Societal Collapse

The Truth About America’s Crumbling Infrastructure

January 6, 2025January 6, 2025 by Michael

Signs that we were once a truly great nation are all around us. Previous generations of Americans handed us the keys to the most magnificent domestic infrastructure that the world had ever seen, but now it is literally falling apart all around us. Thousands of bridges are structurally deficient and there have already been some very high profile collapses. Hundreds of thousands of miles of highways and roads in the United States are in very poor shape. Aging sewer systems are leaking raw sewage all over the place, and children are being slowly poisoned by lead pipes that desperately need to be replaced. The power grid is hopelessly overloaded and is extremely vulnerable. Meanwhile, our ports, our dams, our subway systems, our bus terminals and our airports are crumbling right in front of our eyes. The truth is that our nation’s infrastructure says a lot about who we are. So what does America’s crumbling infrastructure say about us? Sadly, it says that we are a rusting, crumbling, decaying leftover from a better, more prosperous time.

When Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration told us that “investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s”…

Public investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The World Economic Forum now ranks the United States 13th when it comes to the overall quality of infrastructure.

So Congress passed a bill that gave the Biden administration more than $100,000,000,000 to spend on fixing our infrastructure.

Honestly, I have no idea what they did with all that money.

In 2021, the official White House website was reporting that 45,000 bridges and 20 percent of our roads were in poor condition…

More than 45,000 U.S. bridges and 1 in 5 miles of roads are in poor condition, per the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2007, the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 and injuring 121.

Well, fast forward a few years later and the Department of Transportation is still telling us that “over 40,000 bridges” are in poor condition…

The Department of Transportation considers 6.8% of the over 600,000 bridges it tracks and rates to be in “poor” condition. That doesn’t sound too bad on a percentage basis, but it’s over 40,000 bridges in total.

And it appears that the condition of our roads has actually gotten worse in many states.

For example, Consumer Reports says that almost half of all urban roads in the state of California are not currently in acceptable condition…

Despite an enormous yearly disbursement for highways that tops $21 billion, the Golden State manages to keep just a little more than half their urban roads in acceptable condition. However, this is an outsized job since, in addition to 840 miles of coastline, California boasts more miles of urban roads than any other state and has the second-highest mileage of rural roads in the country.

Data from the National Highway Administration shows California’s roads are the most traveled in the U.S., so it makes sense that the state also has the second-highest number of motor vehicle-related fatalities in the country.

Back in 2021, the Biden administration also made a big deal out of the fact that millions of Americans were getting their tap water through lead pipes…

Millions still get water from lead pipes, despite the fact that exposure to lead has irreversible health effects; in 2015, a state of emergency was declared in Flint, Michigan as citizens learned that their water supply contained toxic levels of lead.

So why didn’t the Biden administration fix this problem?

An article that was published late last year revealed that the EPA is estimating that “more than 9 million service lines” are still made out of lead…

The EPA estimates that more than 9 million service lines are made of lead, a neurotoxin that can cause nervous system damage, learning disabilities and other health problems, especially in children. If lead pipes corrode, as in the infamous case of Flint, Michigan, they can poison drinking water.

While no amount of lead exposure is safe, the federal rule now requires utilities to notify the public and improve corrosion treatment if lead in their water exceeds 10 parts per billion. Some homes in Syracuse, New York, recently tested at 70 parts per billion.

Our politicians are constantly telling us that they just don’t have enough money to get everything done.

Personally, I would really love to see exactly what the Biden administration spent more than 100 billion dollars of infrastructure money on.

Have you traveled through any of our airports lately?

Compared to other industrialized nations, they are a complete and utter joke.

Why can’t we have beautiful airports, modern subway systems, functional roads and bridges, and safe water coming out of our taps?

More tax revenue is collected in America than anywhere else in the world, and so we certainly deserve the best infrastructure.

When I bring up the topic of taxes, most people immediately think of the federal income tax. But the truth is that there are literally dozens of different taxes that they use to extract wealth out of us…

Building Permit Tax

Capital Gains Tax

CDL License Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Court Fines (indirect taxes)

Dog License Tax

Federal Income Tax

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax

Gift Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Local Income Tax

Luxury Taxes

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Payroll Taxes

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Recreational Vehicle Tax

Road Toll Booth Taxes

Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)

Sales Taxes

School Tax

Septic Permit Tax

Service Charge Taxes

Social Security Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone federal excise tax

Telephone federal universal service fee tax

Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes

Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax

Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax

Telephone state and local tax

Telephone usage charge tax

Toll Bridge Taxes

Toll Tunnel Taxes

Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)

Trailer Registration Tax

Utility Taxes

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

When you take all forms of taxation into account, some Americans actually end up handing over more than 50 percent of their incomes each year.

So our politicians have no excuse for not fixing our infrastructure.

But even though they extract money from us in dozens of different ways, our infrastructure crisis just seems to keep getting worse.

In some areas of the country, roads that were once paved have actually been transformed into gravel roads because they are cheaper to maintain.

Our crumbling infrastructure is a perfect metaphor for our crumbling society as a whole, and it is time for the American people to start demanding better from all levels of government.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

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On New Year’s Eve, Lightning Struck The U.S. Capitol, The Washington Monument, The Empire State Building And One World Trade Center

January 2, 2025 by Michael

A lot of really weird things have been happening over the past few days. I don’t know what all of it means, but what has been taking place is so unusual that it should definitely be getting our attention. For example, on New Year’s Eve lightning struck four of the most iconic buildings in the United States. If lightning had hit just one of those buildings, it could have easily been dismissed as a coincidence, but that isn’t what we witnessed. I don’t know why more people aren’t talking about this, because what just occurred in Washington D.C. and New York City is very strange indeed.

On the evening of December 31st, a spectacular bolt of lightning that hit the U.S. Capitol was captured on video…

By itself, such a lightning strike would be truly extraordinary.

But almost simultaneously, a bolt of lightning also hit the Washington Monument…

I was stunned when I first learned that the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument had both been hit by lightning on New Year’s Eve.

But that was not the end of the story.

It turns out that the Empire State Building was also struck by lightning on the same evening…

What are the odds of three iconic buildings getting hit on the exact same night?

And what are the odds of that happening on New Year’s Eve?

On top of everything else, One World Trade Center was also struck by lightning on New Year’s Eve. I am not able to embed this one, but you can see video of that lightning strike here.

Have you ever heard of anything like this ever happening before?

Four of our most iconic landmarks were all struck by lightning on New Year’s Eve, and hardly anyone is even talking about it.

What is wrong with us?

Of course shortly thereafter we witnessed horrific terror attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Americans tend not to pay much attention to terrorism until it happens on our soil, but now everyone is paying attention. Hopefully our law enforcement authorities will have some solid answers for us soon, because there are still so many unanswered questions about those attacks.

Unfortunately, many believe that those attacks were just the beginning.

In fact, one former CIA officer is claiming that there are over a thousand “sleepers” inside the United States right now that are preparing more attacks…

A former CIA officer named Sarah Adams was interviewed on the Shawn Ryan podcast just two weeks ago, and warned that there are more than a thousand al-Qaeda sleepers in the United States right now who are planning major attacks on the homeland.

She clearly implicates Biden’s open southern border as the entry point for these potential terrorists and suggests that they have developed new tactics and bombs that can evade detection through traditional means.

For years, millions of people have been pouring over our wide open borders.

For years, people like me have been warning that this is a very serious threat to our national security.

At this point, the damage has been done, and we have all sorts of nuts inside this country that could potentially do all sorts of damage.

Now Donald Trump’s inauguration is coming up on January 20th, and those that are closely associated with Trump have been getting targeted…

A surge in bomb threats and swatting incidents against lawmakers since the election underscores the deep political divide in the U.S. and has lawmakers from both parties calling for more protection.

Members of Congress and President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration have been on the receiving end of a rash of false alarms about pipe bombs or dangerous swatting stunts, in which a fake emergency call sends heavily armed police to a target’s residence.

A swatting incident against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, led to a woman dying in a car crash with an officer responding to the incident.

Being a prominent politician in this day and age is a very dangerous job.

We should be praying for their safety.

There is one last thing that I wanted to mention before I end this article.

On New Year’s Day, the San Francisco area was shaken by a magnitude 4.7 earthquake…

Northern California residents started off the new year with a rumble, as 4.7-magnitude earthquake struck the region Wednesday night. The tremor came at around 6.34pm Pacific time, with an epicenter about 70 miles north of San Francisco, the United States Geological Survey reported.

Thankfully, the earthquake was not large enough to do much damage, but local residents clearly felt it…

‘I did feel it actually,’ one X user wrote. ‘It was a rolling earthquake, lasted a few seconds.

‘Usually the earthquakes around here are jolts, not rolling, so it was kind of cool to feel the floor roll under my feet.’

Another X user added that it was ‘pretty intense for a 4.7.

‘It was a shallow earthquake too, so that makes [it[ feel stronger, but [is] usually more locally felt.’

Interestingly, this was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake, and Donald Trump is going to be the 47th president of the United States.

But I suppose that most people will also dismiss that fact as just another “coincidence”.

There sure have been a lot of “coincidences” lately, eh?

I am going to keep writing about the stuff that others are not writing about.

2024 was certainly a crazy year, but I believe that 2025 is going to be even more chaotic.

Hopefully all of the shaking that is coming in 2025 will wake a lot more people up, because right now most of the population is still sleeping.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

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“In With The Old, Out With The New” – 10 Questions We Should All Be Asking About The New Year’s Day Terror Attacks

January 1, 2025 by Michael

Someone needs to call Jack Bauer, because it appears that we definitely could use him right about now. Our “new” golden era of “peace and safety” has been very rudely interrupted by the “old” problem of Islamic terror. Of course the truth is that it is a problem that never went away. There were dozens of major terror attacks in 2024, but most of the population is not going to pay attention unless something happens within our own borders. Sadly, everyone is paying attention now.

Very early on New Year’s Day, a 42-year-old nut named Shamsud-Din Jabbar rammed a truck into a large crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. We are being told that 15 people are dead and dozens more are injured…

A man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others, officials said.

A black ISIS flag was flying from the truck’s rear bumper, and the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

The man driving the vehicle has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, the FBI said.

So was this the end, or is this just the beginning?

The following are 10 questions that we should all be asking about the chaotic New Year’s Day terror attacks…

#1 Why did an FBI special agent initially tell us that the attack in New Orleans “was not a terrorist event”? Something about all this does not smell right…

Multiple sources are reporting that the attacker in the deadly New Orleans attack that killed 10 people and injured dozens more was carrying an ISIS flag at the time of the attack, leading many to question how and why an FBI special agent confidently declared that the attack was “not a terrorist event” early on in the investigation.

Witnesses indicated that the attacker was flying a “large black flag” from his truck at the time of the attack, which would be consistent with a description of the ISIS flag. The FBI has since confirmed that the flag was, indeed, an ISIS flag, leading many to harshly criticize the FBI’s initial response to the attack, which flatly denied any connection to terrorism.

#2 What happened to the other “potential IEDs” that law enforcement found in the French Quarter? The following is an excerpt from an official statement by the FBI…

Weapons and a potential IED were located in the subject’s vehicle. Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter. The FBI’s special agent bomb technicians are working with our law enforcement partners to determine if any of these devices are viable, and they will work to render those devices safe.

#3 Shamsud-Din Jabbar had threatened to kill his own family before joining ISIS with the intention of committing terrorism on U.S. soil. Did law enforcement know about any of this beforehand? If so, why was nothing done?…

In a series of videos, the suspect in the deadly New Year’s attack in New Orleans discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join ISIS, according to multiple officials briefed on the investigation.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old man who police suspect drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more, made the chilling recordings while driving from his home in Texas to Louisiana, authorities believe.

Jabbar, a US citizen and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, made reference in the videos to his divorce and how he had at first planned to gather his family for a “celebration” with the intention of killing them, two officials who had been briefed on the recordings said. But Jabbar said in the videos that he changed his plans and joined ISIS, and referenced several dreams that he had about why he should be joining the terrorist group, according to the officials.

#4 Did Shamsud-Din Jabbar act alone? From the evidence that we have at this hour, it appears that he probably was not…

From the first news of the attack, Islamic State websites have been echoing with sick celebrations of the attack. This alone suggests that it was not the work of a lone wolf claiming to be an agent of IS, but was in fact organised from abroad by its underground HQ in the Middle East.

The fact that investigators found guns and concealed pipe bombs wired for remote detonation – as well as a corresponding remote control device inside the truck – was enough for the FBI to declare it does not believe the driver was acting alone.

#5 A Tesla Cybertruck exploded in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning. Was this attack linked to the attack in New Orleans?…

A Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames Wednesday morning just outside the entrance of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring several other people, local officials said.

The explosion is now being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, three senior members of law enforcement briefed on the matter told NBC News. A motive has yet to be established.

#6 Who made the “makeshift explosives” that caused the Tesla Cybertruck to explode?…

Police have released a series of photographs from inside the Cybertruck which blew up outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, revealing an arsenal of makeshift explosives.

The driver of the Elon Musk-owned Tesla Cybertruck, who has not yet been formally identified, died in the explosion and seven members of the public were injured.

Charred fireworks, gas cannisters and camping fuel were found in the bed of the truck when authorities were finally able to put out the fire.

#7 The Ford truck used in the New Orleans attack and the Cybertruck used in the Las Vegas attack were both rented from Turo. Is this an important clue?…

Musk claimed the Cybertruck and the Ford used in the New Orleans attack had both been rented by the same company.

He posted on his X platform: “Appears likely to be an act of terrorism.

“Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.”

#8 Why are vehicles being used in so many Islamic terror attacks now? According to USA Today, vehicle attacks have been “killing and injuring thousands of people internationally”…

Cheap and simple vehicle-based attacks have rapidly become one of the deadliest forms of terror assaults worldwide, killing and injuring thousands of people internationally since they began becoming more frequent after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experts say a combination of factors have increased the number of vehicle attacks in recent years, notably the increased focus on outdoor events after the pandemic, ease of access to trucks or cars, and the uncomplicated nature of the approach itself.

#9 What policies will the incoming Trump administration enact in response to these attacks? On Truth Social, Trump sounded very angry following the attack in New Orleans…

When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!

#10 Are more terror attacks coming? Thanks to years of very foolish policies, we now have vast numbers of people living in the U.S. that are supportive of terror organizations. For example, just 12 hours after the attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas, a “massive crowd of Hamas supporters” conducted a very large protest in Manhattan…

A massive crowd of Hamas supporters has taken over downtown Manhattan, NYC calling for a global intifada.

12 hours from the tragedy in New Orleans and Las Vegas and these people are doing this.

Do they have no shame?

As I alluded to in my headline, we were warned that this was coming.

Now it is here.

I am entirely convinced that a lot more chaos and a lot more violence are on the way.

We are far more vulnerable than most people realize, and the next time you find yourself in a crowded place I would recommend being in a constant state of high alert.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

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Is 2025 Going To Look Like A Hollywood Disaster Movie?

December 31, 2024December 31, 2024 by Michael

What kind of year is 2025 going to be? If you ask 1,000 different people that question, you will probably get 1,000 different answers. There are some that are very optimistic about the year ahead, but there are others that are very pessimistic about the year ahead. In fact, Gallup just conducted a survey that discovered that most Americans believe that 2025 will be a year of “political conflict, economic difficulty, international discord, increasing power for China and Russia, and a rising federal budget deficit”…

Americans foresee a somewhat challenging year ahead for the country, based on their predictions for various aspects of U.S. affairs and daily life. Majorities of U.S. adults think 2025 will be a year of political conflict, economic difficulty, international discord, increasing power for China and Russia, and a rising federal budget deficit.

I agree with all of that.

The U.S. is facing both internal and external turmoil, and our economy is very rapidly moving in the wrong direction.

But another major global health crisis would make things so much worse.

In recent weeks, so many of the usual suspects have been doing interviews in which they warn that a bird flu pandemic among humans has become inevitable.

Do they know something that the rest of us do not?

Already, we are starting to see public officials freak out. The state of California recently declared a state of emergency, and now it is being reported that Arizona has detected bird flu in the wastewater in the cities of Phoenix, Tempe and Surprise…

Bird flu has been detected in wastewater in multiple metro Phoenix cities, county health officials confirmed Monday.

Routine wastewater surveillance in Phoenix, Tempe and Surprise — the three cities in the county where monitoring occurs — confirmed the presence of avian influenza, according to a press release from the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH).

The influenza subtype, which includes bird flu as H5N1, has been detected in multiple locations in the Valley in the past couple of months.

Meanwhile, the bird flu continues to spread like wildfire among animals all over the nation.

123 million birds, most of them chickens and turkeys, have already died in the United States alone. And now a farm in Ohio that has nearly a million chickens has been infected…

Ohio agriculture officials are investigating after avian flu was detected in nearly one million chickens in Darke County.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza was detected in Darke County on Dec. 27, involving 931,302 chickens.

Since it’s an active case, the ODA did not identify the individual farms.

Cats are dying from coast to coast too.

In Oregon, it has been determined that a cat that recently died from the bird flu caught it by eating turkey-based cat food…

Experts and some public officials are warning against raw pet foods after a cat in Oregon was found to have died from a product contaminated by bird flu. The maker of that cat food, Northwest Naturals, has since recalled certain batches of the turkey-based food.

If humans start getting infected and dying on a widespread basis, it really will be a nightmare scenario, and the level of panic that we will witness will be off the charts.

It appears that 2025 will also be a year of war.

The U.S. and Israel are openly talking about conducting a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program, North Korea is threatening to invade South Korea, and long-range NATO missiles continue to hit targets deep inside Russia. In response, the Russians just fired missiles at Kyiv…

Russia launched an aerial attack on Ukraine on Tuesday, striking the capital and other regions with multiple missiles and drones.

Ukraine’s air force reported a ballistic missile threat at 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), with at least two explosions heard in Kyiv minutes later. Another missile alert was issued at 8:00 a.m. followed by at least one explosion in the city. Missile debris fell in the Darnytskyi district of the capital with no reports of casualties or damage, the local administration said.

Elsewhere, Chinese President Xi Jinping is boldly declaring that “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable and nobody will be able to stop it…

No one can stop China’s “reunification” with Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his New Year’s speech on Dec 31, laying down a clear warning to what Beijing regards as pro-independence forces within and outside of the island of 23 million people.

In the past year, Beijing has stepped up military pressure near Taiwan, sending warships and planes almost daily into the waters and air space around the island in what Taiwanese officials view as a creeping effort to “normalise” China’s military presence.

Will 2025 be the year when China finally pulls the trigger?

When it happens, we will instantly be at war with China.

Ominously, the Chinese are in the midst of “the largest military build-up of any nation in the world since Germany in the 1930s”…

According to a report by a national security expert, the People’s Republic of China has ordered the largest military build-up of any nation in the world since Germany in the 1930s, raising concerns about the military threat presented by China.

On top of everything else, it appears that Afghanistan and Pakistan are on the brink of “all-out war”…

Fears of an all-out war erupting between Afghanistan and Pakistan are rising after the Taliban sent troops to the border as the two countries continue to trade deadly strikes.

The Afghan Taliban has unleashed a series of devastating artillery strikes on Pakistani military checkpoints along the tense border, sparking fears of a full-blown conflict between the two neighbours.

The hardline Islamist group boasted it had obliterated ‘several’ Pakistani positions and mobilised battalions of fighters to confront any retaliation from Islamabad, in a chilling show of force.

While all of this is going on, our entire planet continues to become even more unstable as well.

On average, we experienced a “billion dollar disaster” in the United States about every two weeks in 2024.

Just think about how crazy that is.

And that doesn’t even count all of the “billion dollar disasters” that have been happening in other nations.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

Today, we are being warned that a massive underwater volcano off the coast of Oregon that is thousands of feet tall is likely to erupt in 2025…

Scientists have warned that an underwater volcano off the coast of the northwestern US is likely to blow sometime in 2025.

The volcano, called Axial Seamount, is more than 3,600-feet-tall and sits half a mile underwater just 300 miles off the coast of Oregon.

Our world is going completely nuts, but for the moment those at the very top of the economic pyramid continue to party like it is 1999.

On Tuesday, it was being reported that the 500 wealthiest people in the world now have a combined net worth of 10 trillion dollars…

The world’s 500 richest people got vastly richer in 2024, with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen Huang leading the group of billionaires to a new milestone: A combined $10 trillion net worth.

An indomitable rally in US technology stocks played a key role in turbocharging the trio’s wealth, as well as the fortunes of Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The eight tech titans alone gained more than $600 billion this year, 43% of the $1.5 trillion increase among the 500 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

If you are one of the lucky few that is sitting on a giant mountain of money, life may still seem pretty good for the moment.

But a day of reckoning is coming for them too.

2024 was certainly a chaotic year, but I am entirely convinced that 2025 will be much more wild.

Brace yourself for what the next 12 months will bring, because it appears that all sorts of craziness is about to start breaking loose.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Get prepared for what is ahead by visiting some of our sponsors…

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Economic Red Alert! Credit Card Defaults Jump To The Highest Level In 14 Years

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Michael

It is starting to look a lot like the last financial crisis. Americans are defaulting on their credit cards at a rate that we haven’t seen in more than a decade, and this could have very serious implications for our financial institutions as we move into 2025. Easy credit has enabled many Americans to enjoy lifestyles that are far beyond what they actually deserve, but outrageously high interest rates, absurd penalties and predatory fees have sucked the financial life out of millions of households. The temptation of easy credit has proven to be too much for many Americans to resist, and now a day of reckoning has arrived and it isn’t going to be fun.

It was expected that credit card defaults would continue to rise this year.

But a 50 percent jump is ridiculous…

Credit card defaults are at their highest level since 2010 as consumers feel increasingly stretched.

As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (Dec. 29), card lenders wrote off $46 billion in seriously delinquent loans in the first nine months of this year, a 50% jump over 2023. That’s the highest level in 14 years, the report said, citing industry data compiled by BankRegData.

In the last 20 years, there has only been one other year when credit card defaults have reached this level.

This is yet another indication that our economy is rapidly moving in the wrong direction.

Thanks to our seemingly endless cost of living crisis, an increasing number of Americans have been forced to turn to credit card debt just to make ends meet.

At this point, 74.5 percent of all U.S. consumers are carrying at least some credit card debt…

As covered here earlier this month, the share of consumers carrying at least some card debt is pervasive, at 74.5%, per PYMNTS Intelligence research. While that percentage is more or less static across income levels, it leaps to more than 90% for consumers living paycheck to paycheck and having trouble paying their bills.

The research showed that the average outstanding balance among paycheck-to-paycheck cardholders who have issues paying their bills is $7,038, compared to those who live paycheck to paycheck without such difficulties, who had average outstanding balances of $5,766.

This is a nightmare.

Our economy is highly dependent on consumer spending, but now the bottom third of the economic pyramid is “tapped out”…

Mark Zandi, the head of Moody’s Analytics, said, “High-income households are fine, but the bottom third of US consumers are tapped out. Their savings rate right now is zero.”

Credit card debt is one of the most destructive forms of debt that you can accumulate.

In fact, it would be difficult for me to overstate just how devastating credit card debt can be to a family.

If you owe $10,000 on a credit card with a 20 percent interest rate and only make a payment of 300 dollars each month, it will take you more than four years to pay it off.

During that time you will pay $4,718 in interest rate charges in addition to the $10,000 in principal that you are required to pay back.

That does not even account for any penalties or late fees.

Are you starting to get the picture?

The truth is that credit cards are one of the greatest inventions for sucking the wealth out of middle class American families ever invented.

Today, Americans have over a billion credit cards, and they owe over a trillion dollars on those cards.

I just asked Google AI, and I was told that “the combined GDP of the 100 poorest countries is estimated to be around $500 billion”.

So that means that what Americans owe on their credit cards is twice as large as the GDP of the 100 poorest nations on the entire planet combined.

What in the world is wrong with us?

The top 10 credit card issuers in the U.S. control approximately 82 percent of the credit card market.

When we go into credit card debt, we are making them even wealthier.

And that is precisely what they want.

Right now, there are no federal laws that limit the interest rates that credit card companies can charge.

If they want to charge you 30 percent, they can do that.

If they want to charge you 40 percent, they can do that.

And of course they love to hit us with all sorts of fees and penalties as well.

According to Google AI, this is how much revenue some of the largest credit card companies earned in 2022…

American Express: $50.7 billion
Bank of America: $92.4 billion
Capital One: $34.2 billion
Chase: $154.8 billion
Citibank: $101 billion
Discover: $15.2 billion

That is a ton of money.

The higher we push our credit card balances, the richer they become.

The bottom line is that we need to change our behavior.

We work so hard to earn the money that we make.

Why hand that money over to greedy bankers?

Last week, I discussed the fact that our central banking system has been designed to funnel as much wealth as possible to the very top of the pyramid.

The same thing is true for credit cards.

If you are paying 20 or 30 percent interest on a credit card balance every month, you are literally committing financial suicide.

The bankers are getting rich from your hard work, and you need to get out of credit card debt as soon as you can.

Sadly, for many American families it is already too late. It is almost impossible to pay off debt if you don’t have a job and you are about to lose your home. At this moment, many American families find themselves literally being torn apart by financial stress.

Yesterday, I wrote about how homelessness in the U.S. is at an all-time record high.

Today, I am writing about how credit card defaults have risen to the highest level in 14 years.

If you can’t see where all of this is heading, I don’t know what to say.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize, and the outlook for 2025 is not promising at all.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

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Home Alone: Why America Is Dealing With A Severe Epidemic Of Loneliness Right Now

December 25, 2024 by Michael

We live in a society where a significant chunk of the population feels painfully alone much of the time. It is an epidemic that has enormous mental, emotional and spiritual implications, and it is one of the clearest signs that we are a society that is coming apart at the seams. One of the primary reasons why there is so much loneliness in our society is because the institution of the family is in decline. Today, the proportion of the population that is single and childless is at an all-time high, and the proportion of the population that is married with children is at an all-time low. How can anyone possibly claim that we are headed for a bright future when we are facing such alarming societal trends?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 40 percent of Americans report feeling lonely at least some of the time…

The latest version of the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey — a broad gauge of the economic and social issues affecting American households — found some not-so-surprising news: Americans are lonely.

The survey conducted between August 20 and September 16 reported that 1 in 8 people (12.6%) was feeling lonely either “always” or “usually,” including nearly a quarter (23.3%) of the younger population (those aged 18 to 29). Since the Household Pulse Survey at the start of the year, slightly more people are now feeling lonely a lot of the time. 40% of people reported feeling lonely at least sometimes.

Those are very troubling numbers.

But of course others that have studied our epidemic of loneliness have come up with similar numbers.

In fact, a report put out by the U.S. Surgeon General concluded that close to half of the U.S. population experiences feelings of loneliness…

Last year, the US Surgeon General released a worrying report about the deep sense of loneliness that many Americans are experiencing. The report, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” found that approximately 50 percent of adults in the country are feeling lonely, and that people of all ages are spending significantly less time with others.

The findings have profound implications for the health of the country. Being lonely or socially isolated puts people at heightened risk for a number of serious illnesses—the report estimates it to be the health equivalent of smoking fifteen cigarettes a day—including depression, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.

Those that feel lonely on a regular basis are far more likely to develop serious illnesses, and they are far more likely to die early.

So this is a crisis that we should be taking very seriously.

One survey actually discovered that the proportion of men that do not have any close friends has increased “fivefold since 1990”…

Who are the loneliest people in America?

American men were said to be in a “friendship recession,” with a survey finding the number of men without any close friends increased fivefold since 1990.

Have you ever wondered why so many older Americans seem so sad much of the time?

Well, now you know.

People are yearning for human connection, and Google search trends prove this…

So it’s no wonder there’s been a rise in running clubs, knitting groups, pickleball, and more, as people search — quite literally — for ways to meet new people. Google searches for terms like “how to meet people” and “where to make friends” are at or near an all time high.

Somewhere along the way, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

And I believe that it starts with the institution of the family.

In 1940, just 7.7 percent of all U.S. households were one person households, but by 2020 that figure had jumped to 27.6 percent…

Over a quarter (27.6%) of all U.S. occupied households were one-person households in 2020, up from just 7.7% in 1940, according to recently released 2020 Census data.

The share of people living alone increased every decade from 1940 to 2020 (Figure 1). The largest increase happened between 1970 and 1980, when the share increased from 17.6% to 22.7%.

We were not meant to live alone.

But now more Americans than ever are doing just that. Just look at this insane chart…

Sadly, this decade that trend has continued.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, right now 29 percent of all U.S. households are one person households…

In 2024, there were 38.5 million one-person households, which was 29% of all U.S. households. In 1974, one-person households represented only 19% of all households.

The reason why there are so many one person households now is because almost half of all U.S. adults are not married…

From nationalsinglesday.us, “Did you know that 46.4% of U.S. adults are single according to the U.S. Census Bureau? That’s 117.6 million unmarried Americans – nearly every other adult aged 18 and over. This includes those who are divorced or widowed as well as those who have never married. National Singles Day is observed each year during Unmarried and Single Americans Week.”

More than ever before, Americans are rejecting traditional norms regarding marriage and family.

In fact, the proportion of the population that is single and childless now exceeds the proportion of the population that is married with children. A chart that Brad Wilcox just posted absolutely blew me away…

The chart above makes it abundantly clear that we are a dying society.

Our birth rate has been under replacement level for a long time because so many Americans don’t want to get married and don’t want to have children.

Sadly, our entire culture has become anti-marriage, anti-family and anti-children to a very large degree.

If we do not reverse the insidious trends that have corrupted our culture, we have no hope of defeating the epidemic of loneliness that we are currently facing.

Humans are meant to love and to be loved, and that is one of the reasons why the traditional family unit is an absolutely vital societal institution.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

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As Americans Celebrate, The World Is Plunging Into An Abyss Of War, Famine, Natural Disasters And Pestilence

December 24, 2024December 24, 2024 by Michael

Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything is okay isn’t going to do anyone any good. Chaos has been erupting all over the globe, and global events are likely to accelerate even more in 2025. But as I write this article, most Americans have shifted into “vacation mode” and are focused on celebrating. Of course many do not have the resources to celebrate like they did in the past. As I discussed the other day, 35 percent of Americans plan to spend less this holiday season and only 16 percent plan to spend more. But there is still a whole lot of spending going on. The average U.S. adult will spend about a thousand dollars on gifts this year, and all of this stuff will bring a certain level of temporary happiness.

Meanwhile, our world is going completely and totally nuts.

In recent weeks, there has been a growing consensus in the mainstream media that World War III is already here. For example, the following comes from a Forbes article entitled “World War III Has Already Begun – And Businesses Need To Take Note”…

The sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s despotic regime in Syria this weekend highlights the interconnectedness of a growing number of global conflicts, revealing a hard truth that most of us would rather not think about too deeply: World War III has already begun.

Business leaders need to recognize this and begin planning accordingly.

At this moment, we are closer to nuclear war with Russia than we have ever been before, the Chinese are closer to invading Taiwan than ever before, North Korea continues to threaten to invade South Korea, and the incoming administration is seriously considering bombing Iran’s nuclear program…

Ahead of his January 20 inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump is evaluating the possibility of preemptive strikes on Iran to stop its growing nuclear program, according to a Friday morning Wall Street Journal report.

According to the WSJ, this move would mark a significant change from previously established US policy on diplomacy and sanctions when dealing with Tehran.

The report outlines the Trump team’s evaluation of potential attacks on nuclear sites, indicating that members of the president-elect’s transition team are exploring this option.

2024 has certainly been a year of war.

Unfortunately, I am entirely convinced that World War III will only intensify in 2025.

Dozens of armed conflicts are currently raging all over the planet, and this is just one of the factors that has pushed global food prices up dramatically in recent months.

The poorest of the poor are being hit particularly hard. Women and children are dropping dead of starvation in Sudan right now, and it is being reported that the famine in that country has now spread to five new areas…

Famine in Sudan has expanded to five areas and will likely spread to another five by May, the global hunger monitor reported Tuesday, while warring parties continue to disrupt humanitarian aid needed to alleviate one of the worst starvation crises in modern times.

Famine conditions were confirmed in Abu Shouk and al-Salam, two camps for internally displaced people in al-Fashir, the besieged capital of North Darfur, as well as in residential and displaced communities in the Nuba Mountains, according to the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC).

Thankfully, people are not dropping dead from starvation here in the United States.

But as I documented last week, demand at food banks all over America is setting brand new record highs.

Nobody can dispute these facts, because they are true.

Let me give you some more facts. From 1984 to 2003, the U.S. experienced about 5 “billion dollar disasters” a year…

There were 97 natural disasters between 1984 and 2003 that cost more than $1 billion. From 2004 to 2023, that number rose to 273. Extreme weather events can affect demand for utilities, threaten aging infrastructure, and result in volatile fuel costs.

On October 24th, Fox Weather reported that the U.S. had already experienced 24 “billion dollar disasters” in 2024…

With the addition of three recent Atlantic hurricanes, the U.S. has experienced 24 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters this year – a near-record number, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

On Thursday, NOAA’s NCEI released its assessment of the global climate, including U.S. weather disasters. Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton and one tornado outbreak were added to this year’s billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, bringing the total to 24 events as of October.

This is our new normal.

On average, we are being hit by a “billion dollar disaster” about every two weeks.

Our world is becoming so unstable, and signs of volatility are all around us. In fact, just yesterday one of the most violent volcanoes on U.S. soil started erupting again…

Kilauea volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, is erupting, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said the eruption began at 2 a.m. local time on Monday, elevating Kilauea’s volcano alert system to the highest warning levels within a closed area of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

“The opening phases of eruptions are dynamic,” the USGS said.

Natural disasters will continue to be a major theme in 2025, and I am entirely convinced that pestilences will be a major theme during the coming year as well.

The New York Times is telling us that the much deadlier new strain of mpox that has emerged in central Africa is spreading like wildfire in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

And confirmed cases of that new strain have now been reported in Belgium, Canada, Germany, India, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States…

Even as the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains the mpox situation in Africa is “especially concerning”, the disease has been reported in another country outside of the continent.

In the latest weekly bulletin, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that a case of mpox has been detected in Belgium. The mpox virus in the case is from the clade 1b.

With this, Belgium became the eighth non-African country to report mpox infection from clade 1b. The other countries are Canada, Germany, India, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Of course global health authorities are even more alarmed about the potential for a bird flu pandemic.

H5N1 continues to rip through poultry farms and dairy herds all over the nation, and now Los Angeles County has reported their very first human case…

Los Angeles County health officials reported the first human case of bird flu in the area less than a week after a statewide emergency declaration was announced.

In a statement released on Monday, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said the human case of H5 bird flu was detected in an adult who was exposed to livestock infected with the virus at a worksite.

All over the world, people are starting to get infected, and many health experts are warning that a global crisis has become inevitable.

Needless to say, most Americans are not paying much attention to the things that I have shared in this article.

Instead, their focus is on other things.

At this point, everybody knows who Luigi Mangione is, because the mainstream media has been endlessly obsessing over Luigi Mangione.

And apparently there are quite a few young women that have decided that Luigi Mangione is some sort of a hero…

An eerie public show of support for Luigi Mangione outside New York Supreme Court on Monday drew comparisons to The Manson Family.

A few dozen masked young women swayed and sang as the alleged UnitedHealthare CEO killer pleaded not guilty plea on terrorism charges.

The 26-year-old sported a collared shirt, maroon sweater and orange shoes as he leaned over to a microphone to enter his plea.

How sick is that?

His new “fans” rushed to buy the sweater that he wore to court, and so now it is out of stock…

The Nordstrom knit sweater – which has been likened to the sweaters worn by the Menendez brothers during their infamous trial – has already sold out.

Immediately, Mangione’s fans tracked down the Marino crewneck top, which retails for $89.99 and is currently 30 percent off, and rushed to purchase it.

What is wrong with these people?

Luigi Mangione is a murderer.

Some are suggesting that he deserves the death penalty, and it is hard to argue with that.

But if he deserves the death penalty, what does our entire society deserve for killing more than 60 million American children since 1973?

Sadly, I think that it won’t be too long before we find out…

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Get prepared for what is ahead by visiting some of our sponsors…

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A List Of 24 Things That You Will Desperately Need In A Post-Apocalyptic World

December 23, 2024December 23, 2024 by Michael

What would you do if a great cataclysm brought a sudden end to our society and you were forced to survive on what you currently have on hand? When I was growing up, very few people thought of such things. In fact, I never heard the words “prepper” or “prepping” until I became an adult. But now everything has changed. Millions of Americans are spending enormous amounts of money to prepare for apocalyptic scenarios that they believe are quite likely to play out in our near future. According to Investopedia, approximately 20 million Americans now consider themselves to be preppers…

Doomsday prepping has become a bona fide area of investing, with experts putting the average annual growth of the survivalist sector at over 7% until 2030 and some 20 million Americans now identifying as “preppers”—about the size of entire states like New York.

That is a significant portion of our population.

And they are spending a ton of money.

One recent survey discovered that spending on prepping supplies reached about 11 billion dollars during one recent 12 month period…

The survey found that, collectively, preppers spent around $11 billion within a 12-month period. According to the survey, preppers tend to live in the Western part of the U.S. and spent the most money on basics like food, water and toilet paper.

As our society comes apart at the seams all around us, more Americans than ever are determined to achieve at least some level of self-sufficiency while they still can.

People from all across the political spectrum and that come from all walks of life are feverishly preparing for a very bleak future.

Of course there is not a general consensus about what that very bleak future will look like.

In this article, I am going to specifically address how to prepare for life in a post-apocalyptic world. Many preppers are preparing for scenarios that are far less extreme. The type of scenario that I am talking about in this piece is a situation where all of our major institutions are no longer functioning and society as we have known it has totally broken down.

What this means is that the items in the list that I am about to share with you will not be needed right now. But if an apocalyptic event or a series of apocalyptic events suddenly brings our society to an end, you will definitely need them.

I am imagining a time when there will be no functioning supply chains, and so there will be nothing to buy in the stores.

And since there will be no functioning supply chains, you will not have access to gasoline or propane.

So I have not included any items that are dependent on gasoline or propane in my list.

Also, please keep in mind that this list is not comprehensive and is only intended to represent the bare minimum that you will need.

There are countless other items that you could add to this list, but for this article I wanted to focus on the basics.

With all of that being said, the following is a list of 24 things that you will desperately need in a post-apocalyptic world…

#1 Emergency food to feed your family

#2 A water filtration system to clean your water

#3 A ferro rod for starting a fire

#4 An extensive first aid kit for health emergencies

#5 An emergency supply of antibiotics

#6 A multitool that has pliers, a knife, a saw and a screwdriver

#7 A solar-powered generator

#8 A solar flashlight

#9 An emergency shortwave radio so that you can stay informed

#10 Fishing gear

#11 Seeds for planting a garden

#12 A wood stove

#13 An axe for cutting wood

#14 A quality shovel

#15 Paracord

#16 Duct tape

#17 A hand-crank can opener

#18 A very warm winter jacket for every member of your family

#19 A durable backpack for every member of your family

#20 A compass

#21 A good pair of binoculars

#22 Wool blankets

#23 A Bible

#24 A way to protect everything that you have stockpiled from the marauding hordes that will be desperate to take all of it away from you

In a post-apocalyptic scenario, how long do you think that you would last?

In any survival situation, there are four big areas that always must be addressed: food, water, power and shelter.

Of course many would add security to that list.

In a world that has gone completely mad, there will be many that will be willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive.

If you live in an area that has a high population density, it may become nearly impossible to survive no matter how much preparation work you have done in advance. When things hit the fan, you will want to flee to a less densely populated area if at all possible.

Many people ask me for prepping advice, and so I have tried to cover some of the most essential basics in this article.

But of course what I have shared here is just the tip of the iceberg. Properly preparing for what is coming takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and energy, and the clock is ticking…

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.