Posted on 10/23/2012 8:39:24 AM PDT by Starman417
Imagine what you could do with three quarters of a trillion dollars. You might buy a new house, maybe a new car and maybe even take a trip to Hawaii or Australia.
Seriously, what can $750 billion accomplish? Well, that all depends on who’s spending the money.
According to the Congressional Research Service the federal government spent $745 billion in 2011 on welfare payments.
That means that government took 20% of every dollar it extracted from citizen’s wallets (or borrowed on their behalf) and gave it to somebody else. Not in exchange for part of a system they have paid into like Social Security or Medicare, or earned such as veteran’s benefits, but simply because they, the recipients were deemed poor. What’s more, virtually every element of the welfare state has gone up by double digits over the last 3 years: Healthcare up 37%, cash aid up 12%, education (college) assistance up 57%, energy assistance up 67% and who knows how much “Obama phones” have grown. Those numbers are simply staggering. That welfare spending, when combined with the $300 billion states have to pay for federal programs, brings total welfare spending to $1.03 trillion, fully 7.5% of the American economy.
To put that spending in perspective, in 2011 the 500 companies that make up the Fortune 500 list earned a total of $825 billion in profit on revenues of $11.2 trillion for a profit margin of about 7%. (1/3 of that revenue came from outside the US)
It’s interesting to see what, in the right hands, upwards of ¾ of a trillion dollars can do.
Of course in the private sector it’s profits that drive the activity. Entrepreneurs often start companies because they’d like to make a profit doing what they love. Investors invest in companies because they believe the potential for profit outweighs the risk of losing their money. At its core profits are what drive a prosperous society.
So what did those 500 companies do to earn their $825 billion? They directly employed 17 million Americans and indirectly employed tens of millions more both in the United States and around the world. What’s more, they touched the lives of virtually every person in the country in one way or another: Utilities – PG&E and Georgia Power; cable TV – Cablevision and DirectTV; Food – Wal-Mart and McDonalds; Healthcare – HCA and Pfizer; Information – Google and TimeWarner; Entertainment – Disney and CBS; Insurance – State Farm and Aetna; Communication – Apple & ATT; Transportation – Ford and American Airlines.
The US revenue from these 500 companies represents about 50% of our GDP and improved the lives of virtually every man, woman and child in the country in the form of a paycheck or cheaper products or more efficient services or more effective treatments. They are the top performers in an economic system powered by innovation and experimentation and has generated unprecedented prosperity. All driven by $800 billion in profit…
Now contrast that with the government spending $745 billion. From food stamps to cell phones to housing assistance to healthcare, government spending on welfare programs have been growing for decades and have taken off like a rocket ship under the Obama administration. Surely with that much money spent the results must be phenomenal. With $20 trillion spent over the last half decade surely there must be no more poverty anywhere and no more hungry children.
(excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Nice idea, but I don’t think they would like the cut in pay...
Welfare programs and the like, are managed by people rewarded for ever increasing case load, followed by how many people you’re managing and their case load.
It was 1976 when I first learned of a young, divorced mother, being encouraged by her welfare caseworker, to apply for a second set of benefits, under an assumed name.
What position do you suppose qualified that caseworker, for her role in the Welfare Dept.?
You guessed it!
She had just come off of the welfare rolls herself!
Excellent and they should do it as a civic duty, volunteering and an indirect form of economic self-interest...
More efficient govt program = less taxes being paid and wasted = more money to spend = better profits for companies....
Trickle down works!
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