About Me

In writing the "About Me" portion of this blog I thought about the purpose of the blog - namely, preventing the growth of Socialism & stopping the Death Of Democracy in the American Republic & returning her to the "liberty to abundance" stage of our history. One word descriptions of people's philosophies or purposes are quite often inadequate. I feel that I am "liberal" meaning that I am broad minded, independent, generous, hospitable, & magnanimous. Under these terms "liberal" is a perfectly good word that has been corrupted over the years to mean the person is a left-winger or as Mark Levin more accurately wrote in his book "Liberty & Tyranny" a "statist" - someone looking for government or state control of society. I am certainly not that & have dedicated the blog to fighting this. I believe that I find what I am when I consider whether or not I am a "conservative" & specifically when I ask what is it that I am trying to conserve? It is the libertarian principles that America was founded upon & originally followed. That is the Return To Excellence that this blog is named for & is all about.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Comprehending The Unsustainability & Daring Great Enough To Turn This Mindset Around

 
Thanks to a subscriber of RTE for alerting me to the above graph & an accompanying IBD article that describes many of the terrible economic conditions encompassing America.  Although the above graph is in percentages, that can be misleading, the trend of the graph cannot be mistaken – dependency overrides work for far too many people.
 
The hardcore statistics behind the graph reveal that the economy created just 80,000 jobs in June, while 85,000 workers left the workforce entirely to enroll in the Social Security Disability Insurance program, according to the Social Security Administration.  Over the entire so-called recovery – starting in June 2009 the economy has created 2.6 million jobs (7.3 million people have left the work force altogether according to IBD & are no longer counted as unemployed) while 3.1 million workers signed up (applied) for disability benefits.  The actual number accepted to the disability ranks during this time has increased more than 1.1 million to a total of over 8.7 million people.  These numbers translate into the figures shown on the graph.
 
In total, a record of 8,733,461 workers took federal disability insurance payments in June, exceeding the entire population of New York City by more than 500,000, according to the Social Security Administration.
 
And the trend is expected to continue. In just the last month, almost 275,000 people filed for disability benefits.  I have previously reported that more people try to get on disability when jobs are hard to find.  Changes to eligibility rules enacted back in 1984 have made it far easier to qualify.

The Social Security System's Disability Insurance Trust Fund has run deficits in each of the last three fiscal years, meaning that the government has been forced to borrow money to pay disability benefits to the workers claiming them.

Now the problem with growing government dependence is not a new topic to readers of this blog.  The following two graphs - both presented in February - show 1) the virtual recent straight up trajectory of people relying on disability as their unemployment insurance benefits wind down & 2) the staggering growth in food stamps recipients.  Many of us have heard BO's radio advertisements encouraging people to look into receiving food stamps.  Talk about denuding people of any dignity.

 
 
The November election is about how many of the 150 million Americans who live in households that receive some kind of government assistance can comprehend that the government programs they have become dependent upon are not sustainable & whether or not they can dare great enough to help turn this mindset around. The deterioration of the work ethic that has torn the heart out of the people who only know living on government checks each month is even more dangerous than the above statistics & graphs illustrate. The choice regarding creating wealth or redistributing wealth is really a choice between prosperity or poverty for America. This is what the November election is all about.
 
Thanks to another subscriber who keeps feeding me great information – in this case it is a link to a video of Wayne Allyn Root, VP candidate on the Libertarian Party ticket in 2008, making the best presentation I have heard since Jon Voight's riveting open letter to America in April 2010 on the Huckabee TV program that described BO's deliberate deception to overrun our country. 
 
There is so much ammunition – it is a shame that Mitt does not know how to use it or that Gary Johnson has no money to broadcast his message.
 
 
 

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the article. I might apply for disability benefits as I am
    no longer looking for work because of my age - over 70.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doug - you are totally correct in stating "shame that Mitt does not know how to use it" referring to all the facts about our increasing dependency on Government. However yesterday he got a fat pitch from BO with BO comment "if you've got a business, you did not build that. Someone else made that happen." If Mitt can not step up to the plate and hit an upper deck home run then he is the most pathetic Republican candidate in my lifetime of 56 years.

    IBD today helps Mitt with an answer in its editorial page with "Mr President let us see your college transcripts. And who helped you on your way besides Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers?"

    ReplyDelete