One of the saddest things about life in the USA in recent years is how many Americans have become dependent on government wealth transfer programs. As we reach the end stage of the US dollar under the Federal Reserve system, more American families are reliant on government handouts and welfare programs than at any previous time in our history. Almost $1 out of every $5 circulating in the US economy is now a welfare payment from the government to an individual, according to a tragic report from the Economic Innovation Group (EIG).

The EIG is a nonpartisan public policy research group. The group says that the amount of national income derived from welfare transfer payments has more than doubled since 1970, as more Americans become incapable of supporting themselves and their families.

Wealth transfer payments include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment and disability, food stamps, and veterans’ benefits. In 1970, transfer payments accounted for only 8% of US total income. Today, that figure has increased to 18%, crowding out personal income and investments.

Government transfer payments were $70 billion in 1970. They peaked in 2020 during the fake pandemic at more than $6 trillion, before falling back down to the current level of $4.3 trillion. According to the EIG report, if that money had been distributed evenly to all Americans, it would have amounted to a payment of $11,500 for every person in 2022. In other words, we are spending far more on entitlements than the federal government is generating through taxation—and it’s not even close.

As of 2022, 56% of all entitlement payments have gone to the elderly, primarily through Medicaid and other healthcare-related costs. This is partly due to America becoming an elderly culture, with 50 years’ worth of abortion drastically reducing the replacement of our population naturally (that’s what the open borders BS is all about). Healthcare costs have also ballooned at an unbelievable rate since Obamacare was forced on the American people.

Total American healthcare spending in 1970 was $74.1 billion. By 2022, it was $4.5 trillion. Maybe Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has a point when he talks about the chronic disease industry in the United States.

The increase in transfer payments has also placed new burdens on state governments and the federal government. Unfunded public pension liabilities in the US have now hit $1.59 trillion. Only a median of 76% of public pensions for people who retire from teaching, firefighting, or other public sector labor union jobs are being fully funded. They’re all running out of money. Meanwhile, interest payments on the US federal debt have now grown to $1 trillion per year.

As dire as the economic situation sounds, the United States is in far better fiscal shape than almost any other Western nation. Things could easily be turned around by steering policy in a different direction.

Stopping the flow of illegal immigration and instituting a massive deportation program, for example, would provide immediate relief to the country’s skyrocketing housing costs. Tax and regulatory changes that would encourage workforce participation would also help. Reducing government waste and inefficiency would be another step in the right direction. Preventing corruption at regulatory agencies like the FDA could help reduce chronic disease in the country, which would drastically reduce the health care crisis.

Americans seem to be right on the edge of a major decision. They can continue down the same path in which entitlement programs will bankrupt the country and ensure decades—or perhaps, permanent—impoverishment of future generations. Or, they could come to a decision to make America great again.