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“Transfer payments — unemployment, Social Security, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and other forms of government welfare — grew $231 billion last year to just over $2.1 trillion. Meanwhile, individual taxes shrank $325 billion to $2.1 trillion, slightly less (before rounding) than transfer payments.”
Simply that has been the goal of the democrats since FDR. Create such a large entitlement class it ensures them permanent power and best yet a huge amount of control over people.
If it continues we will be in a downward spiral like many european countries have entered or were previously there(eastern bloc and USSR).
Liberty is at risk. The next civil war will be between the government co dependents and the independents. The people who demand handouts versus those who retain the fruits of their labors.
This is very true. I keep on harping about the real meaning of the American Dream being "F.U. I got mine". Look at anything from housing, healthcare, employment and educational debates on this board and you'll see a very pervasive undertone of "if it doesn't affect me then I don't know what you're talking about". Americans go a long way to spout off abstract rhetoric on moral adjudication of issues such as abortion and financial frugality, but then turn around and disregard their very rhetoric when it is them that is faced with hardship or scarcity. We've become a very selfish and fragmented strata of people. I would be very reserved in attempting to use the word "society" to refer to America. We define our very self-worth by what socio-economic strata we can pawn off ourselves as to the rest of the street.
Another contributing factor to this social erosion comes from our labor construct. Job nomadism has taken full control over the labor landscape of this country. Short job life spans have become accepted as normalcy in this country. Homesteading, though still aspired to privately, is considered passé these days and scorned publicly among the working masses. Population centers are dominated by self-absorbed "family units" whose only thing in common with the other self-absorbed "family unit" down the street is the same employer they toil for that particular year. Heck, I don't even see the point of local news channels anymore; nobody's from anywhere! Even the newscasters are transplants JHC!
Then fast-forward the movie 20 years and you get threads on here about people struggling to find a place to keep the kids from getting uprooted again. Sick and tired of the moves, can't sell the anchor house 'cause the market didn't go up 10% a year like I demanded it to, life is tight, spouse is up on my grill about money, kids don't want to move away from grandma and their high school friend base, and I STILL don't know my neighbors of 7 years nor do I care since either me or him will be moving in a year anyways.... what a country.
And then we top it all of off by getting on a tirade about those lazy inefficient western europeans and their "immoral" homesteading, 35 hour workweek and subsidized healthcare and off-work-time for the nominal price of living two generations to a house, spending minimally on defense, and taking the train to go anywhere. Gimme a break
Newsflash: Hyper-productivity is not inherently virtuous. Slow the f down.
This all matters little, the standard of living in this country is resetting substantially in the next 30 years. If people had doubts we lived in an oligarchy as Americans, 2040 america will open most people's eyes to the overarching disparity of standard of living, and the real ratios between the haves and have nots. This quaint perception of the middle class standard of 250K home in the safe ethno-centric suburb with two new cars and a cheap commute to work, with kids in cheap and great school district, one-stop-shop college education to an above median income job with enough slop to repeat the story and adequately fund 401K with is all but over. This may seem hyperbolic, but that shift is HUGE. Simply put, the notion of a an affluent middle class is all but dead in this country, we're just propping it with credit but in 2040 that crap will be all but a history page.
The difference will be that in Brazil (curtain #1: the few rich, no middle, the rest poor outcome) or Spain (curtain #2: the mature welfare state outcome) people are not so classist so as to continue to cling on to self-interested adjudications that rebuke the viewing of things like health care as a utility, et al. Likewise, the economically-driven cultural norms such as multiple generations to a house are not viewed pejoratively. Job nomadism is viewed as value-detracting within these societies. Under-productivity is viewed as value-adding, for the given level of dispossession of the masses (i.e. if you're gonna be working poor, might as well live slowly while you're at it, not working three jobs like in America).
This is why it's over. Most will snicker at this outlook, but it's just a matter of time before they're consumed with that reality slapping them in the face. Maybe then 'community' will start becoming a principle of importance in their otherwise self-serving lifestyles. True to americanism, only when it hits us in the face we adopt change.
Conversely and to temper the discussion. If you find these changes acceptable (most obviously don't, since it defeats the purpose of hyper-toiling in America) then the outlook for the new american standard of living is not that terrible.
“Transfer payments — unemployment, Social Security, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and other forms of government welfare — grew $231 billion last year to just over $2.1 trillion. Meanwhile, individual taxes shrank $325 billion to $2.1 trillion, slightly less (before rounding) than transfer payments.”
U.S. consumer spending rose 0.5% in January, while income increased 0.1%. (so spending is outpacing income, which is decreasing)
Real disposable income decreased 0.6 percent in January, in contrast to an increase of 0.2 percent in December. Real PCE increased 0.3 percent, compared with an increase of 0.1 percent.
and here is where the UNSUSTAINABLE economic "improvement" lies:
Government wage and salary disbursements increased $6.1 billion, compared with a prior increase of $2.7 billion. Pay raises for federal civilian and military personnel added $7.1 billion to government payrolls in January.
the government is spending more, yet a reduction in disposable income means that people actually have less available to spend. where is the private sector recovery?
Last edited by floridasandy; 03-02-2010 at 05:37 PM..
States reported 5,687,574 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Feb. 13, an increase of 207,632 from the prior week. There were 1,929,723 claimants in the comparable week in 2009. EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.
it's going to be crunch time soon for state budgets.
Simply that has been the goal of the democrats since FDR. Create such a large entitlement class it ensures them permanent power and best yet a huge amount of control over people.
If it continues we will be in a downward spiral like many european countries have entered or were previously there(eastern bloc and USSR).
Liberty is at risk. The next civil war will be between the government co dependents and the independents. The people who demand handouts versus those who retain the fruits of their labors.
I hope you aren't talking about corporate welfare recipients as retaining the fruits of their labors, cause they get those fruits because they don't pay the taxes the rest of us do. You can labor all day long at a normal job, but you won't get the same fruit that Wall Street bankers get. The next civil war will actually be between labor and business.
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Slow the f down. 
