20 Numbers From 2020 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

2020 has been a year that none of us will ever forget.  We experienced the worst global pandemic in 100 years, we witnessed the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, civil unrest erupted in major cities all over America, and we had one of the wildest presidential elections in our history.  Other than that, it was a pretty quiet year.  For a few moments, let’s take one more look back at the past 12 months.  The following are 20 numbers from 2020 that are almost too crazy to believe…

#1 When 2020 began, nobody had ever heard of “COVID-19” because that term had not even been invented yet.  But by the end of the year, there had been more than 83 million confirmed cases around the globe and more than 1.8 million deaths.  Here in the United States, there have been more than 20 million confirmed cases so far and more than 350,000 deaths according to the official numbers.  Of course nobody is sure if we can trust the official numbers or not, because just recently a politician in Austria showed that a cup of Coca-Cola can test positive for COVID-19.

#2 All of the masks that we have been wearing and discarding during this pandemic have taken a heavy toll on the environment.  According to one study, more than 1.5 billion (with a “b”) masks will be dumped into the oceans of the world this year alone.

#3 The lockdowns that our politicians instituted to control the spread of COVID-19 resulted in an unemployment shock that was absolutely unprecedented.  Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been more than 70 million new claims for unemployment benefits.  That means that we have been averaging well over a million new claims per week since the first lockdowns went into effect.  To put that into perspective, the old all-time record for a single week was just 695,000 and that was set all the way back in 1982.  During this pandemic, we have been above that old record every single week, and now unemployment claims are starting to rise higher once again.

#4 Almost four out of every ten Americans do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but the federal government is going to spend 250 million dollars on an “information campaign” that is designed to convince them otherwise.

#5 The civil unrest that erupted all over America following the death of George Floyd ultimately sparked a crime wave that seems as if it will never end.  According to an analysis of data from 57 big city police departments, the number of murders in those cities is up 36.7 percent compared to last year.  In quite a few of those cities, new all-time records are being established in 2020, and many Americans are anticipating even more violence in 2021.

#6 Recent data from Moody’s Analytics indicates that approximately 12 million U.S. renters are now “at least $5,850 behind in rent and utilities payments”.  Landlords all over the nation are in financial distress because of unpaid rent, and we could potentially see the greatest tsunami of evictions in all of U.S. history if and when all of the rent moratoriums are finally lifted in 2021.

#7 In 2020 we witnessed massively long lines at food banks all across America.  In some cases, people were lining up as early as 2 AM in order to make sure that they would get something before the supplies were gone.  Feeding America runs the largest network of food banks in the entire nation, and they were estimating that approximately one out of every four children in the U.S. would suffer from hunger by the time that 2020 was finally done.

#8 We haven’t seen an economic downturn this severe since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the middle class has been hit particularly hard.  According to one recent survey, 2020 was a “personal financial disaster” for 55 percent of all Americans.

#9 But 2020 hasn’t been a financial disaster for everyone.  In fact, Forbes recently published an article which celebrated 50 doctors, scientists and healthcare entrepreneurs that become “pandemic billionaires” in 2020.

#10 The U.S. government continues to waste money in some of the most crazy ways imaginable.  I know that I shared this the other day, but I just had to include it in this article as well.  According to U.S. Senator Rand Paul, the federal government has spent 6.9 million dollars to develop a “smart toilet” which uses a very small camera to identify your “analprint”.

#11 One of the reasons why so much crazy spending happens is because our politicians don’t actually read the bills that they pass.  For example, the spending bill that the House of Representatives recently passed was 5,593 pages long, and members of the House were only given a few hours to look it over.  Unsurprisingly, the bill passed the House by a vote of 359 to 53.

#12 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, the U.S. was 10.6 trillion dollars in debt.  Now we are 27.5 trillion dollars in debt, and soon that total will hit the 30 trillion dollar mark.  Needless to say, this is a recipe for national financial suicide.

#13 The decline of the U.S. family continued to accelerate in 2020.  According to a recent Gallup survey, only 29 percent of Americans believe that “it is very important for couples who have children together to be married”.

#14 Americans have continued to get even bigger in 2020 as well.  At this point, 73 percent of the entire U.S. population is either overweight or obese.

#15 The amount of control that the big tech companies have over our lives has gotten more than just a little bit frightening, but most Americans don’t seem to mind.  In fact, one recent survey found that 2 out of every 3 Americans do not care if their smart devices are recording what they say and do at all times.

#16 But if anyone tried to take our smart devices away, then most of us would suddenly become very angry.  Another recent survey found that the average person will spend a total of 44 years looking at digital devices during their lifetimes.

#17 The recent presidential election has deeply divided our nation.  96 percent of Democrats believe that Joe Biden was elected fairly, but only 20 percent of Republicans feel the same way.

#18 Joe Biden only won 16.7 percent of all counties in the United States.  That was a new record low for a winning candidate, beating the previous record low of 22 percent which Barack Obama established in 2012.

#19 But Joe Biden also somehow won the most overall votes in U.S. history by a very wide margin.  He received more than 81 million votes, which was about 12 million more votes than Barack Obama got in 2008 when he set the old record.

#20 On December 14th, the Electoral College voted to make Joe Biden the next president of the United States.  Amazingly, that date is precisely halfway between the “Great American Eclipse” of 2017 and the “Great American Eclipse” of 2024.  If you plot the paths of those two eclipses on a map of the United States, you will see that they combine to form a giant “X” across the heartland of America.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

We Are Being Told The “Scary” Mutant COVID In South Africa Is Even More Dangerous Than The “Super COVID” In The UK

A new mutant strain of COVID-19 that has been dubbed “501.V2” has gotten completely out of control in South Africa, and authorities are telling us that it is an even bigger threat than the “Super COVID” that has been causing so much panic in the United Kingdom.  Of course viruses mutate all the time, and so it isn’t a surprise that COVID-19 has been mutating.  But mutations can become a major issue when they fundamentally alter the way that a virus affects humans, and we are being told that “501.V2” is much more transmissible than previous versions of COVID and that even young people are catching it a lot more easily.  That is potentially a huge concern, because up until now young people have not been hit very hard by the COVID pandemic.

The British press is using the word “scary” to describe this new variant, and at this point it has become the overwhelmingly dominant strain in South Africa…

The new mutant, called 501.V2, was announced in Cape Town last Friday and is believed to be a more extreme variant than Britain’s new Covid strain which has plunged millions into miserable Christmas lockdowns.

Cases in South Africa have soared from fewer than 3,000 a day at the start of December to more than 9,500 per day, with the mutant accounting for up to 90 percent of those new infections.

If this same pattern happens elsewhere as this new mutant strain travels around the globe, then “501.V2” could eventually almost entirely replace all of the older versions of COVID.

Authorities are optimistically telling us that the recent vaccines that have been developed will “likely” work against this new variant, but the truth is that they will not know until testing is done.

And if the vaccines don’t work against “501.V2”, we could be back to square one very rapidly.

For now, countries all over the globe are banning flights from South Africa in a desperate attempt to isolate this new version.  The UK, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey and Israel are among the nations that have banned those flights, but so far the United States is not on that list.

So people that are potentially carrying this new version of COVID continue to enter the U.S. on a daily basis.

For the United Kingdom, this flight ban may have come too late because two cases of “501.V2” have already been identified on British soil

Two cases of a new, “more transmissible” COVID-19 variant linked to South Africa have been identified in the UK, the health secretary has said.

Both cases are contacts of people who travelled from South Africa over the last few weeks, Matt Hancock said at a Downing Street news conference.

If the new vaccines are effective against “501.V2”, authorities believe that they already have the long-term answer to this new variant.

But if those vaccines don’t work, this pandemic could be entering a far more deadly new phase.

And of course we are hearing about more problems with these new vaccines on a daily basis.  Thousands of adverse reactions have already been reported to the CDC, and more reports continue to pour in as more people get the shots.  Here is one example from New York City

A health care worker in New York City had a serious adverse reaction to a coronavirus vaccine, officials said on Wednesday.

New York City Health Commissioner David Chokshi said during a news conference that the unidentified worker experienced a “significant allergic reaction” to the vaccine. He added that the worker was treated for the reaction, and is in stable condition and recovering.

We should not be surprised that there are major issues with experimental mRNA vaccines that are based on entirely new technology that were rushed into production without proper testing.

And of course there are tens of millions of Americans that will never take any mRNA vaccine that literally “hijacks your cells” under any circumstances.

On the other hand, most of the U.S. population seems to think that these new vaccines will bring this pandemic to an end, but if they don’t work against new mutant versions of the virus that won’t be true at all.

It is so important to take a balanced view of these things.

Unfortunately, when it comes to COVID most people fall into two camps.

The first camp is totally freaked out because they think that COVID is about the worst thing that could ever happen to the United States and they tend to favor extremely draconian measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

But the truth is that the COVID pandemic pales in comparison to other great pandemics throughout human history.  The Black Plague and the Spanish Flu Pandemic each killed at least 50 million people.  As for the COVID pandemic, the global death toll has not reached the 2 million mark even if the official numbers are accurate.  If a pandemic of this nature is freaking people out so much, what is going to happen when a truly killer plague is unleashed in our society?

The second camp either thinks that the pandemic is greatly exaggerated or that the virus doesn’t even exist at all.  Even though hordes of people are catching the virus all around us, many out there continue to deny the reality of this crisis.

I simply do not understand that.  So many people that I know around the country have gotten the virus, and that includes quite a few big names.  For example, the following is an excerpt from an article in which Daisy Luther shares what her experience with COVID was like

Days 3-5: Over the next three days, chills and fever were almost constant. My joints and muscles hurt. Getting up to go to the bathroom felt like an expedition up a mountain.  I was tired and winded. I had very little appetite and even less of an inclination to cook food so I existed mostly on peanut butter and crackers and leftover soup. I was absolutely exhausted and so cold that I shivered violently when I got out from under my bed piled high with blankets. I had super-weird dreams. My cough worsened, my head hurt, and my throat was still mildly sore.

I drank lots of water and electrolyte beverages. My thirst remained unquenchable regardless of how much I drank. I took vitamins (C, D3) and took Zinc supplements. These are my regular supplements but I doubled that.

Days 6-9: The line to get a test at the local clinic was long and filled with people who were coughing up a lung. There was no way I’d be able to stand in that line for an hour, as sick as I felt. Besides, I figured if I didn’t have Covid, I’d get it standing in the line so I opted not to be tested.

This part made me think of the worst case of the flu I ever had, except intensified by about four times. It was terrible.

I usually let a fever run its course but by Saturday I felt so awful that I gave in and began treating symptoms. My normal temp is in the 96s and my temperature throughout these days stayed between 101-103. I staggered ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and I also used a mild muscle relaxant and my Ventilyn inhaler. The meds didn’t get rid of my fever but reduced the chills to a tolerable level. I slept almost around the clock, waking up for a couple of hours here and there to check on website stuff. Fortunately, I have a wonderful team who kept things running for us. One day blurred into the next and I considered going to the doctor again, but couldn’t muster the energy. I felt like if I just got a little more sleep I’d be okay.

My cough was getting far worse and now my ribs and abdominal muscles hurt. It was a deep painful cough that caused me to clutch my chest every single time inhaled deeply.

So to summarize, yes the COVID pandemic is real, but it is not the end of the world.

More people are going to get sick, and some will suffer intensely, but the vast majority of those that get the virus will survive.

If you want to wear a mask, then wear a mask.

If you don’t want to wear a mask, then don’t wear a mask.

We should be free to make our own choices, and we should also be free to experience the consequences for those choices.

Unfortunately, there are way too many people out there that think that they have the right to censor and control what we say and what we do, and that trend is likely to only get worse as our society continues to spin out of control in the years ahead.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Can Employers Fire Any Employees That Choose Not To Take The COVID Vaccine?

A COVID vaccine is not even available yet, but the mainstream media is already full of stories about whether or not it is legal for employers to fire employees that refuse to take it.  To me, this is not even a debate that we should be having.  It would be fundamentally anti-American and morally reprehensible for any employer to fire someone for choosing not to get vaccinated.  Unfortunately, the mainstream media does not see things that way, and they are interviewing lots of legal experts that are assuring employers that it is perfectly legal to fire people that don’t want to get vaccinated.  For example, the following comes from a CNBC article

“In general, yes, employers are able to mandate the vaccine when it becomes available with, of course, a bunch of caveats,” says employment lawyer Lindsay Ryan, listing possible exemptions for those with specific medical conditions and those with sincerely held religious convictions.

If religious convictions really did protect employees, that would be great.

From my perspective, any employee that refuses to get vaccinated based on a sincerely held religious conviction should definitely be shielded from being fired under federal law.

Unfortunately, the CNBC article goes on to explain why federal law is probably not going to protect any person of faith from mandatory vaccination requirements…

Ryan emphasizes that state laws regulating what constitutes reasonable accommodations for religious groups vary significantly, but that “under federal law, employers don’t have to grant a religious accommodation if doing so would result in more than a de minimis cost to the operation of the business.”

De minimis” is Latin for “of minimum importance” and is used in law to refer to a total so small that it is not even recognized. Given how significantly the pandemic has impacted businesses, Ryan says “this is a pretty low standard.” Meaning, many employers will likely have legal ground to require vaccination.

In other words, under federal law there is hardly any protection at all for workers that wish to refuse the COVID vaccine.

Other major news outlets have been publishing similar stories.  This excerpt comes from a piece that was published by Reuters

Gostin and five other health law experts said private companies in the United States have broad liberties to set health and safety standards, which would allow them to mandate vaccinations as a condition of employment with some exceptions.

It is almost as if there is a coordinated effort to make employers across the country aware that they can issue such mandates.

A little over a decade ago, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration ruled that employers could make vaccines mandatory during the swing flu pandemic, but of course that crisis faded rather rapidly and so very few employers actually went in that direction.

But now it appears that COVID-19 is going to be with us for quite a while, and some employers have already decided that they are going to make vaccination mandatory for all employees

Just a few months into the coronavirus pandemic, Holly Smith had already made up her mind. She was not going to reopen her restaurant to diners until there was a vaccine. She just didn’t think it was safe. When she shared the decision with her staff, they asked: Would the vaccine be mandatory?

Yes, she said. It would be.

“I’m not going to open until I can indeed be sure that everyone on my staff is vaccinated,” says Smith, chef and owner of Cafe Juanita in Kirkland, Wash. “The immediate people on the team — you’ve got to take care of them. If you don’t take care of them, they cannot help you take care of business.”

If some of her employees do not want to take the vaccine, they will be hitting the bricks.

And as I have detailed repeatedly in recent weeks, it is not easy to find another job in this economy.

The good news is that most employers will likely be hesitant to mandate vaccines because of the potential of pushback from their employees.  According to a recent Gallup survey, 42 percent of all Americans do not plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine…

Americans’ willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 rebounded a bit in October, as seen in Gallup polling conducted before Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna made promising announcements about the likely effectiveness of their coronavirus vaccines. Fifty-eight percent of Americans in the latest poll say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine, up from a low of 50% in September.

It is estimated that there are 328 million people living in the United States right now, and 42 percent of 328 million is 137 million.

If those 137 million people stand up for their God-given rights, we almost certainly will not see widespread vaccine mandates.

But will they?

We shall see.

In the months ahead, there is going to be so much public pressure to get vaccinated, and the CDC plans to aggressively promote their vaccination campaign.

They even plan to distribute “buttons or stickers” so that people that have been injected can advertise that fact to others…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to offer health care providers a template they can use to print buttons or stickers that would advertise a person’s vaccination status. The idea is that the button would be handed out to patients after they receive their vaccination shots.

The effort is part of a “toolkit” that the CDC plans to provide healthcare systems to “educate and promote vaccination,” a CDC spokesperson told ABC News.

In addition, within the past few days Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden have all committed to being vaccinated publicly

President-elect Joe Biden said he would publicly take a vaccine when it’s available to encourage the public to get vaccinated, joining three former presidents who recently pledged to do the same.

Biden said he’d “be happy” to join former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in getting the vaccine in public to prove it is safe.

That would seem to be quite a public relations coup for the pharmaceutical companies, but if any of them has any sort of an adverse reaction to the vaccine it will rapidly transform into a public relations nightmare.

Of course the truth is that nobody really knows what the long-term side effects of taking COVID vaccines will be for the population as a whole.

As I have discussed previously, this entirely new class of mRNA vaccines has never been tried before, and those that line up first to get a COVID vaccine will be the guinea pigs.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Panic And Desperation Sweep Across America As Fears Of A “Dark Winter” Continue To Rise

Do you remember earlier this year when consumers were feverishly hoarding toilet paper and we were seeing colossal lines at food banks all over the nation during the initial stages of the COVID pandemic?  Well, it is happening again.  Now that the vote on November 3rd is behind us, the pandemic has once again become the primary focus of the mainstream media, and a lot of people are completely freaking out.  Just like earlier this year, store shelves across the country are being emptied because Americans don’t want to be stuck at home without enough toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  Each new restriction that gets announced adds to the frenzy, and it has gotten to the point where new restrictions are literally being announced around the nation on a daily basis now.  And if the case numbers that we are being given continue to rise, it is inevitable that this new wave of lockdowns will get even tighter.

Over the last several months, Joe Biden has repeatedly told us that we have a “dark winter” ahead.  Here is just one example

“There is a need for bold action to fight this pandemic,” Biden said in Delaware. “We’re still facing a very dark winter.”

Biden, whose campaign against President Donald Trump made the coronavirus a main focus, pledged to “spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we’re sworn in on Jan. 20.”

Technically, winter doesn’t start until a little over a month from now, but the panic shopping has already begun.

In California, supplies of toilet paper are being voraciously gobbled up by fearful consumers…

Shoppers in Temecula had already emptied the paper and cleaning aisle in a local Walmart by Wednesday morning. Other storefronts, such as Trader Joes in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles and Ralphs on West 9th Street, were simply running low on such supplies.

A worker at a Costco in Los Angeles, who wished to remain anonymous, said the store was selling out of toilet paper every day, among other supplies, but also said that this could be attributed to the Thanksgiving holiday coming up next week.

Similar panic buying appears to be happening over in Spokane, Washington

In a tweet on Sunday afternoon, KREM photojournalist Roger Hatcher said Target in Spokane Valley was “pretty quiet” but its toilet paper shelves were bare.

In fact, shortages are being reported all over the nation at this point.

I don’t know why there is such a focus on toilet paper.  To me, having enough food to eat for an extended period of time is much more of a priority, but when people get fearful they don’t necessarily think rationally.

And certainly there is a bit of psychology to all of this.  When people are told that there is a “shortage” of something, many of them inevitably feel motivated to run out and buy some too while they still can.  The panic buying has reached such a frenzy that many large chains are once again starting to put purchase limits on certain items.  The following comes from CNN

At Kroger (KR), customers can purchase a maximum of two items when it comes to products like bath tissue, paper towels, disinfecting wipes and hand soap. Giant, a grocery chain in the Northeast, recently put a limit of one on purchases of larger toilet paper and paper towel sizes and four on smaller toilet paper and paper towel sizes.

H-E-B in Texas has implemented similar policies in recent weeks. Some H-E-B stores have instituted limits of two on purchases of disinfecting and antibacterial sprays, while other stores have limited toilet paper and paper towels to two.

This is just one of the reasons why I have always encouraged my readers to get prepared in advance.

If you have a large family, how long is two packages of toilet paper going to last you?

You could try to stretch out your supplies by limiting family members to a certain number of squares per defecation, but you will still run out very quickly.

When you try to prepare for any emergency at the last minute, you are almost certainly going to fall short.  One or two trips to the grocery store is not going to cut it, and anyone that thinks otherwise is simply being delusional.

Meanwhile, the decline in economic activity around the nation that is being caused by this new round of lockdowns is creating a renewed surge in economic desperation.

Just the other day I wrote about how some people were waiting in line for up to 12 hours to get handouts from a food bank in Texas, and on Wednesday it was being reported that “hundreds of cars” were lined up to get food in Miami…

Huge lines have been forming at a Florida food bank ahead of Thanksgiving and as the coronavirus pandemic worsened across the United States.

Hundreds of cars were spotted queuing for food boxes at Miami’s Gwen Cherry Park on Wednesday.

The boxes were being distributed by the Miami Marlins Foundation amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has forced thousands of Floridians out of work.

Sadly, the truth is that this is happening all over the nation, and this new round of lockdowns will continue to make things even worse as we head into 2021.

In so many instances, the people waiting in line at these food banks are wearing very nice clothes and are driving very nice vehicles.  This severe economic downturn has come upon them very “suddenly”, but those that have been reading my books were warned in advance that this exact scenario was coming.

Even if this pandemic disappeared tomorrow, I would still believe that we have a “very dark winter” in front of us.  If you have not prepared for the extremely challenging times that lie ahead, I would very strongly urge you to do so.

So far this year we have been hit by one major crisis after another, and the “perfect storm” that started in 2020 is only going to intensify during the coming months.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Our COVID Police State Wants To Take Thanksgiving And Christmas Away From You Too

Haven’t they taken enough away from us already?  The deeply oppressive lockdowns that were instituted earlier this year plunged us into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, caused the cancellation of thousands upon thousands of important events, and sent the suicide rate absolutely skyrocketing.  Once those lockdowns were lifted the American people were greatly relieved, but now our COVID police state is back for more.  As I have been documenting over the last several days, new lockdowns are being instituted all over the country right now, and even our most cherished holidays are being targeted.

Let me start by discussing an interview that CNN’s Jake Tapper just conducted with Anthony Fauci.  Most Americans had assumed that once a vaccine was widely distributed that we wouldn’t need masks or social distancing anymore.

Well, according to Fauci that is not the case at all

Jake Tapper said, “Once somebody has been immunized … Once the process is complete, does that mean they can take off their mask, don’t have to social distance, and go about their lives as before?”

Fauci said, “I would recommend that is not the case. I would recommend you have an added area of protection. Obviously, with 90 plus percent effective vaccine, you could feel much more confident, but I would recommend to people to not abandon all public health measures just because you’ve been vaccinated.”

As I have repeatedly warned my readers, they intend to change the way that we live permanently.

During that same interview, they were discussing a timeline for vaccine distribution, and Tapper blurted this out: “Christmas is probably not gonna be possible.”

In other words, Americans should not plan to have a normal Christmas this year because we are going to be expected to stay home, wear masks and keep members of our extended family away.

Of course Thanksgiving is a lot closer than Christmas, and our COVID overlords are telling us that we can’t have a normal Thanksgiving either.  For example, this is what the head of the CDC is saying

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield held a call with the nation’s governors on Tuesday. CNN obtained audio of the chat, in which Redfield said: “What we’re seeing as the increasing threat right now is actually acquisition of infection through small household gatherings… Particularly with Thanksgiving coming up, we think it’s really important to stress the vigilance of these continued mitigation steps in the household setting.”

Needless to say, many of our top politicians are going to fall right in line with the directives that our “health authorities” have issued.  For example, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has issued new restrictions for the city of Chicago which begin on Monday

The order, which begins Monday, extends through Thanksgiving festivities. Residents are “strongly advised” to not have guests in their homes outside of essential workers — even family and close friends.

“Chicago has reached a critical point in the second surge of COVID-19, demanding that we undertake this multi-faceted and comprehensive effort to stop the virus in its tracks,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the release.

At least Lightfoot’s order is not as draconian as the mandate that California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered all Californians to follow this Thanksgiving.

If you can believe it, Newsom has decided to limit Thanksgiving to a two hour “outdoor event”

Celebrities have taken to social media to slam California Governor Gavin Newsom’s ‘ridiculously unenforceable’ Thanksgiving crackdown that bans singing and shouting and limits the holiday to a two-hour outdoor event.

‘If my Aunt comes over, can I throw her a slice of turkey from the window?’ mocked actor Rob Schneider as he blasted the ‘Emperor Newsom’.

The good news is that the American people are sick and tired of having their rights taken away and are starting to push back against absurd restrictions such as these.

The bad news is that the new lockdowns that are being instituted all over the U.S. will inevitably crash our economy again.

If they last long enough, some industries may be almost entirely destroyed.  For example, even before these new lockdowns we were being told that it would be a miracle if half of the hotels in New York City survive this pandemic

According to Vijay Dandapani, chief executive of the Hotel Association of New York City, if half the city’s 640 hotels survive it will be a “great” outcome. While occupancy rates have recovered from their worst point in April where occupancy was down more than 60% year on year, they remain 20% lower than for the same month in 2019, a level which means much of the debt backing the properties will be impaired (i.e., default). Should New York impose a new round of draconian lockdowns, it will only get worse.

But of course there are some businesses that are booming during this time.

For instance, psychologists and therapists are extremely busy treating those that are “feeling lonely and depressed”

Business is booming for Maria Mir. Under normal circumstances, she takes little time off in November and December; the holidays are her busy season. But this is 2020. Nothing is normal. And everyone seems to need her at once.

Mir is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She’s used to patients feeling lonely and depressed as Thanksgiving and Christmas near. But “this particular time is different,” she says. “Even people who haven’t felt lonely in the past are now feeling that isolation.”

This is yet another example that shows that elections really matter.

For years, the American people have been voting for psychotic control freaks all over the nation, and so now we shouldn’t be surprised that they are actually acting like psychotic control freaks during a major crisis.

We are being told that this is going to be a very “dark winter”, and just like we witnessed earlier this year many Americans are feverishly stocking up on food and other basic goods…

Concerns that rising cases will encourage people to buy in bulk and stock up on basic goods has prompted major grocery chains to take pre-emptive action and limit purchases.

Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the U.S., has imposed purchase limits on essential goods like bath tissue, paper towels, disinfecting wipes and hand soap, according to Fox Business.

If you have not done so already, I would very much encourage you to get stocked up as well.

These are such uncertain times, and I have a feeling that things are going to get even crazier in the weeks ahead.

If the case numbers keep rising, the restrictions placed upon us are just going to become even more cumbersome, and it definitely appears that we are in for a very rough start in 2021.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on FacebookTwitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Even stricter COVID lockdowns are coming, and they are going to be extremely devastating for the U.S. economy

Are you ready for another nightmare?  Earlier this year, the COVID lockdowns that were instituted all over the nation resulted in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s and forced more than 60 million Americans to file claims for unemployment benefits.  After seeing how well that first round of lockdowns worked, one of the “scientists” that will be telling Joe Biden what to do about this pandemic wants to do it again.  Yes, you read that correctly.  During an interview with Yahoo Finance, Dr. Michael Osterholm said that what we really need to do to get this pandemic under control is to lock the entire country down for four to six weeks

Shutting down businesses and paying people for lost wages for four to six weeks could help keep the coronavirus pandemic in check and get the economy on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, a coronavirus advisor to President-elect Joe Biden.

And Osterholm isn’t talking about doing “soft lockdowns” like we saw in many states earlier this year.

In an article that he co-authored in the New York Times, he argued that lockdowns need to be “as comprehensive and strict as possible”

“The problem with the March-to-May lockdown was that it was not uniformly stringent across the country. For example, Minnesota deemed 78 percent of its workers essential,” they wrote in the New York Times. “To be effective, the lockdown has to be as comprehensive and strict as possible.”

Basically, Osterholm wants Australia-style lockdowns all over the United States for at least a month and probably longer.

Doesn’t that sound fun?

On Election Day, the American people had a choice between a pro-lockdown presidential candidate and an anti-lockdown presidential candidate, and approximately 80 million of us voted for the pro-lockdown guy.

So it looks like that is precisely what we are going to get.

During the campaign, Joe Biden pledged to “follow the science”, and Osterholm is going to be one of the “scientists” that will be on his COVID-19 advisory board

Osterholm was appointed to Biden’s 12-member Covid “advisory board” on Monday. The panel of advisors is co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith of Yale University. Other task force members include Dr. Atul Gawande, a professor of surgery and health policy at Harvard, and Dr. Rick Bright, the vaccine expert and whistleblower who resigned his post with the Trump administration last month.

The good news is that these psychos will not be running things until early January at the earliest.

The bad news is that governors around the country are already instituting a new round of lockdowns.  For example, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced new restrictions for New York on Wednesday

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced new lockdown and social distancing restrictions for New York on Wednesday as coronavirus numbers in the state continue to trend upward.

Under the new statewide restrictions, all bars and restaurants with state liquor licenses as well as gyms must close at 10p.m., starting on Friday. Cuomo called such locations “main spreaders” of the coronavirus. Indoor gatherings at private residences across the state must also be capped at ten people.

And Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is saying that his state may soon impose new restrictions on “bars, restaurants and fitness centers”

As coronavirus cases continue to skyrocket in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine threatened to order bars, restaurants and fitness centers closed in one week if newly confirmed cases continue to increase.

Of course this is just the beginning.

If the number of daily cases continues to soar, we could start seeing draconian lockdowns all over America even before we get to Inauguration Day.

In other words, get ready to spend a lot of time at home this holiday season, because you might not have any other choice.

To me, it is unthinkable that anyone would even want to consider locking down the country again.  The first wave of lockdowns absolutely crippled our economy and caused a record-setting tsunami of job losses that we still have not recovered from.  In fact, John Williams of shadowstats.com says that if honest numbers were being used the current rate of unemployment in the United States would be 26.3 percent.

Apparently that is not enough.

So what are we going to shoot for this time?

30 percent?

40 percent?

And what happens if we lock down the entire country for six weeks and then another massive wave of the pandemic comes along just six months later?

Are we going to keep locking down the U.S. over and over again?

At this moment, our economy is on exceedingly shaky ground and more layoffs are being announced on a daily basis.

For instance, Exxon has announced that they will be laying off 14,000 workers and Disney has announced that they will be laying off “thousands” more workers in addition to the huge wave of layoffs that they announced earlier this year.

Overall, more than 60 million Americans have already been forced to file for unemployment during this pandemic, and every single one of those individuals has a story to tell.

One of those displaced workers is a woman named Michelle Kulaski, and prior to the pandemic she was already living paycheck to paycheck.  Now that she has lost her job, she finds herself on the verge of having to “live in her car with her two cats”

Desperate for cash, Kulaski sold much of her furniture, including the bed her children sleep in when they visit and her grandparents’ desk. In all, she made around $300.

Still, Kulaski has fallen behind on her $755 rent and her landlord has moved to evict her.

If she has to leave her apartment, she said she’d probably live in her car with her two cats.

Now sickos like Osterholm want to destroy even more lives, and if Joe Biden ends up in the White House they will almost certainly get their way.

We are already in the midst of a horrifying economic depression, and a new wave of lockdowns would make things far worse.

These are such troubled times, and many believe that the difficulties that we have experienced in 2020 are just a warm up act for what is coming in 2021.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Economic Nightmare: Nearly 50 Percent Of All The Jobs Lost During The COVID-19 Pandemic “May Be Gone Permanently”

When millions of Americans were losing their jobs at the beginning of this pandemic, we were told not to worry because the lockdowns were just temporary and virtually all of those workers would be going back to their old jobs once the lockdowns ended.  Well, now we are finding out that was not even close to true.  Over the last 18 weeks, more than 52 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits, and a very large percentage of them are dealing with a permanent job loss.  In fact, one brand new survey discovered that 47 percent of all unemployed workers now believe that their “job loss is likely to be permanent”.  The following comes from a USA Today article entitled “Almost half of all jobs lost during pandemic may be gone permanently”

In April, 78% of those in households experiencing job loss felt that that situation would be temporarily. But now, 47% think that job loss is likely to be permanent, according to The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

What that number tells us is that we are facing the worst employment crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

All of those permanently unemployed workers are eventually going to need new jobs, but meanwhile the U.S. economy as a whole is in a free fall that is absolutely stunning.  On Thursday, we are scheduled to get the GDP number for the second quarter, and everyone is expecting that it will be really bad

Data due Thursday are forecast to show U.S. gross domestic product plummeted an annualized 34.8% in the second quarter, the most in records dating back to the 1940s, after the spread of Covid-19 prompted Americans to stay home and states to order widespread lockdowns.

This downturn has been particularly hard on small businesses.  Just check out these numbers

• Yelp reported 71,500 businesses that were listed on their site have closed for good since March 1.

• 80% of independent restaurants aren’t sure they’ll survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Nearly half of all small-business members of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce lost 100% of their sales or closed down completely.

What a nightmare.

But the third quarter was when the U.S. economy was supposed to come roaring back to life.

We were told that it would be the greatest economic comeback in our history, but instead the numbers are telling us that the economy is actually starting to slow down once again.

In fact, U.S. consumer confidence in July is much lower than it was in June…

U.S. CONSUMER confidence fell in July to a reading of 92.6 as coronavirus cases surged around the country, shuttering some bars and other businesses and raising concerns about the future of the economy.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that the index fell in July from a reading of 98.3 in June. The drop is more significant than economists predicted, and is due mainly to a decrease in consumers’ economic expectations for the short-term future.

In addition, we just witnessed the largest decline in wholesale inventories since the peak of the last financial crisis

June was supposed to be the month of second-derivative beats in economic data, reaffirming the manic bid in stocks. For Wholesale Inventories it was not.

Against expectations of a rebound from a 1.2% drop in May to a 0.5% drop in June, wholesale inventories actually tumbled 2.0% MoM, the worst since the peak of the great financial crisis…

So it doesn’t look like any sort of a “recovery” is happening.

Instead, it appears that we are sliding into the next chapter of this new economic depression.

In June, 19 percent of all U.S. small businesses were closed, but now that number is up to 24.5 percent.

That certainly isn’t progress.

With each passing day, more companies are announcing layoffs.  And every worker that gets laid off is another American that doesn’t have a paycheck to spend.  During the last recession, millions of Americans slid out of the middle class, and we are watching it happen again.

Our elected leaders in Washington are desperate to do something about this, and almost all of them seem to agree that more socialist programs are the answer.  A fifth “stimulus bill” is being put together, and the Urban Institute is warning that if Congress does not hurry we could see the poverty rate in this country rise substantially

Millions more Americans will be thrown into poverty if Congress fails to enact three policies meant to help families get through economic hardships related to the pandemic, according to a new study by the Urban Institute.

The report finds that the poverty rate for the last five months of 2020 will rise to 11.9% if expanded unemployment-insurance benefits, a second round of stimulus checks, and increased SNAP allotments are not approved, a significant increase over the projected annual rate of 8.9%.

If the Urban Institute thinks that an 11.9 percent poverty rate is bad, just wait until they see what things will be like in this country a few years from now.

Our entire system is in the process of melting down, but it will take some time for the drama that we are watching to fully play out.  Our leaders in Washington and the bureaucrats over at the Federal Reserve will keep flooding the system with money in a misguided attempt to fix things, and this will result in exceedingly painful inflation.

The cost of everything (including essentials such as food) will be going way up, and that means that your money will increasingly become less and less valuable.

If you could print your way to prosperity, Venezuela and Zimbabwe would be the wealthiest nations on the entire planet today.

At this point, almost everyone in Venezuela is a “millionaire”, but almost everyone is also living in extreme poverty.

History has shown that wildly printing money doesn’t work, but the U.S. is going down the exact same path, and it isn’t going to be pretty.

Even though things are quite crazy out there right now, this is our window of opportunity to get prepared for the troubled times that are ahead, because things are not going to be getting any easier from here on out.

*It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  By purchasing the book you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

When It Comes To Economic Suffering, Some Parts Of The U.S. Are Feeling It Far More Than Others

2020 has been a very tough year for the U.S. as a whole, but some portions of the country have been hit much harder than others.  For example, if you live in a rural area that hasn’t seen any civil unrest and that hasn’t been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the way that you are living your life now may seem nearly unchanged from the way you were living your life in 2019.  But if you live in an urban area that has experienced endless protests and rioting and that has seen COVID-19 sweep through local neighborhoods like wildfire, your life in 2020 may look radically different from the way it looked in 2019.  Unfortunately, conditions in our largest cities are not likely to improve dramatically any time soon.

But many people that live in rural communities are feeling pretty good about things right now.  Even though more than 52 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the last 18 weeks, the official unemployment rate in many rural counties is still in the single digits.

I know that may be difficult to believe, but that is what the numbers tell us.

Sadly, in many of our largest cities it is a completely different story.  New York City was one of the early epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and many of us will never forget watching video footage of the looting that took place in the heart of Manhattan earlier this year.  As a result of all of this chaos, the unemployment rate in the state as a whole is nearly twice the national average

New York’s unemployment rate rose to 20.4% last month, according to state-level data issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that detailed figures for some large metro areas. That’s up from 18.3% in May and 15% in April.

We see a very similar story when we look at the city of Los Angeles.

Thanks to COVID-19 and endless civil unrest, the official unemployment rate in the city is hovering near 20 percent

Los Angeles, the second-largest U.S. city, has seen a similar level of joblessness.

Its unemployment rate recovered slightly in June but remains startlingly high — at 19.5%, versus 20.6% in May, according to data published Friday by California’s Employment Development Department.

Unfortunately, it appears that the COVID-19 pandemic and the violence in our major cities are both going to be with us for the foreseeable future.

Some people think that the civil unrest will disappear if Joe Biden wins in November, but I do not believe that is the case.  Nearly all of the major cities where the violence is happening are controlled by radical Democrats, and those radical Democrats have been completely unable to control the riots.  To the protesters, Republicans and Democrats are both two sides of the same coin and are both responsible for the injustices in our society, and they are not going to give up on their goals just because a moderate Democrat like Joe Biden wins the election.

At this point, millions upon millions of Americans are sticking closer to home these days because of COVID-19 and all the unrest, and this has been particularly devastating for the leisure and hospitality industries

The unemployment rate in the leisure and hospitality industries, including restaurants, soared from 5.7% in February to 39.3% in April, and in June was still at an unprecedented 28.9%. By comparison, the overall unemployment rate is 11.1%, and no other industry comes close to restaurants’ level.

The restaurant industry employed nearly 9.2 million people in June, almost 3 million more than in April but still 25% below where it was in February. Anecdotally, though, restaurant workers—even those who’ve spent decades in the industry—say they’re looking to get out. The line of work that had been stable, geographically flexible, reliable and largely safe for generations is no more, they say.

As I discussed the other day, we have already lost thousands upon thousands of small and independent restaurants, and this “restaurant apocalypse” is only going to get worse with each passing month.

Moving forward, some cities may never be the same again.  In Las Vegas, the official unemployment rate recently hit 29 percent, and everyone agrees that tourism will never recover until the pandemic ends.

If this pandemic stretches on for several years, many of those unemployed workers will be forced to abandon the city entirely in order to find work elsewhere.

Sadly, competition for the few good jobs that are available will become increasingly fierce, and this will result in millions of Americans falling out of the middle class.

And we are starting to see some numbers that indicate that this process is already moving along very quickly.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “24 million Americans say they have little to no chance of being able to pay next month’s rent”.

Just think about that.

We never saw anything like this during the last recession, and the Census Bureau says that things are particular dire for Black and Hispanic renters

This month, nearly 28% of Black renters say they haven’t paid last month’s rent, and about 46% say they have slight or no confidence they’ll be able to pay next month’s rent, according to figures from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Hispanic renters face similar economic strain: 22% say they missed last month’s rent and 46% fear they won’t make rent next month.

Those numbers are simply eye-popping.  As people increasingly get behind on their bills, the cries for more direct government assistance will become deafening, and it appears that Republicans and Democrats in Congress both want to pass yet another stimulus bill.

Of course that will mean borrowing and spending more gigantic piles of money that we do not currently have, but at this point most Americans do not seem to care that we are literally completely destroying our financial future.

For such a long time, I warned that the next economic downturn would be worse than the last recession, and that has turned out to be precisely correct.

And what we are experiencing right now will pale in comparison to what is eventually coming.

But for most people, the only thing that seems to matter is what is happening here and now.

And at this moment we are seeing tremendous economic suffering in major cities all over the nation, and in an election year very few of our politicians want to be the “bad guy” that says that we can’t hand out “free money” to everyone.

So our currency will continue to be rapidly devalued, our debt levels will continue to explode, and we shall get to see where this relentless march toward socialism takes us.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of The Economic Collapse BlogEnd Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The EndGet Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.