Total US population: ~308M
Total civilian people who are employed: ~145M
Employed by the Government (Federal, State, and Local): 22M
People receiving SS and SSDI: ~56M
Incarcerated: ~1M
On welfare: very hard to pin down, average of estimates I found was ~15M
So, the total number of people depending on the Government vs. privately employed is about 2:3. Is it any wonder why things are the way they are?
And this whole time I thought our bloated military budget and the 8+ year war on terror was the tipping point.
If the work can be outsourced to another country at slave wage rates, you can best bet it’s only going to bring our employment rate down. Here’s lookin’ at you, WNY.
By US standards, the Buffalo market is paying slave wages for educated jobs.
Take a look around, people with college diplomas are lining up for $10-$15 per hour jobs. Thats peanuts.
Slave wages and rich people taxes yyeehhaaaaaa for NY!!!
Was recently in utah where my contact was paying 1100 bucks a year for one acre of land with a 1500sq foot home on it, all in a decent neighborhood. The guy was bitching that his taxes were going up by 100 bucks. Hell im bitching that i have to pay 1500 bucks for school taxes alone just so that someone elses kid can get a piss poor education and get bussed to school in a 20yo beat up school buss ooraa!!.
Can’t wait to buy my new license plate this April…
The tipping point I was referring to is where so many people become dependent on the Gov’t that their way to get ahead becomes “who can I elect who will take more money from working people and give it to me” rather than “how can I earn more myself”. The numbers below are really low ball for Gov’t dependence. The military isn’t included. People who work in businesses where the main customer is the Gov’t are not included, etc.
So at what point can we just admit we are a Socialist nation?
Who are the 10 largest employers in Buffalo, NY?
4 are government entities. We cannot sustain this any longer.
#1 State of New York
#2 United States Government
#3 Kaleida Health
#4 The City of Buffalo
#5 HSBC Bank
#6 Catholic Health System
#7 Employer Services Corporation
#8 County of Erie
#9 M&T Bank
#10 Catholic Diocese of Buffalo
http://albanysinsanity.wnymedia.net/blogs/2009/07/30/who-are-the-10-largest-employers-in-buffalo-ny/
When our people start getting benefits like one. We just get the taxes and nothing in return.
^^I am sure Joe will blame the private companies for not hiring more.:bloated:
You mean like waiting 2 years for an organ transplant or even something simple?
No, like the 34 countries whose healthcare the WHO ranked as better than ours, or the 17 with more effective education programs, despite the fact that we spend MUCH more per capita on both.
^You should move there! That sounds great!
Pay for my moving expenses. I think I’d be all about Scandinavia.
As I established in another thread, I dont know too much about politics, but this is a question I constantly ask myself. If the increasing “poor” population want more handouts as the majority, they can get it and what the hell can us workers do about it?
Im in Europe right now and oftentimes I get into political discussions with Europeans which usually revolves around how much they LOVE Obama. I can absolutely see why the rest of the world loves this guy, he is the closest American president to establish a more European oriented economic agenda but what these people over here dont understand is a certain attitude poor people in our country possess. I feel anyone who wants to make it out of a life of poverty can do it, it may be harder than a kid raised in a nice suburban neighborhood but they can do it, but rather these scums who were most likely raised by scum have no desire to do that, and with the big O in office, why would they even want to.
Moral of the story, I rather live in a socialist like European country where at least MOST people contribute, than a socialist like United States where a HUGE population are lazy bottom feeders. This whole discussion really does just make me sick. And once again, im still just baffled how anyone who is a worker in this country can vote left. In this case, the lesser of two evils wasn’t even an excuse because we knew Obama was gonna pass dem dolla dolla billz to everyone.
the total people dependent on the US govt. is 100%
unless you put a numerical definition on what dependent means, this thread is pointless.
plus probably half the population doesn’t need to work because they are old or young and thus the ratio really would be 1:3 at the very most in terms of people who are a drain on society. This is using your numbers.
thus you cannot say “Is it any wonder why things are the way they are?” without sounding ignorant. You’ll need a comparison country in which you like the way things are and their data.
in the grand scheme of the world things are not bad in the US.
It’s not going to do much to help this thread, but I have yet to see any reason someone would be motivated to get off welfare/unemployment/etc.
We could have half the population starving to death and still say that. :meh2: