The Dependency Agenda

[Chris]

Kevin D. Williamson's The Dependency Agenda, along with the video visualization of it, came out in 2012. But little has changed.

Watch the video, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W6A5nj3lzY&t=4s

I think it can be summarized in a single chart:

https://i.snag.gy/DJsi5E.jpg

What may have been well-intentioned welfare--I won't go as far as Williamson--has resulted in a welfare state of dependency we can ill afford.


(This is on the serious side, please treat it as such.)

[Newpublius]

Kevin D. Williamson's The Dependency Agenda, along with the video visualization of it, came out in 2012. But little has changed.

Watch the video, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W6A5nj3lzY&t=4s

I think it can be summarized in a single chart:

https://i.snag.gy/DJsi5E.jpg

What may have been well-intentioned welfare--I won't go as far as Williamson--has resulted in a welfare state of dependency we can ill afford.


(This is on the serious side, please treat it as such.)

Locally property tax up 6% this year. Come Nov 1st, the State of NJ will be asking for ANOTHER $.23 per gallon of gas. Next year the Social Security ceiling goes from $118500->$127+

The bill never goes down.

[MRogersNhood]

Locally property tax up 6% this year. Come Nov 1st, the State of NJ will be asking for ANOTHER $.23 per gallon of gas. Next year the Social Security ceiling goes from $118500->$127+

The bill never goes down.
Of course it doesn't.It's never enough.Ever.
Not until fear of a violent revolution is struck into the hearts of the taxers.
Only then does backpedaling begin,often too late for them.
Historically,anyways.

[exploited]

Just a bunch of cherry-picked junk statistics combined with massive, ideologically-driven assumptions. So many that it would take me pages to write it all out.

[Chris]

Locally property tax up 6% this year. Come Nov 1st, the State of NJ will be asking for ANOTHER $.23 per gallon of gas. Next year the Social Security ceiling goes from $118500->$127+

The bill never goes down.

Tell me about it.

But the costs cannot exceed the diminishing incentives to fund the state.

[Chris]

Of course it doesn't.It's never enough.Ever.
Not until fear of a violent revolution is struck into the hearts of the taxers.
Only then does backpedaling begin,often too late for them.
Historically,anyways.

Can such a dependent people rebel? I don't think so. But I do believe it will fail.

[MRogersNhood]

Can such a dependent people rebel? I don't think so. But I do believe it will fail.

It surely cannot continue upon the backs of the working people.
Bluntly:
It just can't be all Chiefs and no Indians,you know?
Not the bestest analogy.
They (government) can't continue to support themselves AND people that don't work on the backs of working people.
They really aren't supporting themselves.
Every single government worker's pay comes from tax funds.
There aren't enough people in the workforce to support as many government workers as there are RIGHT NOW.
How many people's taxes does it take to pay just one Federal worker's salary?

[Newpublius]

Just a bunch of cherry-picked junk statistics combined with massive, ideologically-driven assumptions. So many that it would take me pages to write it all out.

Its impossible for liberals to fathom that the interests receiving government payments don't vote to maintain such interests. This is only apparently to liberals when citing Eisenhowers military/industrial complex.

[Newpublius]

Tell me about it.

But the costs cannot exceed the diminishing incentives to fund the state.

Sold my business and am now temping but it was even worse then. You become a glorified tax collector for the governments. When my customers spent a $1, I'd make 7.5%. All taxes paid, ie when you saw the 'funnel'.....21% goes to the government. Its NOT all income taxes. In fact, the government had a greater financial interest in my business than I did.

[Newpublius]

Can such a dependent people rebel? I don't think so. But I do believe it will fail.

Well look at private school today. Private school is waning because people pay property taxes to support schools even if their children attend private school.

[DGUtley]

None of us are paying our fair share. We must pay more.

[Chris]

Sold my business and am now temping but it was even worse then. You become a glorified tax collector for the governments. When my customers spent a $1, I'd make 7.5%. All taxes paid, ie when you saw the 'funnel'.....21% goes to the government. Its NOT all income taxes. In fact, the government had a greater financial interest in my business than I did.

That is what I mean by it's not sustainable, it destroys the incentives to go into and stay in business.

[Chris]

None of us are paying our fair share. We must pay more.

Until we can pay no more.

[Newpublius]

None of us are paying our fair share. We must pay more.

Taxes are single largest expense many, many Americans face. I'm paying more than half my income in taxes to local, state and federal government.

[midcan5]

This is the stuff that keeps the wealthy elites happy and their poor followers crawling through the dirt behind them. There was no war on poverty, repeat after me, there was no war on poverty. Google it if you doubt that (see below too). Consider what is made in America today? Can you reduce poverty without work? Some naive libertarian may think so, but anyone with 15 or 20 brain cells will say it can't be done. But it must be repeated and repeated for something / someone must be blamed for how else can one hide from reality. Same old, same old, how boring and useless. The solution is a hard one but let's keep our head in that hole so next week the same thread will start all over again and again....

"What is it about a flamboyant millionaire that appeals to poor white conservatives? Why do they believe a Trump presidency would amplify their voices? The answer may lie in America’s historical relationship between the wealthiest class and the army of poor whites who have loyally supported them.

From the time of slavery (yes, slavery) to the rise of Donald Trump, wealthy elites have relied on the allegiance of the white underclass to retain their affluence and political power. To understand this dynamic, to see through the eyes of poor and working class whites as they chant, “Trump, Trump, Trump,” let’s look back at a few unsavory slices of America’s capitalist pie." http://www.stirjournal.com/2016/04/01/i-know-why-poor-whites-chant-trump-trump-trump/

'Diversity or the welfare state: choose one' http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2006/10/diversity_or_the_welfare_state

"Indeed, in the years after officials in the Reagan administration radically altered how our government enforces our antimonopoly laws, the American economy underwent a truly revolutionary restructuring. Four great waves of mergers and acquisitions—in the mid-1980s, early ’90s, late ’90s, and between 2003 and 2007—transformed America’s industrial landscape at least as much as globalization. Over the same two decades, meanwhile, the spread of mega-retailers like Walmart and Home Depot and agricultural behemoths like Smithfield and Tyson’s resulted in a more piecemeal approach to consolidation, through the destruction or displacement of countless independent family-owned businesses." http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1003.lynn-longman.html

and a related piece on the war on the war on poverty

"But this view of events ignores the fact that we don’t have enough aggregate demand to support full employment (or anything close to it) in this economy. For the last four and a half years, we have had at least three times as many job-seekers as we have had jobs (including almost seven times as many job-seekers in the summer of 2009). We aren’t lacking in motivated workers, or elbow grease, or personal responsibility, we are lacking in available work. And during sustained downturns such as this, you need federal assistance more than ever." http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2013/08/paul_ryans_war_on_the_war_on_p046225.php

"It turns out that the Wall Street bonus pool in 2014 was roughly twice the total annual earnings of all Americans working full time at the federal minimum wage." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-inequality-is-a-choice.html

"Lasch understood the paradox that much of the modern American left and right find contradictory: property could be theft, particularly under capitalist property relations and wage labor, but it also meant freedom for small producers — such as farmers, artisans, and shopkeepers in the 19th century or what today have become small business owners and sole proprietorships — who were able to control the conditions under which they made their living. The rise of mass production for ever-expanding markets and with it the shift to salaried labor destroyed this radical yet deeply conservative outlook on life, turning skilled craftsmen who worked for themselves into interchangeable cogs in somebody else’s machine, both literally and figuratively. Workers understood this, noted Lasch, and reacted by "defending not just their economic interests but their crafts, families, and neighborhoods."" http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-read-christopher-lasch/

'Conservatives Think They Have a Magic Formula for Raising People Out of Poverty'
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/07/24/the_success_sequence_conservatives_think_they_have _a_formula_for_raising.html

"The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer... Economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of “nanny state” policies that ensure the rich get richer while leaving most Americans worse off. It’s time for the rules to change. Sound economic policy should harness the market in ways that produce desirable social outcomes – decent wages, good jobs and affordable health care." http://deanbaker.net:8080/books/the-conservative-nanny-state.htm

[Chris]

This is the stuff that keeps the wealthy elites happy and their poor followers crawling through the dirt behind them. There was no war on poverty, repeat after me, there was no war on poverty. Google it if you doubt that (see below too). Consider what is made in America today? Can you reduce poverty without work? Some naive libertarian may think so, but anyone with 15 or 20 brain cells will say it can't be done. But it must be repeated and repeated for something / someone must be blamed for how else can one hide from reality. Same old, same old, how boring and useless. The solution is a hard one but let's keep our head in that hole so next week the same thread will start all over again and again....


No war on poverty is denialism...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AuStymweQ



The rest of your post ignored as irrelevant.

[MRogersNhood]

No war on poverty is denialism...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AuStymweQ


Ooo.I have such a good quote of what he said after that speech,hoo boy!
Have flame retardant suit ready!


The rest of your post ignored as irrelevant.

[exploited]

No war on poverty is denialism...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3AuStymweQ



The rest of your post ignored as irrelevant.

lol

You're the definition of a pleb.

[MRogersNhood]

lol

You're the definition of a pleb.

Aight now.From what I've seen thus far:You sir are mudpuddle material while he is pond material.

Ask yourself this: Who is the one rabidly supporting a push for Americans to be sold down the river into global slavery?

That would be you.It's quite Lemming-like.

[Chris]

Aight now.From what I've seen thus far:You sir are mudpuddle material while he is pond material.

Ask yourself this: Who is the one rabidly supporting a push for Americans to be sold down the river into global slavery?

That would be you.It's quite Lemming-like.


It's OK, ignore him.

[midcan5]

While some tout tired slogans and BS graphs others look more closely.

"If this election teaches Republicans one thing, hopefully it’s that they can no longer ignore the plight of the country’s lower and working classes. Safety-net reforms that meaningfully improve life for the poor—and are consistent with conservative principles—should be high on the agenda.


A new proposal from the “bleeding-heart libertarian” Niskanen Center deserves special attention. The report’s authors, Samuel Hammond and Robert Orr, would increase the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child and make it fully “refundable” so that poor families can always receive it. Hammond and Orr would also send the money in monthly installments, rather than annually, to help these families balance their budgets on a regular basis."

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-to-help-poor-children/

[Safety]

General warning to stick to the topic at hand