Economics: The Dependence Economy

The chart below shows "how much more dependent Americans have become on government money, including in many cases Tea Partiers". Note the scales are different but their spans are the same.

These underlying trends are partly because of demographic changes; an aging populace means that an ever-smaller share of Americans are working, and so a larger share are receiving Social Security benefits and Medicare, which is also getting more expensive. Policy changes, more Americans' going on disability and growing inequality, which in some cases may be leaving more Americans on the dole, are also likely contributing to the growing Dependence Economy.

For more, see The Dependence Economy by Catherine Rampell, April 4, 2011 at NYTimes.com.