What if many of these people have found a way to survive without working and like not working? Maybe they aren't discouraged but are instead in one way or another "retired." Perhaps they now draw disability payments or early retirement benefits.Today, The Weekly Standard documents people becoming wards of the government in really large numbers. Over the last four years the number of employed persons has declined modestly, while the number on disability enrollment has increased 17.6%, the number on Medicaid has increased 19.3%, and the number drawing Food Stamps is up 65.2%.
Most frightening of all is this line from the Senate report being quoted:
Overall, there are nearly 80 means-tested federal welfare programs and, according to the Census Bureau, nearly 110 million people in the United States receive benefits from at least one of them. (This figure includes exclusively means-tested welfare programs, not entitlements like Medicare Or Social Security).In other words, roughly one American in three gets a poverty-based government handout. It isn't 47% but it is nevertheless a lot. How many of the 110 million will voluntarily go back to work if the government benefits continue?
