Nearly 1 out of 6 Americans receive public assistance

[Phantom]

This was was an AP story out yesterday. This gist is that nearly 1 out of 6 persons receive some sort of government welfare benefit.

here's a sample story:
1 out of 6 Americans depend on programs for poor: Nation & World: The Seattle Times

This really shocked me. I would have thought the number would be something like 1 out of 30 or 40. This is the highest percentage of the population ever, and it seems to be growing. Does this surprise anyone else?

[ballz2wallz]

We're going to become a socialist country while all the while pretending we're not.

[JaJae]

What a lot of people don't realize is that the US spends more in government aid per capita than most of Europe. It's a smaller portion of our GDP which is what the liberals love to flaunt, but we do spend more per capita. This is partly to blame.

[JSmythe]

Originally Posted by JaJae

What a lot of people don't realize is that the US spends more in government aid per capita than most of Europe. It's a smaller portion of our GDP which is what the liberals love to flaunt, but we do spend more per capita. This is partly to blame.

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by JaJae

What a lot of people don't realize is that the US spends more in government aid per capita than most of Europe. It's a smaller portion of our GDP which is what the liberals love to flaunt, but we do spend more per capita. This is partly to blame.

This is surprising to me as well. Do you have a link?

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by Phantom

This is surprising to me as well. Do you have a link?

I read it in a book, I'll see if I can find it.. it was cited.

[thomez]

I saw this story as well... too bad I'm a 5 of 6er.

[kinggovernor]

"If you want to get educated or want to succeed, the welfare office don't care," Foster said. "I don't think they really care what you do once the benefits are gone."


stfu bitch

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

"If you want to get educated or want to succeed, the welfare office don't care," Foster said. "I don't think they really care what you do once the benefits are gone."


stfu bitch

I didn't know it was their job to care. That would be your job...

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by JaJae

I didn't know it was their job to care. That would be your job...

the said part is that she is 32 years old with several kids

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

the said part is that she is 32 years old with several kids

If she's unable to provide for her children for an extended period of time the state should take them away. See if that motivates her to stop complaining about the welfare office employees not caring about her and do something productive to get her kids back.

[RMNIXON]

You have a number of people who are filling the job requirement by sticking with some low wage job and making up the rest with other programs. Welfare reform was a motivator but perhaps not enough? Most people with some ambition should be able to get some better education or job training and move-up from a minimum wage no skill job within a few years I would hope?

[Diamond Cross]

So forty seven million five hundred thousand people are recieving some sort of public assistance?

[kinggovernor]

About 100 million people — 1 in 3 — now have government coverage through Medicaid, Medicare, the military and federal employee health plans. More than 10 million others are eligible for Medicaid but have not signed up.

USATODAY.com - Medicaid insures historic number

Thats not really surprising when you think about it. Median household incomes are about 47,000/yr so that means HALF of the US households are less than that. So the fact that 1 in 6 or roughly 17% are on government assistance doesn't surprise me at all.

[nbiggershaft]

social security count?

[R-Type]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

You have a number of people who are filling the job requirement by sticking with some low wage job and making up the rest with other programs. Welfare reform was a motivator but perhaps not enough? Most people with some ambition should be able to get some better education or job training and move-up from a minimum wage no skill job within a few years I would hope?

Minimum wage jobs make up the bulk of the job market. As long as these wages are too low to afford basic living expenses (what that means is another whole debate), these employees will turn to state aid. Something's gotta give somewhere because there has to be someone filling all those positions.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by R-Type

Minimum wage jobs make up the bulk of the job market. As long as these wages are too low to afford basic living expenses (what that means is another whole debate), these employees will turn to state aid. Something's gotta give somewhere because there has to be someone filling all those positions.

no they aren't.

Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2002
According to Current Population Survery estimates for 2002, some 72.7 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.6 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Of those paid by the hour, about 570,000 were reported earning exactly $5.15, the prevailing Federal minimum wage, and another 1.6 million were reported with wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 2.2 million workers with wages at or below the minimum made up 3.0 percent of all hourly-paid workers. Tables 1 - 10 present data on a wide array of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics for these low-wage workers. The following are some highlights from the 2002 data.

Minimum wage workers tend to be young. About half of workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and slightly more than one-fourth were age 16-19. Among teenagers, 10 percent earned $5.15 or less. About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less. However, among those age 65 and over, the proportion was about 5 percent. (See table 1 and table 7.)

About 4 percent of women paid hourly rates reported wages at or below the prevailing Federal minimum, compared with about 2 percent of men. (See table 1.)

The proportion of hourly-paid workers receiving $5.15 or less was about 3 percent for whites, blacks, and Hispanics. For whites and Hispanics, women were more likely than men to be low-wage earners. (See table 1.)

Never-married workers, who also tend to be quite young, are more likely to earn the minimum wage or less than persons who are married. (See table 8.)

The likelihood of a worker being paid the minimum wage or less is inversely related to the level of education attained. Among hourly-paid workers age 16 and over, a little over 2 percent of those who had a high school diploma but had not gone on to college earned the minimum or less, compared with less than 2 percent for those who had obtained a college degree. (See table 6.)

Part-time workers (persons who usually work less than 35 hours per week) were much more likely than their full-time counterparts to be paid $5.15 or less (about 8 percent versus about 2 percent). About 1 in 10 workers putting in fewer than 15 hours per week earned the minimum or less. (See table 1 and table 9.)

By occupational group, the proportion of hourly-paid workers whose earnings were reported at or below $5.15 ranged from a low of less than 1 percent for persons employed in managerial and professional specialty jobs and in precision production, craft, and repair positions, to a high of about 10 percent for those in service jobs. Roughly two-thirds of all low-wage workers in 2002 were in service-type occupations, mostly in food service jobs. (See table 4.)

Among industry groups, the proportion of workers with reported hourly wages at or below $5.15 was highest in retail trade (about 8 percent), agriculture (about 2 percent), and services (also about 2 percent). About three-fifths of all low-wage workers were employed in retail trade, and nearly one-fourth worked in services. It should be recognized that for many working in these two industries, tips and commissions might supplement the hourly wages received. (See table 5.)

Among the four broad geographic regions, the West had the lowest proportion of hourly workers with earnings at or below $5.15 (about 2 percent), while the South had the highest (about 4 percent). For a number of States, the proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below the Federal minimum wage exceeded the national average; in many other States, the proportion was much lower. Some States have minimum wage laws establishing minimum wage standards that exceed the Federal level of $5.15 per hour. (See table 2 and table 3.)

The proportion of hourly-paid workers earning the prevailing Federal minimum wage or less has trended downward since 1979, when data first began to be collected on a regular basis. (See table 10.)

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2002

Originally Posted by R-Type

Minimum wage jobs make up the bulk of the job market. As long as these wages are too low to afford basic living expenses (what that means is another whole debate), these employees will turn to state aid. Something's gotta give somewhere because there has to be someone filling all those positions.

This is not true at all, not even close. Look up the BLS statistics on wages and salaries you'll see only about 2% of the workforce is at min wage or less.

edit: no need to look it up, governor already did

[AVengeance]

we need to start letting some people starve and die. We can start by going into the home of someone on welfare, and taking away their TV, cell phones, any everything else until they get off the government tit. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The Welfare Class in this country live better than the Working Class in many others.