Here is a fascinating article by Michael Snyder from The Business Insider.  What are your thoughts on this?  Is this country doomed?  What is the solution to this encompassing problem? http://yhoo.it/dr6Ds8

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The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it

Posted Jul 15, 2010 02:25pm EDT by Michael Snyder in Recession

The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and “free trade” that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn’t tell us that the “global economy” would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

•    83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people. 
•    61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
•    66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
•    36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.
•    A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
•    24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
•    Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
•    Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
•    For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
•    In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
•    As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
•    The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
•    Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
•    In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
•    The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
•    In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
•    More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
•    or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
•    This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
•    Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
•    Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
•    The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Giant Sucking Sound

The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new “global” labor pool.

What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are “less attractive” than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.

So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.

What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it. There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of “chronically unemployed” is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.

Many of those who are able to get jobs are finding that they are making less money than they used to. In fact, an increasingly large percentage of Americans are working at low wage retail and service jobs.

But you can’t raise a family on what you make flipping burgers at McDonald’s or on what you bring in from greeting customers down at the local Wal-Mart.

The truth is that the middle class in America is dying — and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.

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The USA had little to no debt before the income tax was passed in 1913.  The income tax was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, so Congress had to amend the Constitution to pass the income tax.  The income tax was never to exceed 5%.  Now look where we are.  Read on to see what taxes Obama will have you paying in just 6 months.  It’s shocking. Read the rest of this entry »

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Here is this week’s column written by Star Parker.  It is PROFOUND.  So profound, I thought it was worth posting the whole thing here.  Peep.

Look at what is going on in Greece and you’ll understand what is driving the grass roots uprising taking place across our country.

It’s perfectly clear that big government, welfare state policies drove Greece into bankruptcy and that the path on which our own Democrat controlled government has put our nation mirrors where Greece and other European welfare states have gone.

As much as those on the left want to portray tea partiers as right wing nut cases, or as racists, truth is these are rational, clear thinking Americans who see our beloved nation being wrecked. They are serving as an early warning system that the things Americans hold most dear are in danger.

Government spending accounts for 50% of Greece’s national output and taxes take 40 percent of it. Debt exceeds 100% of GDP. One third of everyone employed in Greece works for the government.

Now they can’t pay the interest on their massive debt and violence has hit the streets as Greeks discover that on the other end of what they thought were entitlements are empty government promises.

Just a few years ago, American debt was about 35% of our GDP. Now it’s double that and projections show it approaching 100% in just a few years.

President Obama’s budget calls for $3.83 trillion in spending in 2011. Ten years ago the federal budget was $1.86 trillion.

A year and half ago our newly elected President sold the American public that an almost trillion dollar stimulus was needed to keep unemployment from going over 8 percent. Today unemployment hovers at slightly below 10%.

There’s a debate going on about whether it’s accurate to call our President a socialist.
Here’s what I say.
Socialism has three key characteristics, all of which I believe he buys into.

First, socialism disdains private property as sacred. Any doubt where our President stands on this? As former Council of Economic Advisors head Greg Mankiw notes regarding the health care bill, the prime motive was not “health per se but … redistribution of income.”

Recent data from the Tax Foundation makes this clear.

Families in the upper 1% of income will pay an average of $52,000 more in taxes and families in the bottom 50% will get an average of $1000 in benefits. Second, socialism puts faith in government social engineering. Just think government health care, government takeovers of banks and car companies, and cap and trade. And third, socialism is godless, secular religion. It sees human redemption in government planning. I’ll get nasty letters by saying our President also signs on to this.

But consider the facts. He endorses abortion, including partial birth abortion, the legitimacy of sexual behavior that traditional religion abhors, he does believe in the redemptive possibilities of government planning, and, going beyond tolerating all religions, he presents them all as equally legitimate.

In this context, I would only point to the incredible dis-inviting of Pastor Franklin Graham to the National Day of Prayer ceremonies at the Pentagon.

Consider the three points above and see their relevance to the collapsed Greek nation in Europe.

The secular religion of government – which I would call socialism – is a lie and a failure.

Other than the left wing elite, the only others in this country willing to buy into this are low income individuals. But they aren’t buying in for ideological reasons. When a politician shows up at their door with money taken from others, do we expect them to say “no thanks”?

They only will say no if they hear from their pastor that it is wrong.

So here we are at the crossroads today.

Are we going to be Greece, or will we wake up to the inconvenient truth called reality?

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“Who in the hades is that old woman on your website?” you may be asking.  Well, her name is Kitty Werthmann.  And I want you to read an article she wrote.  It is profound.   It is about her life in Austria, where she grew up seeing Hitler come to power.  Please tweet this, facebook this, e-mail this, whatever.  This is utterly intriguing.

“After America , There is No Place to Go” by Kitty Werthmann

The author of this article lives in South Dakota and appears to be very active in attempting to maintain our freedom. I encourage everybody to read this article and pass it along.  I see so many parallels in this country– are we going to sit by and watch it happen?  Spread the word, contact your congressional reps, vote them out if they don’t do what they should.  If you don’t want to be bothered, then you’re part of the problem!  Google Kitty Werthmann and you will see articles and videos.  Truly, America is the greatest country in the world.

“What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books.   I believe that I am an eyewitness to history.  I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.  We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote.  I’ve never read that in any American publications.  Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force. In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression.  Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed.  We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily.  Young people were going from house to house begging for food.  Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need.  Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people - about 30 daily. The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other.  Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna , Linz , and Graz were destroyed.  The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted. We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany , where Hitler had been in power since 1933.  We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.  Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group — Jewish or otherwise.  We were led to believe that everyone was happy.  We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family.  Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.  Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades.  The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed. After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order.  Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed.  The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.   Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women.  Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home.  An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family.  Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education - Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children

Our education was nationalized.  I attended a very good public school.  The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore.  Instead, we sang “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,” and had physical education. Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance.  Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum.  They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time.  The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.  The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination.  The rest of the day we had sports.  As time went along, we loved it.  Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.  We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.My mother was very unhappy.  When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent.  I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful.  There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun - no sports, and no political indoctrination.  I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it.  Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home.  I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.  Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me.  They lived without religion.  By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.  It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly.  As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home

In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established.  All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps.  At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men. Soon after this, the draft was implemented.  It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps.  During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.  They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps.  After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.  When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.  Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack.  I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare

When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.  You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government.  The state raised a whole generation of children.  There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology.  By this time, no one talked about equal rights.  We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Suffer Under Government Controls

Before Hitler, we had very good medical care.  Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna .  After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone.  Doctors were salaried by the government.  The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.  If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn.  There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine.  Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.   As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income.  Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household.  We had big programs for families.  All day care and education were free.  High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized.  Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.  We had another agency designed to monitor business.My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.  Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners.  Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar.  He couldn’t meet all the demands.  Soon, he went out of business.  If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.We had consumer protection.  We were told how to shop and what to buy.  Free enterprise was essentially abolished.  We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers.  The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“Mercy Killing” Redefined

In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps .  The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.  So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded.  When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.  I knew one, named Vincent, very well.  He was a janitor of the school.  One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.  I asked my superior where they were going.  She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write.  The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.  They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.   As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death.  The villagers were not fooled.  We suspected what was happening.  Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months.  We called this euthanasia.

The Final Steps - Gun Laws

Next came gun registration..  People were getting injured by guns.  Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns.  Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms.  Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns.  The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.   No more freedom of speech.  Anyone who said something against the government was taken away.  We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up. Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria .  Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath.  Instead, we had creeping gradualism.  Now, our only weapons were broom handles.The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom. After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria .  Women were raped, preteen to elderly.  The press never wrote about this either.  When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process.  They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn’t destroy, they burned.  We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses.  Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized.  Those who couldn’t, paid the price.  There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians.

This is an eye witness account. ”It’s true..those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. America truly is the greatest country in the world. Don’t let freedom slip away.”  After America , there is no place to go.

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Check this out.  There’s no sound or anything, but just watch it.  It is a map that displays how the recession slowly took over America the past 2 1/2 years.  Pretty eerie.

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Holy muther it’s been a minute since I updated my blog!  Wow.  Well, I’ll explain why in a few weeks.  Anyways– I just couldn’t let this little tasty morsel of madness go unmentioned.  Check out the article written by Dick Morris that details how the Obama admin has UTTERLY and ENTIRELY manipulated getting endorsements for their lame-a** health care plan.  Lies and deceit my friends!  Lies and deceit.—————

OBAMACARE ENDORSEMENTS: WHAT THE BRIBE WAS By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN 

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This, my friends, is one of the greatest videos ever made.  It explains precisely how, and why, our country was set up the way it is.  The video then describes how we are at a crossroads now.  We are on the verge of literally destroying, and losing the very things that have made us the greatest nation in the history of mankind.  And it all hinges on our personal morality and righteousness.  Please, if you watch any video or read anything on this website, watch this. 

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The recession will never end.  Watching This Week with George Stephanopolous the other day, there was a panel of economists, political analysts, etc. (one of them was George Will).  They were discussing the economy and what the future holds.  Essentially, they all agreed the ONLY way for the American economy to get back to the way it has been the past 10-15 years, is for Americans to spend.  70% of the American economy is based on spending.  Glenn Beck has also discussed this statistic.  The problem is that 1 out of 10 Americans is now unemployed.  Spending is not an option for them.  For the other 9 out of 10 Americans with jobs, spending is how we got into this mess in the first place.  Buying houses with adjustable ARM rates we couldn’t afford when the ARM rates went up, buying houses for investments that never panned out and having to foreclose on them.  Spending is NOT in the best interest of the American citizen now.  So there is a paradox we have on our hands.

Here is what I predict will happen.  The unemployment rate will NEVER go back to the low 4% range as it has been during the Bush years.  It will ALWAYS remain at about 10% (it is just below 9% now.)  This will become extremely frustrating for Americans who have become accustomed to having no problems finding a job.  People with college degrees and plenty of experience will not be able to find work.  This will result in extreme frustration with the government and we will see strikes and riots on a more regular basis, (as there is in many European countries, such as France and more recently Greece for these exact reasons.)  Unfortunately, the current administration in the white house feels that more government is how we solve these problems.  This is an extreme falsehood that has been proven not to work many, many times over the course of human history.  The only thing that can help America, and the world, climb out of this recession is going back to the basic principles outlined by our forefathers in the U.S. Constitution.  In order to do that, we must elect sound, honest men and women to government offices.  In order to do that, we must LEARN and become EDUCATED on the Constitution and the teachings of our forefathers.  That is the answer.  When we become aware of the principles this country was founded upon, we, the people ,will solve these economic problems.  Not more government programs.

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Some of my favorite videos as of late.  Watch and get schooled kids! The first one is utterly amazing.

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