Nearly half of the country lives in a household that's getting some sort of government benefit such as Social Security or unemployment insurance. That represents a two-third increase since 1983.
This is what I call a Rorschach statistic. Whether you think the chart below represents a positive or negative trend depends almost entirely on your political orientation. If you're left-of-center, you might think: Government support has expanded as incomes have stagnated in the private sector, and that sounds fair. If you're right-of-center, you might think: Government is spending more and more on redistributing income through a social safety net that is growing much faster than we can afford.
