Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
The New York Times has an expose that suggests government programs need to be expanded to meet the needs of the middle class even while the middle class recipients say they hate these programs. Written a different way, one could say that this story shows the damage of creating dependence on the government.
It begins with the story of Ki Gulbranson, who owns a logo apparel shop and deals jewelry on the side. He makes $39,000 and supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. And yet, he takes the earned-income tax credit, signed his children up for taxpayer-funded meals at school and saw his mother's hip replaced via Medicare!
"There is little poverty here in Chisago County, northeast of Minneapolis, where cheap housing for commuters is gradually replacing farmland. But Mr. Gulbranson and many other residents who describe themselves as self-sufficient members of the American middle class and as opponents of government largess are drawing more deeply on that government with each passing year.
"Dozens of benefits programs provided an average of $6,583 for each man, woman and child in the county in 2009, a 69 percent increase from 2000 after adjusting for inflation. In Chisago, and across the nation, the government now provides almost $1 in benefits for every $4 in other income.
"Older people get most of the benefits, primarily through Social Security and Medicare, but aid for the rest of the population has increased about as quickly through programs for the disabled, the unemployed, veterans and children.
"The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits. A secondary mission has gradually become primary: maintaining the middle class from childhood through retirement. The share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households, the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36 percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last year."
Note the chart that accompanies the story, above. It shows that the proportion of entitlement programs going to the poor has dropped as it's increased to other sectors. In other words, taxpayers are giving money to the federal government, which then takes a huge chunk out for waste, inefficiency, fraud and overhead, and then returns some of it back to the middle classes.
And the New York Times can't figure out why some average Joes would have a problem with this?
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Comments:
Feb '12
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
Instapundit culled this from some blog-post comment over the weekend, so I do not take credit for it, but it is apropos here: First, you create a safety net for the poor, then you relentlessly root out every competing institution until you force everyone to take some of the benefits. Then you brand any opponents as hypocrites for taking the benefits of the programs they oppose. Politically brilliant. Until you run out of other peoples' money.
Apr '11
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
The facts of your post Mollie are alarming but not all that surprising. Having just completed my taxes I'm painfully aware NOW what the cost of ALL government is to me, but the pain is deadened throughout the year by having it forcibly taken from my paycheck in such a gradual manner.
The dilemma is when we pay such onerous amounts in taxes we all want something back,as it were, when we either have the need or see the opportunity. We feel we are entitled (so that is where that phrase comes from) you know I don't do this all the time, it's not like I'm on the dole or anything.
I see one cause in that we have moved from a non-credit society where everyone in the past, for the most part, paid as they went to a credit/banking card society where the true cost is hidden or deferred.
This hidden cost dilemma is also causing our healthcare cost crises. As most of us, having our insurance payments taken from our paychecks by our employer along with menial co-pays we don't see the cost of most things any more.
Jan '11
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Note the chart that accompanies the story, above. It shows that the proportion of entitlement programs going to the poor has dropped as it's increased to other sectors. In other words, taxpayers are giving money to the federal government, which then takes a huge chunk out for waste, inefficiency, fraud and overhead, and then returns some of it back to the middle classes.
And the New York Timescan't figure out why some average Joes would have a problem with this? · · 3 hours ago
Put another way, one wonders how much higher Gulbranson's income would be were the government not taking so much of it away. My guess is that it's a significant number.
Aug '10
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
Tom Meyer
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Note the chart that accompanies the story, above. It shows that the proportion of entitlement programs going to the poor has dropped as it's increased to other sectors. In other words, taxpayers are giving money to the federal government, which then takes a huge chunk out for waste, inefficiency, fraud and overhead, and then returns some of it back to the middle classes.
And the New York Timescan't figure out why some average Joes would have a problem with this? · · 3 hours ago
Put another way, one wonders how much higher Gulbranson's income would be were the government not taking so much of it away. My guess is that it's a significant number. · 3 minutes ago
<devil's advocate mode = on>
Even so, methinks there are many compassionate, moderate voters out there that don't necessarily mind having their income reduced by the government because they believe the money is being used to help the poor.
This chart shows that belief to be a lie.
<devil's advocate mode = off>
Apr '11
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
You have to be leery of any chart that measures things in percentages. Are the poor really getting less, or is everyone else getting more? You can't tell. It's also questionable to attribute quintiles to people's income as they can easily move between groups from year to year. I believe it's called "how to lie with statistics."
Apr '11
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
How about the people who say taxes should be higher? You don't see them voluntarily paying more taxes. They're hypocrites too.
Jul '10
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
Scandal: Middle Class Funding It Hates
May I suggest a correction?
Scandal: Middle Class Funding They Hate
It humanizes it. Makes it personal.
Apr '11
Re: Scandal: Middle Class Funding Programs It Hates
By reading the article on the Web and not on the printed page, one fails to grasp the level of urgency attached by the editors. It ran on the Sunday front page, upper right, the spot reserved for the Times's most earth-shaking news. Ammunition for mocking the piggish middle class, not for showing the irrationality of our welfare state. But where was the obligatory secondary headline, "Women, minorities suffer most"?