Today's Washington Examiner posted an editorial about the growing dependence of Americans on government handouts. The editorial points out the private sector paychecks have declined to 41.9 percent of personal income during the first quarter of 2010. In December 2007, it was 44.6 percent. The personal income received from government programs has climbed to 17.9 percent, plus another 9.8 percent for government employees, bringing us to a total of 27.7 percent. According to the editorial, the remaining personal income is from "small business proprietor profits, farm profits, privately funded pensions, investment sales and dividents, and insurance annuities."
As the number of people dependent on government grows, Heritage Foundation's Index of Dependency is rapidly rising. It increased 13.9 percent for 2009, the biggest increase since 1962.
The editorial states:
"The problem is that government only redistributes income to dependent individuals after taking it from productive individuals, a process that is reflected in tax returns."
Keeping in mind that whatever the government subsidizes increases, this does not bode well for the future of our country. We are encouraging dependency while discouraging productivity.
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