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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBlack people, who make up 22% of the poor, receive 14% of government benefits.
White people, who make up 42% of the poor, receive 69% of government benefits.
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and ROBERT GEBELOFF
A new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities underscores that the poor are no longer the primary beneficiaries of the government safety net.
Terms like entitlements, government benefits and safety net often conjure images of tax dollars sliding from the hands of the wealthy into the pockets of the poor. But as we reported Sunday, that image is badly outdated. Benefits now flow primarily to the middle class.
The centers study found that the poorest American households, the bottom fifth, received just 32 cents of every dollar of government benefits distributed in 2010.
Share of population and entitlements by income group, 2010. Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of data from Office of Management and Budget, United States Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Labor, and Census Bureau.
The finding is broadly consistent with the data we reported Sunday that the poorest households received 36 percent of benefits in 2007, down from 54 percent in 1979, numbers that came from a study published last year by the Congressional Budget Office.
While the findings are not directly comparable because of differences in methodology, the new study suggests that the recent recession did not cause any significant increase in the share of benefits flowing to the poor, as might once have been expected.
The study found that older people received slightly more than half of government benefits, while the nonelderly with disabilities received an additional 20 percent. Most of these benefits are not means-tested indeed, better-paid workers get more in Social Security.
Furthermore, the study notes that politicians have shifted benefits away from the jobless poor, through reductions in traditional welfare, and increased benefits for working families, for example through tax credits. The government also has steadily expanded eligibility for benefit programs.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/who-benefits-from-the-safety-net/
All of those racial bias motherfuckers can kiss my black ass with their bullshit about "Welfare Queens."
Cirque du So-What
(25,965 posts)This myth has been bandied about in some circles for far too long, and it's well past time for calling out the racists who attempt to perpetuate an utterly baseless stereotype.
jsr
(7,712 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)You don't think the military is protecting that 15-year old Buick, do ya?
gollygee
(22,336 posts)There are a lot of incorrect assumptions about who receives government assistance. We have built this mythology in our heads which allows us (none of us specifically, but us as a society) to blame the poor for the situation they're in and therefore not help them.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)raccoon
(31,118 posts)far more than the US actually does. And they usually think most goes to non-whites.
B2G
(9,766 posts)1) The study includes social security as a 'benefit' (which I disagree with) and goes on to point out that 95% of that goes to people over 65. No duh. I'd like to see the numbers after SS is excluded.
2) Their data is taken exclusively from Census data. Blacks and Hispanics have much lower response rates to the Census than do whites, so this study is very flawed IMO.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)B2G
(9,766 posts)I still say that including SS in an analysis around entitlements is disingenuous.
The elderly recipients paid into the system all of their lives so they would have money upon retirement. They are simply receiving their investment back.
Take SS out of the equation (and Medicare too for that matter) and let's see the adjusted demographics.