Originally Posted by
beerman2619
Have to disagree with the majority of you. Cost of living has skyrocketed while alot of people have lost jobs to no fault of there own. People need help i don't have no problem with it. I'd like someone to post what the percentage was back in the 80's, 90's, or even early 2000's. This country is a buckin joke right now whats minimum wage in area's back east like 7 bucks. Course people even working are going to need help. So i wouldn't call them moochers or lazy bucks. But just my opinion if you don't agree i could careless
"The 49.1% of the population in a household that gets benefits is up from 30% in the early 1980s and 44.4% as recently as the third quarter of 2008.The increase in recent years is likely due in large part to the lingering effects of the recession. As of early 2011, 15% of people lived in a household that received food stamps, 26% had someone enrolled in Medicaid and 2% had a member receiving unemployment benefits. Families doubling up to save money or pool expenses also is likely leading to more multigenerational households. But even without the effects of the recession, there would be a larger reliance on government."
Its really hard to say with any certainly how these numbers were calculated since there is no direct link to any Census data in the WSJ blog post that spurred this current talking point.