Federal obligations for benefit programs and the
national debt were $63.8 trillion in 2008. The
cost per household ($) for various categories
was as follows:
Category Cost per Household ($)
Civil servant retirement 15,851
Federal debt 54,537
Medicare 284,288
Military retirement 29,694
Social Security 160,216
Other 2,1722
Compute the percentage of values in each category.
b. What conclusions can you reach concerning the benefit programs?