In 2009, Americans Took More In Government Aid Than They Paid In Taxes The Washington Times reports the "so-called 'Great Recession' has left Americans depending on the government dole like never before," as "for the first time since the Great Depression," last year "Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes." While "wages and other job-related income fell by a record $206 billion last year to $7.84 trillion, transfer payments from the government such as unemployment checks and Social Security burgeoned by $231 billion to $2.1 trillion. Meanwhile,
the amount of taxes that individual Americans paid plummeted by $325 billion to $2.1 trillion."