4 ms·

Another thing that people generally get wrong is what government spending goes on, with wide swathes of people believing that vastly more money goes to welfare

Another thing that people generally get wrong is what government spending goes on, with wide swathes of people believing that vastly more money goes to welfare than actually is the case.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
askin4it 4y ago
What's the entitlement slice of the pie up to these days in the US?
- alistairSH 4y ago
  ~73% of the federal budget is mandatory spending. Of that, ~52% is Social Security, unemployment, and labor programs (or ~40% of the total). ~28% Medicare and other health programs (or ~23% of the total). Military is ~11% of the total. Interest payments are a bit over 4% of the total. International affairs is <1% of the total budget. https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/ https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-bud...
selectodude 4y ago
My favorite statistic is that a decent number of people think that 25 percent of the US budget, over 1 trillion dollars, goes to foreign aid. https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/what-every-american-should-know-about-u-s-foreign-aid/amp/ https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/what-every-american-shoul...
alistairSH 4y ago
Not just that, but when polled on specific policy positions, people often agree. But when polled on the policy by name, they disagree. [or the inverse] ACA is a great example. Most of the core tenets are widely supported across the population. But, ask conservatives about the ACA by name and they often claim it's an awful law.
- User23 4y ago
  Ask liberals about the ACA and they’ll say it’s an awful law too, because they want single payer. The ACA is the classic please nobody compromise. Contrariwise on abortion it doesn’t matter whether you call it abortion, choice, life, murder, or whatever else, the divide in opinions remains.
prottog 4y ago
> vastly more money goes to welfare than actually is the case Federally, some kind of "welfare" comprises 60% of the budget[0]. Sure, you could argue that Social Security and Medicare are benefits paid for by what you put in during your working years, but that's just a facade over the fact that it is a transfer of wealth from those who are working to those who have retired from work. I'm not sure what your definition of "vastly" is, but certainly there is a substantial amount of transfers from those who earn more to those who earn less. All of this is separate from a discussion on whether that is good for society, but the facts should be laid out. [0]: https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function
- SigmundA 4y ago
  In the US "welfare" normally refers to social assistance programs not social insurance. That is no one refers to social security retirement benefits as "welfare" even though technically it is a form of it. The common trope is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen

Another thing that people generally get wrong is what government spending goes on, with wide swathes of people believing that vastly more money goes to welfare than actually is the case.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

askin4it 4y ago

What's the entitlement slice of the pie up to these days in the US?

alistairSH 4y ago
~73% of the federal budget is mandatory spending. Of that, ~52% is Social Security, unemployment, and labor programs (or ~40% of the total). ~28% Medicare and other health programs (or ~23% of the total). Military is ~11% of the total. Interest payments are a bit over 4% of the total. International affairs is <1% of the total budget. https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/ https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-bud...

selectodude 4y ago

My favorite statistic is that a decent number of people think that 25 percent of the US budget, over 1 trillion dollars, goes to foreign aid. https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/what-every-american-should-know-about-u-s-foreign-aid/amp/ https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/what-every-american-shoul...

alistairSH 4y ago

Not just that, but when polled on specific policy positions, people often agree. But when polled on the policy by name, they disagree. [or the inverse] ACA is a great example. Most of the core tenets are widely supported across the population. But, ask conservatives about the ACA by name and they often claim it's an awful law.

User23 4y ago
Ask liberals about the ACA and they’ll say it’s an awful law too, because they want single payer. The ACA is the classic please nobody compromise. Contrariwise on abortion it doesn’t matter whether you call it abortion, choice, life, murder, or whatever else, the divide in opinions remains.

prottog 4y ago

> vastly more money goes to welfare than actually is the case Federally, some kind of "welfare" comprises 60% of the budget[0]. Sure, you could argue that Social Security and Medicare are benefits paid for by what you put in during your working years, but that's just a facade over the fact that it is a transfer of wealth from those who are working to those who have retired from work. I'm not sure what your definition of "vastly" is, but certainly there is a substantial amount of transfers from those who earn more to those who earn less. All of this is separate from a discussion on whether that is good for society, but the facts should be laid out. [0]: https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function

SigmundA 4y ago
In the US "welfare" normally refers to social assistance programs not social insurance. That is no one refers to social security retirement benefits as "welfare" even though technically it is a form of it. The common trope is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen