New Report Finds Americans Increasingly Rely on Government Assistance
Of all government assistance payments in 2022, 56 percent went to the elderly, mostly for Medicare, as reported.
Payments from the government have become the fastest-growing source of income for Americans, according to a new study.
Transfer payment programs include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment and disability, food stamps, and veterans’ benefits.
Transfer payments increased from 8 percent of U.S. total income in 1970 to 18 percent today, the report states, crowding out private income from wages and investments.
“There is a large range of experiences driving transfer reliance across communities,” Benjamin Glasner, EIG economist and one of the report’s authors, told The Epoch Times. “But it’s unavoidable to look at the fact that transfer reliance has grown rapidly across the country, and it’s something we need to deal with.”
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“The primary driver that we found in our report is demographic related, specifically the fact that the country has aged so rapidly,” Glasner said. “And the transfer programs that target that aging population also have grown significantly more expensive over time.”
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