Posted on 09/22/2007 4:52:03 PM PDT by reaganaut1
Andrew Sullivan, a senior editor at The Atlantic, came upon a chart at TheAgitator.com last week showing two trend lines: the ranks of private workers decreasing and the number of government beneficiaries increasing in the United States since 1950, with beneficiaries now surpassing workers. The only comment from Mr. Sullivan on his blog at TheAtlantic.com was his headline: The Road to Serfdom.
Radley Balko, the libertarian commentator and journalist who writes TheAgitator.com, credits the chart to A. Gary Shillings financial newsletter Insight. It was also posted on the Web site of Reason magazine, where Mr. Balko is an editor (reason.com).
According to Katherine Mangu-Ward, an editor at Reason, Mr. Shilling, an economist and columnist for Forbes, totaled up government workers, private-sector workers who owe their jobs to government and recipients of government entitlements like Social Security and food stamps. For good measure, he threw in dependents of these beneficiaries. Shilling found that for each person earning his pay in the private sector and paying taxes, Ms. Mangu-Ward wrote, there is at least one more person relying on a check from the government.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“We’re in heap big trouble in this country.”
No one could disagree, but those who benefit do not see the lingering danger of it all to all, including themselves.
The government has been labelled as an enemy by some folks.
There’s really no comparison.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.