Copyright 2013 by John T. Reed

I and others have complained that the Democrat business model is to get as many Americans as possible addicted to monthly government checks and for the Democrats to be the party of government checks.

It worked. They won power in 2008 and again in 2012. It is also rapidly bankrupting the U.S.

In his inaugural address, Obama felt the need to explicitly deny we have become a nation of takers using that word. He protests too much.

Nicholas Eberstadt, is the author of the 2012 book A Nation of Takers: America’s Entitlement Epidemic and the author of an op-ed in the 1/25/13 Wall Street Journal that provides an executive summary of the dimensions of this, including how much of it is means tested not seniors. In other words, need has been redefined again and again to the point where an astonishing percentage of Americans are needy—a bankrupting percentage. The op-ed is titled “Yes, Mr. President, We Are a Nation of Takers.”

• Since 1960, entitlements have grown twice as fast as personal income and are now 18% of all personal income versus 6% in 1960.

• Entitlements are now $2.3T; total U.S. tax revenue is $2.5T

• In 1960, welfare was one-third of federal spending; now two-thirds.

• Census Bureau says 49% of Americans now live in a house receiving government transfer benefits; only about one-tenth going to seniors

• 35%—over 100 million people get means tested money or services from the government 2/3 of them are not Social Security or Medicare

• the percentage of Americans over 30 who do not work at all is twice that of Greece and higher than almost all Western European countries

• more American are on disability—12.4 million—now than work in manufacturing; mainly bad backs and mood disorders, which cannot be verified by medical science; not that Barack Obama would want to question the integrity of any voters if medical science permitted

Eberstadt worries about the moral hazard and the spread of the something for nothing mentality.

That is also a common thread in history books about hyperinflation, only there the moral hazard is the people who did the rights—like saving—are hurt the most and those who did the wrong thing—borrowing and spending—profit the most.

This business model has been great for the Democrats. Republicans are afraid to stop it. Arithmetic will stop it, soon. This is part of the nation imploding economically and trying to pay its bills—mostly the hammock, not safty net, described in this op-ed—by hyperinflating the dollar.

In 1941, America drafted over 11 million men to fight and win World War II. At the moment, if Amercia needed to do that, it could not. Our population is twice as large as in World War II, but too many are obese, “disabled,” and dodging the draft. This is not your father’s America and unfortunately, your father’s son’s America will not work.

John T. Reed