View Full Version : Does Government Dependency Influence Voting Behavior?
Does Government Dependency Influence Voting Behavior?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/does_government_dependency_influence_voting_behavi or.html
"Alexis de Tocqueville once prophesied "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." The Left vehemently denies that their social spending is anything but altruistic. Any correlation between federal spending on individual aid and voting behavior would reveal this altruism to be politically self-serving. The Left's denial (e.g., Klein, Matthews, Altman, Ponnuru) is often based on state-level observations and Moran has claimed that red states receive greater benefit from federal spending than blue states.................."
Worth a slow read. A study done at the voting district level. He does a nice job about explaining that "... red states receive greater benefit from federal spending than blue states..." bit.
Badger52
10-24-2013, 18:11
Very interesting, thanks Pete. If we get a few blizzards this winter maybe I'll check the data & see how that would play up here - why the appearance that "the state" went O (x2) yet elected Republican Gov, & both houses of the state legislature. Loyalty to the trough, maybe, and all else is up for grabs on a daily basis.
Team Sergeant
10-24-2013, 22:45
‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
I have heard individuals say on many occasions throughout the years that I am going to vote for (You Fill in the Name) because they are going to do this for me.
I can recall one individual I knew through scouting that said they were voting for democrats because they would push green energy and he could cash in on it. This person went to the extent of taking college green courses in the run up to the 2008 election.
Many Union boys and girls will cast their votes for whomever the Union tells them to because said individual or party is going to take care of them.
There are a lot of people who will vote money into their pockets.
FlagDayNCO
10-25-2013, 08:24
This line of thinking changes the very fabric of society. I watched an entire executive staff realign themselves because of the financial incentives to the business operation. They jumped on the green energy band wagon and positioned the company to be at the forefront of impending EPA regulations.
There are no losses to the business, as the changes are tax write offs for infrastructure improvement. Those not written off pass on to the rate paying public.
All this came about with the addition of a new executive team member, who worked for a Chicago law firm and then a Chicago based utility. He boasted of his close working relationship with the current Chicago Mayor, years ago.
It's all part of a well planned and scripted change.
Team Sergeant
10-25-2013, 08:39
I don't believe it matters anymore as we've passed the tipping point:
Census Bureau: Means-Tested Gov't Benefit Recipients Outnumber Full-Time Year-Round Workers
October 24, 2013
By Terence P. JeffreySubscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey RSS
(CNSNews.com) - Americans who were recipients of means-tested government benefits in 2011 outnumbered year-round full-time workers, according to data released this month by the Census Bureau.
They also out-numbered the total population of the Philippines.
There were 108,592,000 people in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2011 who were recipients of one or more means-tested government benefit programs, the Census Bureau said in data released this week. Meanwhile, according to the Census Bureau, there were 101,716,000 people who worked full-time year round in 2011. That included both private-sector and government workers.
That means there were about 1.07 people getting some form of means-tested government benefit for every 1 person working full-time year round.
The Census Bureau counted as recipients of means-tested government programs “anyone residing in a household in which one or more people received benefits from the program.” Many of these people lived in households receiving more than one form of means-tested benefit at the same time.
Among the 108,592,000 people who fit the Census Bureau’s description of a means-tested benefit recipient in the fourth quarter of 2011 were 82,457,000 people in households receiving Medicaid, 49,073,000 beneficiaries of food stamps, 20,223,000 on Supplemental Security Income, 23,228,000 in the Women, Infants and Children program, 13,433,000 in public or subsidized rental housing, and 5,854,000 in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Also among the 108,592,000 means-tested benefit recipients counted by the Census Bureau were people getting free or reduced-price lunch or breakfast, state-administered supplemental security income and means-tested veterans pensions.
The 108,592,000 people who were recipients of means-tested government programs in the fourth quarter of 2011 does not include people who received benefits from non-means-tested government programs but not from means-tested ones. That would include, for example, people who received Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, or non-means-tested veterans compensation, but did not receive benefits from a means-tested program such as food stamps or public housing.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the Census Bureau, there were 49,901,000 people who received Social Security benefits, 46,440,000 who received Medicare benefits, 5,098,000 on unemployment, and 3,178,000 who received non-means-tested veterans compensation.
When the people who received non-means-tested government benefits from programs such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and non-means-tested veterans compensation are added to those who received means-tested government programs such as food stamps, Supplemental Security Income and public housing, the total number of people receiving government benefits from one or more programs in the United States in 2011 climbs to 151,014,000, according to the Census Bureau.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census-bureau-means-tested-govt-benefit-recipients-outnumber-full#sthash.9SxrfVyj.dpuf
Its too bad our Republic is being run as a democracy or we might actually have a chance at long term survival...
"Democracy is the most vile form of government. ... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as the have been violent in their deaths."
— James Madison (1751-1836) Father of the Constitution, 4th President of the U. S.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" Ben Franklin
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” John Adams
“But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.” Henry David Thoreau
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” Thomas Jefferson
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census-bureau-means-tested-govt-benefit-recipients-outnumber-full TS beat me to this one..
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census-49-americans-get-gov-t-benefits-82m-households-medicaid
According to the above articles 49.2% of Americans receive some form of money from the Govt, but also more people receive benefits than are working.
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the U. S.
And finally..
Our military training manuals use to contain the correct definitions of Democracy and Republic. The following comes from Training Manual No. 2000-25 published by the War Department, November 30, 1928.
Below is what the Manual No. 2000-25 says in Section IX Lesson 9.
DEMOCRACY:
-A government of the masses.
-Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of "direct" expression.
-Results in mobocracy.
-Attitude toward property is communistic--negating property rights.
-Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.
-Results in demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.
REPUBLIC:
-Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them.
-Attitude toward property is respect for laws and individual rights, and a sensible economic procedure.
-Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.
-A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass.
-Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy.
-Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress.
-Is the "standard form" of government throughout the world.
The manuals containing these definitions were ordered destroyed without explanation about the same time that President Franklin D. Roosevelt made private ownership of our lawful money (US Minted Gold Coins) illegal. Shortly after the people turned in their $20 gold coins, the price was increased from $20 per ounce to $35 per ounce. Almost overnight F.D.R., the most popular president this century (elected 4 times) looted almost half of this nation's wealth, while convincing the people that it was for their own good. His right hand man, Harry Lloyd Hopkins, the New Deal architect, who suggested many of F.D.R.’s policies said.
Most of the above was found here..
http://www.whatourforefathersthought.com/DemoRep.html
So what happens to the stats, once Obama care is in full force?
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" Ben Franklin
The wolves will always choose democracy. Not only will wolves always choose democracy, they use an ever evolving ploy to convince the sheep that democracy is the preferred method of governance. The wolves have also gotten really good at convincing the sheep that the shepherd is the bad guy
craigepo
10-25-2013, 10:36
The philosophy of self.
As long as people think, act, and vote with only their own self-interests in mind, we will continue to have decision-making officials who conform their actions to the immature voters' whims.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The only way to avoid this is with a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution. Having to balance the budget forces politicians to say "no". Until Congress and the President have to say "NO", the country will continue to degrade financially and morally.
Trapper John
10-25-2013, 10:59
The philosophy of self.
As long as people think, act, and vote with only their own self-interests in mind, we will continue to have decision-making officials who conform their actions to the immature voters' whims.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The only way to avoid this is with a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution. Having to balance the budget forces politicians to say "no". Until Congress and the President have to say "NO", the country will continue to degrade financially and morally.
You will probably need to add serious campaign finance reform and term limits to that too. We need to destroy the permanent political class, IMO. Being a congressional representative should not be a career choice!
Team Sergeant
10-25-2013, 11:32
Not going to help as the "low information voters" aka the "IQ Challenged voters" aka the "entitlement voters" now outnumber all others.
All we can do is fight a delaying action. This slow motion train wreck is far from over.
New slogan: "No representation without taxation!"
Pat
Not going to help as the "low information voters" aka the "IQ Challenged voters" aka the "entitlement voters" now outnumber all others.
All we can do is fight a delaying action. This slow motion train wreck is far from over.
Sadly I agree with you TS.
I love my congressman, it's yours that is the problem.
This train has long left the station, it's nearly fully derailed but the crew keeps stoking the fire totally oblivious to the end result. Their answer is to borrow and spend and when that money is gone borrow some more. How do we fight the delaying action?
"Alexis de Tocqueville once prophesied "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
And the impact of "the vice of misattribution"?
http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html
Richard
I love my congressman, it's yours that is the problem.
This train has long left the station, it's nearly fully derailed but the crew keeps stoking the fire totally oblivious to the end result. Their answer is to borrow and spend and when that money is gone borrow some more. How do we fight the delaying action?
By taking care of yourself and your "tribe". Find a place that fits your values, with a community (tribe) that is willing to help each other, and stick together. Come up with a support network, and prepare and wait for the inevitability that is coming.
Do a risk assessment and stay away from area's where you are surrounded by other "tribes".
my .02
GratefulCitizen
10-25-2013, 21:46
This train has long left the station, it's nearly fully derailed but the crew keeps stoking the fire totally oblivious to the end result. Their answer is to borrow and spend and when that money is gone borrow some more.
The federal debt problem is an accounting fiction.
Whether spending comes from taxes or borrowing isn't terribly important.
One problem is how much they spend, as a percentage of the economy.
Paying people not to work is the other problem.
Government doesn't spend as wisely as the private sector.
Inefficient spending results in slower productivity growth.
Paying people not to work reduces the workforce.
This exacerbates the workforce problems caused by inverted demographics.
Lower productivity growth plus slower workforce growth means slower economic growth.
Slower economic growth means less wealth for everyone.
How do we fight the delaying action?
Not sure it can be fought with much effect at the federal level.
State governments are a better bet.
Differences among the states will attract freeloaders to some, productive people to others.
This buys time and forces change among the more foolish state governments.
The federal government will get more desperate in its efforts to buy votes as economic growth slows, which means they will fleece as many productive sheeple as possible.
Fortunately, the federal government is stupid and slow.
It's easy to be smarter and faster than the Feds (not trying to imply or suggest doing anything illegal).
All it takes for an individual is a little study of economics and finance coupled with the discipline not to run too near financial redlines.
The Feds will hit a limit when the only productive people left are too smart and fast.
The freeloaders will then be forced to work.
Workforce growth will then result in more economic growth.
The economy won't end, but the process may be painful for many.
Pain is an effective teacher.
Badger52
10-26-2013, 16:07
And the impact of "the vice of misattribution"?
http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html
RichardAn interesting piece sir, thanks.
The words themselves, in their application today, have no less substance however even attributed forever anonymously. They could've been uttered 10 minutes ago and be valid.
Team Sergeant's quoting of Heinlein reminds me of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, on nightstand currently, and that not all the loonies are up on Luna.
Reading Kilcullen's new book "Out of the Mountains", and matching it to my own personal opinions and experiences with 3rd world tribal politics, gangs, political machines, 1st world special interest politics....aren't they all pretty much the same?
Seeking power, acquiring it, handing out carrots to supporters, and giving the stick to your opponents.
Constituents as crackhead customers.