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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org, OWL-OldWaysLiving@yahoogroups.com
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] learn to live on the land
  • Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:45:16 -0700


this would be off topic except for what it implies. this is why we need the
skills & preparation to make a living with the necessities of life, like
food, shelter, transportation, community. in other words, learn to live on
the land long term, with a much lower level of technology and resource
consumption
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24 Stats To Crush Anyone Who Thinks America Has A Bright Economic Future
Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse | Jan. 13, 2012, 9:28 AM |

http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-snyder-economic-collapse-2012-1

Beware of bubbles of false hope. Right now there is a lot of talk about how
the U.S. economy is improving, but it is all a lie. The mainstream media can
be very seductive. When you sit down to watch television your brain tends to
go into a very relaxed mode. In such a state, it becomes easy to slip
thoughts and ideas past your defenses. Sometimes when I am watching
television I realize what the media is trying to do and yet I can still feel
it happening to me.

In this day and age, it is absolutely critical that we all think for
ourselves. When you look at the long-term trends and the long-term numbers, a
much different picture of the U.S economy emerges than the one that is
painted for us on television.

Over the long-term, the number of good jobs in America has been steadily
going down. Over the long-term, the number of Americans living in poverty and
living on food stamps has been steadily going up. Over the past couple of
decades, tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and trillions of
dollars of our national wealth have gone out of the country.

Our debt is nearly 15 times larger than it was 30 years ago, and U.S.
consumer debt has soared by 1700% over the past 40 years. Year after year the
rate of inflation goes up faster than our incomes do, and this is absolutely
devastating the middle class. Anyone who believes that we can keep doing the
same things that we have been doing and yet America will still have a bright
economic future is delusional. Until the long-term trends which are taking
the U.S. economy straight into the toilet are reversed, any talk of a bright
economic future is absolute nonsense.

In America today, we have such a short-term focus. We are all so caught up
with what is happening right now. Our attention spans seem to get shorter
every single year. At this point it would not be hard to argue that kittens
have longer attention spans than most of us do. (If you have ever owned a
kitten you know how short their attention spans can be.) Things have gotten
so bad that most of our high school students cannot even answer the most
basic questions about our history. If people are not talking about it on
Facebook or Twitter it is almost as if it does not even matter.

But any serious student of history knows that is is absolutely crucial to
examine long-term trends. And when you look at the long-term trends, it
rapidly becomes apparent that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a
nightmarish long-term decline.

The following are 24 statistics to show to anyone who believes that America
has a bright economic future....

#1 Inflation is a silent tax that steals wealth from all of us. We continue
to shell out increasing amounts of money for the basic things that we need,
and yet our incomes are not keeping pace. Just check out the following
example. Gasoline prices have been trending higher for several years in a row
as one blogger recently noted....

January 2009 $1.65

January 2010 $2.57

January 2011 $3.04

January 2012 $3.29

#2 If you can believe it, the average American household spent approximately
$4,155 on gasoline during 2011.

#3 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall
rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#4 Health care costs continue to rise at a very alarming pace. According to
the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of
all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately
16.3%.

#5 Getting a college education has also become insanely expensive in America.
After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about
twice as much money as they did a decade ago.

#6 To get the same purchasing power that you got out of $20.00 back in 1970
you would have to have more than $116 today.

#7 To get the same purchasing power that you got out of $20.00 back in 1913
you would have to have more than $457 today.

#8 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were
back in 2000 even though we have added more than 30 million extra people to
the population since then.

#9 The U.S. economy is bleeding millions of good jobs. Greedy CEOs are
systematically shipping them overseas and our politicians are standing around
and doing nothing about it. This has gone on year after year after year.
The following is from a recent article by Paul Craig Roberts....

In the first decade of the 21st century, Americans lost 5,500,000
manufacturing jobs. US employment in the manufacture of computer and
electronic products fell by 40%; in the production of machinery by 30%, in
motor vehicles and and parts by 44%, and in the manufacture of clothing by
66%.

#10 Our economic infrastructure is being torn apart right in front of our
eyes. In 2010, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in
the United States. Overall, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the
United States have shut down since 2001.

We have made it legal for big corporations to send millions of jobs to
countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages, where the tax burden is
much lighter and where there are barely any regulations. The following is a
brief excerpt from a recent article posted on Economy in Crisis....

Back in the ‘80s, I called my friend Walter in California and asked: “On
your next expansion we need a plant in South Carolina.” Walter replied: “We
don’t produce anything in the United States. It’s all in China. China
furnishes you the plant on a year-to-year basis. If your investment works
out, you don’t have to pay any corporate tax; just reinvest it for another
plant and more profit. If it doesn’t work out, you can walk away with no
legacy costs. I send a quality controller to watch production. I check on it
every day. I don’t have any labor, health, safety, or environmental concerns,
and have time to play a round of golf.” The bleeding of jobs off-shore
started in the ‘80s — now hemorrhages under Bush and Obama. Waiting for the
economy to bounce back; calling this “the worst recession” is a bum rap. The
reason the economy hasn’t bounced back since 2008 is because the economy is
being off-shored.

#11 As a result of our insane economic policies, our trade balances are
absolutely exploding. For example, the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010
was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#12 As you read this, there are millions of Americans out there wondering why
they can't find any jobs. According to Reuters, 23.7 million American
workers are either unemployed or underemployed right now.

#13 The number of good jobs has been steadily shrinking in America. Since
the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs. In
the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United
States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

#14 Over the last three decades, the percentage of low income jobs has
consistently risen. Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United
States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United
States are low income jobs.

#15 The number of middle class neighborhoods also continues to decline. In
1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". By
2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".

#16 A decade ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth
per adult. By 2010, the United States had fallen to seventh.

#17 Our incomes continue to go down. Since December 2007, median household
income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account
for inflation.

#18 Unfortunately, middle class Americans have been seeing their incomes
decline for a very long time. According to one study, between 1969 and 2009
the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped
by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

#19 Since 1971, consumer debt in the United States has increased by a
whopping 1700%. Unfortunately, U.S. consumers have still not learned how to
stay out of debt. According to a recent article posted on Financial
Armageddon, the rate of personal savings in the United States is rapidly
falling right now at the same time that the total amount of consumer credit
is absolutely skyrocketing.

#20 The number of children living in poverty in America keeps rising year
after year. The percentage of children living in poverty in the United States
increased from 16.9 percent in 2006 to nearly 22 percent in 2010.

#21 The number of Americans on food stamps continues to set new all-time
records. Just check out the following progression....

October 2008: 30.8 million Americans on food stamps

October 2009: 37.6 million Americans on food stamps

October 2010: 43.2 million Americans on food stamps

October 2011: 46.2 million Americans on food stamps

#22 The U.S. debt problem has gotten completely and totally out of control.
Recently, the debt of the federal government surpassed 100% of GDP for the
first time ever.

#23 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more
debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time
that Bill Clinton took office.

#24 Barack Obama's proposed 2012 budget projects that the national debt will
rise to 26 trillion dollars a decade from now. And his budget numbers are
ridiculously optimistic.

Are you starting to get the picture?

All of the long-term economic numbers are progressively getting worse.

As the economy continues to crumble, large numbers of Americans are becoming
really desperate. For example, a recent Mother Jones article detailed how
large numbers of formerly middle class Americans are now actually growing
marijuana in an effort to make ends meet.

As things continue to get worse, people will become even more desperate.
There are millions of people out there that find themselves unable to pay the
mortgage and put food on the table for their families. When people hit rock
bottom, they often find themselves doing things that they never dreamed that
they would do.

Meanwhile, the big Wall Street banks just keep getting larger and more
powerful. We have allowed the "too big to fail" banks to become much bigger
than they have ever been before. The total assets of the six largest U.S.
banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30,
2011.

Wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated at the very top even as the
overall economic pie in America continues to get smaller.

As our economic problems become worse, more Americans than ever are trying to
find ways to "escape".

For example, according to one new government report one out of every six
adults in America is a binge drinker.

Other Americans "tune out" by watching endless hours of television, by
playing endless hours of video games or by indulging in endless hours of
other forms of entertainment.

There are even some Americans that are giving up completely. For example,
one elderly man actually robbed a bank just so that he could get arrested and
be taken to prison where he would get free health care.

But as I have written about previously, now is not the time to give up.
Instead, now is the time to prepare for the great challenges that are ahead.

Almost every generation in history has been faced with great challenges and
great hardships at some point.

Yes, there will be some incredibly hard times ahead, but that also means that
there will be a need for some great heroes.

Just because the U.S. economy is falling apart does not mean that life is
over.

We are living during one of the most exciting times in all of human history.
Instead of cowering in fear, let us embrace these times and focus on becoming
the people that we were created to be.








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