Police State By The Numbers

Military Active personnel............................1,477,896
Military Reserve personnel.........................1,458,500
Police......................................................941,139
CIA employees .......................................20,000
NSA/CSS employees...............................(classified, probably 30,000)
Department of Defense ..........................700,000 civilian
DHS employees......................................216,000

Total......................................................4,843,535

Total civilian labor force...........................154,000,000
Total population......................................308,000,000

The total number of government employees in America is 22,300,000.

Approximately one out of every 32 people of working age in America is working for the police state.

Approximately one out of every seven working aged Americans produce nothing useful that consumers desire to voluntarily purchase of their own free will.

Approximately one out of every two persons in America do not provide for themselves in anyway what-so-ever.

Subtracting out the unemployed and government workers leaves us with a mere 116 million people out of 308 million mouths to feed that are engaged in actually producing things for the market. Of course, out of this 116 million, we must subtract out all of those things that only government buys. For example, the entire defense industry does not actually produce anything useful that people can buy to enrich their daily lives.

Oh btw, just for kicks:

The total number of people collecting Socialist Security is 53 million
The total number of people collecting Medicare is 47 million

I do hope you all understand that people must actually produce "things" that people want to buy in order for a country to be 'rich'.

I hope I do not have to explain this fact in detail.

This is an absolute shame how many people truly provide nothing to this country and instead just siphon off those actually providing materials to the market. Basically 116 million Americans pull the weight and create the innovation for the other 194 million.

At the very most I could understand 2% at the most actually working for the government in any form. We should abolish Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and all of the other unnecessary programs but only once we establish true Capitalism. Wean out the socialist programs whilst bringing in true capitalism this way people aren’t devastated during the transition.

A society that works mostly for the government whether directly, indirectly, or relies upon it for their survival will inevitably collapse upon the burden it places on its few true working citizens. Government is supposed to leave us free to pursue our own independent choices in life whether we succeed or fail is up to us.

You and I however would disagree on the Classical liberal approach of individualism. I believe strongly in community as essential for people to keep their independence from the state and keep themselves alive in life since all human action requires a community for it to succeed excessive individualism does not work, IMO.

reply to post by Misoir



Violence is necessary to redistribute property according to the political whims of the body politik.

Do you have sources for your numbers or are we guessing here?
Don't mean to sound so blunt but with everything that is posted around here its tough to swallow without something to back it up.

Originally posted by BrokenCar
Do you have sources for your numbers or are we guessing here?
Don't mean to sound so blunt but with everything that is posted around here its tough to swallow without something to back it up.

Do you have sources that refute me?

You do the work.

Originally posted by mnemeth1

Originally posted by BrokenCar
Do you have sources for your numbers or are we guessing here?
Don't mean to sound so blunt but with everything that is posted around here its tough to swallow without something to back it up.

Do you have sources that refute me?

You do the work.

Well being that this is your thread the burden of proof lies with you my friend. I for one refuse to flag or star any thread that can't back up what it claims.

Originally posted by BrokenCar
Well being that this is your thread the burden of proof lies with you my friend. I for one refuse to flag or star any thread that can't back up what it claims.

ok

thanks for your input.

So you won't provide any sources?
Thread FAILURE

Originally posted by BrokenCar
So you won't provide any sources?
Thread FAILURE

Don't be an idiot.

If you want to debate me, feel free.

Otherwise stay out of my thread with your nonsense.

How can one debate when no facts are presented in the first place?

Originally posted by BrokenCar
How can one debate when no facts are presented in the first place?

If you think I'm lying, prove it.

Otherwise shut up.

I am simply asking where you received your info from. When you refuse to provide a source it starts to stink as false info.
If I was to post a thread about 50% of the people in America have red houses with blue doors and you were interested by the subject would you not want sources or would you take my word for it? I wouldn't post something and then expect the readers of my thread to go find my sources for me.
I am asking for sources because you title caught my eye. However I won't take your or anyone else's word for it if you can't back it up.

The motto around here if I'm not mistaken is "Deny Ignorance"

ignorance-–noun
–noun the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information, etc.

reply to post by BrokenCar


I spent 2 hours digging up those numbers.

I am not going to backtrack and source, so if you don't want to believe me - fine, just stay out of my thread.

Yup those scumbag criminals (the gov) are all over our beautiful home. Makes me sick to my stomach. And every day I see more of their SS style programs going into effect. I wish I could do something more than bitch on a website but I don't feel like being one of those record number of prisoners you could add to your stats..

Thanks for working on those numbers! It's crazy how deep the rabbit hole goes once you take a look.

reply to post by mnemeth1


You spend 2 hours digging up these numbers but don't save any of them?
Come on, that's ridiculous.
You have sources for most of your stories on your blog. Except this one.
So I will leave you alone now. I just think it is incredibly irresponsible to make such claims and expect everyone to believe it because you said it. You should be prepared to discuss something if you're going to post it.


Good luck with your thread.

...a mere 116 million people out of 308 million mouths to feed that are engaged in actually producing things for the market.

A "mere" 116 million people? Maybe I'm missing something in your logic, but 116 million people seems like a great deal of people people producing things for 308 million -- especially in a world in which automated manufacturing is the norm. Why would you think that more people are needed in the free-market workforce in order to have a successful economy? What exactly are you basing that conclusion on? Are we running out of food? Of clothing? Of consumer goods or services? Nope.

Let me add some numbers to yours.

Number of children aged 0-17 in the US: 75 million
Those over 65 receiving Social Security benefits (as of October 2010): 38 million
The number of unemployed as of (Nov 2010): 15 million

That's a total of 128 million non-working people.

Oh noes! It's time to put the elderly and children to WORK. We have 308 million people out here that need to buy stuff. We need more stuff! Everyone start working immediately!

The point is that it's easy is to mislead with big numbers and statistics.



Sources:
www.childstats.gov...
www.ssa.gov...
www.bls.gov...

Originally posted by mnemeth1
reply to post by BrokenCar

 

I spent 2 hours digging up those numbers.

I am not going to backtrack and source, so if you don't want to believe me - fine, just stay out of my thread.

I can understand your frustration at spending all that time finding these numbers, and then not be able to back any of it up. But expecting sources is the norm in a logical discourse.

If you don't post your sources, you can't really expect true critical thinkers to take you at your word.

They won't, and they definitely shouldn't.

Originally posted by Pseudonaut

...a mere 116 million people out of 308 million mouths to feed that are engaged in actually producing things for the market.

A "mere" 116 million people? Maybe I'm missing something in your logic, but 116 million people seems like a great deal of people people producing things for 308 million -- especially in a world in which automated manufacturing is the norm. Why would you think that more people are needed in the free-market workforce in order to have a successful economy? What exactly are you basing that conclusion on? Are we running out of food? Of clothing? Of consumer goods or services? Nope.

Let me add some numbers to yours.

Number of children aged 0-17 in the US: 75 million
Those over 65 receiving Social Security benefits (as of October 2010): 38 million
The number of unemployed as of (Nov 2010): 15 million

That's a total of 128 million non-working people.

Oh noes! It's time to put the elderly and children to WORK. We have 308 million people out here that need to buy stuff. We need more stuff! Everyone start working immediately!

The point is that it's easy is to mislead with big numbers and statistics.

Sources:
www.childstats.gov...
www.ssa.gov...
www.bls.gov...

You will find out what I am basing my conclusion on soon enough when the dollar implodes.

Ultimately the dollars value is connected to the amount of goods and services the economy produces. When vast swaths of the economy are not engaged in productive behavior, the remaing people who ARE engaged in productive behavior must pick up the slack.

You ask if we are running out of goods? - inflation says we are indeed running out of goods.

If the production of goods was increasing relative to the number of dollars in circulation, the prices of those goods would be decreasing. However, they are increasing, which means our productive capacity is decreasing relative to our spending.

Eventually the looters will implode the dollar as the level of looting overtakes the sustainable productive output of the economy.

Just look at the price of precious metals over the past few years.

We have not even begun to feel the pain of this reckless economic waste caused by government.

By the way, the number of people between 17 and 65 is not the number of people in the labor pool.

Originally posted by Pseudonaut

If you don't post your sources, you can't really expect true critical thinkers to take you at your word.

Prove Mnemeth1 is lying.

I cannot find one instance of mnemeth1 engaging in deception here on ATS. Therefore it is more likely that a person who calls mnemeth1 a liar is engaged in some deception, yes?