The middle class gets almost half of U.S. safety-net payments

[Aegon]

Today's update on America's rigged economy:

https://www.axios.com/us-middle-class-in...9dc35.html

As wages have remained stagnant, more people can't afford middle-class basics, and income inequality grows, the middle class is increasingly relying on the federal safety net, according to the new report by Brookings Institutions' Future of the Middle Class Initiative. "It is a mistake, now, to think of welfare as something just for the poor," Richard Reeves, the report's author tells Axios.

The trend is most clearly seen in the second and middle income quintiles, where the average household income was $31,087 and $54,041 in 2014, according to the Tax Policy Center.

One of every $7 spent on social program benefits went to families in the middle quintile of the income distribution in 2014.
Federal safety net money is also making up a greater share of lower-middle class incomes, according to the report. Meaning that not only is more money going to the middle class, some middle class families depend on it more.

One key finding: Health care is a big driver. Medicaid expansion has made more lower-middle income Americans eligible for the program, and now less than half of Medicaid spending goes to the lowest quintile.

Medicaid spending on elderly households (65 years or older) has tripled since 1979, and around 60% of it went to the elderly in the middle class in 2014, the study found.
Increased subsidies for the Affordable Care Act has also contributed to the overall trend. There has also been notable growth in the share of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that have gone to those lower-middle income quintiles, according to the report.

I also noticed that even Tucker fuckin' Carlson was criticizing Jeff Bezos last week for being a greedy billionaire. Revolution time?

P.S. There's a great chart in the article that doesn't copy and paste correctly.