Do you have friends, neighbors and relatives that can't find work? Well, unfortunately the current U.S. jobs famine is about to get a whole lot worse. Right now there are approximately 13.9 million unemployed Americans. That does not count those that "are not looking for work". That does not count those that are working part-time jobs but that are desperate for full-time work. The truth is that we need tens of millions more full-time jobs in order to give one to everyone that wants one. Sadly, the long-term trends that have caused this mess continue to get worse. Unless truly dramatic changes are made, the U.S. economy is going to continue to bleed jobs and that is going to suck the hope right out of this country. It is time to wake up America! It is not a big mystery why we don't have enough jobs. But sadly, very few of our leaders are talking about the real issues.
Something has got to be done. Unemployment is already at epidemic levels, and this country can't afford for things to get much worse. Just check out how a recent article in The Wall Street Journal summarized our current predicament....
There are more unemployed than the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, Idaho and the District of Columbia.
If they were a country, the 13.9 million unemployed Americans would be the 68th largest country in the world, bigger than the population of Greece or Portugal (each of which has 10.8 million people) and more than twice the population of Norway (4.7 million.)
Isn't that incredible?
The number of unemployed Americans is larger than the entire population of Greece.
There are millions of Americans that will be sitting at home in front of their televisions tonight wondering why they can't find jobs. Last month, only 58.1% of Americans over the age of 16 were employed. Our economy should be able to do far better than that.
All over the Internet there are stories of people that have sent out hundreds (or even thousands) of resumes and nobody even wants to interview them. One recent survey found that approximately 80 percent of all Americans believe that it is "difficult" to find a job right now.
Unfortunately, things are going to get much, much worse before all this is over.
The following are 10 very obvious reasons why the devastating U.S. jobs famine is going to suck the hope right out of America....
#1 Our politicians simply do not care that America is bleeding jobs. Amazingly, even with rampant unemployment plaguing this nation, Obama administration officials continue to declare that it is okay that we are losing manufacturing jobs because a lot of cheaper products are things that "we don't want to make in America" anyway. The following is what U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told Tim Robertson of the Huffington Post the other day....
Let's increase our competitiveness... the reality is about half of our imports, our trade deficit is because of how much oil [we import], so you take that out of the equation, you look at what percentage of it are things that frankly, we don't want to make in America, you know, cheaper products, low-skill jobs that frankly college kids that are graduating from, you know, UC Cal and Hastings [don't want], but what we do want is to capture those next generation jobs and build on our investments in our young people, our education infrastructure.
The economic negligence that recent administrations have demonstrated has been absolutely mind boggling. Blue collar male workers in particular are being absolutely devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs. Back in 1967, 97 percent of men with a high school degree between the ages of 30 and 50 had jobs. Today, that figure is down to 76 percent.
#2 The Obama administration has now instituted a policy of "backdoor amnesty" for illegal immigrants by executive fiat. Janet Napolitano has announced that from now on there will be a case-by-case review of all deportation cases. Cases involving criminals will be prioritized and most others will be thrown out. A list of 19 factors that will allow government officials to use "prosecutorial discretion" in immigration cases has been distributed. Recently, I listed a few of those "factors" on The American Dream website....
-arrival in the U.S. as a young child
-actively "pursuing an education"
-serving or served in the U.S. military
-spouse of someone in the U.S. military
-18 years old or younger
-"elderly"
-pregnant or nursing
-victim of a "serious crime"
-serious disability or health problem
-caring for a family member with a serious disability or health problem
Obviously, it is not going to be too difficult for most illegal immigrants to fit into at least one of those categories.
On top of everything else the Obama administration has announced that it will now allow illegal immigrants to apply for work permits....
Illegal aliens living in the United States typically don't apply for work permits for fear of deportation, but under the new policy, they could apply for work permits if granted deferred action or parole and compete with 22 million Americans who can't find a full-time job.
So now blue collar Americans workers will have even more competition for the dwindling number of jobs.
#3 State and local governments all over the country are dead broke, and an atmosphere of austerity is sweeping the nation. Right now state and local governments are slashing jobs at an unprecedented rate.
In the past, government jobs were considered to be very secure and they definitely paid a lot higher than average. But now that era is coming to an end, at least on the state and local government levels.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state and local governments have eliminated more than half a million jobs since August 2008. UBS Investment Research is projecting that state and local governments in the U.S. will cut 450,000 more jobs by the end of 2012.
#4 U.S. businesses are being absolutely crushed by mountains of nightmarish regulations, and yet the federal government, the state governments and local governments just continue to pile them on. For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is projecting that the food service industry will have to spend an additional 14 million hours every single year just to comply with new federal regulations that mandate that all vending machine operators and chain restaurants must label all products that they sell with a calorie count in a location visible to the consumer. Due to these kinds of ridiculous regulations, many business owners have simply given up and many other potential business owners figure that owning a business is just not worth the hassle.
#5 As I have written about so many times before, the "global economy" is really bad for American workers. When we merged our economy with the economies of nations where it is legal to pay slave labor wages, we made it inevitable that we would start losing massive amounts of jobs.
Why would a giant corporation pay a U.S. worker 10 to 20 times as much as a worker on the other side of the globe? Investors actually expect big companies to have an "outsourcing" strategy today. When more jobs get shipped out of the country, profits go up, stock prices go up and executive bonuses go up.
Big corporations don't exist to provide you with jobs. They exist to maximize shareholder wealth. If taking your job away and giving it to someone in Asia will make more money for them, then that it exactly what they are going to do.
#6 Unfair trade is absolutely killing our economy. It would be one thing if the U.S. was running a massive trade deficit solely because we were incompetent. But the truth is that a big factor is that a number of our "trade partners" are economic predators that are purposely trying to prey on us.
The other day, I wrote about some of the things that China does to steal our jobs, our factories and our wealth....
China massively subsidizes their biggest corporations, they brazenly steal technology from anyone that they can, they openly manipulate exchange rates and they allow their workers to be paid slave labor wages.
Today, we spend about 4 dollars on imports from China for every 1 dollar that China spends on imports from us. China now even makes more beer than we do. Even the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall was made in China.
Until our politicians start insisting on a level playing field, all of this is going to continue.
#7 Small businesses are traditionally one of the primary engines of job growth in this country. But right now, small businesses all over America are having a really hard time getting anyone to loan them money. A big reason for this is that the Federal Reserve is actually paying banks not to make loans. Unfortunately, if small businesses can't get the money that they need, then they can't hire people.
#8 A lot of people may not want to hear this, but businesses in the United States are being absolutely taxed into oblivion. The U.S. now has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, but that is only a very small part of the story.
Michael Fleischer, the President of Bogen Communications, wrote an op-ed last year for the Wall Street Journal entitled "Why I'm Not Hiring". The following is how Paul Hollrah of Family Security Matters summarized the nightmarish taxes that are imposed when Fleischer hires a new worker....
According to Fleischer, Sally grosses $59,000 a year, which shrinks to less than $44,000 after taxes and other payroll deductions. The $15,311 deducted from Sally’s gross pay is comprised of New Jersey state income tax: $1,893; Social Security taxes: $3,661; state unemployment insurance: $126; disability insurance: $149; Medicare insurance: $856; federal withholding tax: $6,250; and her share of medical and dental insurance: $2,376. Roughly 25.9 percent of Sally’s income is siphoned off by Washington and Trenton before she receives her paychecks.
But then there are the additional costs of employing Sally. In addition to her gross salary, her employer must pay the lion’s share of her healthcare insurance premiums: $9,561; life and other insurance premiums: $153; federal unemployment insurance: $56; disability insurance: $149; worker’s comp insurance: $300; New Jersey state unemployment insurance: $505; Medicare insurance: $856; and the employer’s share of Social Security taxes: $3,661.
Over and above her gross salary, Bogen Communications must pay an additional $15,241 in benefits and state and federal taxes, bringing the total cost of employing Sally to approximately $74,241 per year. Sally gets to keep $43,689, or just 58.8% of that total.
After reading all that, can you really blame business owners for not wanting to hire additional workers?
#9 The national debt is like a giant albatross around the neck of the economy. The U.S. national debt has increased by more than 4 trillion dollars since Barack Obama took office. The rampant government spending that has been going on has not done much to create new jobs, but it will be a massive burden that will weigh down economic growth for many years to come.
When a nation is drowning in debt, a tremendous amount of economic resources must go to servicing that debt. Right now, hundreds of billions of dollars a year that could be used to build up our economy are instead being used to pay interest on the national debt. If interest rates go up significantly, we could soon be paying over a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.
#10 Right now America is very deeply divided and a tremendous sense of pessimism has set in. One recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months. With such a negative feeling in the air, it is going to make it even less likely that business owners will be in the mood to hire people.
I know that I pick on Detroit a lot, but it really is a microcosm of what is happening to America. The following video contains some absolutely amazing footage of the ruins of Detroit....
Sadly, what is happening to Detroit is happening in hundreds of other communities across the United States.
All over America, neighborhoods that were once teeming with hope and prosperity are now falling apart. Hopelessness is rampant and it is spreading. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007. If not for our increasingly overwhelmed "safety net", we would already have mass rioting in the streets.
Sadly, we are already seeing all sorts of signs that society is collapsing. As the economy continues to fall apart, the violence in our neighborhoods is going to get even worse.
The following is one very shocking recent example from the Chicago Tribune....
Moments before she was slain last week on Chicago's Southwest Side, 17-year-old Charinez Jefferson begged the gunman not to shoot because she was pregnant, prosecutors said today.
Despite her plea, Timothy Jones, 18, opened fire on Jefferson anyway, yelling an expletive at her as he shot her in the head, prosecutors said. He then stood over her as she lay on the ground and fired several more times, striking her in the chest and back.
America is changing. The country that so many of us have loved all of our lives is becoming unrecognizable. Large numbers of communities have had all of the hope sucked right out of them. Tens of millions of Americans that want to do things the "right way" are rapidly losing faith in the system.
When you can't get a decent job after months and months of trying it can be absolutely soul-crushing.
What do you tell someone that has spent a year sending out resumes and has used up all of their savings?
The era of endless prosperity for America is at an end. The cold, hard consequences of decades of bad decisions are starting to set in.
Unless a dramatic change of course happens, the long-term trends noted above are going to get progressively worse. It won't matter who is running Congress and it won't matter who is in the White House.
Right now our economy is rapidly hurtling downhill on a bus without brakes and we are headed directly for a cliff.
Please wake up America.
The following comment was submitted by email by a reader named Peggy. Hopefully some of you will find it to be helpful….
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I read your article on boomers having to work the rest of their lives. True, by plan. But I wanted to let you know that there are jobs in Western Oklahoma. We are not suffering as bad as the rest of the country because we have oil jobs. There are help wanted signs in lots of businesses. Truck drivers, laborers, clerical, waitresses, etc. We came here in 1982. There were jobs everywhere and they said the oil boom had dwindled. It was good for us. It is in a little boom and they need workers. Just thought I would let you know.
great to hear about jobs somewhere, but they wont be there long the illegals will find them and they will be gone. they have also taken oilfield jobs here in LA which was the main job source here. Now it will be even easier for them since they do not have to fear deportation anymore.
i was talking to my elderly friends and asked them about the ryan plan? i cant repeat what they said. mr o will win so what! china STILL RULES U. U have had it once but no more!! brush your teeth and eat lentils rice beans — but u dont know how to cook. so learn how!!!!NOW
The video about detroit:
It has 50% illiteracy, and >20% unemployment (sorry, cannot remember what the actual number was).
Given the illiteracy rate, how can you employe illiterate folks for world class jobs? Factory workers are essentially computer programmers now, to run the machines.
I’m NOT saying the folks are stupid but…why are they illiterate?
This stories always make me cry. Unreal what is happening around us and everyone is just being obvious staying in their own little niche. Including me. Not to mention all the senseless wars and starvation … gulp
Heaven, please Help us Father!!1
amen.
Alasha,
You appears to be a bit innocent about the whole complex mess created by the powerful and ‘wisemen’ who run things. I don’t want to bother you with the complicated sorry details. Just want to say this: America devastating situation is completely home-made & man-made, with intentions and design. Therefore, there is no need to pray for solution like some natural disaster. Simply put, what America did the past 15 or so years are responsible. So just don’t do it anymore. Instead, do the exact opposite. Things will get a lot better, I guarantee you.
Trouble is, of course, there are still many people who don’t believe what I said.
Here are link to latest US economic releases on employment:
Employment Statistics
Labor Force Statistics
Business Employment Dynamics
Employer Cost for Employee Compensation
Employment Cost Index
Mass Layoff Statistics
Productivity and Costs
Quote: “Big corporations don’t exist to provide you with jobs. They exist to maximize shareholder wealth. If taking your job away and giving it to someone in Asia will make more money for them, then that it exactly what they are going to do.”
It seems to me if the stock market were abolished along with the Federal Reserve, America would be better off.
Two major sources of grief for the masses!
Abolishing the stock market? This is a joke, right? People would no longer be allowed to trade titles to capital, and they would be violently restrained and jailed if they did so? Nice society you have in mind.
Gary North addresses some of the arguments in this post here : http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north1025.html
Numbers never lie but liars use numbers:
The “data table” supporting this attack on theeconomiccollapseblog claims that 74.9 percent of a motor vehicle purchased in the USA is manufactured in the USA.
Although it won’t guarantee that you’ll make it throught the other side, you might want to make sure you have grub (storable food), guns, and gold and or silver. Oh, and don’t forget the water filter. It’s either us or them. If we don’t sink the Federal Reserve, they’re going to sink us as they are already in the process of doing so. The depression during the 1930′s was orchestrated by the banksters and so is the depression of the early 21st century. Hang onto your hats folks, because a real hurricane is a coming. Hey Randy, how’s this grammar?
Gary North misses the point. The delta in labor cost is too great. It’s an interesting concept of each nation producing the goods they are good at. What happens if it’s 80% of all goods made and the remaining 20% is insufficient to provide enough wealth creation to support the USA?
Why do we care if we compete with another states workers in the US verses China? Well the workers in the other state pay taxes to the Federal Government and by being employed don’t suck off the US economic safety net. Workers in state A can easily relocate to state B to take advantage of the job opportunities with a fair chance of making a living. You can’t move to China and would not want to for 50 cents / hour. Gary North is comparing apples and oranges. There is a big big difference.
The theory of comparative advantage is nonsense in the real world.
Deregulation of the financial sector and of the multinational corporations has let these turn together into the Dr. Frankenstein’s monster of the U.S. economy.
While everyone else suffers, the banking, insurance, investment, and international industrial élite attack the rest of the economy. Atop that, taxpayers finance their losses! “Too big to fail” for them, “too little to matter or to bother with” for everybody else. The “AmeriKKKan dream” has become one that is only for the superrich.
To add to poor Sally’s dilemma, … My $3.00 calculator tells me we are in a depression… Here’s how. (maybe Buffet should have taken about $1,600 dollars and bought each congressman a $3.00 calculator.)
The average person in America makes between $10 and $15 an hour…(max. $31,200/ yr) (NOT the average CEO, the average PERSON) We’ll say that they don’t even pay federal or state taxes, so after Medicare and social security deductions from their paycheck, on the HIGH end, they bring home about $2000 a month. ($15.00 X 40 hours = $600.00 a week. Times 4 weeks = $2400 a month. Take our about $100.00 a week in social security and Medicaid, you have $2000 bring home a month.) An average family plan of health benefits will run you about $150.00 a WEEK or more! So, take another $600.00 off of the $2000 to make $1,400 a month. With the elevated food prices, it will cost about $450.00 a month to feed a family of 3. If you want to argue with me about that figure, go to the store YOURSELF and feed your family on less, I DARE you. Gee, that brings it down to about $950.00 a month of disposable income. The tripling of fuel prices have raised the cost of filling up the tank to unreasonable levels. The average commute one way is around 35 miles, with a vehicle getting 20 mpg, that’s 3.5 gallons of gas per day, not including the loss due to traffic tie ups, or $12.25 per day in gasoline costs. Based on a 5 day work week at 4 weeks per month, you have $245.00 less in your monthly paycheck thanks to OIL prices, so you now have $705.00. A LOW electric bill would be around $100.00 per month bringing your total down to $605.00, car insurance around $100.00 a month for MINIMUM COVERAGE, so long as no one else in the house is of legal driving age, so you now have $505.00, add in miscellaneous household supplies and you lose about another $120.00 (Soap, shampoo, cleaning supplies) Go buy toilet paper if you don’t believe my figures, so now you have $385.00. Telephone is about $60.00 a month, water around $30, sewer around $30 ($385-$120=$265.00) So, if you go to Subway and get a sandwich for lunch while you are slaving for your employer, ($5 X 20 days a month =$100.00) you are now down to $165.00 a month. SO, YOU NOW HAVE $5.50 per day on a 30 day month left to your name… Want to know what monthly fees I DIDN’T include? Rent or mortgage, at about $800.00 a month, car payment, $300.00 car maintenance $50.00, Clothing $50.00, car insurance full coverage additional $200.00.
So there you have it, your $15.00 hour worker is working with a $1,400.00 deficit just to survive in this country. Wasn’t long ago $15.00 hr was GOOD MONEY, NOW you need a DEGREE to make THAT, and you STILL live in poverty. But corporate America says you are paid too much! Well, screw them! If this isn’t reason enough for REVOLUTION, than WHAT IS? WAKE UP AMERICA!
Very nice comment
Michael
Which is why the wife has to have one of those $15.00 an hour jobs, but oops, childcare, second vehical expences throw it off again. That kid is just going to have to get out there and start bringing in cash from day one. How do you make money off children if you can’t farm them out until they are sixteen? Ah, second part time jobs for at least one parent. Families need three or more jobs to tread water these days, and four or five other people are trying for each of those jobs. Grim.
not to mention the insult of all of those “income tax” dollars doing nothing but paying the interest on the loan from the federal reserve…..
The creation of a new government agency that will be dedicated to job creation, will only create more government jobs.
What a joke! The government can’t create jobs. Our only hope is to support small businesses, which create the majority of new jobs.
And you need to take control of your finances by getting financial education. The market is rigged against you. Your IRA and 401K are in danger of becoming worthless.
Learn how to leverage the financial crisis to create wealth and protect your family.
The higher the debt, the more work have to done to repay the debt. I.e. there is no shortage of work! To unlash this work is by arranging a repayment on a barter system exchange. The debt will be repaid by goods & services only. However, seeing the economic turmoil (caring for our neighbour deteriorating) is all over the globe means we should see this as an opportune time to do away with the old and reverse our ways to what it should be according to the “Laws of Economics”. Now is the time to make the choice, either to care for our neighbour, or unlash the “law of the jungle”… the survival of the fittest! For your information Google “The World Monetary Order”.
Four-year-old Ani Grigoryan writes a letter to Santa Claus with the help of her mother.
“Dear Santa, I want you to bring pink shoes with feathers, glass beads, and high-heels to me. And I want a sub-machine gun,” Ani concludes the series of her wishes. The last item is a toy. We hope.
A MUST Watch Video:
Vox Populi, Methods of Manipulation- featuring David Icke, Jordan Maxwell, Max Igan, Freeman…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqrdHLzvIV4&feature=player_embedded#!
The government keeps stealing(spenidng)
our money and think they can continue
this practice and pad their pockets.
While it has worked for years, their time
is about up.
Our country can not continue in this direction.
We will crash and burn if this continues.
A crash is coming and when it does massive
wealth will be transferred to those who
are prepared.
All economies go through this.
See what a millionaire has written
about what causes this and how you
can prepare yourself and profit
like the ultra rich are going to
do.
For his free video go to:
http://theelevationgroup.net/presentation/register.php?a_aid=160667&a_bid=290b868b&chan=y
“The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome,
in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor
react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.”
Panic of the Plutocrats
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/opinion/panic-of-the-plutocrats.html?_r=4&smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto
Organizer Labels Own Poll Irrelevant After Ron Paul Wins
(Results only count if establishment Republican is victorious)
by Paul Joseph Watson
http://www.infowars.com/organizer-labels-own-poll-irrelevant-after-ron-paul-wins/
Thank you for all this valuable information about the issues with our economy and which many ideas do hold to be true. The main question that we need to answer though is what can we do to change it?
I agree. What can be done?
Job destruction is permanent and escalating. U.S. employers and employers worldwide are using the 3rd Industrial Revolution to automate all jobs so they no longer have to pay salaries, wages, commissions and bonuses. Money employers save from tax breaks or that employers receive from bail outs will be used to automate, outsource, and insource (with H1B visa workers)jobs more and more and more! There is no remedy short of federal stipends, FDR work programs or demoncratic workplaces.
How long do people store with a facility on average?
[...] Right now, if you gathered together all of the people that are “officially” unemployed in the United States, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the world. [...]
[...] #28 If you gathered together all of the workers that are “officially” unemployed in the United States today, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the world. [...]
[...] #28 If you gathered together all of the workers that are “officially” unemployed in the United States today, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the world. [...]
[...] #28 If you gathered together all of the workers that are “officially” unemployed in the United States today, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the world. [...]
Wake Up America
The spirit of YHVH has departed from most of the churches in America because of the spirit of apostasy. The whole of the word of God is a testament or will by the blood of the testator. The very character and ethos of the Holy Scripture is salvation by the precious blood of Yahshua Messiah. It is a crimson cord that traces its way from the beginning to the end through the Garden of Eden to the book of Revelations. To take away or tear down this eternal life force that is forever present in the living word of God is to destroy the Revelation knowledge of God through Yahshua Messiah. Christ’s shed blood and sacred death was sufficient for the sanctification from sin throughout the ages of time and it is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Bible repetitively speaks of God’s promise to preserve his word when he says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). “The grass withereth, the flowers fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever”
BEHOLD A WHITE HORSE Is A Must Read For Every Truth Seeker as Cisco Wheeler has given the world a deeper insight as to how Catholicism, Masonry, Witchcraft,Mormonism and all Secret Societies, has blinded its spiritual tapestry within the very fibers of the Christian church. Through the traditions of man the Anti-Christ has come through the front door of the churches and has deceitfully sat himself down as a teacher in the pulpits of the world churches of today, to deceive what is left of the righteous seed. of YHVH GOD. Through the blinding of Luciferian knowledge in the churches of today,the world council of Religious Leaders aims to serve as a model and guide for the creation of a community of world religions…. The objective of the council is to serve a resource to the United Nations and its agencies around the world, nation states and other international organizations, offering the collective wisdom and resources of the faith and traditions towards the resolution of critical global problems. BABYLON THE BEAST RIDING THE BEAST OF REVELATIONS: 17
I’ve had dreams about our country going into a negative timeline and I do not like this one bit.
Some spiritualists believe that in 2012 there will be a split timeline in which mankind will either live in prosperity or a negative version where evil is on the rampage.
I forsee the latter and it’s going to be *every man for himself* if it comes to survival.
Stock up on food now for very soon there will be none and you’ll have to kill someone to get it.
Yes I used kill instead of murder on purpose.
[...] you gathered together all of the unemployed people in America in one place, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the world. So, no, the Federal Reserve is not doing a good job of keeping us all employed. We are also told [...]
Join http://www.economyincrisis.org and become part of the solution.