A number of years ago (I forget exactly when, sometime in the early 90s, before "welfare reform"), a poll was taken of the US populace. People were asked which item in the federal budget was the largest. The top two given as answers, combined they equaled 45% of the responses, were foreign aid and welfare. At that time, nonmilitary foreign aid was about $12 billion and AFDC was a bit over $20 billion. Social security was about $350 billion and defense was over $250 billion.
What can one say? Barkley -----Original Message----- From: kelley <kwalker2 at gte.net> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>; lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Thursday, August 17, 2000 3:17 PM Subject: Re: The "law" of wealth concentration
> Barkley my man sez:
>
>> In the US, social security is the biggest of them
>>all, outweighing all the others put together. In some
>>of those Scandinavian countries, other kinds of
>>transfer programs are much bigger than in the US,
>>e.g. child care, pay for sick leaves, etc.
>>Barkley Rosser
>
>
>isn't it the case too that an extraordinarily small part of our tax dollars
>goes to those evil welfare programs like TANF (formerly known as AFDC),
>
>elsewhere, some putz is going on about how the vote should be denied to
>anyone who received welfare. i laugh my ass off when i read such a claim
>sent out via the fookin internet of all mediums that is primarily the
>result of gov largesse! freakinchristonabrokencrutch!
>
>so anyway, isn't there a load of middle class "welfare" such as subsidized
>student loans and home loans and that sort of thing that ought to render
>anyone who takes advantage of such ineligible for the vote on this logic?
>
>i know i've read this argument before, i'm just too lazy to go look it up
>or even type it out since to argue agst the position is an incredible waste
>of my time. (yo! carrol! you and i agree, on that score. mark that one
>in your journal. it's gotta be a first. heh)
>
></rant>
>
>smooches from da snit!
>
>oh did you have great trip across the us of a???
>
>
>> >kelley wrote:
>> >
>> >>transfer system? what's that? the way those tax revenues are dist
>> >>and used in programs?
>> >
>> >Income transfers - welfare payments, unemployment benefits, pensions,
>> >child allowances, etc. More broadly, programs matter (health
>> >insurance, tuition subsidies), but strictly speaking, transfers are
>> >nonmarket forms of income.
>> >
>> >Doug
>> >
>
>