“Social welfare benefits,” including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance, made up 35 percent of wages and salaries earned in the United States last year, “up from 21 percent in 2000 and 10 percent in 1960″ based on Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Is the trend reversible? In theory, yes:

In order to get welfare back to its pre-recession ratio of 26 percent of pay, “either wages and salaries would have to increase $2.3 trillion, or 35 percent, to $8.8 trillion, or social welfare benefits would have to decline $500 billion, or 23 percent, to $1.7 trillion,” she said.

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