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Chapter 1
A NATION OF MOOCHERS
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
Momentum
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
Always More
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
* More than 50 million were on Medicaid (another 16 million will be added under Obama-
care); more than 40 million on food stamps; 10 million on unemployment; and 4.4 million on
welfare. Reported USA Today: “The federal price tag for Medicaid has jumped 36% in two
years, to $273 billion. Jobless benefits have soared from $43 billion to $160 billion. The food
stamps program has risen 80%, to $70 billion. Welfare is up 24%, to $22 billion.” Even so,
these numbers greatly understate the extent or cost of the dependency culture.
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
• Major Wall Street firms and failing car makers were handed
hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer cash subsidies as
rewards for their irresponsible risk taking and reckless deal
making and spending. (Citigroup and General Motors each
received $50 billion in direct aid; the total tab for bailouts
may run into the trillions of dollars in a process that has “priva-
tized gains and socialized losses.”) Most Americans, however,
were not “too big to fail” and went without bailouts.
* The Cata logue of Federal Domestic Assistance lists 2,025 federal subsidy programs, including
383 Health and Human Ser vice programs, 230 in Agriculture, and 168 in Education, each
with active, organized, and well-connected interest groups braying for increased funding. The
result has been an explosion in the proportion of the national income paid by government
rather than earned in the private sector.
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
• The gap between the two Americas (the public and private
sectors) continues to grow. According to the Bureau of Eco-
nomic Analysis, federal employees now earn more than double
what private sector workers make. In 2009, the average federal
civil servant pulled down pay and benefits of more than
$123,000, while private employees made do with an average
of $61,051 in total compensation. The gap between the two
Americas has grown in the last decade, with the gap between
the compensation of federal and private workers more than
doubling.13 In addition to the cushier salaries and benefits pack-
ages, government workers on average also have more job secu-
rity and far richer pensions (and more vacation days).
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
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A NATION OF MOOCHERS
OPM
(Other People’s Money)
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