Comments on: Americans Gradually Embracing Welfare State

By: Kent

Kent — Sun, 06 May 2007 03:00:53 +0000

Polls are nice, but revealed preference is more reliable. When the voters start voting for politicians who promise to raise their taxes to feed/shelter the poor -- not just the taxes on the rich -- I'll believe a shift towards liberalism. And that isn't a "pigs fly" criterion. I could see it happening, though I think it somewhat unlikely.

By: Bithead

Bithead — Sat, 05 May 2007 02:41:31 +0000

Sean's point is well taken. I would add to that that past that point it's all been a matter of degree, anyway.

I would suggest, however, that Roosevelt knew exactly the kind of foundation he was laying down. As the founders themselves repeatedly observed , once the people figure out that they can pilfer tax funds for their own ends, the Republic is doomed.

That situation, however, is nothing, compared to the concept of letting people from outside the Republic decide what the republics funding gets used for, as Gentlevoice points out.

By: carpeicthus

carpeicthus — Sat, 05 May 2007 01:53:01 +0000

Boy, this has sure gotten people's crazy up.

By: gentlevoice

gentlevoice — Sat, 05 May 2007 00:16:46 +0000

I'd be interested to see the correlation between the percentage of folks who pay no income tax with that of those saying 'gov't should support everybody". I wonder if the drift up in nontaxpayers matches the drift up in "let the gov't daddy take care of them".

By: floyd

floyd — Fri, 04 May 2007 23:53:25 +0000

So! After all the sanctimonious BS, the majority of Americans favor institutionalized slavery , at least for the workforce, according to this compilation of information.

By: Zelsdorf Ragshaft III

Zelsdorf Ragshaft III — Fri, 04 May 2007 23:32:14 +0000

Legion, I agree with you. I think we should strip George Soros of all of his wealth. Take all that the Kennedy's own, All the money Kerry's wife has and use it to fund Government grants ot feed the poor. Someone much wiser than you once said never trust a rich liberal. Good advise. Take it.

By: legion

legion — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:47:15 +0000

Personally, I think that with the increasing gulf between rich and poor in this country, coupled with the shrinking middle class and the general trend of higher credit debt/lower savings, an increasing number of Americans are disturbingly within sight of _needing_ that gov't handout; thus they are less upset about their tax dollars going to ensure that support stays in place...

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:32:47 +0000

Here's the link to the study itself and I don't think it shows quite what I would take away from this post or the posts to which it links. To my eye what the change in numbers over time suggests is that American opinion cycles through a fairly narrow range on these questions. We're not at either extreme of that range right now. To be honest I found this more interesting. In answer to the following question:

“Should government help more needy people even if debt increases”.

The number of Democrats agreeing with the statement is actually lower than it was in 2003. Independents, on the other hand, are trending to support the statement. That appears to be the case for many of the questions: independents are trending more “progressive”.

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:25:12 +0000

I think that you would get a much different breakdown if the questions were rephrased to incorporate your caveats. For example:

The government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and a place to sleep in a location of the citizen's choosing, even if that location is a metropolitan area with high housing costs.

I would guess that there would be a lot more "no" answers. So maybe you are not actually in the minority.

By: Sean Hackbarth

Sean Hackbarth — Fri, 04 May 2007 21:18:52 +0000

I think Americans fully accepted the Welfare State when Eisenhower was elected. The public could have voted in a candidate who wanted to pull back much of the New Deal. Instead they picked the moderate ex-general.

When you combine that acceptance with the inability of conservative politicians to use constitutional arguments to fight government programs we have the Sweden Lite system we have today.