Debating American Serfdom - New York Times

According to Katherine Mangu-Ward, an editor at Reason, Mr. Shilling, an economist and columnist for Forbes, totaled up government workers, “private-sector workers who owe their jobs to government” and recipients of government entitlements like Social Security and food stamps. For good measure, he threw in dependents of these beneficiaries. “Shilling found that for each person earning his pay in the private sector and paying taxes,” Ms. Mangu-Ward wrote, “there is at least one more person relying on a check from the government.”