USA Today reported a startling statistic recently, based on an analysis of data from the federal government.
“Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year,” the newspaper reported. “At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.”
The article added, “The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.”
Here are some hard figures from USA Today’s analysis, which ought to be alarming to those who are concerned about the United States’ economic future:
* Less than 42 percent of personal income in America in the first quarter of this year was from private wages and salaries. That is a record low, and it is down 2.7 percent just since late 2007.
* Meanwhile, a variety of government programs provided almost 18 percent of individual income in the first quarter. That is up 3.7 percent since late 2007. Taxpayer-funded wages for government workers are also rising fast, as much of the $862 billion “stimulus” has gone to prop up government bureaucracy while private-sector workers have been laid off in droves.
Those numbers are deeply disturbing, because government cannot produce wealth and income. It can only give out what it takes in from the productive private sector in taxes, fees and such. More government spending is exactly the opposite of what our faltering economy needs.
As USA Today noted, those income trends can’t be sustained, because “The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all … .”
Our people are looking too often to government as the source of everything from health care to wages. But government only shuffles wealth around. It can’t produce it. We will face economic catastrophe if we do not reduce the size of government and restore it to its proper constitutional functions.