[durasell]

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.

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Uh okay.

[Old North State]

Matthew Yglesias doesn't appear to understand the logical conclusion of his argument. If America has gotten better as the number of government dependents has risen, then he must conclude we should make everyone dependents as soon as possible. This is the Marxist argument so successfully demonstrated in the USSR and East Germany in the last century. Yes, the free market engine has been able to pull the increasingly heavy baggage cars for the last few decades, but as some point we reach a tipping point. It would seem prudent to consider that such a point may have been reached when the people in the baggage cars outnumber the number of people pulling it.