Now that the economic boom times of the earlier part of the decade are over, cities and states across America are going bust. In fact, for a growing number of local governments throughout the United States, there is no getting around the fact that “flat broke” accurately describes the situation that they are facing. For many of these cities and states that are on the verge of bankruptcy, the American Dream is quickly turning into the American Nightmare. Unlike the federal government, which can ask the Federal Reserve to print up some more money when they get into trouble, state and local governments have nowhere to go when the well runs dry. They either have to raise taxes or cut spending. But in many areas of the country, services have already been cut to the bone and people are already being taxed into oblivion. So what can be done? Well, many of these state and local governments are just going to have to cut spending even deeper, squeeze even more taxes out of their residents, or go to the federal government for a handout. (Read More...)
Economic Crisis
50 Statistics About The U.S. Economy That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe
Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don’t know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is. The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a “downturn” or a “recession”. What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. Our greed and our debt are literally eating our economy alive. Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. We have nearly totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. A great day of financial reckoning is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious. (Read More...)
What Is This Country Coming To When A 7 Year Old Girl Can’t Even Have A Lemonade Stand Without Getting Shut Down By The Cops?
What in the world has happened to the United States of America? Once upon a time, young boys and girls across this great land of ours could set up little lemonade stands and make a little bit of extra cash without fear of being raided by the cops. But those days are apparently gone. In the town of Tulare, California one little 7-year-old girl recently had her lemonade stand shut down by authorities because she did not have the proper business permits. So what in the world are authorities doing running around shutting down lemonade stands for? Don’t they have anything better to do? After all, if your car is stolen these days you are very fortunate if you can even get a cop to come out to the scene. But apparently stopping a little girl from raising money so that she can go to Disneyland is a top priority in the town of Tulare. So now what is this little 7-year-old girl supposed to think about trying to live the American Dream? (Read More...)
Welcome To The Real World 2010 College Graduates – Nobody Wants To Hire You
This is the time of year when hundreds of thousands of young Americans graduate from institutions of higher learning all across the United States. This horde of fresh-faced young Americans is full of knowledge and ambition and is ready to get good jobs and start living the American Dream. But there is only one problem. There are not nearly enough good jobs for them. In fact, there have not been nearly enough good jobs for college graduates for a number of years. As a result, record numbers of college graduates are moving back in with mommy and daddy and are taking jobs as Wal-Mart greeters, Chinese food delivery people and video store clerks. But it is tough to blame them when the job openings simply are not there. It is hard to describe how depressing it can be for a young person to send out dozens of resumes day after day and not receive a single positive response. The reality is that the real world is a lot different from the safe environment of college. In fact, 2010 college graduates are finding out that the real world can be downright cruel. (Read More...)
16 Signs That The Rich Are Getting Richer And The Poor Are Getting Poorer
Never before in American history has so much wealth been concentrated in the hands of so few. Once upon a time, children throughout the United States were taught that America was the land of opportunity where anyone can make it if they work really hard. But today the system is designed so that wealth flows into the pockets of the rich as the rest of us struggle feverishly to stay above water. The once great middle class that did so much to define America as a nation is slowly being squeezed out of existence. For tens of millions of ordinary Americans, the American Dream is rapidly becoming the American Nightmare. The labor of blue collar workers was once the engine that built the United States into an economic powerhouse, but today many of those workers have been replaced by robots and computers, or their jobs have been shipped overseas by greedy corporate executives. Those who are in a position to exploit advances in technology and third world labor pools are becoming exceedingly wealthy, while the rest of us are left wondering why it seems as though we are working harder and harder for less and less. The sad truth is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. A very small percentage of Americans are sitting on massive piles of cash while an increasing number of Americans are having to rely on government handouts just to survive. So is this a good thing for America? (Read More...)
Living The Dream: What Do You Own – Really?
If someone came up to you and asked you what you own, what would you say? It may seem like an obvious question, but it is actually a lot more complicated than you might think. We live in a very materialistic society. In fact, a large percentage of Americans today define their lives by what they “own”, and a large percentage of Americans consider “living the American Dream” to be about accumulating a house, several cars and a massive pile of possessions. But what does it mean to “own” something anyway? Does it mean to have something in your possession? Well, if that was the case then someone leasing a car for three years could be considered the owner. But that obviously is not the case. Does “owning” something mean that nobody can legally take that thing away from you? Well, if that is the case then perhaps we all “own” a lot less than we think we do. (Read More...)
Economic Austerity Measures: Bitter Financial Medicine For Nations That Have Been Living Beyond Their Means
Over the past several decades, most of the major industrialized nations have been borrowing and spending unprecedented amounts of money. This has enabled them to greatly stimulate their economies, and has allowed hundreds of millions of people to live fabulous lifestyles. But there is a problem when nations try to live beyond their means for decades. A big problem. The problem is called debt. Right now the world is facing a sovereign debt crisis that threatens to throw the entire globe into a very, very deep recession. In fact, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King recently called this the worst financial crisis in history. While that might be a bit dramatic (at least at this point), the reality is that the situation in the financial world is becoming very, very serious. You see, debts have to be paid back eventually. All over the globe, national governments are trying to deal with debt and interest on debt that has piled up so dramatically that they don’t know what to do about it. For example, the United States is in a complete mess. The U.S. national debt is scheduled to soon surpass 13 trillion dollars. To get an idea of how big that is, if you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars. It would take you more than 403,000 years to spend 13 trillion dollars. Are you starting to get the picture? This gigantic debt that the U.S. government has accumulated is about to turn the American Dream into the American Nightmare. It is literally impossible for the United States to ever pay the national debt off, and as it continues to explode it will increasingly become a crushing load that the U.S. economy can simply not support. (Read More...)
Will The New Green Economy Kill The American Dream For Millions Of People?
As Barack Obama and U.S. Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman continue to try to ramrod a “green economy bill” down the throats of the American people, many Americans are openly wondering what this new green economy is going to cost all of us. After all, two new reports have just come out that clearly indicate that “climate change legislation” is really, really bad for an economy. In fact, many are projecting that the cap and trade system that Barack Obama and the Democrats wish to impose on all of us will end up killing the American Dream for millions of people. At a time when the U.S. economy is already coming apart at the seams, the last thing we need is another huge mountain of oppressive regulations heaped on to American businesses. This is especially true considering the fact that global corporations have already shown that they will ship manufacturing jobs out of the United States at the drop of a hat. The reality is that the new green economy is not going to be good for any of us, and the American people need to wake up to that fact. (Read More...)