I was having a casual discussion with a friend, who is quite conservative, and he made the statement that 34% of the population is supporting the entire economy, and everyone else is either a government employee (including education, police, etc) or the recipient of social benefits of some type. How accurate is this statement? And how has government spending on social programs increased or decreased over time in the US and/or Canada? He disagreed with my statement that I thought it was actually much more difficult to qualify for many social programs and that time limits were stricter than they were, say, 30 or 40 years ago. He also disagreed with my statement that "Big Government" or over all spending had increased as much under conservative administrations as liberal ones. What do you think?
Well, I guess there's a lot here to argue about, and I will let anyone who is interested have at it.