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Jewish World Review April 6, 2012/ 14 Nissan, 5772 Half of Us Support the Other Half By Greg Crosby
In this redistribution scheme, the people who work hard and earn a lot of money need to give a sizable portion of that money to those who do not work. This system works out nicely for those who don't work. For those who have worked hard to make their money, it's not so good. And by the way, it's a great way to kill ambition, creativity, and hard work in people. Why knock yourself out if the government is just going to take it away and give it to other people? The scary thing is that with each passing year, more and more people are on the receiving end of government handouts leaving the few of us who actually earn money to support them. This will ultimately change America into something far different than our founders intended. And eventually it will destroy us, as it has some European countries such as Greece. As reported by the Heritage Foundation, this year's Index of Dependence on Government showed alarming findings about the sharp increase of Americans who rely on the federal government for housing, food, income, student aid or other assistance. In America today 70% of all federal spending goes to dependence programs. But the most jaw dropping number was the percentage of Americans who don't pay income taxes, which now makes up nearly half of the U.S. population. And most of that population receives generous federal benefits. Heritage authors Bill Beach and Patrick Tyrrell wrote that "One of the most worrying trends in the Index is the coinciding growth in the non-taxpaying public. The percentage of people who do not pay federal income taxes, and who are not claimed as dependents by someone who does pay them, jumped from 14.8 percent in 1984 to 49.5 percent in 2009." That means 151.7 million Americans paid nothing in 2009. And this doesn't even take into account the millions of illegals who do not report their income at all or/and are on some kind of government assistance programs. As Beach and Tyrrell warn, this trend does not bode well for the future of the American form of government. The rapid growth of Americans who don't pay income taxes coupled with higher spending on government programs is already proving to be a major fiscal challenge. "This trend should concern everyone who supports America's republican form of government," they write. "If the citizens' representatives are elected by an increasing percentage of voters who pay no income tax, how long will it be before these representatives respond more to demands for yet more entitlements and subsidies from non-payers than to the pleas of taxpayers to exercise greater spending prudence?" A great question. Of course when it gets to that point, only the politicians that promise more government handouts will ever get elected. More and more people will demand more and more free stuff. And the burden of giving all those people the free stuff will continue to fall on the few who earn money. Right now that means the half of us who pay taxes are giving to the half who pay nothing. Which half are YOU in?
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© 2008, Greg Crosby |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
