Myth: The poor receive the most welfare.
Fact: Corporations receive the most welfare.
Summary
Entitlement spending on households is surprisingly "flat"
in the U.S. -- the spending is distributed proportionately among the various
income groups. However, federal spending tilts in favor of the rich when
you add corporate welfare to the mix. And this pro-wealthy favoritism becomes
more pronounced when you consider who is paying for it: over the last few
decades, the tax rates for the rich have sharply fallen, both in personal
income and corporate taxes.
Argument
The following chart shows how entitlement spending is distributed
in the U.S.:
Distributions of Federal Funds by Income Bracket, Compared to Distribution of Households by Income Bracket, CY 1991 (1) Percent of Percent of Income all households all benefits ----------------------------------------------- Under $10,000 16.4% 17.8% $10,000 - $20,000 18.8 21.7 $20,000 - $30,000 17.0 17.2 $30,000 - $50,000 23.6 21.8 $50,000 - $100,000 19.1 15.9 Over $100,000 5.1 5.6
As you can see, federal entitlements are distributed proportionately among the income groups (with insignificant shifts towards the poor and the very rich). If taxes were flat as well under this distribution system, then Uncle Sam would simply be returning everyone's money to them -- a pointless and wasteful exercise, everyone would agree. It's only when taxes are more progressive that income is shifted downward under the above system. For this reason, the loss of tax progressivity over the last several decades means that less income is being redistributed to the poor, and Uncle Sam is increasingly engaging in a pointless exercise:
The Loss of Tax Progressivity Effective Family Federal Tax Rate (Income and FICA) (2) Year Median Millionaire or Top 1% --------------------------------------- 1948 5.3% 76.9% 1955 9.1 85.5 1960 12.4 85.5 1965 11.6 66.9 1970 16.1 68.6 1975 20.0 -- 1977 -- 35.5 1980 23.7 31.7 1985 24.4 24.9 1989 24.4 26.7
Keep in mind the first column is for median families; poorer families
pay even less, so there is still some downward distribution. But there
is less downward distribution than in previous decades, namely, the 50s
and 60s.
That's a critique from the tax angle; another is possible from the
spending angle. The first chart is a strong argument for means-testing
federal entitlements. The rich do not need the money; they've already got
the most of it. Perhaps an argument exists for helping the rich out in
times of dire emergency, but to give them non-emergency funds like Social
Security begs a defense. Others might argue from a "trickle-down"
philosophy that enriching the rich will increase investment in jobs and
business, but, as statistics from the 80s reveal, the rich can enjoy exploding
incomes and still invest less than ever before. The trickle-down proposal
can thus be rejected on historical grounds alone.
However, the above discussion only concerns households. What happens
when corporate welfare is thrown into the mix? To answer this, we must
first answer three questions: what is corporate welfare? How much of it
is there? And whom does it benefit?
The definition of corporate welfare
Corporate welfare can be defined as pork-barrel spending, unjustified
government subsidies, and unjustified tax breaks. They qualify as welfare
for the following reasons:
The difference between pork and legitimate government contracting is
their corresponding value to society. When Eisenhower paved the nation
with highways, the economic benefits were obvious, and few if any begrudged
the highway construction companies their good fortune. But when Congress
spends $500,000 to build and run a Lawrence Welk museum, the result is
a waste of the taxpayer's money and a needless diversion of our nation's
limited resources. And the reason such a diversion occurs is not because
market forces or market signals compel such a project. It occurs because
a corporate lobbyist makes a campaign contribution to a certain influential
member of Congress, who returns the favor by giving him this package of
squealing bacon. The result is a happy businessman who is given something
for nothing. True, his project creates jobs -- but they are not economically
justified. It's as if the government gave a welfare check to a poor person
and said: "You have to earn this check -- go find ten of your friends
and have them stand on their heads, and then pay them 50 percent of this
check for doing so." It's even worse than that, because the pork contractor
is consuming our nation's finite resources.
Government subsidies are judged by the same criteria. Presently the
government is subsidizing the Genome Project, which is too expensive and
long-term for private enterprise to invest in. Yet there is reason to believe
it will probably eliminate most genetic diseases in the human race, and
its social benefits and economic promise are obvious. This is not the case
for the Texas wool and mohair subsidies, which cost Uncle Sam about $100
million a year for a product the Defense Department no longer wants or
needs. Again, these suppliers could not make the same money on the free
market, so any profits they realize are the equivalent of a welfare check.
In this case, subsidy programs resemble pork -- indeed, many are
pork.
Unjustified tax breaks are also welfare. Most companies pay taxes,
and they receive a number of public goods and services in return. These
include police and fire protection, national security, public roads, utilities,
government economic data, publicly funded research and development, educated
workers, etc. If a corporate lobbyist can win a $5,000 tax break, this
means that the company is funding less of the government's goods and services,
even though it's drawing on them just as heavily as before. In other words,
society is carrying this company to a greater degree. Now, there may be
good reasons for doing so; Uncle Sam may want to give tax breaks to the
companies building the information superhighway, because of the enormous
economic promise it holds. But most of the time, tax breaks are not given
out for justified economic reasons like this. Essentially, any company
with a lobbyist can bribe a tax break out of a member of Congress. Which
means that the rest of society has to pick up the slack; they might as
well be paying these "legal tax cheats" a welfare check.
Notice that subsidies and tax breaks are opposite sides of the same
coin. No matter which a company receives, the effects are the same.
The costs of corporate welfare
The estimates vary on how much pork, unjustified subsidies and
tax breaks are really out there, but moderate estimates run from $100 to
$150 billion a year. Here are what various think tanks and policy groups
estimate:
Source of funds for Federal Spending (3) Personal Corporate Payroll Excise/ Decade Income Tax Income Tax Tax Estate Borrowing ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1950s 42.0% 26.9% 11.5% 17.2% 2.5% 1960s 42.0 20.4 18.4 14.9 4.4 1970s 40.3 13.3 27.7 11.3 11.1 1980s 38.0 7.7 29.2 8.2 17.7
The share paid by corporations has fallen to less than a third of its
former level, whereas that of the heavily regressive payroll taxes (Social
Security, Medicare) has nearly tripled. Who's collecting more welfare
from whom?
Who benefits from corporate welfare
Corporate welfare increases a company's profits. Lobbyists argue
that this helps everybody, because those profits go to create jobs, invest
in businesses, promote research and development, etc. However, none of
these alleged benefits have been happening since corporate welfare began
rising in 1975.
There were 24 million new jobs created in the relatively low corporate-welfare
70s. In the 80s, when corporate welfare reached full steam, only 18 million
new jobs were created. (4)
Investment also fell in the 80s. Between 1970 and 1979, the rate of
private investment was 18.6 percent; between 1980 and 1992, it fell to
17.4 percent. (5)
Workers have not been benefiting either -- the average hourly wage
has been falling:
Average Hourly Wages (Total private industry, 1982 dollars) (6) 1978 8.40 1979 8.17 1980 7.78 1981 7.69 1982 7.68 1983 7.79 1984 7.80 1985 7.77 1986 7.81 1987 7.73 1988 7.69 1989 7.64 1990 7.52 1991 7.45 1992 7.41 1993 7.39 1994 7.40 1995 7.40
So if corporate welfare hasn't been going to jobs, investment or blue-collar wages, where has it been going? The answer: the soaring incomes of the rich. CEO pay nearly achieved orbital velocity in the last few decades:
Salaries and benefits of corporate CEOs as a multiple of the average factory worker's (7) 1980 30 times 1991 130-140 1996 187
And that's just a snapshot of a much larger trend. Here's how much income for different income groups grew during the 80s:
Percent Increase of Combined Salaries by Income Bracket, unadjusted for inflation (1980s) (8) Income Bracket Percent Increase ------------------------------------- $20,000 - 50,000 44% 200,000 - 1 million 697 Over $1 million 2,184
Inflation over the decade was roughly over 50 percent, so the income
growth for the middle class didn't even keep pace with inflation. (Household
income statistics, which show a rise for all income groups in the 80s,
are deceptive because wives were joining their husbands in the workforce.
The above measure corrects for this statistical glitch.)
Pretty clearly, corporate welfare increases the profitability of companies,
thus allowing them to pay the exploding owner and management pay for which
the last few decades have become notorious. Essentially, corporate welfare
is a welfare check for rich individuals.
By contrast, individual welfare payments for the poor have been falling.
Between 1970 and 1991, the purchasing power of benefits for the typical
AFDC family fell 42 percent, primarily as a result of state and federal
cuts. (9) The following chart shows just how small -- and growing smaller
-- welfare payments for the poor really are:
Average Monthly Benefits (Constant Dollars, CPI-U) (10) Program 1980 1993 ------------------------------------- AFDC (per family) $350 261 Food Stamps (per person) 42 47
Keep in mind that AFDC and food stamps are by far the largest welfare
programs for the poor. (Medicare is technically larger, but 75 percent
of that goes to the blind, the elderly and the otherwise disabled.)
In conclusion, the rich have been paying lower and lower rates on personal
income and corporate taxes. But they receive a proportional share of personal
entitlements, and they are outright favored when it comes to corporate
welfare. For them to criticize welfare programs for the poor is therefore
misleading at best, and hypocritical at worst.
Return to Overview
Endnotes:
1. Benefit distributions by income bracket are based on unpublished
CBO analysis of Current Population Survey (Census) and Statistics of Income
(IRS) income data. Benefit payments tabulated here (a total of $534 billion)
represent the 81 percent of federal entitlement outlays in 1991 that could
be allocated by income bracket. They include Social Security (OASDI), Railroad
Retirement, civil service and military retirement, veterans' cash benefits,
Medicare, Unemployment Insurance, workers' compensation, Food Stamps, AFDC,
SSI, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Although consistent data on the
other 19 percent of federal benefit payments are not available, it is unlikely
that inclusion of the remaining entitlement programs (ranging from Medicaid
to farm price supports)would significantly alter the overall benefit distribution.
Source: Neil Howe, How to Control the Cost of Federal Entitlements: The
Argument for Comprehensive "Means-Testing" (National Taxpayers
Union Foundation; 1991).
2. The data in the median column originates as follows: the 1948 figure
comes from The Statistical History of the United States, 1976; the
figures for 1955 to 1983 come from Alan Lerman of the U.S. Department of
the Treasury Office of Tax Analysis. The calculations after 1983 come from
Eugene Steuerle and John Bakija, Right Ways and Wrong Ways to Reform
Social Security (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press, 1993). Figures
from the millionaire column for 1948 to 1970 represent the effective tax
rates for those earning $1 million a year and come from the U.S. Treasury
Department unpublished data set forth on page 1112 of The Statistical
History of the United States, 1976. FICA is not included, but the rates
would not be affected by a percentage point. The rates from 1977 onward
are for the top 1% of families as computed by the Congressional Budget
Office tax simulation model and include all federal taxes. Source: the
1992 Greenbook of the House Ways and Means Committee, p. 1510. The
effective rate on millionaires would be close to the rate on the top 1
percent.
3. Robert J. Shapiro, "Paying for Progress," Progressive
Policy Institute, February 1991. Calculations derived by the author from
Budget of the United States Government, fiscal year 1991, "Historical
Tables," Tables 1.1 and 2.2.
4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 2307.
5. Paul Krugman, Peddling Prosperity, (New York: W.W. Norton
& Company, 1994), pp.126-127.
6. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Series ID: eeu00500049.
7. Kevin Phillips, Boiling Point (New York: HarperPerennial,
1993), p. 251.
8. Internal Revenue Service.
9. Paul Taylor, "When Safety Nets Leave the Needy in Free Fall,"
Washington Post National Weekly Edition, September 9-11, 1991.
10. AFDC figures from U.S. Social Security Administration. Food Stamp
figures from U.S. Department of Agriculture, "Annual Historical Review
of FNS Programs" and unpublished data. Current dollars converted to
constant dollars from CPI-U.