Our Sinking Welfare State

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.

Welfare state. hmmm. How in the world does someone belong to that fine state in America. There is so much opportunity in this country and people just BLOW it. If you make a REAL effort, work REAL hard, get education (i know of plenty who had no money and still got a degree), develop a real skill, improve your value in the marketplace, etc., than the welfare (parasites and leaches) state would be non-existent. They are coming after your money, effort, work, etc. people. Who? The parasites. The people that find it easier to take you money versus making a REAL effort in life. What are you going to do about it? If you run, you're done. Stand up and FIGHT THIS. FIGHT these people.

When it comes to corporate welfare, one might think that, noblesse oblige, Big Oil would top the list, as they benefited for years (especially the last eight) from horrendous tax subsidies from the Feds. That the oil industry (the Exxons of the world) has been the recipient of such federal largesse defies common sense, considering the astronomical profits they have been raking in quarter after quarter. Cases of corporate welfare abound in our economy--from welfare queen Walmart's hefty municipal and county tax subsidies to gas companies underreporting royalties to the Feds, to agribusinesses' water subsidies, to mining companies' free access to public land. Yet, Samuelson is not even acknowledging these special government-big business relationships. He finds it more convenient to take on corporations that, at some point in the past, "promised high wages, lifetime employment, generous pensions and comprehensive health insurance??? to their rank and file.

Samuelson seems to relish the idea that nowadays "workers get skimpier benefits." However, he is silent over the pervasive greed that grips corporate America and translates into the lavish perks and bonuses CEO's of major corporations dole on themselves. Reportedly, total compensation of the 100 highest paid CEO's in 2008 ranged from $18 million to $134 million. According to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) citing a study published in the Harvard Business Review, the aggregate compensation paid by public companies to their top-five executives (from 1993 to 2003) added up to about $350 billion; and the ratio of this aggregate top-five compensation to the aggregate earnings of these firms during the same period doubled, from 5% to about 10%. I am curious to know what Samuelson thinks of these facts.

Samuelson is using a deliberately misleading, unique, and erroneous definition of 'welfare state when describing an employer-employee agreement as one. Yet he fails to mention the one large example of welfare benefits that taxpayers pay out or are due: i.e., the tax subsidies, tax credits,, tax deductions and other tax loophole supports to the needy oil, gas and other US corporations that total billions of dollars quarterly.
Samuelson would do well to read Jeremy McCarter's piece on Henry Fairlie this week in his own magazine, to appreciate how wrongheaded and meanspirited his own ideas are. News Flash: Darwinian economics was discredited decades ago.

Samuelson forgot that it was the declining wage and the decreasing numbers of middle class that's creating dependence on government assistance. He is feeding to these neo-con racists and fear-mongers that are posting here when it was their own Republican economic policies that's creating the need for government intervention. But I believe neo-cons and Bush loved the poor. Their flawed economic policy made a lot more of them.

"An underpaid man is a customer reduced in purchasing power. Business depression is caused by weakened purchasing power. Purchasing power is weakened by uncertainty or insufficiency of income. The cure for business depression is through purchasing power, and the source of purchasing power is wages."
Does Samuelson recognize who made that statement? It wasn't Karl Marx. It was Henry Ford.
As usual Samuelson decides to blame the victim. In this case the GM auto worker.
Actually, labor costs account for about 10% of GM's expenses. Samuelson also fails to mention the huge sacrifices that auto workers have made to save GM, sacrifices that are hardly matched by those made by the management. Samuelson also conveniently forgets to mention that labor costs in Canada are cheaper because Canada has a single payer health care system.
And finally, Sameulson fails to mention the obscene differences between the salaries of the CEO's of GM and the assembly line workers. Or that GM executives were grossly overpaid and extremely incompetent.

GM should have seen the writing on the wall back in the 70's. Yet GM fought tooth and nail against the efficiency standards proposed by the Carter Administration. They proceeded to produce and market gas-guzzling automobiles, including that infamous Weapon of Mass Destruction - the Hummer.
Instead, Samuelson chooses to attack American working people. He wants to slash their salaries. He also wants to eliminate their pensions, social security and medical care, which workers actually paid for through payroll deductions. Then when the economy crashes because workers are too poor to buy anything, Samuelson blames President Obama.

Newsweek should slash Samuelson's salary and cancel his medical benefits. Samuelson needs to learn how the rest of the world lives.

"An underpaid man is a customer reduced in purchasing power. Business depression is caused by weakened purchasing power. Purchasing power is weakened by uncertainty or insufficiency of income. The cure for business depression is through purchasing power, and the source of purchasing power is wages."
Does Samuelson recognize who made that statement? It wasn't Karl Marx. It was Henry Ford.
As usual Samuelson decides to blame the victim. In this case the GM auto worker.
Actually, labor costs account for about 10% of GM's expenses. Samuelson also fails to mention the huge sacrifices that auto workers have made to save GM, sacrifices that are hardly matched by those made by the management. Samuelson also conveniently forgets to mention that labor costs in Canada are cheaper because Canada has a single payer health care system.
And finally, Sameulson fails to mention the obscene differences between the salaries of the CEO's of GM and the assembly line workers. Or that GM executives were grossly overpaid and extremely incompetent.

GM should have seen the writing on the wall back in the 70's. Yet GM fought tooth and nail against the efficiency standards proposed by the Carter Administration. They proceeded to produce and market gas-guzzling automobiles, including that infamous Weapon of Mass Destruction - the Hummer.
Instead, Samuelson chooses to attack American working people. He wants to slash their salaries. He also wants to eliminate their pensions, social security and medical care, which workers actually paid for through payroll deductions. Then when the economy crashes because workers are too poor to buy anything, Samuelson blames President Obama.

Newsweek should slash Samuelson's salary and cancel his medical benefits. Samuelson needs to learn how the rest of the world lives.

We are approaching the point where taxation takes almost half of all income earned in the US. How could any sane person not define the US as a welfare state with that number? We don't resemble the brave pioneers who came to this continent just a little over two centuries ago. They would pack up their ships and leave for a free place rather than live like this.

Of course it is a welfare state. Over in my country, there is no such thing as "unemployment benefits". Mention it and everyone will give you a puzzled look if not laugh at such a preposterous idea. As individuals, we jolly well ensure that we can survive a job loss and the attitude/understood assumption is that the world does not owe us anything. The very poor can of course apply for government help but this is enough only for bare subsistence.

Samuelson misses the point of the problems again! I'm not suprised. Our government is broken. It's been broken for a long time. Lobbyists control Washington. Their politcal contributions rule the governing process. Wall Street's problems highlight this scurge, yet little is being said or done about it. There won't be any real health care reform because of lobbying. Samuelson, if you're reading this, take a video camera to Capital Hill and spend a day highlighting the streams of lobbyists running in and out of that building. Ask them a few questions. Find out what their motives are. Then write a column about that.

If we had the Trillions Given to the WallStreet Banks to cover the loses they had while gambling with our retirement money we could afford many helpful programs for the American citizen . Lets face it , the American citizen's Tax money WallStreet Banks received will never do anything for the American citizen but that is not talked about as welfare . . We all pay taxes and as a whole a much higher percent than the WallStreet Banks do and yet if we want our money used to benefit the American citizen Tax payer then all kinds of connotations and innuendos are applied such as welfare . We all use the Commons including the WallStreet Banks and the other corporations that use off shore locations to dodge paying taxes but the number of companies that received our hard earned tax money is not a subject for the media so we know who the media's friends are . That money is my money and if I want to help the American citizen with it that in my view is NOT WELFARE .

As President Obama, often wrongfully critisized as arrogant, brick by brick, tears down the wall made of Bull Poo that has surrounded the USA for many a year now, the citizens that are suffering do not care if you call it welfare, socialist handouts or robbery... they call it food. I remember a wise young lady once told me, the fastest way to a revolution is through mankind's empty stomachs... And even though, it is a revolution gone wrong in America as well as in Iran, it's citizens will never have the courage to attack bull poo... Even though they stand tall when shooting reality head on.

well written. GM is a great example. the state of California is rapidly becoming the next example of the welfare state literally.