WHY WORK

The New Normal:  "Why work hard for $60,000, when you can earn $14,000 and sit around collecting another $50,000!"

I realize that welfare benefits, Medicare, and cutting the spending side of the fiscal cliff - are all painful topics to discuss.  Thanks to James T. - if you somehow believed that it was the top 1% that is stealing from the middle class, please realize that it is also those individuals at the bottom of the economic ladder that rip off the middle class - courtesy of the world's most generous entitlement system.  It's horrific when you can do as well working one week a month at minimum wage as you can working a $60,000/year, fulltime, high stress job.  This chart tells the story, and is fairly self-explanatory:

Money Earned in a Year       $3,625          $14,500         $30,000        $60,000

  +Payroll and Fed Inc. Tax   (    278)        (   1,225)        (   4,574)       ( 13,034)

  +Childcare Cost                    ( 2,400)        (   9,600)        (   9,600)       (   9,600)

  +Mississippi Inc. Tax            (    109)        (      725)        (   1,500)       (   3,000)

  +Earned Inc. Tax Credit         1,450              5,020             2,163                     0

  +Food Stamps                         6,312              6,312                     0                     0

  +National School Lunche      1,800              1,800                     0                     0

  +Temp. Assistance(TANF)    2,040                      0                     0                     0

  +Medicaid and CHIP            16,500            16,500           10,890                     0

  +Section 8 Rent Subsidy       1,450               4,350                     0                     0

  +Utility Bill Assist (LIHEAP)  1,240                  845                      0                     0

Total Disposable Inc.           $31,630          $37,777          $26,379         $34,366

This chart shows that a one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.  Then I realized that a family provider working only one week a month at minimum wage, makes 92% of that same $60,000 a year - ugh!

Did you ever wonder why Obama was so focused on health reform?  It is so that those who have no interest or ability in working can make as much as representatives of America's endangered, middle class. 

-       First, working one week a month, saves a lot on childcare.

-       Second, by only working one week a month you have minimal deductibles and copays - so you virtually get total medical coverage for next to nothing. 

-       Third, the low-income parent will have more energy to attend to the various stresses of managing a household.  

-       Fourth, say that one-week-a-month worker maintains an unreported cash-only job on the side - then the deal gets even better than the $60k a year job.  And some economists estimate that there is $1 Trillion in unreported, earned income each year in the United States.

Now where it gets plainly out of control is if one throws in Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  SSI pays $8,088/period for each "disabled" family member.  A person can be deemed "disabled" if they are totally lacking in the cultural and educational skills needed to be employable in the workforce.  If you add $24,262 a year (for three disability checks), now the lowest paid welfare family would again have far more take-home pay than the $60,000 a year family.

The topic of wealth redistribution in America is truly a touchy subject.  But this chart matches the disposable income chart recently released by the Congressional Budget Office - who just released a key paper titled: "Share of Returns Filed by Low- and Moderate-Income Workers, by Marginal Tax Rate, Under 2012 Law".

Perhaps the most disturbing set of figures resides below, and tries to summarize our unsustainable welfare burden:

-       For every 1.65 people employed in the private sector, 1 person receives welfare assistance, and

-       For every 1.25 people employed in the private sector, 1 person receives welfare assistance or works for the government.

Currently there are 110 million privately employed workers, and there are 88 million welfare recipients and government workers - rising rapidly. 

As much as everyone keeps throwing stones at the top of our social order, the facts show us that individuals at the bottom of the entitlement food chain also make out like a bandits.  On our path to socialistic welfare - we've long surpassed capitalistic/communist China - because in capitalist/communist China you actually need to work to eat.