New Blog Post: Where Government Is a Dirty Word, but Its Checks Pay the Bills

Government transfer payments as a share of total personal income.

1970 – 1985 – 2000 – 2016

Color Scale: No data – 3% – 15% – 22% – 28% – 36% – 61%

New Blog Post: Eduardo Porter, Where Government Is a Dirty Word, but Its Checks Pay the Bills, NYTimes.com, Dec. 21, 2018.

Federal assistance has grown all over the U.S., but particularly in Appalachia and the South, where many people now get more than a third of their income from the government.