullshit and seek to do away with the rights of the title holders of wealth to their own version of a “living wage” allowance for coupon clipping capitalists

    By abolishing the wages system and the demand for a ‘living wage” altogether.

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  21. Thank you very much for the insight. I appreciate you taking time to post. Cheers

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