Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don't make dramatic changes immediately. If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just "tweaking" things here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.
At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a national economic apocalypse.
The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....
#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.
#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.
#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.
#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.
#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.
#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.
#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.
#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.
#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.
#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.
#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.
#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.
#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.
#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.
#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.
#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.
#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.
#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.
#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.
#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.
#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.
#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.
#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.
#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.
#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.
#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.
#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.
#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.
#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.
#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.
#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.
#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.
#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.
#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.
#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape. The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based. That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.
During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go.
Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.
To understand how bad things really are google The Economic Collapse 2012
Those who bought more house than they could afford were not forced too.Those who spend more than they make were not forced to. Those who put what man makes ahead of what god makes were not forced to.The FED turned its back on its number one mandate,protect the interests of its people. The banks turned its back on its number one mandate,protect the value of its currency. The media turned its back on its number mandate,to protect the integrity of the information shared. They have all joined forces against the citizens of this country and most of the citizens of this country have financed that endeavor for them. The largest contributor for this gross indiscretion partaken in by the citizens is subjectivity. Its a transfer of power that reduces the power that the subjective minded enjoys. Thats why so many citizens in this country are easily duped by the feeble minded that have a great ability to appear smart. Here’s proof. How many americans belief{ senitment} that they can have great credit without ever being in debt? Every frikken one I have asked says its impossible. When I tell them I have for over 20 years they call me a liar. They are broke,I am not. No one told these geniuses with these credit cards about leveraging they own prosperity with a hedge. Why is it that people believe what is told to them by someone who means them no good,but disbelieves whats being told to them by someone who does? Sentiment is the driving force. Its only whats merely believed and very little fact if any is represented in sentiment. Facts that can be confirmed is the only means of making accurate determinations but the geniuses with credit cards have no clue.Why would someone who relies on credit{someone elses money} more than there own money have so little knowledge about the most beneficial ways to use credit? Oh,I know, because the government didn’t tell them they need to know.As long as the citizens look outside of themselves at a greater rate than within they will always be on the bottom of the food chain when it comes to net worth expansion,creditworthiness,retirement savings,and enlightenment that has value.
Funny!! Manny canadians are buying property in Florida. Right now they’re the biggest outside market buying homes in the U.S. Maybe they should consider buying a home in Detroit for “$6,000″ they’ll save lots of cash plus its rightt across the border… Way better than any boxing day sale
It SHOULD BE, if it isn’t anyway, ILLEGAL for any foreign interest to own property in American. That is ridiculous. Whereas it is not as scary to think of CANADA as it is CHINA, CHINA has made some serious inroads here. Think CONFLICT OF INTEREST here…
Hello,
If anyone is still reading the article was about economic indicators and or statistics, not religion, so put that aside. We have a wide raft of problems. Right now there is no viable fix to them. I can move overseas because I am a dual citizen. I can escape and may well wind up doing that and taking my lumps because of it. But putting me aside. War is coming. Not the piddling things that we’ve glimpsed at over the last 40 or 50 years now but a real war. The kind which have as a result the redrawing of maps, the collapse of nations, the deaths of hundreds of millions and the civil disruptions that cause a lost generation to wonder at those who are living now, reading this perhaps and still not getting it. We are in trouble. The solutions ARE there, known, waiting to be used but they will not be. So the “system” will crash and the suffering will be titanic. The only realistic thing to do is to prepare however you might think best. I think I may be in a sweet spot and so have opted to “hang in there” but I do have the option of moving. Most do not. Happy Holidaze.
Not exactly the kind of information you wish for during the holiday season. A bitter pill to swallow – but part of the cure.
Before going into total depression – chek out http://www.the thrivemovement.com
There ARE ways to change this catastrophy.
Read with an open mind – and draw your own conclusions.
Blessings to you all- and do not despair.
Anti Obama nonsence,
#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
Actually Obama has accumulated less debt then George Bush in the same time period.
George Bush is the man that turn the american debt to an escalating catastrofy that may not be reverseble.
maybe you should do some research b4 you go and open your mouth repeating messnbc, and looking like a fool! the debt for Bush in the same period from when he took office to the equivalent to today was only 1.3 trillion, look it up!
if inflation rates were calculated in the same method as they were in 1980 inflation would be over 10 percent, so your dollars have been losing 8 percent a year of its value and earning ability in the continuing rip off….aint no worry…eh..?????????????????
excluding houses, food, energy, taxes, insurance………….all the things they might cut your throat for..????????????/
Good job. I appreciate your telling the truth about the real state of the economy. The Obama administration is quick to distort the reality of how bad the economy really is.
I wish the American people were paying better attention. It seems they are starting to believe that Obama is doing a good job and that the economy is recovering. That won’t last. There is no way that the economy will respond very well until Obamacare is repealed, restrictions of carbon based energy sourses are lifted and the corporate tax rates go down.
By the way. I quoted this article on my blog. Here is the link if you are interested http://drclarkjensen.com/obama-claims-4th-president-2/
All comments have been read, and there seems to be one overriding similarity: No one seems to get it that the problem we are facing is multi-faceted. To me, there is absolutely no question that the federal government is too big, spends money like a drunken sailor and has no goal other than preserving the status quo power structure in Washington. Both political parties seek unholy alliances with the rich and powerful, and the rich and powerful clearly play the game of “financially encouraging” the politicians with very little thought about underlying politcal doctrine. The way the game is being played, the rich and powerful (yes both the republican and the democrat variety) will stay that way no matter who is in power…They strive to win financially either way. The people who lose are the hard working middle class who take it in the ass from both political persuasions. Everybody needs to watch Jimmy Stewart in “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” to know that this story has been going on for a very long time. Obama is just the latest “Pied Piper” who tells us a beautiful story about how things need to be while he cynically works beyond the light of day with the likes of Jeffry Emmelt, the CEO of General Electric, or the powers that be within the organized labor unions to feather their own nests at the greater public’s financial expense!
The essay ends with “shut down the federal reserve”. The Fed is like a cooling system for an engine, and the engine of government is constantly red-lining. If you cut the radiator hose, sure, the engine will blow up sooner than it would have otherwise. But if the people with their foot on the gas pedal eased off first, it would be less messy.
This guy is worth a read. Yes, he’s Christian, but his economic knowledge is astounding.
Click my name to carry you to the link.
I have read this entire post and now I am going to tell you all what the problem really is. One poster had it right in a nutshell when he said our leaders have sliped into moral decay. Well not just our leaders but alot of others also, moral and spiritual decay. One poster said that he does not believe in religion but thinks he is a good moral person anyhow, on what basis? According to the thoughts and beliefs of others? or what society in general believes to be moral? Or what his grandmother taught him?
The truth is we have no way of knowing the difference between moral and not moral within ourselves. We are all greedy and selfish by nature.
One poster said to forget about religion we are talking about economic collapse here. Well it really cant be done because the Bible is the only source of true wisdom on what is moral, or right, or wrong. And it also warns us that this would be the outcome of not listening to God or his word, like not loaning money at interest to our own people but only to other nations and not borrowing from other nations. and declaring the year of jubile (Lev) 27 to free all debters. but he also says if we as a nation repent and seek his face and turn from evil, that he will heal out nation. 2 chronicles 7:14 He says my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge, because they reject me I will also reject them Hosa 4:6. So the only question is Are we going to do it? or are we going to keep going down the road to destruction all the wile denying God and his word witch can save us.
iT’S NOT A DEBT PROBLEM AMERICA HAS; IT’S A FRAUD PROBLEM. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. fRAUDULENT MORTGABGEES, FRAUDULENT BANK FAILURES, FRAUDULENT PUBLIC EDUCATION, FRAUDULENT HEALTHCARE REFORM, FRAUDULENT MONEY, FRAUDULENT CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS, FRAUDULENT LAW ENFORCEMENT, FRAUDULENT POLITICAL REPRESENTATION, fRAUDULENT TAX LAW ENFORCEMENT SCHEMES, FRAUDULENT RIGHTS, FRUADULENT FREEDOMS, FRAUDULENT JUSTICE SYSTEM, FRAUDULENT NEWS STORIES, FRAUDULENT WARS. FRAUDULENT EQUALITY, FRAUDULENT LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL…AND THE LIST GOES ON AND ON AD INFINITUM AD NAUSEA.
Forgive me, if you will for the use of all caps, I was distracted.
Why blame Obama? Just because Fox propaganda does so? Actual facts point to the Republicans in congress and in former administrations having created the laws and regulations that allowed the 0.1% to put most of America’s wealth into their own pockets.
Why are countries that have either a socialist or similarly organized government thriving and the ones that use the American model are in big trouble?
Great post. It really saddens me to this once great country coming to this kind of stage.
Raphael
Historically, I’ve seen this mess coming for years. Serious economic depressions occur about every 70 years allowing the great grand
child to completely forget the lessons learned by the great grandfather.
In our current case, this timeframe has been extended by a few years owing to better health.
This knowledge aside, we know it is time for a
great leveling event to bring about balance and equalize the haves and have nots.
We haven’t seen any rich cats jumping out of windows yet. This has been postponed by government intervention, but shortly, it will be a freefall for a lot of corporate executives.
The only bright thing out of this whole mess is that far more millionaires were made out of the last Great Depression than were lost. This is a fact!
The new millionaires were made from the lower middle class who bought up the real holdings of
the fat cats for pennies on the dollar.
Deflation will eventually occur and boil itself
down to real money and real estate unless you can really produce something with your bare hands, and I am not talking about paperwork.
Even paper money will be worth something once again! Yes, today it is worthless if it is in the bank. What happens to the dollars value when banks have to pay their customers for it instead of getting it free from the government?
The banks will have to pay real interest for it and not at borrowing from China rates because no one outside the USA will lend us money. What will that real rate be? I expect something between 15 to 25 percent. Savers will finally be rewarded!
So, it is not all gloom and doom, but it will be difficult for the unprepared. Like my great grandfathers said, “Don’t owe a man a penny and don’t let a man owe you a penny!” Also, “if you make a 100 dollars a day and spend 99 dollars, you just made a dollar!”
In other words, be frugal, pay cash for your purchases and hang onto every dime. Think long and hard before buying anything.