20 Signs That The Economic Collapse Has Already Begun For One Out Of Every Seven Americans
The Economic Collapse Blog
Sep 18, 2010
For most Americans, the economic collapse is something that is happening to someone else. Most of us have become so isolated from each other and so self-involved that unless something is directly affecting us or a close family member than we really don’t feel it. But even though most of us enjoy a much closer relationship with our television sets than we do with our neighbors at this point, it is quickly becoming undeniable that a fundamental shift is taking place in society.
Perhaps you noticed it when two or three foreclosure signs went up on your street. Or perhaps it got your attention when that nice fellow down the street lost his job, and he and his family seemingly just disappeared from the neighborhood one day. The Census Bureau made front page headlines all over the nation this week when they announced that one out of every seven Americans was living in poverty in 2009. Every single day more Americans are getting sucked out of the middle class and into soul-crushing poverty.
Unfortunately, most Americans don’t really care because it has not affected them yet.
But this year, millions more Americans will discover that the music has stopped playing and they are left without a seat at the table.
Meanwhile, neither political party has a workable solution. They just like to point fingers and blame each other.
The Democrats blame Bush for all the poverty and advocate expanding programs for the poor. Not that there is anything wrong with a safety net. But the “safety net” was never meant to hold 50 million people on Medicaid and 40 million people on food stamps. The number of Americans on food stamps has more than doubled since 2007. So do we just double it again as things get even worse?
The truth is that welfare programs are only short-term solutions. Unfortunately, the Democrats do not understand this. What Americans really need are good jobs.
The Republicans are so boneheaded that they don’t even like to talk about poverty because they think it is a “liberal issue”. Some conservative commentators have even been so brutally cold as to mock the “99ers” (those who have been unemployed so long that even their extended federal benefits have run out).
Instead of showing some compassion and being the party of the American worker (as they should be), the Republicans are often very uncompassionate and they allow the Democrats to be “the party of the poor” by default.
Both political parties need a big wakeup call. There is a tsunami of poverty sweeping the United States, and somebody better wake up and do something about it. More handouts will help people get by in the short-term, but there is no way that the federal government can financially support tens of millions more poor Americans.
How long is it going to be before the “safety net” simply collapses under the weight of all this poverty?
The path we are on is not sustainable.
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The economy is falling apart, and somebody better wake up and do something before even more Americans find themselves drowning in poverty.
The following are 20 signs that the economic collapse has already begun for one out of every seven Americans…..
#1 The Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in 51 years of record-keeping.
#2 In the year 2000, 11.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty. In 2008, 13.2 percent of Americans were living in poverty. In 2009, 14.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty. Needless to say the trend is moving in the wrong direction.
#3 In 2009 alone, approximately 4 million more Americans joined the ranks of the poor.
#4 According to the Associated Press, experts believe that 2009 saw the largest single year increase in the U.S. poverty rate since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959.
#5 The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
#6 Today the United States has approximately 4 million fewer wage earners than it did in 2007.
#7 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many as were receiving it in 2007.
#8 U.S. banks repossessed 25 percent more homes in August 2010 than they did in August 2009.
#9 One out of every seven mortgages in the United States was either delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010.
#10 There are now 50.7 million Americans who do not have health insurance. One trip to the emergency room would be all it would take to bankrupt a significant percentage of them.
#11 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid, the U.S. government health care program designed principally to help the poor.
#12 There are now over 41 million Americans on food stamps.
#13 The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program increased a whopping 55 percent from December 2007 to June 2010.
#14 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.
#15 California’s poverty rate soared to 15.3 percent in 2009, which was the highest in 11 years.
#16 According to an analysis by Isabel Sawhill and Emily Monea of the Brookings Institution, 10 million more Americans (including 6 million more children) will slip into poverty over the next decade.
#17 According to a recently released Federal Reserve report, Americans experienced a $1.5 trillion loss in combined household net worth in the second quarter of 2010.
#18 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.
#19 Median U.S. household income is down 5 percent from its peak of more than $52,000 in 1999.
#20 A study recently released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College University found that Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need for retirement.
How anyone can look at those numbers and think that things are about to “get better” absolutely boggles the mind.
It is time to wake up. Things are not going to get better. Things are only going to get worse. The United States is rapidly becoming a nation where poverty is absolutely rampant. As poverty continues to spread, crime will not be far behind.
Meanwhile, the international community wants to impose a global tax on us so that they can “redistribute” even more of our wealth around the world.
The following was just reported by CNSNews.com….
A group of 60 nations will meet next week at the United Nations to push for a tax on foreign currency transactions as a way to generate revenue to meet global poverty-reduction goals, including “climate change” mitigation.
Well isn’t that great? As American descends into poverty, the rest of the world is pushing for a global tax that will drain us of wealth even more.
It is just a tax on foreign currency transactions, but history has taught us that once taxers get their foot in the door they always go for more eventually.
Sadly, it is not just the United Nations that is discussing a global tax. In fact, the IMF and the World Health Organization have both been very open about the fact that they want to impose global taxes of their own.
Not that we aren’t taxed enough already. We already pay dozens of different kinds of taxes each year, and 2011 is already being dubbed as “the year of the tax increase“.
But most Americans don’t have any more to give. Most Americans can barely make it from month to month. More Americans than ever are slipping into poverty.
What a mess we have on our hands.
Do any of you have any suggestions for how we should go about fixing all of this?
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I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I have a suggestion or two.
Start by cutting the fat salaries of the CEO’s and cut out the golden
parachutes.
There can be no recovery without jobs. China and India now have the jobs americans used to do. States are going to have to start printing their own money as the Federal Government is not going to put up trade barriers with China nor India. If the states stipulate that the money printed by the state can only be spent within the boundaries of that state, jobs will be created within the state. The Masters over us slaves know that the slaves must be kept with their noses barely above water or the slaves will have time to think, time to question the actions of the “leaders” or “representatives”.
There is no way out of this mess. Adapt, America.
Step 1: Sh1tcan your TVs. That’s 1200 dollars a year you’ll save right there in cable costs.
Step 2. Learn to make food from scratch. Its cheaper and healthier.
Step 3. Dump your debt — screw em, they did it to us!
Step 4. Become more communal. The more workers/earners you have, the stronger of an economic unit you’ll be.
Step 5. Wear more layers in the winter and save on heating costs.
Step 6. Accept that you don’t need an iPhone. Really.
Step 7. Get involved with local politics. Change begins at home.
and so forth, etc.
If Guantanamo and Torture are so effective, why are we NOT torturing our FINANCIAL TERRORIST Bankers and Politicians to get some TRUTH out of them? After all, the Al Queda Terrorists destroyed maybe $8 Billion, and murdered about 3,000 Americans. The World Trade Buildings cost the insurance companies $7,000,000,000 … and they had to pay TWICE because Shylock Silverstein got it counted as TWO separate acts. NOW Silverstein wants $1.6 TRILLION in TAXPAYER MONEY to “rebuild” !!!
“Our” BANKERS have destroyed TRILLIONS of dollars and MURDERED many 10,000s of Americans from lost medical insurance, stolen retirements, increased child abuse, suicidal despair, heart attacks…………… The government has the gall to state that $50,000,000,000 is “EXPECTED to be DEFRAUDED” from the RECOVERY funds. They should go find the FIRST “defrauder” and PUBLICLY HANG him, and any others later. ……If these “esteemed” Politicians who wish to brand American Veterans as terrorists, know HOW to fix the economy ……….. then they knew how it was SUPPOSED to be running as it was LOOTED …….. The American People have lost $14,000,000,000,000+ …….. root these FINANCIAL TERRORISTS out of their cubicles and lofty offices, and send THEM to Guantanamo (Goldman Sachs ….. hint hint hint)
America has 154 million workers but only 18.465 million are actually goods producers. That means for everyone one person who actually makes something we’ve got 8.3 people who are providing services, education, and government to them
There are 22.5 million US government employees. There are only about 20 million jobs in the nation’s manufacturing and construction sectors combined. The average annual salary on the federal government payroll is $US 75,419 this year, according to Econwatch. The story is much the same at the state and local levels. In Pennsylvania, the average state employee has an annual salary of about $US 68,000 while the state’s average household income is $US 48,576. The US private sector has a per capita income of $US 39,751 and a per household income of $US 50,740.
October 27, 2009
In 2008 the average federal worker earned twice that of his private-industry counterpart in wages and benefits: $120,000 per year versus $60,000. Federal pay and benefits are up 58% since 2000 compared to just 28% in the private sector. Of course, when you consider the massive productivity advantage government workers enjoy over their private counterparts, it all makes sense.
Well, it’s all the Democrats fault undoubtedly. Wait, looks like it was Bush.
* The George W. Bush years were very lucrative for federal workers. In 2000, the average compensation (wages and benefits) of federal workers was 66 percent higher than the average compensation in the U.S. private sector. The new data show that average federal compensation is now more than double the average in the private sector.
* If you drive through Northern Virginia, you will find nearly entire neighborhoods of $500,000 to $900,000 homes owned by government workers or contractors. Then you can drive five streets over and find $200,000 to $400,000 homes owned by those who pay the salaries for those government employees. It’s a fascinating distribution of wealth. Most government employees and contractors could not earn more than $60,000 on the free market. Their only chance to make that kind of money comes from having an employer that not only never has to make a profit but can forcibly take money through taxation.
The answer is that both are deeply to blame. Don’t be fooled. There’s nary a difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to growth of government. Both parties are completely, sadistically, out of control. There is NO spending restraint on either side of the aisle, just hot air, promises, and purple unicorns. Oh and bubbles.
“One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 towards his
retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? $3.3 million in pension payments over his life,
and nearly $500,000 for health care benefits—a total of $3.8 million on a $120,000 investment. Is that fair?”
–New Jersey Governor Chris Christy
I TRULY become incensed when I hear some blowhard Politician state that Universal Healthcare would be “SOCIALIST”. Michigan legislators get FREE, LIFETIME, healthcare after just SIX years…… members of Congress enjoy “cradle to grave” SOCIALIST medical and retirement benefits that outstrip those of the old Soviet Central Committee members.
1) Make all politician’s pay a percentage of the AVERAGE pay of their constituents. That would give them INCENTIVE to get jobs back from China.
2) Make all politician’s retirement plans a percentage of the AVERAGE retirement plan of their constituents, that provides INCENTIVE to work for the PEOPLE.
3) Make all politicians get on SOCIAL SECURITY, like the rest of us, and dissolve their fancy, overpaid plans. All State/Federal workers also.
That will provide INCENTIVE to fix what THEY BROKE.
4) Make all politician’s medical benefits a percentage of the AVERAGE benefits of their constituents, that provides INCENTIVE to work for the PEOPLE .
5) Make all politician’s pensions dependent on the security of their constituent’s pensions. If the People are losing their pensions due to economic distresses then the politicians should also.
How about we start by 1) ending the illegal and immoral wars, 2) cut the military budget by 50%, 3) abiding by the Symington Amendment (which prohibits providing monetary or other forms of aid to nations that are non signatory to the NPTA, yet have developed a clandestine nuclear program), and 4) remove the tax incentive to ship American jobs overseas.
That would save tons and tons of money. Then develop an infrastructure repair program where we put American workers to work repairing our long-ignored infrastructure using some of the tax money we saved from the above 4 points.
When the people of this world organize themselves for public service better than those currently organized for private gain, our wealth will become self evident to each and every citizen.
The single solution was published by Mike Montagne in 1979 and presented to every major Presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan (including Ron Paul.)
Not one of them acted on the information.
The first of two simple steps is to outlaw interest charges. The second is to negotiate loans over collateral life. (Old loans considered paid in full if total payments equal or greater than the principal.)
Eliminating interest not only solves inflation, but it allows citizens access to their own credit, which is all banks are “loaning” now. Why rent your own credit when you own it? perfecteconomy.com, usurykills.blogspot.com
It makes me sick to hear people moan they have no money for their projects when I know that money is effectively infinite, limited only by available credit. No money for jobs? The government should simply print the money it needs to operate. If Congress misappropriates, prosecute them.
Not to say there wouldn’t be cheating going on, but wouldn’t it have been a lot more fun for the people to have spent trillions of dollars on their own pursuits instead of letting bankers magically “disappear” the economy?
Without interest, a $100,000 might be purchased for as little as $84 per month. The price of bread would never change without usury. Corporations could accurately project their budgets over hundreds of years. There would be no taxes or governmental fees.
If the people want a park or a bridge they can have it. Pursue happiness.
Today, we ask, “How can we pay for this?” The answer is borrow the money or raise taxes but taxes are already too high and no one is lending, anyway. Every time the government borrows from the bank, their agenda must be approved by the bankers — these monsters are setting policy by loaning money that never belonged to them in the first place.
The power to create money was given to Congress by the people. What the people have given, the people can take back. Let’s do it.
Far too many people are under the Impression that all these private businesses just happened to pack up and move to a foreign land. WRONG! The major Corporations that left America were almost ALL a major player in this GLOBAL CORPORATION that controls pretty much EVERYTHING you touch and see and hear every day and they control the most important asset of all which is YOU!
That’s right, THEY CONTROL YOU!
You are merely slaves to this Global Corporation and you are completely expendable just like the Soldiers that fight in these ILLEGAL WARS in the MIDDLE EAST! We are all slaves to the beast that will eventually control the ENTIRE EARTH and it’s people.
Stand tall people, soon you will learn of the importance of working together for the same goals and you will know in your heart and soul that your very survival will depend on your ability to function as a “Team” as your current “Individualism” will no longer suffice when the hammer falls.
You may not understand at this moment in time, but, there will come a time when you will know the importance of ridding yourselves of your prejudices and differences and learn the absolute importance of true teamwork where a multitude of people MUST learn to work together fo the common good, NOT
socialism, NOT Communism, NOT Fascism, but true teamwork towards the common goal of SURVIVAL.
Good luck people, they are setting us all up for a MAJOR FALL.
The biggest portion of the cost of goods and services in this country is the cost of packaging and marketeering. Salesboys and marketeers are taking far more of our wealth than the people who produce. Then to rub salt in the wounds they send jobs overseas to cut workers wages further. It is past time to cut back the sales trash and marketeering con artistes everywhere, whether the real estate con boy who drives up the price of housing, the finance thief who pushes the latest investment ripoff, the sam walton heir who treasonously imports from China to the out and out ponzi schemers from Amway and other multi level scams. Time to put salesboyship in its proper place and start rewarding producers instead of bullshitters.
1. Abolish the FED and turn the money creation process over to the Treasury and the Congress. Immediately print a sufficient quantity of U.S. Notes to retire the national debt (non-inflationary, as that money already exists), then strictly limit the amount of new money to be created to amount which closely mirrors true economic growth. Once again, not inflationary.
2. Bring back ALL U.S. military forces from all overseas bases. Shut down the bases and reconstitute the military to a force which only needs to defend us from foreign attacks.
3. Amend the 14th Amendment to read “natural persons” rather than “persons” thereby destroying the monstrosity that is “corporate personhood”, reducing the power and dominance of multi-nationals corporate behemoths who must, by their very nature, send jobs overseas in search of cheap slave labor, depriving the citizens at home of any hope of providing for their families.
4. Educate the states about the legal act of nullification, reminding them that the 10th places the sovereignty in the states and the people. This empowers the states to opt out of any and all unconstitutional federal government encroachments on individual liberty.
5. Abolish legal tender laws and allow everyone to use whatever they choose as money, creating competing public and private currencies and removing the monopoly of money creation from an elite few private banking interests.
6. Abolish the I.R.S. completely as the elimination of the national debt and the military/industrial complex will balance the budget without touching a single social program. This will allow these programs to be phased out slowly with a minimum of pain and suffering by those who truly need them.
I am sure there are more ideas, but just putting these 6 in motion will remove the onerous burden of the massive fascist/corporate oligarchy from the backs of the people and begin the process of “relocalizing” economies to form sustainable standards of living for all.
Two ideas that we can solve this crisis. Reason why the economy is on the brink of collapse because of the housing market and people owe so much because of credit. Since the government collect taxes from the people, either through our wages, product that we buy, and etc. Why can’t the government give this taxes back to the people. This is the peoples money anyway. Right now our debt is mounting to trillions. If the government can afford to bail out companies by the billions why not revert this taxes back to the people instead so that people will have the money to spend. For example, a family of four or five, yearly income 45k or more, monthly mortgage of $1200.00, car payment $205.00, 10k credit card. Let’s say owes a mortgage of 200k. Give that person 500k. Mandate him to pay the house, credit card, and car. Whatever money left is for him to keep. With that money left over after paying everything plus his yearly income will support him and his family. People can start buying appliances, renovate their house, buy a new car, etc. When people have money to spend job will be available and life goes on. When that person decided to sell his house later he can’t sell it more than the buying price. The price of the house must be controlled, and inflation must be controlled too. For the mean time economist must come up with an idea to stabilize the economy thereafter. Another idea is to bring all personal debt to zero and start anew. If the federal reserve can print money from thin air then the government can stabilize our economy from nothing. Bail out the people and our economy will prosper once again.
Our economy will not be cured. We are all doomed. Act accordingly.
To “change” the pardigm, would require abolishing the Federal Reserve, bring back the Woodruff tariff, eliminate the income tax, stop immigration (both legal and illegal), stop fractional reserve banking, go back to the Gold standard, eliminate property tax,reinstitute the tenth amendment, reduce the size and scope of the US armed forces, wipe out at least half of the Federal Government, and most importantly, decentralize the economy. By reading many (not all) of the comments here I can tell the party’s over.
De oppresso libre
Congress will not act. They are pretty much controlled by the financial interests.
Change MUST begin at the state level.
The Bank of North Dakota is a highly successful state-owned bank founded in 1919. North Dakota’s economy is thriving. ND has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. ND escaped the credit crisis. They escaped the Wall Street crisis by setting up their own credit system.
ND set it up specifically in 1919 because they were suffering then as we are today. They were losing their farms to the Wall Street Banks.
See everything Ellen Brown, author of “Web of Deceit.” Her analysis goes to the root of the current financial crisis.
Online video “”The Real TEa Party Begins Here” NOTE: Brown is not a Tea Partier.
“The Financial Hijacking of America: How and Why to Escape the Web of Debt.”
Brown’s speech on TUCradio.org
The very first thing we have to do is to declare a national emergency…We need to impose immediate, drastic measures to reverse the tide of impending doom…
1) Bring all troops home and close all foreign bases
2) Dismantle all federal programs other than Social Security
3) Abolish the Federal Reserve and put the responsibility for printing money in the hands of Congress based on the gold standard
4) Arrest and put on trial all Wall Street and banking interests who had hand in the collapse and seize their assets
5) Eliminate all investment instruments other than stocks and bonds
6) Rebuild the infrastructure
7) Cap medical costs to the level of other industrialized countries
9) Make public education free to all qualified applicants up to the university level
10) Halt all imports and rebuild the industrial base…build factories in every community in America
11) Repeal all unconstitutional laws
12) Cease supporting all repressive, fascist, Zionist and illegitimate regimes