I just learned, via Kate Harding on Twitter (who got it from Boing Boing), that about half of beneficiaries of federal benefit programs don’t realize they’ve enjoyed benefits. See table 3, here. Exact numbers: 44% of Social Security beneficiaries say they “have not used a government social program.” Ditto 43% of those who’ve gotten unemployment benefits and Pell Grants, 40% of those on Medicare, and 25% of those on Food Stamps. The numbers are even bigger for what the author of the paper, Suzanne Mettler, calls the “submerged state”—benefits delivered via the tax code. So… Read More