Change: More than a third of all U.S. wages and salaries come from government confiscating wealth and redistributing it

There's no better evidence of the Democrats' half-century of policy failures than this story from CNBC: "Welfare State: Handouts Make Up One-Third of US 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.

...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.

Let's start by ending the Democrats' disastrous "War on Poverty", which has created more poverty and misery than any set of government programs in world history.

If there's anything the last half-century of failed Leftist policies have taught us, it's this: when you reward sloth, you get more sloth. When you reward hard work, you get more hard work.

Killing off welfare except to those in desperate need would be a nice trillion-dollar stimulus to the real economy. And it would actually increase marriage rates, reduce violent crime, and improve educational outcomes.


Hat tip: Tatler.