Taps Coogan – November 2nd, 2021

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The following chart, from the wonderful Jim Bianco of Bianco Research, shows the percentage of US personal income that comes from government transfers payments, aka entitlements programs like Food Stamps, Unemployment, Social Security, Medicare/caid, and more recently helicopter checks from Uncle Sam.

Right or wrong, welfare and entitlements were originally sold as a means to an end, a mechanism to lift people out of poverty and therefore eventually reduce the need for government assistance in the first place.

From the look of the chart above, the means are becoming the end. The share of personal income doled out by Washington has risen from less than 6% in 1960 to over a third this March. Meanwhile, the percent of Americans at or below the poverty line remains unchanged since 1970.

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