The growing dependent class

Nearly half (49.5%) of Americans don’t pay income tax. At first, you might be appalled, but let’s not lose sight of the true problem. The bottom 50% pay no income tax, but considering that I don’t believe anyone should be paying an income tax, that doesn’t concern me. What I do find troubling is the amount of government dependence in the bottom 50%.

In 1984, just just 14.8% of Americans didn’t pay income taxes. In the past 28 years, this has resulted in increasing redistribution of wealth and dependence on government. This group isn’t paying taxes, many are dependent on government, and in many cases, being rewarded for bad decisions.

The authors of the study added this quote, which should make us all think about the road to ruin we are heading down.

“This trend should concern everyone who supports America’s republican form of government,” Beach and Tyrrell wrote. “If the citizens’ representatives are elected by an increasing percentage of voters who pay no income tax, how long will it be before these representatives respond more to demands for yet more entitlements and subsidies from non-payers than to the pleas of taxpayers to exercise greater spending prudence?”