Friday, September 21, 2012

The Dependent Class

As the election inches ever closer both candidates, with any chance of winning this election, are put under a microscope and anything they say or do will be scrutinized by the opposing party. Recently a video of Republican Candidate Mitt Romney was released showing him speaking in front of a group saying "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them." Here Romney is discussing the amount of people that depend on welfare, food stamps, government disability and similar programs. This has become the source of outrage in the media, but how far off the truth is the presidential hopeful?
As we have heard over and over in the campaign there are more people dependent on government than ever today, Obama has been given several nicknames including the "Food Stamp President." According to sources from Investor's Business Daily "A record 47 million Americans are on food stamps, a number that has risen exponentially under Obama" and "According to the Tax Policy Center, 46.4% of American filers pay "zero or negative" income tax. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 88,921,000 Americans were "not in the labor force" in August. Only 63.5% of the civilian population participated in the labor force — lowest in 31 years." More and more people are becoming dependent on the government to aid their lives as a smaller portion of the population is paying taxes everyday. We have more people filing for food stamps everyday then those finding jobs.
When so many are dependent on so few we will inevitably see a concentration of money to a select few, and probably some form of economic collapse. So when Romney claims that he is not going to attempt to reach the 47% of the population that depends on the government for sustenance, he has good reason because they are likely to vote for the candidate that will keep these social programs going. If Romney's view really is to encourage small businesses and job creation he will have to appeal to the middle and higher class individuals as they are his best chance of becoming elected.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/091812-626150-romney-says-47-percent-dependent-on-government.htm
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser

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