The Economy

Extreme Poverty Is Now At Record Levels – 19 Statistics About The Poor That Will Absolutely Astound You

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty than they have ever measured before.  In 2010, we were told that the economy was recovering, but the truth is that the number of the “very poor” soared to heights never seen previously.  Back in 1993 and back in 2009, the rate of extreme poverty was just over 6 percent, and that represented the worst numbers on record.  But in 2010, the rate of extreme poverty hit a whopping 6.7 percent.  That means that one out of every 15 Americans is now considered to be “very poor”.  For many people, this is all very confusing because their guts are telling them that things are getting worse and yet the mainstream media keeps telling them that everything is just fine.  Hopefully this article will help people realize that the plight of the poorest of the poor continues to deteriorate all across the United States.  In addition, hopefully this article will inspire many of you to lend a hand to those that are truly in need.

Tonight, there are more than 20 million Americans that are living in extreme poverty.  This number increases a little bit more every single day.  The following statistics that were mentioned in an article in The Daily Mail should be very sobering for all of us….

About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 per cent or less of the official poverty level.

Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.

That 6.7 percent share is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has maintained such records, surpassing previous highs in 2009 and 1993 of just over 6 percent.

Sadly, the wealthy and the poor are being increasingly segregated all over the nation.  In some areas of the U.S. you would never even know that the economy was having trouble, and other areas resemble third world hellholes.  In most U.S. cities today, there are the “good neighborhoods” and there are the “bad neighborhoods”.

According to a recent Bloomberg article, the “very poor” are increasingly being pushed into these “bad neighborhoods”….

At least 2.2 million more Americans, a 33 percent jump since 2000, live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is 40 percent or higher, according to a study released today by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

Of course they don’t have much of a choice.  They can’t afford to live where most of the rest of us do.

Today, there are many Americans that openly look down on the poor, but that should never be the case.  We should love the poor and want to see them lifted up to a better place.  The truth is that with a few bad breaks any of us could end up in the ranks of the poor.  Compassion is a virtue that all of us should seek to develop.

Not only that, but the less poor people and the less unemployed people we have, the better it is for our economy.  When as many people as possible in a nation are working and doing something economically productive, that maximizes the level of true wealth that a nation is creating.

But today we are losing out on a massive amount of wealth.  We have tens of millions of people that are sitting at home on their couches.  Instead of creating something of economic value, the rest of us have to support them financially.  That is not what any of us should want.

It is absolutely imperative that we get as many Americans back to work as possible.  The more people that are doing something economically productive, the more wealth there will be for all of us.

That is why it is so alarming that the ranks of the “very poor” are increasing so dramatically.  When the number of poor people goes up, the entire society suffers.

So just how bad are things right now?

The following are 19 statistics about the poor that will absolutely astound you….

#1 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of “very poor” rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.

#2 Last year, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty.  That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

#3 It isn’t just the ranks of the “very poor” that are rising.  The number of those just considered to be “poor” is rapidly increasing as well.  Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty.  Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

#4 The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.

#5 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#6 In Washington D.C., the “child food insecurity rate” is 32.3%.

#7 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

#8 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#9 Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.

#10 According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 15 percent of all Americans are now on food stamps.

#11 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#12 The number of Americans on food stamps has increased 74% since 2007.

#13 We are told that the economy is recovering, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by another 8 percent over the past year.

#14 Right now, one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#15 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#16 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid.  Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#17 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program.

#18 The number of Americans that are going to food pantries and soup kitchens has increased by 46% since 2006.

#19 It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.

Sadly, we don’t hear much about this on the nightly news, do we?

This is because the mainstream media is very tightly controlled.

I came across a beautiful illustration of this recently.  If you do not believe that the news in America is scripted, just watch this video starting at the 1:15 mark.  Conan O’Brien does a beautiful job of demonstrating how news anchors all over the United States are often repeating the exact same words.

So don’t rely on the mainstream media to tell you everything.

In this day and age, it is absolutely imperative that we all think for ourselves.

It is also absolutely imperative that we have compassion on our brothers and sisters.

Winter is coming up, and if you see someone that does not have a coat, don’t be afraid to offer to give them one.

All over the United States (and all around the world), there are orphans that are desperately hurting.  As you celebrate the good things that you have during this time of the year, don’t forget to remember them.

We should not expect that “the government” will take care of everyone that is hurting.

The reality is that millions of people fall through the “safety net”.

Being generous and being compassionate are qualities that all of us should have.

Yes, times are going to get harder and an economic collapse is coming.

That just means that we should be more generous and more compassionate than we have ever been before.

This Is Only Just The Beginning

For a long time, there have been those that have warned that economic riots are coming to this nation.  Anger and frustration with the economy and with our financial system have grown to unprecedented levels, and this has fueled the rise of the various protest movements that we have seen over the last couple of years.  People are fed up and they want solutions.  Unfortunately, anger and frustration can express themselves in dangerous and unpredictable ways.  What we have seen in Oakland, in Seattle and in other major U.S. cities this week is only just the beginning of the massive economic riots that are coming to this country.  Yes, “anarchists” were responsible for quite a bit of the violence that we have seen this week, but they were not the only ones involved.  Some protesters were getting violent too, and there has also been quite a bit of police brutality.  Of course the vast majority of Occupy Wall Street protesters do not want anything to do with violence and they recognize that violence is not the answer.  But that is the thing with anger and frustration.  It is hard to contain them in neat, self-disciplined packages.  As the economy continues to get worse, the protests will grow and unfortunately so will the violence.  You can preach the benefits of non-violence all day long to some people but they just will not get it.  America has reached a turning point, and what we are seeing now is only just the beginning of the madness.  In the years ahead we are going to see rioting that is going to be absolutely unprecedented.

According to a recent Associated Press-GfK poll, 43 percent of all Americans believe that the economy is in “very poor” shape.  Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, millions of Americans have lost their homes and tens of millions of Americans have been sickened by what they have seen happen on Wall Street over the last four or five years.  It is easy to understand why people are frustrated and are marching in the streets.  As I wrote about yesterday, approximately one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps.  Poverty is rapidly spreading and large numbers of families have lost everything.  People want answers, and it is understandable why so many are joining these protest movements.

Over the last couple of years, people such as Gerald Celente and myself have been warning that economic riots are coming.  Those of us that have written about such things have been called “doom and gloomers” and “conspiracy theorists”.

But after the events of the last couple of months, almost everyone is starting to realize that something big is happening.

On Wednesday, huge crowds of protesters brought the city of Oakland, California to a standstill.  Some media organizations said that there were 5,000 protesters, but others claimed that there may have been up to 20,000 people marching at one point.

A group of approximately 3,000 protesters marched over and shut down the Port of Oakland, which is the fifth largest deepwater port in the United States.

In other areas of the city, windows were smashed, graffiti was sprayed on buildings and senseless acts of vandalism were committed.  There were also quite a few intense confrontations with police and dozens of protesters ended up getting arrested.

The following is how an article in USA Today described what went down….

Riot police arrested more than 80 protesters in the city’s downtown, where bands of demonstrators threw chunks of concrete and metal pipes as well as lit roman candles and firebombs, police said. Five protesters and several officers were injured.

You can see shocking pictures of some of the vandalism that was going on during these protests right here.

At one point, one group of protesters took over an empty building that had once been used to help the homeless.  The following is what an article in the Los Angeles Times says happened next….

Demonstrators managed to gain entry to an empty building that had housed the Traveler’s Aid Society, a nonprofit organization that assists the homeless but had suffered funding cuts. Leaflets indicated that protesters had targeted the building for “reuse.” They branded it a new “community center” in Twitter feeds. Video from a local ABC affiliate’s helicopter showed jubilant crowds flowing in and out of the building, where a banner marked “Occupy Everything” hung. Others built a barricade nearby, presumably to discourage police.

Shortly before midnight, local media reported that police officers from various agencies were suiting up in riot gear. Some demonstrators set the barricade aflame. Firefighters doused it. A police statement later said protesters had hurled rocks, explosives, bottles and flaming objects at officers.

Does any of this solve anything?

Of course not.

But when people are angry and frustrated it can be difficult to talk sense to them.

America has become a powder keg, and it is going to be very difficult for anyone to control what is going on.

However, it also must be noted that not all of the violence was initiated by Occupy Oakland protesters.  There were dozens of Black Bloc “anarchists” that were running around committing random acts of violence.  Some Occupy Oakland protesters were actually seen trying to prevent these “anarchists” from committing acts of violence.

In fact, it is certainly possible that someone may be using these Black Bloc “anarchists” to discredit the protests.  It has happened to other protest movements in the past.

In any event, it is very true that the “anarchists” were very much involved with much of the violence.  You can see some video of “anarchists” in action right here.

But Oakland was not the only city where protesters were becoming more aggressive.

In Seattle, protesters surrounded a Sheraton hotel where JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was giving a speech. According to some media reports, some of the protesters were actually planning to make a “citizen’s arrest”.

Their plans were cancelled, however, when police dispersed them with a shower of pepper spray.

The funny thing is that Dimon was actually promoting some of the ideas of the Occupy Wall Street movement during his speech.

The following excerpt from his speech comes from the Seattle Times….

“America has become more inequitable in the last 10 or 20 years. That’s a fact,” he said. “I don’t personally think that’s a good thing. I’ve been a big supporter of progressive taxes.”

But that is the funny thing about economic riots.  Just because you agree with the crowd, that does not mean that the crowd is not going to turn on you anyway.

Earlier that same day in Seattle, there was quite a bit of violence as police confronted groups of protesters.  The following is how the Seattle Times described the action….

Earlier in the day, Seattle police arrested six people, five of whom had sprawled across the floor inside a Chase Bank on Capitol Hill.

Officers launched pepper spray, shoved protesters out of the way and yanked others from under a police van during a tense 30-minute confrontation. Police said at least 10 officers were physically assaulted during the arrests, and at least two of them had minor injuries.

In New York City, a different kind of confrontation took place.  Approximately  100 military vets showed up in uniform and marched over to the New York Stock Exchange.  Once they arrived, they stopped directly in front of the building which was protected by a line of heavily armed NYPD officers.  It was a tense moment, but fortunately there was no violence.

This kind of “stare down” cannot be a sign of good things.  What would have happened if even a single person had lost their cool?

While standing in formation in front of the New York Stock Exchange, the vets were heard chanting the following slogans….

“We are veterans! We are the 99 percent!”

“Corporate profits on the rise, soldiers have to bleed and die!”

Things are certainly getting very, very interesting.

The Occupy Wall Street protests started off very peacefully, but sadly there is no guarantee that the violence we are seeing now is not going to escalate even further.

One recent survey found that 31 percent of those involved with the Occupy Wall Street protests “would support violence to advance their agenda”.

That is a frightening statistic.

Hopefully everyone will calm down and the protesters will realize that they will get much farther ahead by non-violent means.

But once again, anger and frustration are difficult to predict or control.  The more angry and frustrated that the American people get, the more chaotic the streets of our cities are going to become.

Sadly, while the vast majority of Americans agree that we have major problems, there is tremendous disagreement about what the solutions are.  There are some good ideas floating around out there, but there are also some groups that are promoting some very, very bad ideas.

For example, there are some elements involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests that are actually promoting communism as the answer.

During the recent craziness in Oakland, some protesters actually hung a very large black banner downtown that said the following: “DEATH TO CAPITALISM“.

But is that really the answer?

Of course not.

Yes, our system is deeply, deeply corrupt and deeply, deeply broken.

Yes, it is understandable that people are very frustrated with it.

But communism is not the answer.

Look, when Republicans defend the abuses of the big banks and the big corporations they are wrong to do so.

When Democrats defend big government and advocate even more big government as the answer, they are also very wrong.

The truth is that neither side is right.

We need to dramatically reduce the size of government and we need to dramatically reduce the size and the power of the big corporations.  That would mean a lot more liberty and freedom for the rest of us, and it would empower individuals and small businesses.

But most people don’t understand this.  Most people think that they have to either take the side of the big corporations or the side of big government.

Sadly, the cold, hard truth is that most of the time big government and the big corporations are working together, and it is not for our benefit.

Most people feel a sense of powerlessness these days.  Most people feel like things never seem to change no matter who they vote for.

People want things to change, but they don’t feel as though they have a way of bringing that change about.

This is not just happening in the United States.  As the global economy has faltered, anger and frustration have been growing all over the planet.

In fact, the International Labor Organization is warning that civil unrest could erupt all over the globe if the current economic crisis gets even worse.

We are moving into unprecedented times.

Nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.

But the warning signs are there.

Pressure just keeps building and building and building.

According to a recent Fox News poll, 76 percent of all Americans are “dissatisfied with how things are going in the country”.  At the beginning of this year, that number was only at 61 percent.

When people get desperate, they do desperate things.

We can certainly hope that things will settle down, at least for a little while, but at some point another major financial crisis is going to erupt and the economy is going to get even worse.

So what will this country look like when that happens?

This is not the America that your grandparents grew up in.

Prepare accordingly.

Depressed As A Nation? 80 Percent Of Americans Believe That We Are In A Recession Right Now

According to a brand new Gallup poll, 80 percent of Americans believe that we are in a recession right now.  Of course the government insists that the recession ended quite some time ago, but apparently the message is not sinking in.  Not only that, most Americans also do not believe that things are going to get better any time soon.  According to the Gallup poll, 61 percent of Americans believe that the economy will be the same as it is right now or will be even worse one year from now.  Two years ago, only 35 percent of Americans felt that way.  Talk about pessimism!  So are we depressed as a nation?  Have too many people been reading the Economic Collapse Blog?  How do we account for such strange numbers?

Certainly there are some areas of the country that are still doing quite well.  If you live in an area that is closely tied to the federal government (Washington D.C.), the big Wall Street banks (New York) or corporate America (Silicon Valley, etc.), then you can go out on the weekends and find packed restaurants and mall parking lots that are overflowing.

But most of the rest of the country is really hurting.

Tonight, there are millions upon millions of Americans that won’t sleep well at all because they are trying to figure out how to get back on their feet.  It can be really tough to keep going when you have been searching for work for years and still nobody will hire you.  If you have a family, it is easy to feel like a failure when you have to look your spouse and your children in the eyes day after day knowing that they are depending on you.

If you have never been through it, then you should not mock those that are depressed because they cannot find work.  Losing a good job and not being able to find another one can be an absolutely soul-crushing experience.

So why do 80 percent of Americans believe that we are in a recession right now?

Well, it is because that is what it feels like for most people.

For example, a reader identified as Carol recently shared the following with us….

My unemployment ends the end of December, yes, I will be one of the 99′ers, one that did not sit at home and eat potato chips, drink soda and watch TV. I have no health insurance, I support myself and cannot afford it. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis last fall. Not to mention, degenerative disc disease, and osteoporosis. But I have continued to pursue work and regain employment, despite my health. I have no other choice but to fight and PRAY!

It amazes me at the stupidity of the general population, who still have their heads in the sand. The majority have no idea what is actually going on in our country on the political or economic side.

What would you do if you found out you were sick, you had no job, no health insurance and you were rapidly running out of money?

Please pray for those that are out of work.  You never know when it will be you that needs some assistance.

For those that still believe that the economy is doing “great”, let’s review some of the cold, hard facts….

*46.2 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010.

*The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 2.6 million last year.  That was the largest increase since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

*14 million Americans are officially unemployed.

*6 million Americans have been unemployed for at least half a year.

*8.8 million Americans are working part-time because they cannot find full-time jobs.

*Only 63.5 percent of all men in the United States had a job during the month of July.

*Zero jobs were created in the United States during the month of August.

*Median household income has fallen for three years in a row.

*49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all.

*The percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.

*More than 45 million Americans (a new all-time record) are on food stamps.

If you are still doing really well, be thankful for that.  Don’t use the fact that you are on top of the hill as an opportunity to look down on others.

Unfortunately, as I talked about in a recent article, the U.S. economy continues to get even worse.

It certainly does not help that we continue to see millions of jobs shipped overseas.  Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are proposing anything that will stop the bleeding.

A lot of very skilled Americans are being put out of work by all of this offshoring.  For example, a reader identified as GlennA recently shared the following with us….

Yes, lurking in the shadows, that’s been me. A professional man with a master’s degree in a technical who has not worked at a full-time job with benefits since mid 2009. Spent my last 2 years with the company offshoring to India all my team’s work. I hear through the grapevine that quality there has gone completely off a cliff, but profits are OK.

Have had only sporadic benefitless contract work ever since, and am now down to my last few bucks.

All of the horrible natural disasters that we have experienced this year are not helping things either.  As I have written about previously, in many ways this has been the worst year for natural disasters in modern U.S. history.

In a recent article for Newsday, Jennifer Wheary described the impact these horrible natural disasters have had on many areas of the country that were already facing tough economic times….

But after decades of disappearing jobs, declining wages and increasing expenses, this is no longer the case. As a result, people across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maryland, the Carolinas, Texas and elsewhere lack the savings needed to weather these unexpected economic shocks. Well before the spate of recent bad weather, or the recent recession, millions of middle- and working-class families were already under water.

Right now, even the vast majority of American families that still do have jobs are barely scraping by.  At this point, “financial security” is just a far off dream for most Americans.

So what are our leaders doing about this?

Well, as I have written about previously, the Obama jobs plan is a complete joke.  It is really quite sad if that was his best shot.  His plan would spend a lot of money, but just like the last “stimulus plan”, it would not create many jobs at all.

The Federal Reserve has decided that it better jump into action again.  The Federal Reserve has just announced that it is going to sell $400 billion of its short-term U.S. Treasuries and will use that money to buy $400 billion of long-term U.S. Treasuries.  The Fed is hoping that this will lower interest rates on mortgages and home loans and will help to spur the economy.

So will this fix our economic problems?  No, it will have even less of an impact than QE2 did.  But the Fed wants to at least appear as if it is trying to do something.

The Federal Reserve has also pledged an “unlimited” amount of dollars to help bail out big European banks in October, November and December.

It is quite frustrating that virtually nobody in the mainstream media seems upset that the Federal Reserve is going to be showering European banks with cheap loans.  Apparently they must all think that this is a wonderful idea, or perhaps they are just too preoccupied with talking about “The X Factor”.

In any event, it does look like the global financial system may need some propping up very soon.  Yesterday, I shared 21 signs that the financial world is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Well, here are a couple more….

Right now, corporate insiders are selling 7 dollars of stock for every 1 dollar of stock that they are buying.

That is a very troubling sign.

Another troubling sign is that Moody’s has just downgraded the credit ratings of Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.

The last time we saw so much financial chaos was back in 2008.

We all remember what happened back then.

At this point, things are still so bad that 80 percent of Americans believe that we are still in a recession.

So what are things going to look like if there is another major financial crash in the coming months?

Will we soon see millions more Americans going dumpster diving as they hunt for something to eat?

Will we see even more tent cities start popping up all over the nation?

Will we see even more elderly people freeze in their own homes because they can’t afford to heat them?

Already, more than one out of every five children in the United States is living in poverty.

How much worse can things get?

Unfortunately, they can get a lot worse.

If you think that Americans are depressed now, just wait and see what happens after the next financial crisis.

This country is going to become unglued in a major way.

Buckle up and hold on tight because it is going to be a bumpy ride.

Dumpster Diving?

Have you ever thought about getting your food out of a trash can?  Don’t laugh.  Dumpster diving has become a hot new trend in America.  In fact, dumpster divers even have a trendy new name.  They call themselves “freegans”, and as the economy crumbles their numbers are multiplying.  Many freegans consider dumpster diving to be a great way to save money on groceries.  Others do it because they want to live more simply.  Freegans that are concerned about the environment view dumpster diving as a great way to “recycle” and other politically-minded freegans consider dumpster diving to be a form of political protest.  But whatever you want to call it, the reality is that thousands upon thousands of Americans will break out their boots, rubber gloves and flashlights and will be jumping into dumpsters looking for food once again tonight.

So is this actually legal?

In some areas, dumpster diving is considered to be legal.  In other areas, dumpster divers are technically breaking trespassing laws.  Although in most areas the police have so many other problems that they aren’t really concerned about cracking down on dumpster divers.

One of the biggest issues facing dumpster divers is safety.  Crawling around in back alleys and side streets in the middle of the night is not exactly the safest thing to do.  But the lure of large amounts of free food is enough to keep some people coming back over and over again.

During the recent economic downturn, the popularity of dumpster diving has exploded.  Today, there are dumpster diving meetup groups, dumpster diving Facebook groups, and even entire organizations such as Food Not Bombs that openly encourage their members to go dumpster diving.

If your family was going hungry, would you go dumpster diving?

You might be surprised at who is doing it.  Dumpster diving is not just for the homeless and the unemployed anymore.  A lot of people that have decent jobs have picked up on the trend.

Just check out the following example from a recent MSNBC article….

A programmer by day, Todd takes to the streets of North Carolina by night, digging through Dumpsters at drug stores and grocery stores all around his rural neighborhood.

“You would be simply amazed at what businesses throw out,” he said. “I’ve only had to buy two loaves of bread all year. … Last week I had a trunk full of cereal, cookies, chips and ramen noodles.”

Todd slinks in and out of smelly places with low-light flashlights to evade rent-a-cops who will shoo him away.  Most nights, his 14-year-old son comes along.

Dumpster diving has become such a prominent trend that even big television news networks are doing stories about it….

The truth is that dumpster diving is just another sign of the times.

Food prices continue to rise and this is putting incredible stress on the budgets of average American families.  We just saw another huge rise in food prices during the month of August.  Just check out the following data from a recent article posted on The Economic Policy Journal….

The index for finished consumer foods jumped 1.1 percent (13.2 percent annualized) in August, the third straight rise. Over thirty percent of the August advance can be traced to meat prices, which climbed 2.4 percent (28.8 percent annualized). Higher prices for processed poultry and eggs for fresh use also were major factors in the increase in the finished foods index.

If you are married and have a couple of children it can cost a lot of money to feed them every single month.  It is not hard to understand the allure of dumpster diving for people that are having a hard time making ends meet.

Other Americans are choosing to dumpster dive because they believe that it helps them live a simpler lifestyle.  There is a growing movement of people in America that are rejecting all of the “consumerism” that we see all around us.

Today, the average U.S. household has 13 different credit cards.  We are constantly being bombarded with ads that tell us that we need more stuff in order to be happy.

Well, a lot of people have decided that is a lot of bunk and they are doing whatever they can to simplify.

Other dumpster divers are absolutely horrified by how much food is wasted in America.

It has been estimated that 263,013,699 pounds of food is thrown out in the United States every single day.

Can you imagine?

We are probably the most wasteful nation on the planet.  With the number of hungry people in the world, it is absolutely criminal how much food that we waste.

So in that sense, it is probably a good thing that dumpster divers are saving some of that food from the landfills and are finding positive uses for it.

But what is going to happen when the economy gets even worse and we start seeing fights over the food that has been left in dumpsters?

In my recent special report about poverty in America, I noted that 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty.  For now, the U.S. government is helping feed over 45 million Americans through the food stamp program, but what is going to happen once the social safety net starts to break?

The number of good jobs in America continues to decline, and thousands more Americans fall into poverty every single day.  Things have gotten so bad that other countries are actually making videos that make fun of our poverty.

This country is rapidly losing confidence in our leaders and hopelessness is spreading like wildfire.  Today it was revealed that Barack Obama’s disapproval rating has now set a new high of 55%.  Not only that, 62% of the American people disapprove of the way that he is handling the economy.  It turns out that they don’t really think much of the Obama jobs plan after all.

Unfortunately, even though our economy is rapidly falling apart and most of our leaders are either deeply corrupt or completely incompetent, most Americans are still way too apathetic.  If you can believe it, the American people spend a whopping 53 million minutes a month on Facebook.

Hopefully we can get more Americans to wake up.  Hopefully we can get them to understand that they need to get active, that they need to prepare and that they need to get their priorities in order.

Right now, dumpster diving is cute and fun and an interesting way to save money, but in the future there will be millions of Americans digging around in trash cans if we don’t get this economy turned around.

This country is rapidly changing, and not for the better.

Bad News

The bad news about the economy just keeps rolling in.  If this is an economic recovery, what in the world is the next “recession” going to look like?  Today there was another huge truckload of bad economic news.  The stock market had another 400 point “correction”, applications for unemployment benefits are up again, inflation is higher than expected, home sales have dropped again and Europe is coming apart at the seams.  The financial markets have been in such a state of chaos recently that days like today don’t even seem “unusual” anymore.  But we should all be alarmed at what is happening.  We haven’t seen anything quite like this since the darkest days of 2008 and 2009.  If more bad news keeps pouring in, we may soon have a very real panic on our hands.

I would have thought that my article yesterday, “20 Signs That The World Could Be Headed For An Economic Apocalypse In 2012“, would have contained enough bad economic news to last for a while.  But today there was another huge bumper crop of depressing numbers.

Are you ready for the carnage?

*The Dow fell 419 points today.  That was a 3.7% drop.  The S&P 500 shot down 4.5% and the Nasdaq plummeted by a whopping 5.2%.

*European bank stocks got absolutely hammered.

*The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped back above 400,000 last week.

*The recent inflation numbers have really taken analysts by surprise.  The consumer price index rose at a 6.0% annual rate during the month of July. As I mentioned yesterday, the producer price index in the U.S. has increased at an annual rate of at least 7.0% for the last three months in a row.

So now we have high unemployment and high inflation.  Oh goody!  All of this stagflation is almost enough to make one nostalgic for the 1970s.

*The housing market is getting even worse.  According to the National Association of Realtors, sales of previously owned homes dropped 3.5 percent during July.  That was the third decline in the last four months.  Sales of previously owned homes are even lagging behind last year’s pathetic pace. Mortgage rates are now the lowest they have been since the 1950s, but there are very few interested buyers in the marketplace.

*The Philadelphia Fed’s latest survey of regional manufacturing activity was absolutely nightmarish….

The survey’s broadest measure of manufacturing conditions, the diffusion index of current activity, decreased from a slightly positive reading of 3.2 in July to -30.7 in August. The index is now at its lowest level since March 2009

*Morgan Stanley now says that the U.S. and Europe are “hovering dangerously close to a recession” and that there is a good chance we could enter one at some point in the next 6 to 12 months.

All of this bad news is sending the price of gold through the roof.  The price of gold soared to a brand new all-time high of $1,829.70 an ounce on Thursday morning.  So far, the price of gold is up almost 30 percent in 2011.

Meanwhile, millions of average American families are deeply suffering and are desperately hoping that things won’t get even worse.  Everywhere you turn, there is a tremendous amount of stress in the air.

According to the New York Times, 25 million Americans “could not find full-time jobs last month”.

As the economy crumbles, good paying full-time jobs are becoming increasingly scarce.  People are hurting and they are looking for leadership.

Well, Barack Obama is running around the country promising that he will unveil some “solutions” very shortly.

So what are those solutions going to include?  Well, the plans are still in the development stage, but the Obama administration is reportedly considering the following….

-The creation of a new government agency that will be dedicated to job creation.  This will entail more government spending and more government paper pushers, but it will probably not do much to create good paying full-time jobs.

-Pushing even more free trade agreements through Congress.  That way even more of our good jobs can be shipped to countries on the other side of the globe where paying slave wages to workers is still legal.

-A “reverse boot camp” that will train military veterans for civilian jobs.  That sounds like a good idea, but we already have millions and millions of highly trained Americans that can’t get jobs.

-An extension of the payroll tax cut for at least another year.  That will put more money into the pockets of U.S. workers, but it will also mean less revenue for the federal government.  The existing payroll tax cut has not exactly resulted in a “jobs boom”, but removing that tax cut is certainly not going to help the economy either.

-An extension of long-term unemployment benefits.  Yes, that will help the unemployed survive and will give them some money to spend into the economy, but it will not create many jobs for them.  Plus it will put the government into even more debt.

-The creation of an infrastructure bank.  Like most of the proposals above, this will entail even more government spending.  I know that a “shovel-ready” joke is called for about now, but I can’t think of one at the moment.

The ironic thing is that Barack Obama is riding around on his multistate “jobs tour” in a $1.2 million bus that was made in Canada.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Things have gotten so bad out there that even Wal-Mart is suffering now.  Sales at Wal-Mart stores that have been open for at least a year have fallen for nine quarters in a row.

Not that anyone should have much sympathy for Wal-Mart, but it is a sign of just how bad things are getting out there.

So is there much hope for the future?  Well, considering the fact that only 32 percent of 15-year-olds in the United States are proficient in math, things don’t look good.

Our education system is a joke, tens of thousands of factories have already closed, more are closing every day, millions of jobs have been shipped overseas and most of our politicians are either incompetent or corrupt (or both).

So you would think that with all of our problems, authorities would be focused on the big issues.

But no, time after time they just keep picking on average Americans.

For example, a woman that lives in the Salem, Oregon area that is fighting terminal bone cancer tried to raise some money for her medical bills by holding a few garage sales on the weekends.

Well, the authorities in Salem got wind of this and now they are shutting her down.

This is absolutely unbelievable.  A video news report about this incident is posted below….

Massive fraud and corruption at the big banks caused a worldwide financial crisis in 2008 and yet not a single Wall Street executive has gone to prison because of it.

Yet a cancer-stricken lady tries to hold a few yard sales to pay her bills and authorities come down on her like a ton of bricks.

Does that seem fair to you?

Our world is getting crazier every day.  The bad news is going to keep pouring in.  Global financial markets are being held together with chicken wire and duct tape.  At some point the pyramid of corruption and con games is going to come crashing down.

If you still have faith in the system, you are not very wise.  We are heading for an economic collapse that will be absolutely unprecedented, and you need to be getting prepared.

16 Statistics Which Prove That The American People Are Absolutely Seething With Anger

According to a whole host of polls and surveys, the American people are incredibly angry right now.  The American people are hopping mad at the government, the American people are hopping mad about the economy and the American people are hopping mad about the direction that this country is headed.  Never before in modern U.S. history have the American people been this angry.  There is vast disagreement about what the solutions to our problems actually are, but what everyone can agree on is that the American people are absolutely seething with anger right now.  The statistics that you are about to read are mind blowing.  We used to be such a happy country.  Once upon a time we were one of the happiest places on earth.  But as the economy has fallen to pieces anger has been steadily growing.  If something is not done to turn the economy around eventually this anger is going to erupt in frightening and unpredictable ways.

The American people are not equipped to handle hard times.  We are incredibly spoiled.  Most of us have only known good times, and most of us have been taught that we will have endless prosperity all of our lives because we live in the greatest nation on earth.

Well, “the greatest nation on earth” is about to get a massive wake up call.  We are up to our eyeballs in debt and we are bleeding jobs, businesses and wealth at an astounding pace.  Our economy is dying right in front of our eyes, and most Americans have been so “dumbed-down” that they don’t even realize what is happening.

But what most Americans do know is that things are “bad” and they want someone to “fix” things.  They know that something is “not right” and they want things to go back to the way things used to be.  The longer it takes for things to return to “normal”, the angrier they are going to get.

The following are 16 statistics which prove that the American people are absolutely seething with anger right now….

#1 A new Washington Post poll has found that a whopping 78 percent of Americans are dissatisfied “with the way this country’s political system is working”.

#2 That same poll found that only 26 percent of Americans believe that the federal government can solve the economic problems that we are now facing.

#3 Gallup says that Barack Obama’s job approval rating has hit an all-time low of 39%.

#4 According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, Congress has a disapproval rating of 82%.

#5 A new Rasmussen survey has found that 85 percent of Americans believe that members of Congress “are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people.”

#6 That same survey found that 46 percent of the American people believe that most members of Congress are corrupt.  That figure was a new all-time high.

#7 According to a different Rasmussen survey, only 17 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.

#8 A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll discovered that 73 percent of the American people believe that the nation is “on the wrong track”.

#9 A recent poll taken by Rasmussen found that 68 percent of Americans believe that we are actually in a recession right now.

#10 According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans that lack confidence in U.S. banks is now at an all-time high of 36%.

#11 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.

#12 According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 90 percent of Americans believe that the economy is performing poorly.

#13 That same poll found that approximately 80 percent of Americans believe that it is “difficult” to find a job these days.

#14 According to one recent poll, 39 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy has now entered a “permanent decline”.

#15 Another recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months.

#16 According to a brand new Rasmussen survey, 48% of Americans believe that reductions in government spending are “at least somewhat likely” to result in civil unrest inside the United States.

So why doesn’t the government step in and spend a whole bunch of money and make everything all better?

Well, the problem is that we have done this time after time before and now we are broke.

We have been living way, way beyond our means for decades and now the bills are coming due.

David Walker, the former Comptroller General of the United States, has been warning about our debt problem for years.  Walker says that the United States is heading for a “sudden and very painful” economic collapse….

“Here’s the bottom line. If you take the total liabilities of the United States – public debt, unfunded pensions, retiree health care, under funding with regard to social security, with regard to medicare, a range of commitments and contingencies – as of September 30 2010 we would have had to have had $61.6 trillion dollars in the bank in order to be able to defease those obligations.”

The cold, hard truth is that the U.S. national debt should have been addressed many years ago when it was still relatively small.

At this point, there is no solution to our national debt problem under our current financial system.

Most state governments are also facing huge financial problems.  The state government of Illinois is so broke at this point that it can’t even afford to bury the poor people that are dying.

But Illinois is not alone.  All over the country, state and local governments have been implementing austerity measures.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state and local governments have slashed more than half a million jobs since August 2008.

That is a whole lot of good jobs that aren’t there anymore.

But government debt is not the only debt problem that we are facing.  Personal debt is also a raging crisis.

According to USDebtClock.org, the total amount of personal debt in the United States is now over 16 trillion dollars.  The exploding levels of personal debt have created a tremendous amount of stress in households from coast to coast.

When I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was in the middle class.  But today the middle class is shrinking at lightning speed.

According to author David DeGraw, 17.3% of all Americans were living in poverty during 2009.  Not only that, DeGraw also says that 9 major U.S. cities have a poverty rate of over 25 percent.

Can you imagine that?

In fact, there are some cities such as Detroit where the poverty rate is over 35 percent.

It is hard to believe what is happening to America.  Today, there are over 45 million Americans on food stamps.  That number has increased by approximately 12 percent in the last year alone.

There are currently 34 million Americans that need a full-time job.  Unemployment is rampant and there is intense competition even for part-time jobs that pay minimum wage.

So where did all of the jobs go?

Well, as I have written about previously, globalism is absolutely devastating our economy.  Millions of our jobs have been shipped to countries where labor is far, far cheaper and they aren’t coming back.

In addition, millions of Americans that do still have jobs are also deeply struggling right now.  There are millions and millions of Americans that are working part-time jobs because that is all that they can find right now.  Millions of other Americans are flat broke and are discovering that their paychecks are “shrinking” due to inflation.  Wages have barely risen while prices for food and other necessities are skyrocketing.

Most families are really struggling to get by right now.

According to the Washington Post, the average yearly income of the bottom 90 percent of U.S. income earners is $31,244.

It is really hard to pay a mortgage and feed a family on that income.

The only people that seem to be doing well are at the very top.

The average yearly income of the top 0.1% of U.S. income earners is 5.6 million dollars.

Not that making money is a bad thing, but when an economic system funnels all of the rewards to the very top you know something is deeply broken.

The poorest 50% of all Americans now own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

A lot of poor Americans have literally fallen off the map.  The Daily Mail recently did a feature on one tent city that has been constructed deep in a forest in New Jersey….

In scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression these are the ramshackle homes of the desperate and destitute U.S. families who have set up their own ‘Tent City’ only an hour from Manhattan.

More than 50 homeless people have joined the community within New Jersey’s forests as the economic crisis has wrecked their American dream.

You can see shocking pictures of this tent city right here.

So it is no wonder why so many Americans are so angry.

If you lost your job or your home you would probably be angry too.

Most Americans just want to be able to go to work, make a decent living, pay the mortgage and provide for their families.

But in America today that is becoming increasingly difficult to do.

Our economy is a giant mess and the American people are becoming very angry.

If the economy gets even worse, they are going to become even angrier.

Storm clouds are gathering on the horizon.

Things are about to get very, very interesting.

10 Signs That Economic Riots And Civil Unrest Inside The United States Are Now More Likely Than Ever

You should let the video footage of the wild violence that just took place in London burn into your memory because the same things are going to be happening all over the United States as the economy continues to crumble.  We have raised an entire generation of young people with an “entitlement mentality”, but now the economy is producing very few good jobs that will actually enable our young people to work for what they feel they are entitled to.  If you are under 30 in America today, things look really bleak.  The vast majority of the good jobs are held by people that are older, and they aren’t about to give them up if they can help it.  It is easy for the rest of us to tell young Americans to “take whatever they can”, but the reality is that there is intense competition for even the most basic jobs.  For instance, McDonald’s recently held a “National Hiring Day” during which a million Americans applied for jobs.  Only 6.2% of the applicants were hired.  In the old days you could walk down to McDonald’s and get a job whenever you wanted to, but now any job is precious.  The frustration among our young people is palpable.  Most of them feel entitled to “the American Dream” and they feel like the system has failed them.  Unfortunately, many of them are already turning to violence.  But the economic riots and the civil unrest that we have already seen are nothing compared to what is coming.  Americans are angry, and as the economy continues to collapse that anger is going to reach unprecedented heights.

In recent days, even many in the mainstream media have been openly wondering if the riots that happened in London could happen here too.  There is a growing acknowledgement that this country is headed down a very dark path.

The sad thing is that these riots accomplish absolutely nothing.  The recent London riots did not create any jobs and they certainly did not solve any economic problems.  Instead, they actually hurt the economy even more because a huge am0unt of property was destroyed and people are even more afraid to continue with business as usual.

But when people get to the end of their ropes, most of the time they are not thinking rationally.  When frustration erupts, the results can be very, very messy.

All over the United States we are already seeing some very troubling signs of the violence that is coming.  The following are 10 signs that economic riots and civil unrest inside United States are now more likely then ever….

#1 Going to the state fair used to be such a fun thing for American families to do.  But now no place is safe.  The following is how one local ABC News affiliate described the “flash mob” attacks that took place at the Wisconsin state fair recently….

Milwaukee police said that around 11:10 p.m., squads were sent to the area for reports of battery, fighting and property damage being caused by an unruly crowd of “hundreds” of people. One officer described it as a “mob beating.”

Police said the group of young people attacked fair goers who were leaving the fair grounds. Police said that some victims were attacked while walking. They said others were pulled out of cars and off of motorcycles before being beaten.

One eyewitness said that the flash mob attacks at the Wisconsin state fair absolutely overwhelmed the limited police presence that was there….

When I saw the amount of kids coming down the road, all I kept thinking was, ‘There’s not enough cops to handle this.’  There’s no way.  It would have taken the National Guard to control the number of kids that were coming off the road.  They were knocking people off their motorcycles.

#2 According to a new Rasmussen survey, 48% of Americans believe that reductions in government spending are “at least somewhat likely” to result in civil unrest inside the United States.  Unfortunately, perception often greatly influences reality.

#3 U.S. consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in 30 years.

#4 Joblessness among young Americans is at an epidemic level, and when rioting does break out it is usually young people that are leading the way.  That is why the following statistics from an article in The Atlantic are so troubling….

One in five Americans are between 15 and 29-years old. And one in five of those Americans are unemployed. For minorities and the under-educated, the picture is much worse. Black teenagers have an unemployment rate of 44 percent, twice the rate for white teens.

#5 We are starting to see mindless violence in a lot of areas that used to be considered safe.  In Kansas City on Saturday night, three young people were hit with bullets as they walked the streets of the Country Club Plaza.  Mayor Sly James was about 50 yards away when the gunfire erupted.  Authorities in Kansas City are considering a stricter curfew for that area.

#6 “Flash mobs” have become such a problem in Philadelphia that the mayor has imposed a strict curfew on young people.  Now all teens between the ages of 13 and 18 must be indoors by 9 o’clock at night.  The mayor also says that teens need to start pulling up their pants….

“Pull your pants up and buy a belt ’cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.”

#7 All over the United States we are seeing that many struggling Americans will do just about anything for money.  For example, in Detroit recently three masked men crashed a vehicle through the entrance of a gas station and took off with an entire ATM machine.

#8 Desperate people do desperate things.  Many of America’s “forgotten poor” are trying to survive any way that they can.  For instance, a group of vagrants recently set up “a makeshift camp” near Prospect Park lake in Brooklyn.  According to the New York Post, many nearby residents have been disturbed by what these “drifters” are doing to survive….

The drifters have been illegally trapping and cooking up the critters that call the park home, including squirrels, ducks and swan-like cygnets.

They used crude tactics to hunt their prey, including barbed fishing hooks that ripped off the top half of one poor gosling’s beak. They then cooked the meat over illegal fires. Some of the animals were eaten raw.

#9 According to CNN, sales of safes and vaults are absolutely soaring right now.  One store owner told CNN that she believes that she is selling a lot more safes now because people are scared that civil unrest could be coming….

“Folks are worried about the decreasing value of the dollar, burglaries on the rise in their neighborhoods … and even the possibility that the unrest we are seeing in other parts of the world slipping over to our country.”

#10 Over the past 100 years, the American population has moved steadily into our big cities and the surrounding suburbs.  This has created virtual “ghost towns” in our rural areas from coast to coast.  Back in 1910, 72 percent of Americans lived in rural areas.  Today, only 16 percent of Americans live in rural areas.  But when you crowd huge masses of people close together that makes riots and civil unrest much more likely.

Most Americans are already fed up, and the economy is not even that bad yet.  One recent survey found that 73 percent of Americans believe that the nation is “on the wrong track”.  Another recent poll found that only 17 percent of Americans now believe that the U.S. government has the consent of the governed.

Millions of very frustrated young people believe that the economic system has failed them and that the political system no longer holds any answers.

America is rapidly approaching a breaking point.  I have written previously about the collapse of society that we are already witnessing all over the United States.  When the economy totally breaks down, most Americans are not going to be able to handle it.

Sadly, instead of coming together and trying to do something productive, many Americans will resort to rioting, looting and civil unrest.  We have already seen this during local emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina.

But mindless violence accomplishes absolutely nothing positive.  It just always makes things worse.

Unfortunately, logic and reason are not going to be enough to stop the gigantic wave of frustration that is coming.  For most of the rest of us, it will be hard enough to get out of the way and protect our own families from the economic riots and the civil unrest that are coming.

The thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear.  Hatred and anger are growing by the day.  The United States is becoming a very frightening place.

So get ready.  Our politicians certainly don’t have any answers for us.  The debt ceiling deal was a complete and total joke, and corruption is absolutely rampant in Washington right now.  Barack Obama is getting ready to leave for yet another vacation, and most of our politicians are only focused on the next election.

So don’t expect a “miracle” from those that are supposed to be leading us.

They don’t care about you.

You need to take care of yourself and your family and your friends.

A massive economic collapse is coming, and most Americans are going to be totally blindsided by it.

Don’t let that happen to you.

10 Signs That The American People Are Starting To Freak Out About The Condition Of The Economy

All over America, restlessness and frustration are growing. It has now been almost three years since the great financial crash of 2008, and yet the U.S. economy is still a complete and total mess.  In fact, there are all sorts of signs that things are about to get even worse, and the American people are just about fed up.  Virtually every major poll, survey and measure of consumer confidence shows that the American people are becoming more pessimistic about the economy.  Millions of hard working Americans that worked their fingers to the bone for their employers and that did everything “right” are sitting at home on their couches tonight staring blankly at the television.  Many of them still have a hard time believing that they were laid off and that there is nobody out there that wants to give them a good job.  There are millions of other Americans that won’t get much sleep tonight because they will spend much of the night rolling around in bed wondering how they are possibly going to be able to pay the mortgage.  We have never faced such an extended economic downturn in modern U.S. history, and a lot of people are starting to freak out about the condition of the economy.  As Gerald Celente likes to say: “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose – they lose it.”

Every single month, the number of good jobs continues to go down.  Wall Street actually rewards companies that have a good “outsourcing strategy”.  As I have written about previously, a growing percentage of the jobs that are being “created” these days are very low paying jobs.  But you can’t support a family, pay a mortgage or even afford decent health insurance on what you would make stocking shelves at Target or passing out buckets of chicken for KFC.

The American people keep waiting for “hope” and “change” to show up, but all they get instead are more helpings of “despair” and “frustration”.

Sadly, most Americans still cling to the hope that if the “next election” will just turn out the right way that things will be okay.  But the truth is that things seem to stay on pretty much the same course no matter who we put into office.

For many years the status quo seemed to be okay for most people, but now we are starting to reap the results of the economic seeds that we have sown.

Now our economic decline is starting to accelerate and people are starting to panic.  Most Americans may not know why all of this is happening, but what many of them do know is that something in their gut is telling them that things have gone terribly, terribly wrong somehow.

The following are 10 signs that the American people are starting to freak out about the condition of the economy….

#1 Things have already gotten so bad that Americans will literally trample one another just to get on a waiting list for rental assistance vouchers.  Just check out the following excerpt from a local news report about a recent incident in Texas….

At least eight people were hurt Thursday morning while scrambling to line up for a limited number of Dallas County rental vouchers — after waiting for hours in their cars.

People lined up Thursday morning to apply for Dallas County Section 8 housing vouchers. Dallas County sheriff’s spokesman Kim Leach estimated the crowd at about 5,000.

Video of this incident is posted below.  One of the people that was trampled was a pregnant woman….

#2 Almost every measurement of consumer confidence is going down.  For example, the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell from 61.7 in May to 58.5 in June.

#3 The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index has fallen to 63.8 after being at 71.5 in June.  It is now the lowest that it has been since the last recession “ended”.

#4 The Rasmussen Consumer Index is down 9 points from a month ago.

#5 A recent poll taken by Rasmussen found that 68 percent of Americans believe that we are actually in a recession right now.

#6 According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans that lack confidence in U.S. banks is now at an all-time high of 36%.

#7 In many areas of the United States this summer, just about anything that is not bolted down is being stolen by people that are desperate for money.

#8 According to one recent poll, 39 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy has now entered a “permanent decline”.

#9 Another recent survey found that 48 percent of Americans believe that it is likely that another great Depression will begin within the next 12 months.

#10 According to a brand new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 63 percent of Americans believe that the nation is on the wrong track.  That figure is three percent higher than it was last month.

One of the only things preventing chaos from breaking out in the streets of our cities from coast to coast is government handouts.

Today, almost 20 percent of all personal income in the United States comes from benefits provided by the federal government.

You don’t believe this?  Just check out what the New York Times recently had to say….

Close to $2 of every $10 that went into Americans’ wallets last year were payments like jobless benefits, food stamps, Social Security and disability, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics.

There are tens of millions of Americans that are living “on the edge”, but at least the massive government handout programs are enabling most of them to survive.

So what happens when the checks from the government stop coming?

Look, I am not advocating that the “welfare society” that we have become is a good thing.  Today, Americans receive more in direct government benefits than they pay in taxes.  That is not even close to sustainable.

What I am pointing out is that tens of millions of Americans that are deeply suffering are currently being pacified by these government handouts.  Once the handouts are cut significantly or taken away completely it is going to unleash a lot of anger and frustration.

Of course what the American people really need are good jobs that will give them dignity and allow them to provide for their families, but millions of those keep getting shipped out of the country.

So the only thing that millions of Americans still have to hang on to are their government benefits.  Once that changes a whole lot of people are going to throw a fit.

In fact, we are already seeing some really bizarre behavior across the United States.  In many areas of the country we are literally watching society crumble right in front of our very eyes.

If you doubt this, just check out these two articles….

1) “Americans Gone Wild”

2) “18 Signs The Collapse Of Society Is Accelerating”

But not all Americans will resort to lawless behavior.  In fact, there are a lot of really good, hard working people out there that this economy has left behind.

There are some people that have put in decades of hard work only to see their dreams shrivel up over the past few years.

Some of the stories people send me are absolutely heartbreaking.  I have looked at each and every comment that has been left on The Economic Collapse over the past couple of years.  Needless to say, it has taken a huge investment of my time to go through more than 20,000 comments.  But in the process I have gotten a very good idea of what people are going through across the nation.

So how badly are people hurting?  Well, a reader identified as “Anna44” recently shared with us what some of her family members have been going through in this economy….

My B-I-L was a dealership owner/manager who worked long hours over 38 years and had to close his doors when Saturn was dissolved. When his dealership went under, 72 others lost their job. That’s 72 families who took a hit. He lost his home, everything. A few of his former employees lost their homes as well eventually. They were not lazy or WORTHLESS. It took him a year and a half to finally find something, but now he lives in a hotel unable to qualify for a house or apartment. This is an educated man who competed nationwide for top dog and got it more then once. His biggest fault? He’s almost 60, young enough to need the work, but too old to be hired.

As for my husband- 26 years AF officer, handling millions & billions on International & National levels has just entered his 7th month of unemployment. Two tours abroad- lazy he is NOT. He doesn’t qualify for unemployment, nor is he counted because he gets a retirement check. He wants and needs to work- yet there is little out there. If he doesn’t find something soon, we too will lose the home we sunk every cent into after 20 years of saving for it!

All across America tonight there are similar stories.  People have done everything “right” all of their lives and they are frustrated that now they have been pushed to the edge of poverty by this economy.

Unfortunately, it looks like things may soon get even worse.  Economist David Rosenberg recently told CNBC the following….

“We’re just one small shock away from the economy going back into recession.”

That is not what the American people want to hear.

What they want to hear is that things are about to get better.

What they want to hear is that things are going to get back to normal soon.

Sadly, that is just not going to be the case.

The economy is going to get worse and worse, and the frustration and the anger of the American people is just going to continue to grow.

 

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