If you're among those of us who still pay income taxes, you may wonder why the burden keeps going up, even if "the era of big government is over." Here's one reason: a majority of Americans receive "significant income" from government programs.

The Christian Science Monitor reports on some number crunching by Gary Shilling, an economist.

"Mr. Shilling's analysis found that about 1 in 5 Americans hold a government job or a job reliant on federal spending. A similar number receive Social Security or a government pension. About 19 million others get food stamps, 2 million get subsidized housing, and 5 million get education grants. For all these categories, Mr. Shilling counted dependents as well as the direct recipients of government income."

One in five hold government employment or government-paid employment. Remarkable. Be sure to click through the story and enlarge the graph on the first page. It compares the percentage of the population that is composed of tax eaters with the percentage of the population that are private sector employees.