The United States is closer to socialism than ever before.
According to a new report roughly 1/3 of all income in the United States comes from the government.
How long until this bubble bursts?
Following today's release of the latest Personal Income and Spending data, Wall Street was predictably focused on the changes in these two key series, which showed a modest jump in personal spending, which however was dwarfed by a record surge in personal income, to be expected in the month when Biden's latest $1.9 trillion stimmy hit.
But while the change in the headline data was notable, what was far more remarkable was data showing just how increasingly more reliant on the US government the population has become.
We are referring, of course, to Personal Current Transfer payments which are essentially government sourced income such as unemployment benefits, welfare checks, and so on. In March, this number exploded to a mind-blowing $8.1 trillion annualized, which was not only double the $4.1 trillion from February, but was also $5 trillion above the pre-Covid trend where transfer receipts were approximately $3.2 trillion.
This means that excluding the $8.1 trillion surge in govt transfers, personal income excluding government handouts would be virtually unchanged from a year ago level at $16TN.
In longer-term context, one can see the creeping impact of government payments, shown in red below.
This, as noted earlier, was due to the latest round of government stimulus checks hitting personal accounts which in turn helped double the savings rate to a whopping 27.6% from 13.6% in February.
Stated simply, what all this means is that the government remains responsible for a third of all income, or 33.8 to be precise!
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 05: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a roundtable meeting with Americans who will benefit from the COVID-19 pandemic relief checks that are a part of the American Rescue Plan on March 5, 2021 in Washington, DC. The American Rescue Plan is currently being debated in the Senate after being passed in the House of Representatives. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)