It seems like every other day there is a story on how addicted our country has become to government largesse. USA Today reported today that 18.3% of the nation's total personal income in 2010 were payments from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other government programs.
From 1980 to 2000, government aid was roughly constant at 12.5%.
Another startling fact is that wages accounted for the lowest share of income-51%-since the government began keeping track of this data in 1929. In other words, productive effort in this country was lower than it was in the Great Depression.
If you would take all of the government benefits paid in 2010 of roughly $2.3 trillion, it works out to an average of $7,247 in benefits for each man, woman. This is twice the 1990 average per person AFTER TAKING ACCOUNT OF INFLATION! That's right, these government benefits have expanded at twice the rate of inflation over the last 20 years.
University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes hit the nail on the head when he said, "What's frightening is the Baby Boomers haven't really started to retire" pointing out that there are 77 million people born between 1946 and 1964 who will soon start looking for their Social Security and Medicare payments. In other words, we have not seen anything yet.
State Specific Data:
Highest government payments per resident New York $9,442
Lowest government payments per resident Utah $4,731
Highest % of state resident income West Virginia 28% (vs, 18.3% natl avg)
Lowest % of state resident income Colorado 13%
Time is running out. This cannot continue for much longer.
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