I’ve previously shared an amazing chart put together by a Cato colleague showing that massive increases in spending and staff have had no positive impact on educational performance.
Now here’s a chart that is equally remarkable, showing that we spend about $60,000 on various welfare programs for every poor household in America. And what are we getting for that giant expenditure of money? Well, as this other chart shows, our progress in the fight against poverty came to a screeching halt right about the time that the politicians in Washington launched the so-called War on Poverty.
This video contains more analysis, for those who want to learn about the best way of actually reducing poverty. It’s important to remember, after all, that the welfare state has a human cost that is just as important as the fiscal cost.
If you want more powerful pictures and info-graphics, here are some of my favorites.
- Exposing Obama’s miserable jobs performance.
- The importance of saving and investment if we want workers to enjoy higher wages.
- The TSA’s Orwellian (and incompetent) approach to airline security.
- Showing how the burden of government spending has exceeded the growth of the economy’s productive sector.
And I suppose I should share, once again, my favorite poster about government.
So where is all the money!!!!!!!!!
Friedman pointed out this issue decades ago! He has an interesting strategy for this problem outlined in Free to Choose. It’s a great book!
Indeed, Friedman did bring this up in Free to Choose. The negative income tax has its flaws…but why not just give people a whopping big check to take care of everything. Taxpayer money is still squandered, but the bureaucracy is gone.
Reblogged this on The Word from the Front.
Does this include everything? The number might be even higher.
I think there are something like 60 million social security recipients and only 30 million people in the U.S. over retirement age.
I wonder how much got gobbled up the the Washington crowd? “Help” does have its cost!
Here’s some federal entitlements that produce nothing but a paycheck that’s taxable. http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/index.shtml
[...] The $7400 figure for per-capita redistribution burden is astounding. Others have calculated that this is akin to $60,000 for every poor household. [...]
[...] The $7400 figure for per-capita redistribution burden is astounding. Others have calculated that this is akin to $60,000 for every poor household. [...]
[...] crippling fiscal cost of the welfare state – but how little of the money trickles down to the [...]
[...] crippling fiscal cost of the welfare state – but how little of the money trickles down to the [...]