Socialism (programs/more taxes/more government/welfare state) DOES NOT and HAS NOT every worked Just look around the world. It leads to MORE misery. This is the most obvious obserrvation possible. If you're miserable now, you will certainly be more miserable with more govt. STAND UP AND BE AN ADULT. Try hard for once. It's so incredibly easy to not be an idiot in this country.
Our Sinking Welfare State
We won't even admit we have one.
PHOTOS
What About Us?
Wall Street's problems have captured the attention of Congress, the White House and the media. But ordinary folks are wondering if anyone is paying attention to them. A look at how Americans are coping with the economic crisis.
Published Jun 20, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jun 29, 2009
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
SPONSORED BY
Raised in an individualistic culture, Americans dislike the concept of the "welfare state" and do not use the term. But make no mistake, the United States has a welfare state, and its future is precarious. The true significance of the General Motors bankruptcy lies more with this welfare state than with the battered condition of American capitalism.
Broadly speaking, the U.S. welfare system divides into two parts—the private, administered by firms; and the public, provided by government. Both are besieged: private companies by intense competitive pressures; government by rising debt and taxes. GM exemplified the large corporation as private welfare state. In contracts with the United Auto Workers, GM promised high wages, lifetime employment, generous pensions and comprehensive health insurance. All this is now ancient history: new workers get skimpier benefits.
As metaphor, GM's bankruptcy marks the passage of this model. Companies still provide welfare benefits to attract and retain skilled workers. But these shelters against insecurity are growing flimsier. Career jobs remain, but lifetime job guarantees—formal or informal—are gone. Last year, about 50 percent of male workers ages 50 to 54 had been with the same employer at least 10 years; in 1983, that was 62 percent.
Health insurance and pensions tell similar stories. In 2007, employer-provided insurance covered 177 million Americans, 59.3 percent of the population; in 1999, coverage was 63.9 percent. Since 1980, companies have gradually moved from "defined benefit" to "defined contribution" pensions, notably 401(k)s. Defined benefit plans provided guaranteed monthly payments; defined contribution plans—just putting money into a pot—make workers responsible for managing retirement savings.
What most Americans identify as government "welfare" are payments to single mothers, food stamps and (perhaps) Medi-caid, the federal-state health-insurance program for the poor. But that's not the half of it. Since 1960, government has changed radically. Then, 52 percent of federal spending went for defense, 26 percent for "payments to individuals"—the welfare state. By 2008, 61 percent went for "payments to individuals," 21 percent for defense.
Social Security and Medicare—programs for the elderly—represented the lion's share: $1 trillion in 2008. Most Americans don't consider these programs "welfare," but they are. Benefits are paid mainly by present taxes; there's little "saving" for future benefits; Congress can alter benefits whenever it wants. If that's not welfare, what would be?
- 1
- 2
- Next Page »
Discuss