Welfare question

Discussion in 'Economics' started by riddler, Dec 16, 2012.

  1. riddler

    riddler

    how much is taken out f our pay checks/ taxes for welfare? i am reading its a very small amount..
    is it taken out of property taxes as well as our payroll tax from paycheck?
     
  2. piezoe

    piezoe

    https://www.google.com/search?q=pie...ZAuqP0QHLk4DYCA&ved=0CEsQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=857

    It might be well to define "welfare" before delving into this question. If you restrict it to the federal level and define it broadly as money that is transferred, directly or indirectly, from you to other citizens and private for profit corporations via taxes you paid, then it is quite a large figure. If you leave out corporations then it is a substantial, but a lower amount. If from the latter you leave out indirect welfare, such as the modest subsidy of low earners by high earners in social security payments, it gets even smaller, and includes such things as food stamps, payments to mothers with dependent children, medicaid, pell grants, etc. This amount is very small viewed against the entire federal budget, and still fairly small viewed against just the discretionary budget.

    An examples of corporate welfare would be your subsidy of Walmart Corporation. By keeping the minimum wage low, you subsidize the Walmart employees that qualify for public assistance. In return you can recover this subsidy in lower prices to the extent you shop at Walmart. You might prefer a minimum wage of $15/hr and shopping elsewhere. Another example would be foreign aid which is 80-90% spent on U.S. manufactured military equipment. This is, of course, an indirect subsidy by you of the private defense industry. In the 19th century millions of acres of Federal lands were given to private railroad companies. Was this welfare or was it an investment of a public asset? So the question you ask is not a simple one, unless you first define what you mean by welfare, and even then it is not so simple.

    Usually your property taxes would be used to support the expenses of local and/or sate government and its operations, such as the public schools, city hall, etc., and as such are not welfare. It is possible that some of your property taxes, depending on where you live, might subsidize state or local welfare programs, or contribute to matching money for federal welfare programs such as medicaid. You also might help fund, or at least back bonds for a new football stadium for your local, privately-owned pro football team to play in. Is this welfare, or an investment? Your reward for taking on the risk of default on those bonds would be any additional profit you made because of the existence of a pro-team in your town, or barring that the intangible value to you of being able to cheer for your local team.

    This business of welfare is complex. The liberal democrat will define it differently than the libertarian. Sometimes it is nearly impossible to know what is welfare and what isn't. For example, a pell grant might be viewed by one person as welfare and by another as a government investment. You can always fall back on the dictionary definition which you will find is no help at all! :D
     
  3. Mav88

    Mav88

    depends on your income bracket, if you give that I can tell you a little
     
  4. NY_HOOD

    NY_HOOD

    i think its about 1.5 % . in order to lower welfare spending we need to vigorously attack the irresponsible behavior of those who think its ok to have babies out of wedlock, babies with 3 different men, and teens having babies. until that gets nipped in the bud, welfare will do nothing but rise.
    this irresponsible behavior leads to more cops, more prisons, more teachers, larger class rooms. these are just some of the burdons other than regular hand outs. children out of wedleck = a bunch of unsupervised kids with no structure, no rules, and no respect for teachers or cops.
    a kid gets caught with a gun, whos going to kick the shit out of him when he gets home so he never does it again? not his father, he doesnt even know who the hell his father is.
     
  5. burn8

    burn8

    Most government jobs are a form of welfare.

    -burn8
     
  6. NY_HOOD

    NY_HOOD

    i dont think government jobs and corporate welfare are what the OP is asking about.
     
  7. Mav88

    Mav88

    very roughly, can vary a lot depending on where you live and your tax deductions

    Average single person in the US making $100K (not self employed)

    ~~ you'll pay 18K in income tax, 13K in payroll taxes, 10K in state and local taxes for a total of about $41K

    payroll taxes: SSI and medicare. You will not get it all back typically, so I would call a lot of that welfare for the old. Maybe $4K of it, being conservative.

    In the federal budget: Unemployment + medicaid + head Start + SCHIP + aid to needy families + other crap ~ $700B with unemployment being about $550B of that. About 19% of outlays.

    19% of 18K is $3420, the problem though is the deficit, the real bill should be higher.

    States vary, but average about half on HHS, localities are mostly city and schools. Out of state and local about 2.5K on HHS.

    So 10K I would say on welfare = 10% of income
    If you don't want to call unemployment welfare, then about 7%


    If you make more income that percentage goes up, if make less it goes down. For half of taxpayers it would be 0 since they get benefits
     
  8. Mav88

    Mav88

    mistake... for employed your payroll tax would be about 8K, not 13K

    drop the two percentages by 2% to

    8% and 6% of income depending on whether unemployment is considered welfare to you.
     
  9. riddler

    riddler

    so if its 700 billion but 550 billion being for unemployment, then really its 150 billion?
    i think that 150 billion for welfare goes to each state and then each state has their own welfare program? i think thats how i read it works...
    i wonder if property taxes in southern new jersey ( by philly where i am ) go to welfare?
     
  10. riddler

    riddler

    so 150 billion is a rather small amount..less than what most would think.
     
    #10     Dec 18, 2012