Today’s chart of the day shows U.S. social benefits as a percentage of real disposable income, which comes from Lance Roberts’ must-read piece “Sex, Money & Happiness.” As U.S. economic vibrancy continues to erode throughout the decades and debt saturates practically every sector of our society, American citizens have become increasingly reliant on government transfer payments to survive. As recently as the 1970s, government transfer payments amounted to less than 5 percent of real disposable incomes, but now amount to nearly 1 in 4 dollars worth of real disposable income! How can this situation be sustainable considering how much debt the U.S. government is in, at all levels? The answer is simple: it’s not.
