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.
Michael, congrats once again for making ZeroHedge; 42,412 people as of this morning, 12/17, have read your piece and 528 have commented. Getting published on ZH is a HUGE honor and shows you are a “player” in the world of financial/economic blogs. Keep up the outstanding work; your blog is the best of its kind.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/50-economic-numbers-about-us-are-almost-too-crazy-believe
Yes, it is a great honor.
Most people don’t realize this, but my articles actually get read more on other sites than they do on this site.
I let other sites publish these articles for free and I don’t get any money from it.
But by being a blessing to others I find that I have been very blessed.
Thank you to everyone out there that has been a blessing to this site.
Michael
Hi. I’ve read at least a few articles on this website, and I’ve read a number of articles elsewhere about the impending economic collapse, both in the U.S. and abroad. I have a question for you: what would you say about a year of Jubilee for the world? In the Old Testament of the Bible, in the Mosaic Law, the Hebrews were given a year of Jubilee in which all major debts were forgiven. The idea I’m seeing here is that every economy needs a reset button because eventually, as where we are today, there is so much debt that there isn’t enough wealth in the world to cover it. While I’m still needing to research this concept in more detail myself, it seems that there is going to be major defaulting by a lot of nations very soon. In fact, China appears to be getting ready to start a war with the buildup of weaponry at all her borders. It seems that the economic collapse will not only involve horrible rioting within nations, but horrible wars between nations as one nation attempts to take another nation’s resources by force. Assuming nations could be persuaded to avoid the slaughter of one another, and the accompanying destruction of what resources do exist, would a year of Jubilee be helpful in drastically defusing the situation? Of course, the next question would be: how does one get nations to agree to a Jubilee year? And do you know if anyone has suggested such an idea before?
Little L:
I have heard of the idea of a Jubilee before. Unfortunately, I think that the bankers of the world would rather cut off their right legs than have a debt jubilee.
Michael
Michael, thank you for your reply! And thank you for writing this article. May God bless you in your continued efforts to present truth to the public. And I think you’re right about the world’s bankers, and that’s why nothing like this has ever been done. It’s so sad and so ironic, for with the way things are going, it appears that most everyone is going to take a tremendous loss, a far worse loss than what would be incurred with a Jubilee.
me too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The real reason for all the hype about the country being unable to remain sovreign is so people world wide will accept a one world government and give up their individual sovreignty. America will never give in to world government. We need to throw out the fascists commies and run the country without foreign influence. Throw out the Federal Reserve and commerce that signs on to foreign treaties. We were never meant to be equally yoked with treaties. GMLOGMD
George -the “Greatest Generation” was anything BUT. They, more than any other set the stage for the train wreck that is the USA. Mindlessly “patriotic” and obedient, endlessly self0indulgent – they have srewed the Nation but good.
CANCEL the phony debt – and toss the vampires of he the “Federal Reserve” OUT.
Buy Your Groceries With Silver Coins
So you want to change the system. It’s all going to hell and you’re just another bystander, how can you change anything? They own the government, they own the money. First you change the monetary system to a barter system that will starve the monetary system, and its control on the government will wither and die. Are you in? Plan A: tomorrow you tell your employer you want to be paid with silver coins. You and your boss will have one of the most interesting conversations you have had all year. If your boss says OK, great. If not, plan B: you cash your check and buy silver coins. If you buy more than $1500.00 worth of coins there’s no sales tax. Now you are ready to barter with your silver. Go to the grocery store ask the manager if you can use your silver coins to trade for some groceries. If the manager says no, show the manager how shiny the coins are. If the answer is still no, just say thank you and go somewhere else. It will be hard to find your fellow Barterers at first; keep at it and you will be successful. Soon you will be bartering for everything you need. You will be seen as a trend setter. Congratulations, you are helping to start an underground economy, that can turn into what the real economy used to be. And as an extra bonus you will be feared and loathed by the establishment, What can be better than that.
It’s good to have some extra cash on hand for emergencies.
Because when the “bank holiday” comes (and it WILL come!!) – you will not be able to access your checking or savings accounts. Most people have automatic electronic withdrawal to pay their bills. That can – um, WILL – be a problem for those people.
How long will it last? In 1933, it lasted for 1 week. This time around, who knows?
Many of the descriptions, especially those regarding poverty, seem redundant and share the misguided and economically ignorant bias of the Occupy Wall Street gangs. The U.S. definitions for “poverty” have changed over the decades referenced, and what passes for poverty here bears no resemblance to true poverty elsewhere in the world.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/07/what-is-poverty
i’m easily part of the 10-15 richest % in this country now. i’m my own boss, i don’t owe one soul a cent, & just had one of my best years yet. with that said it’s shocking to me that anyone would try to justify these numbers away for ANY reason. That should be #51 on this list.
Rhetoric like that is as much an enemy to this reality as anything. Seriously what planet do you live on ??? WOW.
This is just a bunch of libertarian clap-trap. Nice try Ron Paul-bots. Go back to your ghanja and your racist ideals.
What is racist? Be specific or be quiet…
#17 The USPS only lost 5 billion dollars because thats how much was raided out of their general fund by congress. They do not receive money from federal taxes .
#47 This is disingenuously presented. Most federal spending is approved long before it’s paid out, so a significant portion of that was SPENT under Bush, but actually paid out after he left office.
#50 See #47.
Back in the 1930′s people would kidnap rich people. Nowdays they just “shoot and take” anything of value.
Why don’t you write on an artical on cutting the unemployment out in Febuary?
Also how this will benefit rich people?
Here in Australia we were lucky enough to have leaders who had maintained adequate regulation of our banks, and who stepped in to stimulate the economy and support the banks at the first sign of the GFC. But even our stable and growing economy is vulnerable to the collapsing European circumstances. You’re right that the citizens of the US need to educate themselves about what has happened in their own economy. The fault for the GFC lies squarely at the feet of the ‘profit-at-any-cost’, ‘too-big-to-fail’ banks in the US. The global collapse began there and spread throughout the world, and the consequences for Europe have been devastating. Asia is beginning to be caught up too now, and the future looks glum.
US citizens need to realise that they have no right to keep electing governments that allow this global phenomenon to continue. Obama has been held back from stimulating the US economy by the right-wing politicians who represent the same forces that caused the GFC in the first place. They and the worst of the media have manipulated public opinion to create fear, hatred and greed.
A misinformed society then comes to believe that spending money on stimulating the economy is wrong and will only add to the debt. This couldn’t be further from the truth. A stimulated economy recovers and grows and creates more wealth, and that wealth is more evenly spread. Without a middle-class to consume their will be no customers – the 1-2% are too few. So it’s imperative that the US has a strong middle-class, and this won’t happen with more cuts. The US government needs to raise taxes on the richest 20% so that they can use that money to stimulate growth and a more even spread of income throughout the economy. The growth that comes from economic stimulation (and I don’t mean throwing money at the banks…), supports a greater national income and is then available to pay off the national debt.
Citizens of the US do not have the moral right to allow their governors to cut spending and not tax the wealthy properly, because it affects us all – not just the US. Thks.
Trish
Interesting thoughts you propose. Ok we will inflate our currency through (stimulation) and you pay the price because the USD is the reserve currency.
Currency without an increase in productivity equals inflation. You can’t increase your productivity without industrial capacity which has fled (and is fleeing).
The solution you propose is just what they want. The US is the de-facto banker of the world. Our job is to print money (and computer generated currency credits) and use it to import goods and energy produced elsewhere. We offer “Protection” in trade. Protection from your natural enemies and in their absence some newly created ones. In the end, like the mafia it’s protection from us. MIC is bypassing the “Industrial” and going to the MBC (Military Banking Complex).
Kevin2,
Controlled and well-targeted economic stimulus doesn’t result in an inflated currency, or inflated prices. It does increase productivity though, because of the increase in jobs. If the US govt. funded massive infra-structure programs (which I think Obama has attempted to do…), the downstream benefits include productivity increases, growth in small business (new and established), opportunity for manufacturers, skills development (i.e. through apprenticeships and other concomitant training), more salaries and incomes for taxation, and thereby more income for the Govt. to use to pay off the debt.
These are beneficial consequences that increase by several factors, and quite rapidly. A further consequence of carefully targeted programs is the incentive to stay and manufacture in the US, rather than go elsewhere, because the market is in the US.
The US has signed many bilateral and global free trade treaties but is notorious for not upholding them, using all kinds of imaginative excuses to, in effect, provide protection for their own industries. This usually results in a dispute that ends up world trade courts, and the outcomes tend to favour the US.
As for the US as the “de facto banker of the world”, I’m not so sure. Money is such a global commodity that it would be difficult to keep the lending capacity in one system. I think the US owes China almost a trillion (from what I’ve read…).
I think you might be onto something though, when you talk about the MIC being funded and controlled by the MBC – either way is undesirable.
Trish
Increasing the money supply certainly increases inflation. They are “cooking the books” here to hide that fact by not including two small items in the equation, food and fuel. At one time they we’re included in the governmental tabulation for inflation but no more. If included we’re over 10%. Go grocery shopping in the US sometime.
Roads, bridges and the like while vital are not “value adding, self sustaining”; they do not increase productivity. Manufacturing creates wealth and the US has been on the very loosing end of those agreements as can we seen by what we call “the rust belt”. The US balance of trade is the best measure and the US has been on the loosing side of that for the last two decades. You name the industry in the US and they have eviscerated if not evaporated. The rate of industrial decline has done nothing but increase and with it a proportionate rise in debt and poverty. Creating money is not creating wealth.
The US certainly is the banker of the world. Where are the Euros going? Which is the reserve currency. Be well aware of the capacity of the US to export it’s inflation. It’s happening as we speak. The more dollars produced the higher the price of oil as oil is traded in US dollars. Governments attempting to circumvent exclusive dollars for oil (Iraq & Libya) get a lesson that their leadership need not forget because they don’t survive the aftermath.
Even the policies enacted during the “Great Depression” did not bring the US out of depression. WW2 did not either with 12 million able bodied removed from the work force and civilian goods rationed. The aftermath of WW2 with the destruction of half the worlds industrial capacity leaving the US as the only significant manufacturer paved the way for massive Us economic growth for two and a half decades.
We’re not faced with some cyclic economic downtrend but rather a global realignment of economic power. The idea that the US is “The marketplace” was true when the US had the wealth to purchase. Don’t confuse money with wealth or confuse a service economy job with real GDP productivity.
Kevin2,
“The aftermath of WW2 with the destruction of half the worlds industrial capacity leaving the US as the only significant manufacturer paved the way for massive Us economic growth for two and a half decades.”
I hadn’t ever thought of it that way. But I’m wondering now whether even that boom in manufacturing might have been strongly Govt. supported to begin with?? Or was it just the MIC kicking in again, i.e. turning to new markets? Such a strong and proud nation seems to be, on the one hand, striving for a greater humanity and using their education and research to invent and progress, whereas, on the other hand it doesn’t care who or what it treads on to get its way…..
You couldn’t be more wrong.
The mortgage and housing crisis caused this collapse. The liberal democrats were the ones claiming “everyone should own a house” – Obama was a lawyer with ACORN who actively lobbied and fought to punish banks unless the banks provided loans to poor people who couldn’t afford them.
Back in 2003 – 2005, it was the Bush administration and republicans saying we needed to regulate Fannie/Freddie because we are going to face a crisis. The democrats, including Obama, put a stop to any regulation, called the republicans racist, and said the institutions were working perfectly. How did that work out? But yeah, blame Bush for the collapse.
You can’t have it both ways. The republicans were the racist rich people who didn’t want poor people to have houses, yet they are the ones who forced the banks into sub-prime lending to provide houses to the poor people? Please.
It’s NOT the big banks that caused this. It’s the government intervention. They were told to lower their lending standards because they could sell it all off as securities through Fannie/Freddie (government institutions) – and when banks didn’t lower their standards, they were sued and called racist. When banks act as private institutions with real risk, everyone complains that it’s hard to get a loan. When they make it easy to get a loan (government forces them to), everyone blames them for the results.
The issue is liberal policies. Period.
Alex S
The housing bubble is a symptom that added to but did not “cause” the collapse. Thirty plus years of policies that eviscerated the once mighty industrial machine from the high pay of the US auto and steel industry to the lowly pay of the US textile industry was the root cause.They all took a massive decline if they survived at all. As imported goods increased in number and decreased in price the US deficit spent increasing the money supply without inflation because of the low cost of foreign made goods. All of a sudden a nail salon and dog grooming shop became real employment in the nonsense “service economy”. The increase in money to facilitate this originated with government spending virtually always through debt. As more goods were made in China they loaned money back to the US virtually flooding banks with cash to loan. Here comes the ultra low mortgage rates and with it a dramatic rise in both home construction, loans and property values. In the end all of it was based on debt. Debt packaged and dressed up became an asset to be bought and sold by investors. Eventually the debt reached a point in which it could not be serviced and the structure built on it started to collapse.
It’s well beyond a liberal policy cause however anything that facilitated spending without having (or enticed others to do so) contributed to the mess.
By the way, I think you should tax every Australian 20% more and send the money to the United States. I mean, if we are going to sit here and demand drastically higher taxes on OTHER PEOPLE, why not make it fun?
Socialists like you never really get it. You can only tax the supposed “rich” for so long. What ends up happening is you continue to create a system where more and more people are on the welfare train, and less and less pay taxes.
Eventually you run out of people to tax. Denmark is a prime example. It’s getting worse and worse there. Taxes are now over 50% on most Danes and more and more take from the system every year.
The real solution is TRUE conservative values (not Bush), small government, less spending. Taxes aren’t the issue, spending is. Your beloved “stimulus spending” has failed miserably EVERY SINGLE TIME. It doesn’t work. Economies aren’t fixed by just sending free money out. They are fixed by creating an atmosphere for growth through stable, long term economic health, ie. less taxes on everyone, less burden on businesses, and smaller, cheaper government.
Alex S.,
There’s a lot in what you say that I agree with. But one of the aspects of this global argument is the way we all want to take the extreme view from either side of the political spectrum. My belief is that there is a more moderate, middle way. Of course we have to support enterprise and initiative, and less burden on businesses is definitely one way of achieving that – especially for smaller and start-up business, and business that is vulnerable to competition from third world countries that don’t protect their workers in terms of occupational health and safety, and where salaries are so much lower. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that small government is the answer. I think actually, that you’d find that conservative governments in UK, USA, Aust. and Canada have often had larger governments/public services than liberal govts. And when it comes down to it, it’s probably no so much taxing less, as preventing tax rorts by the larger firms and wealthiest people, who seem to pay next to nothing, compared with salaried workers and smaller businesses.
And I’m not suggesting “free money”. What I’m saying is that, especially when times are tough, it’s up to the Govt. to take on large infra-structure projects that are needed to be taken on anyway, that the Govt. This could mean bringing forward future projects maybe, or investing heavily in schools, roads, hospitals, airports etc. What would Singapore be without Changi, or Hong Kong without its new airport and rail system, or London without its infrastructure spending? Of course these projects can be done by private companies too, but they rely on the profits coming in sooner, rather than later, whereas the govt. has other sources of income and can step in to create this wealth and opportunity in the knowledge that good, stable economic growth makes the country richer. And the more jobs and opportunity that results means less people on welfare and less welfare payments, etc.
As for the cheap housing loans to people who couldn’t afford them, yes, that is the provenance of the collapse. But it’s not as simple as that, is it? What was probably a well-intentioned program to help people to own their own homes was abused by the agents who got commissions for selling the loans. This, of itself, resulted in a lot of people who were not at all financially secure getting loans they could never afford. It also played a large part in creating a market where, instead of wanting to build or buy houses within a reasonable size and price-range, people were encouraged to believe that they could have it all, and to re-mortgage when they needed more money!
So it all went wrong. But even then, it’s what happened to the loans that caused the real problems. It was the bundling up of the loans and selling them off, and the ratings agencies ignoring the obvious pitfalls, so that these bundles were sold off globally. It was all just thin air.
Well that’s how I see it, anyway….
#51 is the percentage of people who are STILL trying to justify these numbers away….seriously what kind of brain-washed sleepwalking LOSER does it take. THAT’s the most troubling one of all. I mean there’s some walking breathing moron in the comments above taking about the “benefits” of debt…& i’ll bet anything that idiot can’t even tell anyone about Thomas Robert Malthus. he was one who (pre-Darwin) 1st suggested that a food shortage wouldd be good for a utopian society because it would eliminate the weak. he also came up with another interesting concept = RENT & look how far it has devolved. The Rothschilds must be having nightly wet dreams.
people change your currency because we are near the end of the us dollar people please wake up the goverment want to get total control out of people so please wake up an have faith in god people an remenber the antichristis coming so be ready it is a new cycle coming 1212 it is not going to be the end of people but it maybe the end of freedom an more desater too but dont be scary GOD will proctect u if u repent from your sin people so repent remeber only UR FATHER GOD IS ARE ONLY HOPE
The masses in this asylum state do not understand:
WITHOUT FREEDOM, THERE WILL NOT BE ANY PROSPERITY:
Article done about a week ago which outlines how fascist asylum states of amerika gov’t is a police state akin to North Korea and passes law to allow military to indefinitely detain citizens forever without charge or trial, only 44 responses four of which are mine. This article, about one or two days old at best, already has 155 including this response which is only my first.
What’s wrong with this picture people? It seems very few people understand that there can only be prosperity through freedom, not the other way around. Worrying about your pocketbooks while freedom is being ursurped is a losing proposition. But then again, amerika is full of losing propositions these days….
There are four possible outcomes for America, two likely, and two unlikely:
1) An economic miracle with decreasing unemployment, real GDP growth in the 3-4% range, or higher, mild inflation and a much reduced annual federal deficit…. HIGHLY UNLIKELY.
2) A total collapse of civil society, with the inevitable police state crushing the civilians…. UNLIKELY.
3) The US “puddles” along with stubbornly high unemployment, weak and anemic GDP growth, stunning deficits and debt and increasingly BAD inflation…. Very Likely.
4) #3 above with STUNNING inflation….very likely over the next 2-5 years.
#4 Another war
#5 War with Iran
#6 No more money lent to the US
#7 Massive natural disaster
#8 Loss of faith in our hollow currency
#9 Collapse of euro
#10 Always expect the unexpected
#13 above is the reason I began preparing and started my blog.
Lets just cut to the chase:
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: The search for a moral justification for selfishness. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
We all know this is true.
Survival of the fittest is based on selfishness. It may not be ideal, but it’s the way the world works – from humans all the way to the smallest ant.
The modern liberal is completely lost in a dream world and unable to grasp the stark realities of the world. They continue to spend trillions of dollars destroying society in a fight against mother nature, to prop up the weakest who will never truly make it anyways.
Conservatives simply put the responsibility of survival, wealth, health, etc. on the individual. That you should stand up and fight for yourself, work hard, and actually be responsible… what an awful, selfish concept.
I believe that as humans we can move beyond the selfish survival of the fittest. We unlike animals have a soul.
I do not see how anyone who is conservative can claim to be a Christian as the philosophy are not compatible.
PS-I do realize most Christians are phoney!
Only somebody who is not smart enough to think on their own would fall for the fact that this is all because of Obama. Some people will understand that it takes a lot more to live now then it did when George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt or even Ronald Reagan took office. Also, policies/legislation enacted by an administration take YEARS to be fully realized. S@$# rolls down hill and so does the legislation of Clinton and GW. Much of the above may be documented facts, but it is far from being a result of Obama’s policies. Ron Palooka for President – yeah that’ll work!
This is decades in the making predating both Clinton and GW (however Free Trade Industrial Evisceration and Banking Deregulation certainly was a catalyst). It can be reasonably argued that it goes back to at least 1971. The damage was done previously (as opposed to just laws enacted) but it was hid by increasing debt both public and private.
The above being said nothing is being done to reverse the policies that created the damage and if anything they are being advanced. The solution to too much debt is not more debt. You can take it to “The Bank” (oops poor choice of words) that another war is around the corner too.
The difference is their is no difference.
Roman James,
And only someone with oxygen posing as brain matter would conclude that Obama shares absolutely “ZERO” responsibility for the mess that amerika finds itself in:
While it is true that most of the programs and policies plaguing everything were in effect long before Obama came onto the scene, it is also true that Obama has done nothing “TO REVERSE THE CURRENT NEGATIVE TRENDS IN QUESTION.” In fact, he has turned up the heat and intensified the current negative trends that are destroying this place. This is what I fault Obama for. From Carter through Bush Jr. was the period where many of the policies and programs now in place were enacted. Other destructive policies enacted during the age of Obama are outlined below:
Obama did vote for the first TARP Bailout of 2008 as a sitting US Senator from Illinois. He also voted to give telecom companies immunity for their spying on citizens at the behest of the Bush White House. Obama also voted for the 2006 or 2007 bankruptcy bill that cemented student loan debt as a permanent ball and chain (symbol of slavery) around the ankles of young adults. And now Obama has done the ulitmate: Signed into law a monstrously evil piece of legislation called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 which allows the military to indefinitely detain citizens and legal residents without charge, trial, or due process of any kind. Stimulus bill anyone? No jobs created there. Alternative energy funding anyone? All those government funded companies are now bankrupt. End to big to fail? Not on your life.
IN A NUTSHELL:
The Obama presidency has produced nothing but more civil liberties violations and police state power grabs, more wars, and more banker bailouts. That is essentially the essence and the sole purpose of Barrack Hussein Obama being in the White House. To tighten the screws and crush the citizenry via blunt law enforcement and military force, to start more wars and slaughter more people around the world, and raid and loot the treasury for more banker bailouts……………
Reed Richards,
Your ‘In a nutshell’ summary is pretty damming. My impression (from afar) has been that Obama’s administration has had to compromise itself to be able to negotiate its policies through Congress. But the NDAA (2012) seems unjustifiable. I hadn’t realised that it’s the military and not even just the police who can detain US citizens that way! What price freedom? Whatever view you take on Bradley Manning, the way he has (reportedly) been treated condemns Obama’s administration too, as a reputation deserved by Bush et al.
The overall picture seems to be that it doesn’t matter who is elected, the MIC/banks are the ones who decide and implement govt. activity – irrespective of policy guidelines. It’s all so disillusioning. But Obama has to be the better option. If he had more voter support and less media-incited polarising hatred, fear and meanness, maybe he could make progress.
The problem is NOT the Federal Reserve, it is NeoClassical economic theory, which dominates academia, and policy. It does not matter what monetary structure you put in place. If policy it determined by people who follow fantasy theories which have no relationship to the real world, you are going to have a mess. This notion that the FED is the problem is dangerous. It is that all the people who run the FED, are Neoclassical economists!
NESARA (National Economic Stabilization and Recovery Act). “Beloved Saint Germain” and “Saint Sananda Immanuel” (Omegans) will help you get your stamp on your forehead or hand. They WILL fix all economic trouble! They are playing “enemy of Illuminati”. Wow this was a crazy comment, no?
People cling to the problems being ‘Bush’ or “Obama’ because that means they have a choice in the process. You don’t. No US President has made an important decision in over 57 years. They are cardboard standees only, handed instructions by the euro banking elite families. Selected by them, not elected by the slaves.
Politics, religion, economic class, etc are nothing more than systems of control based on lies to enslave you. To pit one against another in ignorance.
While you are battling over these false unimportant systems the owners sit back and design your life.
Whether GOP vs Dems, over Christian vs Muslim, Lakers vs Mavericks, it is all horsecrap.
All false systems put in place to serve a purpose. To keep the human mind busy so you won’t focus on those that are controlling your life.
Free your mind.
Tapper you are exactly right. We’re arguing over crumbs and they’re leaving with the whole meal. We’re ignorant.
If we redefine “social mobility” to mean mobility in either direction, the US is now doing awesome, because so many families are moving from where they once were. It’s just that they’re moving downwards.
It’s a neat trick to blame this on unions, because the thing that conservatives are pushing as a solution is to end social welfare, eliminate the minimum wage, remove work regulation, and basically create the conditions for factory workers in the US to compete with those in China.
Think about it. We’re being told that the path to prosperity is in creating a new peasant class with incomes close to third world nations.
From a comment in the Milwaukee Journal
Ending minimum wages, excessive welfare, and bogus regulations seems like a great idea to me.
Minimum wages and overtime laws help almost no one. Businesses don’t let employees work 40+ hours because of the overtime law, so employees lose out on much needed additional hours and income.
The most heavily unionized place in America, Detroit, how is that working out?
A few things are important to understand here. A “lower class” – there is nothing wrong with this. We can easily provide land, service, and cheap housing to people who work in low level jobs in factories, creating a perfectly reasonably lifestyle and living environment.
You simply cannot have everyone be rich, it doesn’t work that way. Our middle class standards are “rich” by comparison to most other countries. The definition of poverty is skewed as our “poor” have it better than most “middle class” elsewhere.
Our path to prosperity is getting housing prices as low as possible, the false housing boom spearheaded by bad liberal policies: “everyone should own a home and be entitled to $500,000 loans they can’t afford” screwed that up. Now it’s time we get back to where someone can actually make a living on $10/hour. Until house prices drop to a reasonable amount again, that will never happen and we’ll always be mortgage/rent poor in this country.
Alex S
The US for seven decades had minimum wage and a 40 hour work week and we prospered until 2.5 billion Asians making sub human wages working in sub human conditions rivaling anything in the early industrial revolution were admitted to the party duty free.
“Minimum wages and overtime laws help almost no one.”
Speak for yourself. I cut my eye teeth in the pet-chem and refining industry that employed tens of thousands the NJ, Pa, De area. Those laws put money in the bank, bought cars and put kids through college. The system worked until….drum roll please….Free Trade with slave Labor Nations came into effect.
“Our middle class standards are “rich” by comparison to most other countries.”
Oops sorry not true. It used to be but we dropped back significantly over the last 3 decades.
“The most heavily unionized place in America, Detroit, how is that working out?’
They are working out no better then the historically poorly paid US Textile Workers who lost their $8-$15 / hr jobs to 50 cent / hr Chinese and Indian labor.
“Now it’s time we get back to where someone can actually make a living on $10/hour.”
The cost of living did not go up because labor received more money. Labor received more money because the government borrowed more money and the Federal Reserve (with it very helping hand) was there to create more money and prices has risen. Inflation goes up 6% and you get a 4% “raise” (which is taxed to boot). Labor has always played “catch up”.
Bless this mess! And Bless Us All!
Now we know better.
Forgive. Forgiven. Wiser.
Graphic Video: EGYPT, The brave women of the Middle East: Female protesters brutally beaten with metal poles as vicious soldiers drag girls through streets by their hair in day of shame…
http://totalcollapse.com/2011/12/18/graphic-video-egypt-the-brave-women-of-the-middle-east-female-protesters-brutally-beaten-with-metal-poles-as-vicious-soldiers-drag-girls-through-streets-by-their-hair-in-day-of-shame/
So proud to see you’ve made my Yahoo home page! Your word is finally getting out to the mainstream. Please keep up the excellent work.
Thank you for the kind words. This particular article is getting a lot of attention.
Michael
as the economist say the economy will not be back to normal until 5 to 10 years after the bubble burster in 2007 to 2008 so evidently barack obama@ president is doing an incredible job w/ what the bush administration left him!
Alicia, He has stripped you of your clothes and you’re standing there naked shouting “don’t I look great naked”.
BREAKING: North Korea Says Leader Kim Jong-Il Has Died
http://totalcollapse.com/2011/12/18/breaking-north-korea-says-leader-kim-jong-il-has-died/
breaking who cares? hope he rots in hell
The problems with the US economy are directly caused by a simple fact. As Al Kapp used to say, “Any fool can plainly see.” Our unjust tax system over the last 30 years has resulted in a situation where the RICH PEOPLE have WAY too much wealth, and the POOR PEOPLE don’t have enough money to even survive in many instances, let alone save, and educate their children. The economy won’t work with this imbalance.
It just won’t work. Have you noticed?
So, we have to fix this. Is it hard for you to understand that we have to fix this? How?
I offer you the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln:
“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”
Abraham Lincoln
First Inaugural Address – 1861
Get busy, folks.
Truly an eye-opener…thank you for sharing and for taking the time to organize the raw facts. We need a full-on revolt – Bankers should be on the top of the list! They need to reduce principal amounts on underwater mortgages to correct the problem they caused with that…so we are not all living on the streets. Then again, isn’t that one of the stimulus plans to improve the roads?
All politicians need to go too- every last one of them. The time for ‘all for me’ and ego-lead leadership is over. American’s need to get really pissed and change this as a group. I’m ‘in’. In the short term buy things made in the USA to at least save what little is left.
Sarah
Goodnighties Sleepwear
(yes, 100% made here)
To BobBobBob,
You must be talking about BHO forcing a military takeover, and a revolution, not mitt and newt? BHO already has provisions in Obamacare to appoint civilian officers in his “private security force” he spoke of during the last ’08 election. He’ll use these forces like Hitler’s brown shirts.
You had better WAKE UP to BHO’s covert moves to collapse the USA and install a Marxist World Gov’t.
It’s all ancient history………
BHO’s Marxist takeover and World Government.
There’s something wrong going on with BHO!!!
FEMA interment camps, BHO’s & Hillary’s move to sign on to the U.N’s small arms treaty could outlaw YOUR firearms, so you’ll be unable to defend yourself and the USA! Gov’t agents intimidating Mormon survival bulk food processors to get customer lists, so they can put them on a “possible terrorist” list.
Remember BHO had a self-vowed Communist (V.J.) working in the White House, and still has Mao Tse Tong lovers there now!
With the inevitable collapse looming, I see it everyday all around me in California, I am now selling everything that is not nailed down, moving to a rural area, stocking up on provisions and survival gear, and saying good bye to the good old USA. It is every man for himself now. Good luck people. Keep your powder dry!
The end of a corrupt world system. All the signs are there (and have been there for years). And therefore I think you have the right idea, Diego Roswell. Perhaps, underlying the all-encompassing and overriding love, (not of the Almighty but) of the Almighty dollar, the good old USA wasn’t so good after all?
And, as such, as ‘life is a learning curve,’ may a truly great (corruption-free) America (and a new ‘Atlantis?’) rise from the ashes.
My wish for you.
Lotta folks on here want to argue over small change. They’ll be the ones wondering what happened. While they are arguing and denying numbers, their world disappears before their very eyes.We are behind the curve…
Want to do something about this besides fretting? The Shared Economic Growth proposal is a simple three page bill that would make America the most attractive place on the planet to locate high-value jobs and would give market power back to middle-class Americans. Check it out, along with los of background information, at http://www.sharedeconomicgrowth.org And tell your Congresspeople and your friends to support it.
Nobody reads those long lengthy articles. Make your point and move on.
Quite frankly, Scout. What I don’t believe any amount of ‘web-loggers,’ who (foolishly; in my estimation) became hooked on the idea that anyone else was particularly interested in what they have to say, have realized is, no one (was or) is particularly interested? No. That’s the problem with the present-day Internet – talk is cheap – too many words; too little thought behind them. Result: GIGO (garbage in, and garbage out).
Why dont you move on scout.
It seems that plenty are reading it here and on the Blaze.
Michael congrats on the Blaze article…
I dont always agree with you,but I do believe you are doing Gods work.
Keep up the Good Fight!!!
It is okay that people do not agree with me. At least my articles are getting people talking. If this country had more debate about the real issues it would be a lot better off.
Michael
Vote for whom? They are all bred and raised by Uncle Corpy. We need to resurrect our constitutional rights and work toward adding a measure to the ballot. Don’t worry about voting Democrat, Republican, Independent, or anything else. Let’s vote for us and our country this time. Many of us have dropped out of the process that we are all aware they have slanted in their favor. They rely on voter apathy, let’s give it to them. Let’s refuse to vote for the next president. Don’t choose a candidate write in a vote proposal to amend the Constitution and take budget approval out of government control. The budget and it’s appropriations should be approved by the voters. The buck stops with us. One person one vote let corporate America deal with that. Let the 1% outvote the rest of us. Then see who the politicians suddenly cater too. Let’s control the money that they want to use for back-room deals with business. Let’s control the fate of our own country. The responsibility for this mess is ours but we continue to let those we trusted with our money to rob us blind. How many deadlines have they used to bicker supposedly on our behave while pushing the agendas they are given by special interests groups. How much have they ruined our reputation around the world and what have they done to our credit? With today’s technology we could vote and pass the budget more efficiently than they ever have. More people participate on voting for entertainment purposes than for the fate of our country. Capitalism controlled by the people has proven to be very beneficial but capitalism unchecked has no other goal than to consume and dominate everything in its path. We have unleashed a monster upon the world and now it’s turned on us. These mega-corporations have no national loyalty they’ve become global Frankensteins that began by feeding upon the weak, but now no one is safe. The entire world is at their mercy and has been thrust into turmoil. They want to destroy our governments and enslave our people. It is once again up to American democracy and freedom to come to the rescue but the abomination we’ve created has all but destroyed our democratic principles. We need to take back our country before it’s too late and pray that we’ve got the fortitude for that battle to come.
These are fifty startling realities, and I appreciate that TEC has substantiated each of them with a link back to their source! Good work, ya’ll. I’m glad to have found this site, since last night I shared my own fears about this on my website (www.TheLibertyProfessor.com).
Front line report from the economic battlefield:
My local Kmart store closed for good yesterday, December 18th, 2011. All items, 80 percent off. Mob scene, to say the least. Black Friday had nothing on this.
Known Ashley (cashier) for a couple of years. Asked her if she’d be transferred to another Kmart. She said, “no, this is it. We’re done. After today, we’re unemployed”.
So, good luck, Ashley. Good luck, Deanna. Good luck, Michael, Antonio, Steve, Jessica, and all the people behind the scenes that I never got to meet. God bless, and hope you all find jobs soon.
Further proof of the “economic recovery”. Yeah. Right.
And good luck to the security guard also.
Hope you get a better gig soon, maybe catching shoplifters at Walmart. Believe it or not, I’m going to miss you.
Mondo:
Wow – that is shocking to hear. Normally stores wait until after Christmas to close.
Michael
When you get laid off from a job that really paid like heavy industry you know that you might have some downward mobility. When your already at minimum wage or close to it where do you do from there?
Where we go is to a standard of living sufficiently low enough to compete in a global economy that “we” created. The “we” was not the same “we” as in “We The People” any more then it had the consent of the body politic in Europe.
hey-I am kind of disappointed-NOT! No one said they saw a red dragon rising up with seven horns making people take the mark of the beast! Maybe those posters realized how foolish they look and are.?
One can hope!
This is not about Bush, Obama, Newt or any other politician. It is about the failure of the capitalist system. LOng ago Rosa Luxembourg wrote that when capitalism did not pay its workforce enough to buy the goods they produced then the finance system would extend credit to them so they could buy those goods–necessary ones and luxury type items. That happened in the second half of the 20th century. In the first ten years of the 21st century, the finance system began to sell the debt created to others who then paid for it with debt they had. No real money was ever involved. When the true value of the housing market was shown in 2008, the system took a big big fall and the taxpayers paid for it directly and indirectly. Add to that the fact that the war industry budget (which is just another way to transfer tax dollars to a small number of corporations and banks) costs tens of millions of dollars a day for products that have no value except when they are used to destroy other countries and people. If I were a religious person, I would consider the people written about in items 32-34 are either the devil or his servants. Capitalism doesn’t need a correction it needs a complete failure.
ron j
Capitalism invents things, real useful things like the the computers we use. Capitalism is unfortunately quite natural. people work long and hard for their own benefit.
The above being said pure capitalism is self destructive just as pure socialism inhibits inventiveness. To those ends capitalism needs to be regulated and here and there enough socialism injected to create a safety net that is benefits people. Capitalism due to being based on greed is incapable of self regulation and the market place is often a poor regulator too. I much prefer Glass-Stegall to the hope that the common person has the capability of avoiding scams created by the highly educated.
Most sanity occurs in the grey center area as opposed to the conservative / liberal black and white framing of an issue.
This story made My Yahoo “Most Popular News Headlines”. If it’s most popular, I guess some people are waking up to our situation. Nice job!
http://news.yahoo.com/50-facts-u-economy-shock-205804459.html
Wow – thanks for pointing that out Winston. Hopefully we are waking some people out there up.
Michael
This lowlife government think they have most of the population fooled and I must admit that it has a lot of people fooled, just look who is praising the “O”
My problem with the effects of religion: Christianity supports attitudes toward human elimination. (their belief in a apocalypse).
The acceptance of these beliefs, leaves humans ‘powerless’ to change what ‘god’ has ordained as humans’ future demise on planet Earth.
It’s as if, they want to destroy the world because then Jesus will return and take them to a better world.
It seems biblical prophecies are used as a ‘blueprint’ on how to destroy the world.
Instead of trying to change the evil things that are happening globally, Christians see these as ‘signs of the times’ as they sit back and eagerly await the return and rescue from their savior.
Therefore, is the bible a type of propaganda produced in the form of ‘conditioning’ large groups of people to the acceptance of future atracoties? And perhaps an ego boost to those who believe? (for knowing in advance what is supposed to happen)…. and yet the acceptance is profound.
What makes the acceptance (of the end of the world) so appealing?
1.The guarantee of a new and perfect world.
(Science says the Earth will not last forever. Although it’s life span has many many years left).
2.Judgement and justification-humans tend to believe every action is subject to judgement and the apocalypse puts an end to people escaping justice. A planet-wide, simultaneous karma induced day.
3.It’s the ultimate behavioral technique used. The ‘reward versus punishment’ scenario. The future security of eternal life. This is a great motivator for Christianity and other religions; A new heaven and a new Earth is rewarded to those who believe…It makes the end of the world enticing, doesn’t it.
s.s.
“The acceptance of these beliefs, leaves humans ‘powerless’ to change what ‘god’ has ordained as humans’ future demise on planet Earth.
It’s as if, they want to destroy the world because then Jesus will return and take them to a better world.”
You appear to have a view of Christianity that is not at all reflective of the actual practice in any but the most extreme fringe elements. Do all Republicans smoke cigars and have fun crushing poor people? Do all Democrats want to pay reparations to blacks and value animals above people?
It’s generally not a good practice to judge people by the most extreme elements they share a label with.
Thank you for responding and giving me something to consider.
@SSssssssssssss When I read posts like the one you put up, I have to wonder what poor representatives of Christianity you have encountered that would leave such a foul taste in your mouth. I am sorry if anyone has led you to believe we Christians desire destruction as a cure-all for the world’s woes. While it is true we do believe God’s word prophecies harsh tribulation times to come, it doesn’t mean we cherish such a thing with glee. We work hard to help people escape what they might otherwise have to endure. Even God’s attitude is that He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. That is quite a different attitude than assuming we (Christians- uh, legitimate Bible based Christians) just want people destroyed. There are logical and reasonable responses to the rest of what you have written, but this forum is not conducive to a full response. I can only say I am dismayed that anyone under the banner of Christianity ever gives off the wrong message. It does the cause of Christianity no good. But what can we do? The charlatans have flowed along with this stream ever since the beginning, bringing disrepute on God, the Bible, and His people.
Well, Well, Sounds like you’re another one of those folks that feels like they shouldn’t be held accountable for anything and the rest of the world owes them a living.
Christianity is not just a religion, it is an IDEAL that causes people to live life in a just and decent manner with the notion that their actions will be judged by a greater power when this breif life here is over. It’s called accountability. People void of morality and decency are the root cause of our nations problems. It’s that simple….Economics have nothing to do with it. What people are willing or NOT willing to do for themselves and others is directly proportional to state of affairs we’re in…!!!! Get off your ass, get a job, treat people fairly, stop whining, and contribute…!!!
Well, Well, Sounds like you’re another one of those folks that feels like they shouldn’t be held accountable for anything and the rest of the world owes them a living.
Wow! This statement could not be farther from the truth. I don’t “require” ideologies to keep me moral. And i think it’s sad for those of you who do.
You seem to have a distorted view of Christianity. Many Christians are eagerly looking forward to the literal return of Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t mean they’re consumed with the end of the world.
I believe you may be a bit confused about our desire to be with Jesus Christ and our expectation of fulfilled end-time’s prophecies. In Christian fundamental end-time’s eschatology, the end doesn’t occur right away. In fact the return of Jesus Christ for all Christian’s DOESN’T need any prophecies to be fulfilled, this is known as the doctrine of the Pretribulation Rapture.
We believe several things will be in place or nearly in place prior to the Rapture. So we simply observe the events that are happening and compare them to Biblical prophecy, but we don’t desire evil to occur, nor do we create these signs or events.
You seem to suggest that somehow Christians are responsible for creating an atmosphere for evil to occur. And that somehow we’re responsible for much of the world’s problems because we’re not involved, nothing could be further from reality.
Please take an unbiased look at what Christians actually do for society on a daily bases: Christian’s help in disaster relief, Help feed the hungry (In many cities this is the only hot meals available to the poor), Provide clothing to the poor, Provide much needed comfort to prisoners and their families, Give help to those in need of spiritual guidance. All this is done free of charge, paid for by Christians out of their genuine love and concern for others.
1. We do hope for a new and glorious world to come, where Jesus Christ reigns for eternity and there is no more death and sickness.
2. We do desire that God’s righteous judgment prevail in the world. God knows it’s needed.
3. We do work to inform others of this hope, by sharing the Good News of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
I believe it’s these very beliefs, which make us better people, friends and neighbors. It seems to be in vogue to think all religion is bad, that simply isn’t so. I hope this helps you to have a better perspective on Christianity in particular and religion as a whole.
Well said – and your right … it is in vogue to be “above religion”.
Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools …”
Well said S.S.. I also believe that many people feel deep down how wrong this society that we’ve built up is in it’s structures and form and that so many crave it’s undoing so as to live a simple life based on more local community and dependence. We have woven, and are inevitably weaving still, a web so complex that no one really knows how to undo it except for to keep along with it until it erupts in some unknown way forcing us to live more as we were ‘intended’ or programmed to. I like the site you posted and the truth is so many are inspired and doing great and positive things but it seems to be very much outside of our government or fitting into our established society. These accomplishments seem to be by people working on their own and building in small ways toward a greater good.
You all need to stop being so negative. how about focusing on some positive stuff for a chnange. why don’t you publish some good news stories. Positivity and confidence will help drive economies. times are tough. we get it. now lets just get on with it.
Sorry to disappoint, positivity and confidence are great to have but do little to move an economy if the fundamentals are in awful shape. That is where we are now.
I think people, including myself, read a lot of the “so-called bad news” because we want to be prepared when things go south.
I also think we all do “get on with it” because we have to. But we still prepare for the tough times ahead.
Don;t take it lightly, get yourself prepared and then “get on with it.”
Cheers.
Unfortunately, things have already “gone south”. Any further “south”, and the FEMA trucks are going to be rounding up citizens for population reduction. BTW, that’s something they have been ramping up for in secret for several years now. Despite the fact that O is not the “originator” of this agenda, I still despise him because of his obvious relish for carrying out the destruction of this country. Those who cannot see this happening are guilty of “koolaid in the first degree”!
BO is for AGENDA 21 and is pushing it in every state and city in our Nation. Don’t believe me, go to http://www.AmericanPolicy.org and click Issues at the top then click AGENDA 21. Read all those Articles on AGENDA 21, then compare them to what BO is doing to America. 90 percent of Americans have no idea about what is going on and how BO, the UN and the elitist bunch are destroying America right under their nose. 90 percent of Americans are in for a rude awakening, but as the saying goes, those who ignore past History and who refuse to evaluate and research candidates before voting for them deserve all the HELL they get.
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, there is no “good” news. That’s the problem.
Obumer will be defeated in 2012 and Michelle
Backmann will be President!!
HOWS THAT FOR POSITIVE THINKING!!
more economic indicators graphed:
http://www.kermitrose.com/jgoEconData.html
Which aspect of “the gov’t” would you like to lay the most blame? These 50 incredibles provide opportunities to blame just about everyone and anyone.
For the National Debt increase, the primary “fault” is the Bush tax cuts which are now the “Obama tax cuts” They simply need to be reversed gradually and substantially.
And not just the gov’t needs to share the blame; we the population who simply cannot do without X benefit or Y gov’t contract or Z tax cut share much of the blame.
It is time for all of us to step forward and tell the gov’t (1) tax me more, (2) I can give up this benefit/tax loophole, (3)stop spending on this program.
What really caused deficits and debt?
Is it too little revenue or is it too much spending?
Do you have any idea how a budget works…the government can take EVERYONES money…but if they keep spending it…the debt keeps growing…stop overspending, cut back on spending and the revenue they steal from the people WILL fill the hole…simple economics 101.
Don’t tax ME more. Eliminate ALL tax loopholes and stop spending on MOST programs.
It’s not the tax cuts that are the problem it is the SPENDING!
Even if you taxed the rich 90% of their income, it is not enough to fix the problem, it is OBOMBA’s SPENDING that is the problem.
Like a foolish child away oat college with a new credit card. It always equals BAD NEWS for the people that pay the bills.
Cheers.
Okay, it’s not just OBAMA’s (see, spelling?)spending that is the problem. It’s the spending of the government in general. How about that war that just recently finished? How much money did we spend on that again? Oh, and who was in office then? Oooooh, not Obama. I certainly am not trying to say that he’s any better than Bush was about it, but be reasonable. There is a problem with the economy, there HAS been a problem with the economy, and playing the blame game gets no one anywhere.
How about tax incentives for companies that do not outsource jobs to other countries for starters? Higher taxes for those that have above a certain percentage of their workers overseas (I understand that there are businesses with offices around the world, and that is as it should be. The majority of their jobs should be based in the US if they are a US company though). It’s really hard for people to buy American products if most companies manufacture overseas.
Nobody gives a flip about the “correct” spelling of obumma, since that isn’t even his LEGAL name anyway. Anyone who believes he cares one way or another about them is delusional. Bush might have started this downhill slide, but ‘bammy baby sure ESCALATED the process! He has not done ONE THING to reverse it! How about this REGIME stops the frantic borrowing and spending of money that does NOTHING to solve AMERICAN problems? Everything that can be dragged in to distract people from what this government is REALLY doing seems more important than doing what is CONSTITUTIONALLY correct in order to curb the rash left turn this country has taken. How about we get RID of all those in the government who are ANTI-AMERICA? That would probably be minimally 98% of those there. The rest are confused and intimidated, or just haven’t committed yet. If we had DEDICATED CITIZENS in America’s government right now, we wouldn’t be having this problem, and the trolls who are having a field day with this destruction – because they had no hand in anything POSITIVE in this nation – would be at a minimum as well. Getting rid of the destructive element in government would BRING BACK jobs and industry in our nation again. A return to biblical principles (NOT “religious fanaticism”!) would serve to speed that along, IF we are going to see any kind of recovery. This is NOT just “business as usual” on a bad cycle, we are in serious danger. All of us. It won’t be fixed by snarky remarks about SPELLING.
AMEN, you are right.
For starters, our Government needs to quit giving money to foreign countries who hate us and want to kill us. Next, they need to close our borders. We are broke, we do not need anymore people coming here for tax payers to have to keep up. Oh heck, they just need to do what Ron Paul says to do. He has it right.
The Defining Issue: Not Government’s Size, But Who It’s For
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-defining-issue-not-go_b_1159294.html?ref=yahoo&ir=Yahoo
More proof conservatives are wrong (as if we need anymore [proof)
Congrats Michael, you were on the Blaze on 12/19 and on 12/20 Rush Limbaugh is now going down your list..
SteveO:
I am absolutely amazed at how these articles get around. It is really humbling, and it is also a little scary to know that so many eyes are on me.
Michael
The 400 richest Americans, whose total wealth exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 150 million Americans put together, pay an average of 17 percent.
Lets put to rest the silly BS about the rich paying most of the taxes. Everyone who can think knows this is fox news BS.
Just heard Rush Limbaugh read part of this on his show today!!!
Hopefully some of his listeners will find their way to your wonderful writings.
LittleBird:
Really?
Yes, hopefully some of his listeners will find their way to the site.
Michael
Having Rush quote you is not a badge of honor, it simply proves your right wing bias. Michael please consider this.
Gary2,
No what it is and what I’ve seen is Michael getting the word out. The more people know the more they can be prepared. The Better the chance some of the sheeple might wake up and do something.
What’s curious are the struggling-to-get-by Americans
who desperately want to get rich
yet naively support
the efforts of the already-rich
to keep them impoverished.
The success of high-functioning sociopaths in America
could never happen without their legions of nitwit stooge quislings.
My sense is they find them at churches.
Many God-worshipers seem to have an unquenchable desire
to suck up to rich, powerful authority-claimants.
Churches are the induction centers
where rich generals find many ignorant sucker-soldiers
to fight America’s undeclared war
on personal freedom, dignity, and self-empowerment.
When a person wants so badly to be subservient
that they conjure an authority figure in the sky on nothing but faith,
you know they are not friends of true freedom.
From a comment on Bloomberg news story re-posted in alternate.
It is very true
Churches have nothing to do with this, and the churches that are lukewarm and are politically involved have little effect on the actual political process. Jesus Christ has given me peace, to where i don’t have to worry about things heading south.
And the Lord Jesus told us not to love the things of this Earth. Being a millionaire is definitely “worldly”.
If you want to know peace in you heart, ask Jesus into it.
What most enables those “high functioning sociopaths” is the chipping away of Christian ideals and ethics. Those who are driving our nation over a cliff right now are the most shining example of HIGH FUNCTIONING SOCIOPATHS, in that they are doing everything they can do absolutely destroy this country, oh and YOU along with it, btw!If Christianity was all about the need to “find someone to worship”, then there wouldn’t be all those misguided fools who are trying to legitimize the Muslim in the white house. All those who HAVE NO REAL FAITH are the ones who are fawning at the feet of Socialist government, because they are empty inside and want to see everything reduced to the ashes and rubble they are inside themselves. The real psychology of destruction is not as simple as one might believe! Socialism and decay are NOT products of Christian faith. Quite the reverse it true. I might mention to those who always seem to leave this out…the LIBERAL LEFT is just as “RICH” as the RADICAL RIGHT. NONE at the top who are working to destroy the citizen are POOR. Got that? No money, no voice, no power. That’s what they are doing to all of us. Take the money, silence the voice, then power fails. The most destructive “undeclared war” is that on those of us in the USA,by those who have sworn “to preserve and protect”.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/
Try this.
This article gave 50 reasons why Obama should get the boot, and people like Steve Dexter still do not get it. Steve: higher taxes = less employment which = even less tax revenue. This is because you are burdening the job creators. In other words, higher taxes would make the economy worse. Can you say, “Europe?”
can you say Somalia? Job creator-I think I need to go drop another one of these in th4e violet.
seriously dude-no thinking person actually believes what you wrote. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that you were jesting.
Your theory has proven wrong as experience shows. Bush cut taxes on the “job creators”(puke, vomit, gag) and if it worked where are the jobs? why are we not in hog heaven?
Please think b4 you post as you are showing off your ignorance.
Gary2,
Really you attack someone for being “ignorant” while you continually yell to anyone that will hear it about taking everything from the rich to equalize the wealth. I’ve seen you post this over and over. Then to attack someone who you don’t agree with is ignorant in the fullest meaning of the word.
Dave Froggin
Job creators? Maybe in the 1950s the strategy of cutting taxes to increase employment might have been valid. You can’t even GIVE money to a company to continue to manufacture in the US when virtual salve labor is just a duty free voyage away. I’m speaking in reference to the solar panel company touted as the “job of the future” that moved to China after accepting Federal money.
Lets see, $20 / he verses 50 cents an hour. No brainer.
Looks like the more socialism leaning countries are beating the pants off of us. Take that conservatives. You are wrong-more socialism is the answer, gorilla capitalism is the problem. The following are FACTS something the right is unfamiliar with.
A recent piece in the New York Times summarizes our condition well: “In a Bertelsmann Foundation study on social justice released this fall, the United States came in dead last among the rich countries, with only Greece, Chile, Mexico and Turkey faring worse. Whether in poverty prevention, child poverty, income inequality or health ratings, the United States ranked below countries like Spain and South Korea, not to mention Japan, Germany or France. ..
The statistics used are accurate. There are many with which I am familiar. Unfortunately I do not see any concenus in America today. It is possible that the best outcome is for Obama to win again and bring about a serious catastrophe whereupon America will figure out how to get out of the mess. There are no simple fixes to this calamity. Americans are a great people and no matter how bad it gets you will get out of this. After, you won’t be back to socialism for a long time. You should have stuck to your constitution in the 30′s instead of embarking down the FDR road.
The power of RUSH! I was listening to the enemy airwaves yesterday and RUSH mentioned this site and the story! Good Job Economic Collapse. Long Time Fan
It is amazing how this little site is getting around.
The more people that see these articles the more people they will wake up.
Michael
to the soooo guy who blames Christians for the ills of the world. Here is the deal. I am a Christian. I am also a hard worker who produces things for everyone to use. That means I am a Capitalist. I own a small business. I tide. I pay taxes. I work out. I believe whose want someone to give them something for nothing deservers nothing. I also believe people who complain about things and do nothng to changes things for the better, get what they deserve. I owe you nothing and you owe me nothing. Yes, I am a Christian.
I keep thinking…. Hey all we need to do is get Obama out and all will get better….. But it’s not true. Our culture has changed and our people are the problem. It’s not the government, it’s the people who want the big gov that is the problem. They only see that we are a rich country, but they don’t know why or how we became that way. Our politicians keep telling us that they created millions of jobs while in office and then we argue that our guy created the most jobs…. Gov doesn’t create jobs, we do. Our collapse is going to be due to not teaching our next generations the values that allowed us to be the greatest civilization in the history of the world. I am not sure if we can turn the tide.
S&P PLAN to END the US Dollar is why we are collapsing , BILDERBERG FINANCIERS AT TEL AVIV MONETARY MEETING
http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=124696;title=APFN
http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/sp-and-the-bilderbergers-all-part-of-the-plan/
WHERE IS the OUTRAGE ?
I AM OUTRAGED! I HAVE BEEN OUTRAGED!
S&P PLAN to Destroy the US Dollar , BILDERBERG FINANCIERS AT TEL AVIV MONETARY MEETING
http://tinyurl.com/3nk9uu8
http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/sp-and-the-bilderbergers-all-part-of-the-plan/
WHERE is the OUTRAGE ?