Actually, your statistics are horribly skewed, and I will tell you why. You state: "There are 135M working Americans that don’t work for the government at any level, but 23M that are government employees of some ilk." That is the official figure. The reality is, that of those 135 million, many are working in industries that are almost completely subsidized by the government. For example, there are companies that and machine shops that contract exclusively with the department of defense. There are transport companies- I am thinking of those that assemble those horrible and completely useless "wind farms"- that are completely subsidized by the "department of energy".
In 2008 we hit a "critical mass" where more of the economy was directly dependent on government spending versus the "free market economy". That is the main reason why companies like Amazon, for example, have survived and even vastly expanded despite never having a profitable quarter in its entire history; it is absolutely bloated with gov't subsidies. This also goes for companies like Greyhound, which makes most of its money transporting US military personal, and many construction conglomerates, which make most of their money on HUD projects.
The bottom line is that our tax dollars directly support these "private sector employees" too.
(The reality at this point, I believe, is that the US gov't is funding most of its activities by just printing money out of thin air.)
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. You are our only hope!
Yeah, you're right about the private sector employees that are largely employed by government largesse, which I didn't, and couldn't account for.
What I was trying to do was figure-out how many working Americans there are, as a ratio to the number of government employees, government dependents, social security dependents, etc.
However, while I collected most of the data needed to do that; Enough to come to the figure that for every 1.6 private sector workers, there is 1 "dependent", but to your point, that alone doesn't tell the whole story.
My suspicion was that the entire country is largely being divided into to new "classes", Government dependents, and private sector employees, with the first group constantly growing, and to a point that will soon be 1:1, or worse.
The addition of the millions of now government dependent illegal aliens, which is a number we cannot know, not only further tipped the balance of that ratio, but basically skewed the other data enough to make my original goal untenable, for precise numbers.
However, I still think the gross data provided, speaks to the broader theme, although incompletely.
Do you think there is is any way to capture a data set, that WOULD indicate how many of the private sector employees are basically living on government contracts, programs, funding, etc.?
What is “government” anyway, other than people who run stuff that needs to be done but isn’t always directly quantifiable profitable (ie: public school teachers like myself). What is the problem with people helping people in need, to an extent? Doesn’t that help keep peace in the world? Help prevent violence and theft? And aren’t underpaid, or even unpaid forms of labor being discounted here in your example? Such as domestic caregiving work, and work done by “illegals” that is valuable to all of us because it allows us access to more affordable produce for instance, or domestic services so households can be more economically profitable?
I genuinely want your perspective on my reasoning.
Btw: I discovered your substack from your comment on Freya India’s “Girls” post. I find most conservative voices to be intolerant and abrasive and I am searching to expand my worldview. I love the way Freya sounds rational and balanced, not fringe, but still conservative. But not religious! Oddly, I have discovered many fringe conservatives and also more moderate sounding progressives in her comments section. I guess anti-social media sentiments are one thing we can all unite against 🤣
Although this is an identified unfinished work, I was trying to use publicly available data to get a clear picture of the entire US population relative to: Total Population, How many are working versus how many are not, How many are purely on various government entitlements, and how many are employees of the multiple levels of government.
Ideally, I wanted to come up with a clearly substantiated ratio of the number of private sector workers versus everyone that is effectively a public sector worker or living off of government largess.
Part of this is to reveal the pending problems with the Baby Boomers retiring, which is a large part of the population, that will all leave the workforce and go onto Social Security, and how this can possibly be funded by the rest of the tax paying workers. If you believe much of what we have been told for decades, this activity will quite tangibly "bankrupt" Social Security. (this is also, purportedly, part of the impetus to bring in millions of illegal alien workers, so they can work in the private sector, and their tax collections, help fund SS), basically a new bulk population to fund the retirement of the last bulk population.
However, another rabbit hole that I wanted to reveal and deep dive is the immense growth of the government employees. Much of recent "job growth" numbers, are reflecting enormous hiring by all levels of government, which helps to make the economy look more robust than it is. Broadcasting job growth numbers as "added jobs", becomes a much less relevant reflection of the health of the economy, when it's the government doing most of that hiring, versus the private sector.
Another concern, is that all of the above, represents another huge growth in the size, and expense of "the government". At what point do we say 'enough is enough"? i.e. how much of the overall US population do we want to be employed by the government?
The "US government" (all levels- federal, state, county, city, and the countless departments, agencies, programs etc., and that's before we even get to the point that White Wolf made above, is the countless contractors, or businesses that while still being in the "private sector", are fueled by government spending, like myself in the private MIC) , as a whole, is already the largest employer in the country, and that's looks less and less like a free market, and instead, starts to look like the former USSR.
What happens with 20, 30, 40% of the country either dependent on the government, working for the government, or living off government contracts? What about when it's 60 or 70%? I don't know this number, but I was trying to figure it out fairly precisely.
And another thing... We are starting to have a latent employment Caste System. i.e. compensation and pensions, healthcare and PTO, etc. As a teacher, I'm sure you probably have a pension plan, beyond SS? Most government employees do.
When is the last time you saw a middle class worker in the private sector with a pension plan? Maybe if you work for a major corporation, like the auto "big three" and the UAW negotiating it, or maybe working for Boeing?
But for most US workers, pensions are a thing of the past. (another way that Big Corps are gutting the lower class, middle class, and even upper middle class) But teachers, fire fighters, police, government employees of almost every stripe? They still have pension plans AND SS.
My fear is that we are creating a multi-tiered employment Caste System- 1-Government Dependents of every ilk, 2-Private sector workers, and 3-government employees.
Only class 2 pays taxes that matter, because group 1 and 3, are only being paid by the government, to give some of that money back to the government in the form of taxes.
How large can groups 1 & 3 get, on the backs of group 2?
Lastly, I realize that our current "system of money" is complete bullshit. Between the Fed creating fiat currency "money" from the ether, by the Trillions, and MMT (modern monetary theory) and the government at every level, empowered to spend Trillions beyond what they collect in taxes (which begs the question- Why are we even forced to pay taxes, unless it's just a punishment and control mechanism, since the government can add several Trillion to the M1 and M2, dwarfing the meager tax collections, anytime they want, and the government can spend it, unchecked, but I digress)
And what ration did I come up with? 1.6:1.
1.6 Private sector workers to pay for 1 government dependent and/or government employee!
For me, that is a shocking ration.
Group 1- see subsistence living, completely dependent on government money and services, trapped in poverty.
Group 2- working their entire lives, just to get by, with no pension, artificially suppressed wages, and soaring costs, plus being victim to inflation, and recession/depression induced job insecurity that could, at any time, push them into Group 1. And if everything goes well, they slave their entire lives, getting by as best they can, until they retire at 65 (or 67), and go right into Group 1, for the rest of their lives.
Group 3- with competitive wages, government benefits, and recession proof job security, with a very generous government funded pension plan, and SS waiting for them. Also, group 3 leads the way in DEI hiring, if you care about the majority white Americans in this country, as an aside.
Thus, my overall point- The numbers that constitute these three groups, are totally out of whack, and getting worse by the day; Unless we are all going to end up in Group 1 or 3, and group 2 is just totally eliminated; Thus, the USSR.
Anyway, that was my thesis in starting this endeavor.
Very interesting theory! Thank you for explaining all that. And yes, we have a “pension” in Texas. However, my school district does not contribute to social security for us, and the years of service required to get the pension are ridiculous. I teach as a public service…we live off my husband’s higher income (tech software sales)and save A LOT to cover our own retirement expenses because the teacher retirement system is so meager that most retired teachers keep working to afford to live. It’s not a full cost of living pension. But probably better than most on a teacher-only salary could save if they were left on their own to do it.
From my perspective, it seems more like a “perk” designed to keep people from leaving low paid government professions for higher paying private sector work.
Apparently capitalism has made serfs out of all of us! But I guess the freedom is worth it. Still better in that regard than the USSR.
Actually, your statistics are horribly skewed, and I will tell you why. You state: "There are 135M working Americans that don’t work for the government at any level, but 23M that are government employees of some ilk." That is the official figure. The reality is, that of those 135 million, many are working in industries that are almost completely subsidized by the government. For example, there are companies that and machine shops that contract exclusively with the department of defense. There are transport companies- I am thinking of those that assemble those horrible and completely useless "wind farms"- that are completely subsidized by the "department of energy".
In 2008 we hit a "critical mass" where more of the economy was directly dependent on government spending versus the "free market economy". That is the main reason why companies like Amazon, for example, have survived and even vastly expanded despite never having a profitable quarter in its entire history; it is absolutely bloated with gov't subsidies. This also goes for companies like Greyhound, which makes most of its money transporting US military personal, and many construction conglomerates, which make most of their money on HUD projects.
The bottom line is that our tax dollars directly support these "private sector employees" too.
(The reality at this point, I believe, is that the US gov't is funding most of its activities by just printing money out of thin air.)
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us. You are our only hope!
Yeah, you're right about the private sector employees that are largely employed by government largesse, which I didn't, and couldn't account for.
What I was trying to do was figure-out how many working Americans there are, as a ratio to the number of government employees, government dependents, social security dependents, etc.
However, while I collected most of the data needed to do that; Enough to come to the figure that for every 1.6 private sector workers, there is 1 "dependent", but to your point, that alone doesn't tell the whole story.
My suspicion was that the entire country is largely being divided into to new "classes", Government dependents, and private sector employees, with the first group constantly growing, and to a point that will soon be 1:1, or worse.
The addition of the millions of now government dependent illegal aliens, which is a number we cannot know, not only further tipped the balance of that ratio, but basically skewed the other data enough to make my original goal untenable, for precise numbers.
However, I still think the gross data provided, speaks to the broader theme, although incompletely.
Do you think there is is any way to capture a data set, that WOULD indicate how many of the private sector employees are basically living on government contracts, programs, funding, etc.?
Because I'd love to include it.
What is “government” anyway, other than people who run stuff that needs to be done but isn’t always directly quantifiable profitable (ie: public school teachers like myself). What is the problem with people helping people in need, to an extent? Doesn’t that help keep peace in the world? Help prevent violence and theft? And aren’t underpaid, or even unpaid forms of labor being discounted here in your example? Such as domestic caregiving work, and work done by “illegals” that is valuable to all of us because it allows us access to more affordable produce for instance, or domestic services so households can be more economically profitable?
I genuinely want your perspective on my reasoning.
Btw: I discovered your substack from your comment on Freya India’s “Girls” post. I find most conservative voices to be intolerant and abrasive and I am searching to expand my worldview. I love the way Freya sounds rational and balanced, not fringe, but still conservative. But not religious! Oddly, I have discovered many fringe conservatives and also more moderate sounding progressives in her comments section. I guess anti-social media sentiments are one thing we can all unite against 🤣
Thanks for the comment and questions.
Although this is an identified unfinished work, I was trying to use publicly available data to get a clear picture of the entire US population relative to: Total Population, How many are working versus how many are not, How many are purely on various government entitlements, and how many are employees of the multiple levels of government.
Ideally, I wanted to come up with a clearly substantiated ratio of the number of private sector workers versus everyone that is effectively a public sector worker or living off of government largess.
Part of this is to reveal the pending problems with the Baby Boomers retiring, which is a large part of the population, that will all leave the workforce and go onto Social Security, and how this can possibly be funded by the rest of the tax paying workers. If you believe much of what we have been told for decades, this activity will quite tangibly "bankrupt" Social Security. (this is also, purportedly, part of the impetus to bring in millions of illegal alien workers, so they can work in the private sector, and their tax collections, help fund SS), basically a new bulk population to fund the retirement of the last bulk population.
However, another rabbit hole that I wanted to reveal and deep dive is the immense growth of the government employees. Much of recent "job growth" numbers, are reflecting enormous hiring by all levels of government, which helps to make the economy look more robust than it is. Broadcasting job growth numbers as "added jobs", becomes a much less relevant reflection of the health of the economy, when it's the government doing most of that hiring, versus the private sector.
Another concern, is that all of the above, represents another huge growth in the size, and expense of "the government". At what point do we say 'enough is enough"? i.e. how much of the overall US population do we want to be employed by the government?
The "US government" (all levels- federal, state, county, city, and the countless departments, agencies, programs etc., and that's before we even get to the point that White Wolf made above, is the countless contractors, or businesses that while still being in the "private sector", are fueled by government spending, like myself in the private MIC) , as a whole, is already the largest employer in the country, and that's looks less and less like a free market, and instead, starts to look like the former USSR.
What happens with 20, 30, 40% of the country either dependent on the government, working for the government, or living off government contracts? What about when it's 60 or 70%? I don't know this number, but I was trying to figure it out fairly precisely.
And another thing... We are starting to have a latent employment Caste System. i.e. compensation and pensions, healthcare and PTO, etc. As a teacher, I'm sure you probably have a pension plan, beyond SS? Most government employees do.
When is the last time you saw a middle class worker in the private sector with a pension plan? Maybe if you work for a major corporation, like the auto "big three" and the UAW negotiating it, or maybe working for Boeing?
But for most US workers, pensions are a thing of the past. (another way that Big Corps are gutting the lower class, middle class, and even upper middle class) But teachers, fire fighters, police, government employees of almost every stripe? They still have pension plans AND SS.
My fear is that we are creating a multi-tiered employment Caste System- 1-Government Dependents of every ilk, 2-Private sector workers, and 3-government employees.
Only class 2 pays taxes that matter, because group 1 and 3, are only being paid by the government, to give some of that money back to the government in the form of taxes.
How large can groups 1 & 3 get, on the backs of group 2?
Lastly, I realize that our current "system of money" is complete bullshit. Between the Fed creating fiat currency "money" from the ether, by the Trillions, and MMT (modern monetary theory) and the government at every level, empowered to spend Trillions beyond what they collect in taxes (which begs the question- Why are we even forced to pay taxes, unless it's just a punishment and control mechanism, since the government can add several Trillion to the M1 and M2, dwarfing the meager tax collections, anytime they want, and the government can spend it, unchecked, but I digress)
And what ration did I come up with? 1.6:1.
1.6 Private sector workers to pay for 1 government dependent and/or government employee!
For me, that is a shocking ration.
Group 1- see subsistence living, completely dependent on government money and services, trapped in poverty.
Group 2- working their entire lives, just to get by, with no pension, artificially suppressed wages, and soaring costs, plus being victim to inflation, and recession/depression induced job insecurity that could, at any time, push them into Group 1. And if everything goes well, they slave their entire lives, getting by as best they can, until they retire at 65 (or 67), and go right into Group 1, for the rest of their lives.
Group 3- with competitive wages, government benefits, and recession proof job security, with a very generous government funded pension plan, and SS waiting for them. Also, group 3 leads the way in DEI hiring, if you care about the majority white Americans in this country, as an aside.
Thus, my overall point- The numbers that constitute these three groups, are totally out of whack, and getting worse by the day; Unless we are all going to end up in Group 1 or 3, and group 2 is just totally eliminated; Thus, the USSR.
Anyway, that was my thesis in starting this endeavor.
Very interesting theory! Thank you for explaining all that. And yes, we have a “pension” in Texas. However, my school district does not contribute to social security for us, and the years of service required to get the pension are ridiculous. I teach as a public service…we live off my husband’s higher income (tech software sales)and save A LOT to cover our own retirement expenses because the teacher retirement system is so meager that most retired teachers keep working to afford to live. It’s not a full cost of living pension. But probably better than most on a teacher-only salary could save if they were left on their own to do it.
From my perspective, it seems more like a “perk” designed to keep people from leaving low paid government professions for higher paying private sector work.
Apparently capitalism has made serfs out of all of us! But I guess the freedom is worth it. Still better in that regard than the USSR.