Occupy _______ has been throwing around “the 1 percent” and “the 99 percent.”

I have been writing about the battle between government and Wisconsin taxpayers as “the 15 percent” (the former) and “the 85 percent” (those not part of the 15 percent whose taxes pay the salaries and benefits of the 15 percent).

Tim Nerenz introduces another percentage:

Here is our America according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

312 million people live here
154 million of us want to work.
141 million of us do work.
109 million of us work in the private sector.
18 million of produce goods.
2 million of us produce food.

Most people are stunned to learn that only 20 million Americans (6.4%) make, mine, build, or grow things. And even that is a bit inflated, as many of the jobs in those companies that make things are administrative positions which exist only to provide information to government agencies and assure compliance with regulations. …

While the unemployment rate can be, and is, manipulated by adjustments and assumptions, the better ratio that really matters in assessing the health of our economy is private sector (wealth producing) employment as a percentage of total population. As we begin 2012, only 34.9% of Americans create the wealth that sustains us all. And not just us, but a goodly part of the rest of the world, too. …

In John F. Kennedy’s Camelot of 1962, government spending on dependency programs – i.e. the safety net – was 28% of the federal budget; last year, it was 70.5%, according to Congressional Budget Office.  And he did not have two wars pushing up on the denominator back then.  …

How much is enough?  In constant dollars (adjusted for inflation), government spending per household has risen 162% since 1964. Federal spending per household is now $29,401 according to Heritage Foundation, and is projected to rise to over $35,000 in less than 10 years.  With a median income of $49,000, that level of federal spending is simply unsustainable. It is not a political problem; it is math.

We can’t tax that much, and we can’t borrow that much; the only option left is to inflate the currency and then to hyper-inflate it when inflating it doesn’t work.  Our median income will still be $49,000 but the cost of everything will double and triple and our savings will be eaten up.  …

The International Monetary Fund lists the United States as the second-worst country in terms of fiscal trajectory – i.e. the amount of current debt plus the rate at which future debt will be accumulated under current fiscal policies. The world has no blueprint for the implosion of an economy too-big-to-fail. When the Roman Empire cratered it ushered in a millennium known as the Dark Ages. A millennium is incomprehensible to a society who can’t make it a half-hour without checking Facebook.  This is not going to be pretty. It is not too late to fix it, but you can see too-late from here.

I’m on the side of Wisconsin’s 85 percent. I’m also on the side of the 34.9 percent.