As you read this, there are tens of millions of people in China, India and dozens of third world nations who would love to do your job for one-tenth the pay.  They are willing to work 12 hours a day.  They don't expect a benefits plan or a pension package.  They aren't going to waste countless hours chatting on their cell phones or updating their Facebook profiles.  All they want is a chance.  And increasingly, the big global corporations that dominate the world economy are giving it to them.  It is called outsourcing, and if you don't believe that it can happen to your job, you might want to think again.  It is not just Americans who are chasing after the American Dream these days.  We now live in a global economy with a global workforce and the rules of the game have fundamentally changed.

It doesn't matter if you don't like it. 

The truth is that the big global predator corporations that dominate the global landscape don't care about you.

They don't exist to give you a good job.

They don't exist to enable you to pay your mortgage.

They don't exist to put your kids through college.

They don't exist to provide you with a big, cushy pension in your old age.

They exist to make money.

So why should they hire you, when they can hire someone else on the other side of the world for one-tenth the pay?

Why should they hire you, when countries on the other side of the globe will allow them to hire workers in an environment of extremely low taxes and almost no regulations?

Why should they hire you, when a worker in a third world nation is not going to require health insurance, employer contributions to Social Security and unemployment, a benefits package or a pension plan?

The truth is that it is very complicated and it is very expensive to hire an American worker.

Millions upon millions of jobs have already been offshored and outsourced, and tens of millions more are about to be sent out of America.  In fact, Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder estimates that 22% to 29% of all current U.S. jobs will be offshorable within two decades.

All of our technological advances have made the world a very small place.  In this new global economy, you had better get to know your competition.

So just who are you competing against?  Well, in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.

Are you willing to work for 86 cents an hour?

No?

You had better start getting used to the idea.

For decades, the American people voted for politicians from both parties who promised us that "free trade" and "the global economy" would be so good for us.

But what they didn't tell us is that our standard of living would inevitably be forced down to the level of all the other workers around the world as labor became a global commodity.

So now we reap the bitter harvest of our poor decisions.

For example, Detroit was once the 4th largest city in the United States, and it was a shining example of how U.S. heavy industry was providing millions of jobs for middle class Americans.  But just look at it today....

The millions of jobs that have been offshored and outsourced simply are not ever coming back.

During the really bad 2001 recession, the U.S. economy lost 2% of its jobs and it took four years to get them all back.  But this time, the U.S. economy has lost more than 5% of its jobs and there is no sign that the bleeding of jobs is going to stop any time soon.

Yet the top politicians in both parties continue to insist that our trade policies are fine.  They have no problem with the fact that we ship millions of jobs overseas and that the lopsided tariff and trade agreements the U.S. government has entered into have caused our trade deficit to balloon to ridiculous proportions. 

The truth is that people need to start talking about the high cost of "free" trade.  The video posted below starts a little slowly, but by the end it will have your jaw hitting the floor....

But nobody takes all of this seriously enough.  The once great American economic machine is being dismantled in slow motion, and nobody seems to really care.  Now NBC is even promoting a new television show called "Outsourced" which makes a big joke out of it.

But the tens of millions of Americans who are currently out of work probably are not going to think it is too funny.

In fact, an increasing number of American people are getting really mad.

Why?

Well, because they are finding it really difficult to provide for their families.

According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

But an increasing number of Americans are not even doing that well and have gone flat broke.  More than 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which was a 32 percent increase over 2008.

The truth is that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at an alarming rate.

The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

1 percent of the pie for 40 percent of the population?

How long do you think that is going to last before people start getting really pissed off?

The American people don't need more handouts though - what they need are good jobs.

But oops - we shipped all their good jobs to China and India.

The truth is that it doesn't take a genius to figure out why the average time needed to find a job in America has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

There simply are not nearly enough jobs in 2010.

Big corporations don't want to hire American workers anymore.

In the new globalist system, there are far too many much less expensive options.

The new playing field is governed by organizations with initials such as NAFTA, GATT and WTO and in this new game American workers are the big losers.

Perhaps you are reading this and you think that I am wrong.

Well, I have a challenge for you.

In the comments section below, please answer this question:

Why in the world should big global corporations hire American workers when they are allowed to hire good workers on the other side of the world for one-tenth the pay and they don't have to give them benefits or a pension either?

Hopefully someone can convince me that I am wrong, because I simply cannot see a light at the end of the tunnel for middle class American workers right now.

Do you know how enormous one trillion dollars is?  If you were alive when Christ was born, and on that day you started spending a million dollars every single day, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.  If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you over 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.  A trillion $1 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the globe more than 38 times.  That is how big one trillion dollars is.  But right now, if the U.S. government could actually reduce the federal budget deficit to one trillion dollars that would be a major victory.  In 2009, the U.S. government ran a budget deficit of more than 1.4 trillion dollars.  The U.S. government will run a budget deficit of more than 1.4 trillion dollars in 2010.  Not only that, the Obama administration is already admitting that the budget deficit will be over 1.4 trillion dollars again in 2011.  In fact, the truth of it is that we are looking at trillion dollars deficits for as far as the eye can see.  In the process we are piling up the biggest mountain of debt the world has ever seen.  What we are doing to future generations is unfathomable.  Servicing this monolithic debt is going to devastate the U.S. economy and is going to absolutely crush the American Dream for future generations of Americans.  But we can't seem to help ourselves.  We just keep spending. 

As of June 1st, the total U.S. National Debt was $13,050,826,460,886.97. 

For those who aren't used to seeing such big numbers, that is over 13 trillion dollars.

It is a debt that it literally impossible to every pay off.

But we are still adding to it at a breathtaking pace. 

How long do you think that we can continue to run federal budget deficits equivalent to 10 percent of GDP before this whole thing collapses?

The truth is that anyone with a brain knows that these kinds of deficits are not anywhere close to sustainable.

According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.

So we'll cross the $20 trillion mark some time in 2016?

Ouch!

Already, the U.S. government has to borrow 41 cents of every dollar that it spends.

We just can't keep spending nearly twice what we are bringing in.

But the debt addiction of the U.S. government just keeps rolling on.  It is projected that the U.S. government will issue nearly as much new debt in 2010 as the rest of the governments of the world combined.

Now that is a lot of debt!

Unfortunately, there is every indication that things are going to get even worse.  The following are 10 reasons why we might not see anything less than a trillion dollar deficit for decades to come....

1 - Tax revenues are way, way down.  Tens of millions of Americans either don't have jobs or are significantly underemployed.  Without jobs, these tens of millions will not be paying taxes.  Instead, they will be a massive drain on the system.  Already, over 40 million Americans are on food stamps and the U.S. government says that is going to increase by several million more in 2011.  Of course the solution would be to put these tens of millions back to work in good jobs, but we took all their good jobs and shipped them off to China and the third world in the name of "free trade". 

2 - A huge percentage of the U.S. federal budget is made up of entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare that cannot be cut without a change in the law.  Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama's 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf.

3- The Social Security program is in huge, huge trouble.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, this year the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes.  This was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.  The Social Security trust fund is supposed to have $2.5 trillion sitting in it to pay the benefits for all the Baby Boomers that are now retiring, but over the last 30 years the U.S. government took all that money out and spent it on other things.

4- There simply are not nearly enough workers to support all the people who are now retiring.  Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers.  Today, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers.  By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

5- The shortfall in entitlement programs in the years ahead is mind boggling. The present value of projected scheduled benefits exceeds earmarked revenues for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare by about 46 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.  So that means that the U.S government is going to have to find an extra 46 trillion dollars from somewhere to pay all those benefits.

6 - According to an official U.S. government report, exploding interest costs on the U.S. national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019.  That is before a single dollar is spent on anything else.  So you can cut and slash all other areas of the U.S. government budget to the bone, but until you do something about entitlement programs you will have solved nothing.

7 - Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare is somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 percent of GDP.  By 2080, those expenditures are projected to eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP. 

8 - We are in such bad shape already, and the new health care law that was recently enacted is going to make things even worse.  The Congressional Budget Office projects that the health care bill recently passed by Congress will add over a trillion dollars to our debt over the next ten years.

9- Unfortunately, the American people don't have much more money that can be squeezed out of them.  The truth is that as a society, we are up to our eyeballs in debt.  The total of all government, corporate and consumer debt in the United States is now approximately equivalent to 360 percent of GDP.  That is a far higher debt burden than anything we have ever experienced - even during the Great Depression. 

10 - If you try to cut Social Security, Medicare of other important government programs, the American voters will cry bloody murder.  The lobbies for those receiving entitlement payments are extremely powerful.  You won't hear a whisper from most politicians about cutting Social Security.  The truth is that they want to keep getting elected.  The American people like getting their checks, and they will not take too kindly to anyone who tries to take them away or reduce them.

So we have got a real mess on our hands.  It is political suicide to suggest severe cuts to entitlement programs, but without major changes those programs are absolutely going to bankrupt us.

In addition, any major cuts to government spending are going to hurt the already struggling U.S. economy.  But if the economy gets even worse, American voters will be even more likely to vote out those currently in Washington.  So those politicians who value their jobs understand that boosting the economy through government spending is their best bet if they want to keep their jobs. 

But shouldn't someone be looking out for the long-term interests of the American people? 

Shouldn't someone be concerned about all of this debt that we are piling up?

Well, politicians like that are very few and far between.  There are some who will talk about it, but very, very few who will ever do much about it.

But this gigantic mountain of debt grows every day and it is never going to go away.

There will only be so many times that dealing with this debt can be put off for another time. 

In the end, debt will always have its day.

BP has been caught red-handed using dirt cheap prison labor to clean up the oil spill along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico as thousands upon thousands of non-inmates beg for work.  So why would BP use prison labor when there are so many others who would gladly do the work?  Well, prison labor costs far, far less of course.  As bad as this is for BP's public image, the truth is that we should not be too hard on them.  After all, exploiting cheap labor around the world has become an obsession for the big global corporations that dominate our economy.  To these gigantic global predators, the American Dream is not about providing good jobs so that middle class Americans can buy homes and send their kids to college.  No, to these behemoths the goal is to find the closest thing to slave labor that they can so that they can dramatically increase their profits. 

So yes, it is wrong that BP has been using cheap or free prison labor to clean up the oil spill.  But the truth is that they can defend themselves by saying that "everyone else is doing it" and they would be right.  We have set up a system where the exploitation of labor is highly rewarded.

In a recent article for The Nation, Abe Louise Young shined a light on BP's hiring practices down in the Gulf.  It turns out that people highly objected to seeing workers with uniforms that said "Inmate Labor" on them, so now BP is being much more sneaky about things....

I got an answer one evening earlier this month, when I drove up the gravel driveway of the Lafourche Parish Work Release Center jail, just off Highway 90, halfway between New Orleans and Houma. Men were returning from a long day of shoveling oil-soaked sand into black trash bags in the sweltering heat. Wearing BP shirts, jeans and rubber boots (nothing identifying them as inmates), they arrived back at the jail in unmarked white vans, looking dog tired.

Now, it must be admitted that cleaning up the oil on these beaches is not a good job.  In fact, there are some very real health hazards that come along with cleaning this stuff up.

So the loss of these jobs is not really worth getting all worked up over.

However, what is worth getting worked up about is the tens of millions of good jobs that have been shipped off to China, India and a host of third world nations.

Today, a very high percentage of the products that we buy in "big box" retail stores are manufactured in close to slave labor conditions on the other side of the globe.

We certainly enjoy the "low, low prices" that we get as a result of this cheap labor, but then we wonder why Steve, John and Frank down the street are out of work and can't get jobs no matter what they do.

The truth is that there are approximately 6 unemployed Americans for every single job opening out there today.

There are not nearly enough jobs for everyone, and that is not going to change any time soon.

Once great manufacturing cities such as Detroit are now so run down that they look like war zones.

Why?

Well, we allowed the big global corporations to ship their jobs overseas so that we could save a little bit of money on all the plastic crap that we keep filling our shopping carts with.

But in the end, we are still paying the price.

You see, now instead of our economy providing jobs for America's working class, we now have to give an increasing number of them handouts just so they can survive.

Without jobs, people cannot take care of themselves or their families, so the taxpayers have to end up taking care of them.

For 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.

21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010, which is the highest rate in 20 years.

So, yes, in the end our society ends up paying a very high cost for all of the "low price" products from China and the third world.

Meanwhile, the very wealthy are doing quite well.  It turns out that exploiting cheap labor around the globe is very lucrative.

According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

Does that seem fair to you?

Not that it is wrong to make money.  Making money is a good thing.  But is there not something wrong with a system where 66% of the income growth goes to 1% of the people?

The truth is that the very rich are getting much richer while the rest of us are increasingly struggling.

For example, only the top 5 percent of all U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

Are you stretched to the max trying to pay for your home?

You are not alone.  Tens of millions of American families are up to their eyeballs in debt and are trying to figure out how to survive from month to month.

The reality is that the middle class is being squeezed like they never have been before.

The current economic system does not value the labor of working class Americans.  In fact, hiring American workers is seen as a big negative in today's economic environment. 

Unless something fundamentally changes, and right now that does not seem very likely, an increasing number of Americans are going to become chronically unemployed and jobs are going to become even more scarce.

America is rapidly being deindustrialized and American workers are being increasingly merged into the new "global" labor pool.  If we allow this to continue, our standard of living will eventually match the standard of living that we see around the rest of the globe.

Is that what you really want?

As the U.S. economy implodes, a lot of American families are being faced with some incredibly heartbreaking choices.  Many of them piled up massive amounts of debt during the good times as they chased the American Dream, but now that hard times have arrived they find that they just can't handle the huge mountain of debt that they have accumulated.  Other Americans are looking at the crumbling economy and are trying to prioritize where to spend their money.  They wonder whether they should pay off their debts or whether that money would be better spent on stocking up on necessities for the incredibly hard times that are ahead.  The truth is that this article is going to raise a lot of questions but not provide a lot of answers.  In the end, each person has to make their own choices.  In addition, some of the viewpoints in this article are going to be controversial to many of you.  It is okay if you disagree.  In fact, if you find something that you disagree with, please leave a comment.  This is a topic that hits home with a lot of Americans, and a lot of people have some incredibly strong opinions about paying off debt.

If you are not a regular reader of my articles, you may not understand just how bad a shape the U.S. economy is in.  The reality is that the great American economic machine is falling to pieces.  Tens of millions are chronically unemployed or underemployed, foreclosures continue to reach all-time highs, personal bankruptcies continue to set new records, over 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. government (along with the rest of our nation) has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

For those of you who are interested in the statistics and the numbers behind the current economic collapse, you should check out the following article that I recently authored on another website: "40 Bizarre Statistics That Reveal The Horrifying Truth About The Collapse Of The U.S. Economy".

So in light of the coming economic collapse, what should we all do about our debts?  Should we hurry up and pay them off?  Should we just forget about them?  Should we tell the banks to jump off a bridge?

Right now a lot of Americans are walking away from debts without paying them back.  This is particularly true when it comes to "underwater" mortgages.  Being "underwater" means that you owe more on a mortgage than the house it worth.  A growing number of Americans who have "underwater" mortgages have simply decided to quit paying them and have walked away from their homes.  In fact, over the past year it is estimated that at least a million Americans who could have afforded to stay in their homes chose to walk away.

Just think about that.

In the past year alone, a million Americans have simply decided that it is just not worth it to keep paying the mortgage.

These are known as "strategic defaults", and they are being touted by many as the common sense economic choice for those caught in bad mortgages.

But are strategic defaults the right moral choice?

That is the question I asked in a recent article entitled "Strategic Defaults: Is It Morally Right To Decide To Simply Stop Paying Your Mortgage?".  As you can see from the comments that were left on that article, a lot of people have some REALLY strong opinions on the matter.

Fannie Mae certainly does not think that strategic defaults are the right choice for consumers.  In fact, Fannie Mae has announced a massive crackdown on those who have committed strategic defaults.  In states where they are able to do so, they are planning to take those who have committed strategic defaults to court.

In the end, there is going to be a lot of litigation and a lot of people really burned by this whole thing.  The mortgage system in the United States is totally broken and is literally coming apart at the seams at this point.

In fact, many people who actually try to work with their mortgage companies find that they simply can't get anywhere with company officials.  It is almost as if these people have been paid not to find solutions.  The number of foreclosure horror stories is multiplying as frustrated homeowners drown in a sea of applications and paperwork that seems to get them nowhere.

But just because dealing with lenders is so frustrating does that mean that skipping out on your mortgage is the right thing to do?

But mortgage debt is not the only type of debt that Americans are struggling with right now.

For many younger Americans, student loan debt loads have become absolutely back breaking.  The Project on Student Debt says that approximately 206,000 students graduated from college with more than $40,000 in student loan debt during 2008.  Using 2008 dollars as a baseline, that represents a ninefold increase over the number of students graduating with that level of debt in 1996.   

But then when our college graduates get out into the real world they find that there are fewer good jobs available than at any other time in recent memory.  So a large percentage of these students they are stuck paying off giant debt loads on little to no income.

What a way to begin your working years.

And unfortunately, federal bankruptcy law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debts.

Talk about a trap.

Another huge debt trap that almost all Americans are caught in is credit card debt.

Today, there are over 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the United States.  At the end of 2008, American consumers owed over 972 billion dollars on their credit cards.  That was an amount greater than the GDP of the world's 122 poorest nations combined.

Needless to say, such a massive pile of debt is not sustainable.

But is that justification for walking away from it?

Well it depends who you ask.

These days, there is no consensus view on what is "moral" and what is not.

After all, in a nation that has pushed God out of the picture, who is going to define what is "right" and what is "wrong"?

Without any guiding moral principles, we are pretty much left with what is "legal" and what is not.

Beyond that, most Americans pretty much do whatever is right in their own eyes.

So what is the "morally right" thing to do when it comes to paying off your debts?

Well, absent any objective standard, the "morally right" thing to do for most Americans is whatever they "feel" is right.

However, for those who are Christians, there is an objective standard when it comes to morality.

For those who follow the Creator of the universe, He has given us instructions for how to live our lives.

It is called the Bible.

At this point, a lot of readers are going to get really upset.

But you needn't get upset.

The truth is that everyone has a choice whether they are going to follow God's instructions or not.

So if you have made a decision to rebel against God's instructions, then why let it bother you when others make the decision to follow them?

So what do the Scriptures say?

Well, the Scriptures tell us that it is not wise to get into debt in the first place.  In Proverbs 22:7 it tells us this....

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."

That statement is as true today as it ever has been. 

Many of us wish we had learned that very hard lesson many years ago.

When it comes to repaying debt, Psalm 37:21 says this....

The wicked borrow and do not repay

So why is it wrong?

Well, when you borrow money you are making a promise to pay it back.  To borrow money and not repay it when you are able to is essentially stealing, which we are warned in the Ten Commandments not to do....

You shall not steal. (Exodus 20:15)

Of course there is nothing wrong with negotiating with your lenders and trying to work something out with them.

Or if you have been induced into your debts fraudulently or if the lenders broke laws, then that certainly changes things.

And of course if you are out of work and are flat broke, then you will not be able to make your debt payments.

But if you are able to pay off your debts and you simply choose not to, that is another story. 

It is not easy to pay off debt, but it is the right thing to do.

America is facing a retirement crisis that is so colossal that it threatens to collapse the entire financial system.  Millions upon millions of Baby Boomers are preparing to retire, but when you take a close look at the numbers it quickly becomes clear that it is mathematically impossible for us to keep the financial promises that we have made to them.  The truth is that the days when tens of millions of elderly Americans could enjoy a very comfortable retirement are rapidly drawing to a close.  Why?  Well, because there is no money.  The U.S. government is supposed to have 2.5 trillion dollars in the Social Security trust fund for all of these retiring Baby Boomers, but they "borrowed" all of that money over the past 30 years to pay other bills.  Hundreds of other government and corporate pension programs across the United States are either severely underfunded or are not funded at all.  Meanwhile, American workers have been contributing pitifully small amounts to their own retirement funds.  Americans have been too busy drowning in debt as the pursue the American Dream to worry about putting away anything for the future.  So where does all of that leave us?  It leaves us with a complete and total financial nightmare on our hands. 

An increasing number of Americans are starting to wake up to this new reality.  In fact, a solid majority of American workers do not believe that the Social Security system will pay them benefits when they retire.

Just think about that for a moment.

Over half the working population has completely lost faith in the Social Security system.

That is what you call a crisis.

But that lack of faith has not resulted in increased private saving for retirement.

Right now approximately half of all American workers have less than $2000 saved for retirement.

That certainly won't go very far.

But to a certain extent, you can't blame people for not saving.

The truth is that an increasing number of Americans are just trying to find some way to survive in this horrible economy.

According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck.  That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

How can people save up tens of thousands of dollars for retirement if they are living month to month?

It is just not going to happen.

As the economy continues to collapse, the retirement crisis is going to get even worse.  Something is going to have to give.  Things are going to become very uncomfortable for our politicians as they are forced to deal with this growing crisis.

So just how bad are things already?

The following are ten incredible statistics about America's coming retirement crisis that will blow your mind....

1 - According to one new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won't be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.

2 - There is supposed to be approximately 2.5 trillion dollars in the Social Security trust fund, but the U.S. government has taken all of that money out and has spent it over the last 30 years. 

3 - According to the Congressional Budget Office, this year the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes.  This was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.

4 - 35% of Americans over the age of 65 rely almost totally on Social Security alone.

5 - Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers.  Today, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers.  By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

6 - 56% of current retirees believe that the government will eventually cut their Social Security benefits.

7 - Approximately half of all American workers have less than $2000 saved for retirement.

8 - According to one survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything at all to retirement savings.

9 - According to another recent survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age at some point during the past year.

10 - According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the U.S. national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019.  That is before one penny is spent on anything else.

Have you ever noticed that no matter what political party is in power in America nothing really seems to change that much?  Sure, a lot of the faces change and there are some small shifts in ideology here and there, but more or less the policies of the U.S. government have been remarkably consistent over the last 40 years.  Have you ever wondered why that is?  Well, the truth is that America's "ruling class" has an absolute stranglehold on both political parties.  You see, the little lie that we were told that "anyone can grow up and be president" simply is not true.  Living the American Dream takes connections.  Without the backing of the "establishment", you simply are not going to go very far in politics.  In fact, without the "establishment" you aren't going to go very far in law, the corporate world, the media or in the highest levels of education either.  Sure you might experience some success on the lower levels, but without fully becoming "connected" to the establishment to at least some degree you just are not going to advance to become one of the elite in any of those fields.

For decades, average Americans have felt a sense of growing frustration that their voices were not being heard in the halls of government, but most of them could never really figure out why.  But now more people than ever are waking up and are realizing that the majority of Americans, and anyone who would represent them properly, are being systematically excluded from politics by America's ruling class.  In fact, a recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey has found that just 23% of American voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.

That is a stunningly low figure.  But millions of Americans are becoming fed up with a system where nothing changes no matter who they vote for.  The Rasmussen poll also found that 68% of U.S. voters believe that the "political class" doesn’t care what most Americans think.

And the cold, hard truth is that they don't.

That may come as a shock to many of you, but the reality is that the ruling class is taught from a young age that the "highly educated" should be making decisions for the rest of society that foolishly clings to their "religious superstitions and traditional values".

I personally spent 8 years studying at universities where I saw this philosophy being shoved down the throats of young students day after day after day.

Once upon a time, the institutions of higher learning across the United States had a wide array of ideologies.  But today, universities from coast to coast have become so uniform in the belief systems that they teach that it is absolutely frightening.  The truth is that American universities have become indoctrination centers for the philosophy of America's ruling class.  You can't get a "good job" and advance without a college degree, but you can't get a college degree without receiving years of indoctrination in areas such as environmentalism, globalism, Darwinian evolution, feminism, sexual liberation and radical politics.

Not only that, but America's ruling class also tightly controls the media.  Have you ever noticed how any candidate that is outside the establishment is branded as "too extreme" by the mainstream media and we are told that "they don't have a realistic chance"? 

The same big media companies control the movies and television shows we watch, the music we listen to and even the video games that we play.  So when our children are done being indoctrinated at school all day long, they come home and receive indoctrination through their entertainment.  In the process, the next generation of America's ruling class is being molded and shaped to take their places in the system.

In his amazing article for The American Spectator, author Angelo M. Codevilla describes the cohesiveness that all of this indoctrination has achieved for the ruling class....

Today's ruling class, from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits. These amount to a social canon of judgments about good and evil, complete with secular sacred history, sins (against minorities and the environment), and saints. Using the right words and avoiding the wrong ones when referring to such matters -- speaking the "in" language -- serves as a badge of identity. Regardless of what business or profession they are in, their road up included government channels and government money because, as government has grown, its boundary with the rest of American life has become indistinct. Many began their careers in government and leveraged their way into the private sector. Some, e.g., Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, never held a non-government job. Hence whether formally in government, out of it, or halfway, America's ruling class speaks the language and has the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. It rules uneasily over the majority of Americans not oriented to government.

But doesn't the ruling class include our best and brightest?

No.

The truth is that grade inflation is so rampant today that almost everyone gets good grades.  But those with "connections" are able to get their children into the top schools.  George W. Bush was not a top student, but he got into Yale.  The vast majority of the rest of us have little to no chance of getting into a school like that.

At schools like Yale, Harvard and Stanford, the future leaders of America's ruling class are soaked in a radical form of "liberalism" that most Americans would find completely shocking.

If most of you only knew what was going on.  The reality is that our education system is a joke and it is much more about indoctrination than it is about education.

Most Americans could never figure out how our government, our legal system, our education system and our media got so liberal, but when you really analyze the situation it makes perfect sense.

And it also explains why liberals are the most pleased with our current government.  The Rasmussen poll referred to earlier found that 58% of liberal voters believe that the federal government has the consent of the governed, while only 23% of Americans as a whole believe that.

The truth is that in recent years Americans have increasingly lost faith in their government.

Why?

Because our representatives are not listening to us.

The American people were overwhelmingly against the Wall Street bailouts but our "representatives" shoved them down our throats anyway.

The American people were against the "health care reform bill" by a large margin, but Obama and the Democrats charged ahead with it anyway because they "know better" than us.

Every poll shows that the majority of Americans support Arizona's new immigration law, but the Obama administration doesn't care.  They are so radically against it that they have taken the state of Arizona to court.

This kind of arrogance by our government officials is making an increasing number of Americans absolutely sick.  Now a large percentage of Americans do not believe that the government will keep even their most basic promises to us.  According to a new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won't be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.

For a long time when I told people that I didn't believe that I would ever see a dime of Social Security money I thought that I was being extreme.

Now it turns out that a solid majority of Americans hold the exact same view.

Fortunately we live at a time when millions and millions of Americans are waking up.  One way that this awakening has manifested is through the Tea Party movement.  It is one of the greatest grass roots political movements that we have seen in American history, and many hope that real change can be brought about by it.

However, as we have already seen, the Tea Party movement is plagued by controversies and infighting and the mainstream media rips it every chance that it gets.  

The truth is that it is going to be hard for anyone to take control away from America's ruling class.  They are simply way too entrenched and are way too powerful.

But perhaps you disagree.  Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments section below....

An increasing number of economists, world leaders and financial columnists are beginning to acknowledge that our current economic crisis bears a striking resemblance to what was going on about the time the Great Depression of the 1930s started.  Just like the "Roaring 20s", the American people over the last couple of decades have been getting into massive amounts of debt in pursuit of the American Dream.  But just like the early 1930s, we are now experiencing a severe credit crunch and the process of deleveraging this gigantic mountain of debt promises to be at least as painful as the deleveraging that took place throughout the 1930s.  It seems like almost everyone is using words like "double dip" and "recession" now, and a lot of analysts are even starting to utter even more dreaded words like "deflation" and "depression".  Even the Federal Reserve, usually one of the biggest cheerleaders for the economy, is now saying that the U.S. economic system may not recover for another five or six years.  If that is what the Federal Reserve is admitting to, then how bad are things really?  The truth is that it really is beginning to look a lot like 1930 out there.

But it isn't just a few half-baked Internet crazies that are warning that we are headed into an economic nightmare.

Just consider the following headlines from recent articles penned by some of the most respected economists and financial journalists in the world....

*Nouriel Roubini: "Double-Dip Days"

*New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman: "The Third Depression"

*Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: "With The US Trapped In Depression, This Really Is Starting To Feel Like 1932"

*Adam Shell, USA Today: "Comparisons To The Great Depression Keep Popping Up"

*John P. Hussman: "Recession Warning"

*Lorimer Wilson: "The U.S. Is On The Edge Of A Growing Deflationary Sinkhole"

*Mike Whitney: "The Road To Recession"

*CNBC: "Dow Repeats Great Depression Pattern"

*Richard Henry Suttmeier: "Home Prices Could Drop 50% As The Great Recession Resumes"

*David Rosenberg, Chief Market Economist at Gluskin Sheff: "Daring to Compare Today to the 30s"

The reality is that everyone is starting to sense that things could quickly go from bad to worse.

In fact, things are already really, really bad.

The following are ten statistics that reveal just how horrible the condition of the U.S. economy is halfway through 2010....

1 - The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index declined sharply to 52.9 in June.  Most economists had expected that the figure for June would come in somewhere around 62.

2 - The M3 money supply plunged at a 9.6 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2010.

3 - Consumer credit in the United States has contracted during 15 of the past 16 months.

4 - One recent poll found that 76 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy is still in a recession.

5 - According to one shocking new survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.

6 - Approximately 8.6 million Americans are working part time because they can't get full-time jobs.

7 - Banks repossessed a record number of U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010.

8 - In May, sales of new homes in the U.S. dropped to the lowest level ever recorded.

9 - More than 25 percent of Americans now have a credit score below 599, which means that they are a very bad credit risk.

10 - The average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen to an all-time high.

In a recent article for The Telegraph, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard listed some more of the statistics that show how poorly the U.S. economy is performing at this moment....

The US workforce has shrunk by a 1m over the past two months as discouraged jobless give up the hunt. Retail sales have fallen for the past two months. New homes sales crashed to 300,000 in May after tax credits ran out, the lowest since records began in 1963. Mortgage applications have fallen by 42pc to 13-year low since April. Paul Dales at Capital Economics said the "shadow inventory" of unsold properties has risen to 7.8m. "The double dip in housing has begun," he said.

So after reading all that, is there any doubt that it is starting to feel a lot like the 1930s?

Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion....

Did you know that July 11th was "World Population Day"?  Unfortunately, it is not a celebration of the world population.  Rather, it is a day that the United Nations uses to "raise awareness of global population issues".  Yes, population control now has its very own holiday, and an increasing number of nations are jumping on board and are adopting strict population control measures at the urging of the UN.  In fact, many world leaders used the occasion of World Population Day 2010 to highlight just how well they are doing in reducing their populations.  To many Americans, this kind of thing is absolutely sickening.  Population control by the government is directly opposed to the American Dream and to everything that our founding fathers fought so hard to establish.  But today, even most U.S. politicians have bought into the radical population control agenda and are helping to export it across the face of the earth.  The truth is that now it is very hard to find a major world leader that does not agree with this radical population control agenda to at least some degree.

So what are some examples of these population control measures that are being implemented around the globe?

Well, of course when most people think about population control these days, they think of China first.  China has the largest population on the globe, and they are famous for the strict "one child" policy that they have been running for decades now.  The communist Chinese are obsessed with population control and they have received awards from the United Nations for their "hard work" in this area. 

In fact, rather than letting up, China has been continuing to "push the envelope" when it comes to population control.  In April, officials in China's Guangdong Province were accused by Amnesty International of carrying out coerced sterilizations in order to meet family planning goals.  Not only that, but it is an open secret that China has "mobile abortion vans" that are ready to spring into action when a woman who has already had a child is discovered to be pregnant.

But China is far from alone when it comes to implementing population control measures.

In Uzbekistan, things are becoming quite "Orwellian".

Human rights groups claim that literally hundreds of Uzbek women have been surgically sterilized without their knowledge or consent in recent years.

So why are all of these women being sterilized?

Well, it apparently comes from the top.

In fact, it is alleged that Uzbek President Islam Karimov has ramped up a sterilization campaign that he initiated back in the late 1990s.

In an official decree issued back in February, the Uzbek Health Ministry ordered all medical facilities to "strengthen control over the medical examination of women of childbearing age."

It is also being reported that the decree instructed medical personnel that "surgical contraception should be provided free of charge" to all Uzbek women who volunteer for the procedure.

And quite a few Uzbek women are volunteering.

But many are not and yet find themselves sterilized anyway.

In fact, witnesses claim that Uzbek authorities "are especially eager to sterilize women with HIV, tuberculosis or a drug addiction".

This population control agenda is being promoted aggressively in Africa as well.

At an event celebrating World Population Day 2010, one Namibian official made the following statement....

"The delivery of reproductive services to communities has not only resulted in the reduction in the population growth, but has also led to improved general health and sexual reproductive health."

You see, in the twisted world of the United Nations, more "reproductive services" does not lead to increased reproduction.

It always leads to less reproduction.

These programs are particularly pushed in the third world, because the global elite see those populations as mostly "useless eaters" that are using up the earth's resources but not contributing that much to the global society.

In his recent article for PrisonPlanet.com, Jurriaan Maessen noted many other nations where top government officials are taking World Population Day and the global eugenics agenda very seriously....

In the context of the UN’s World Population Day (last July 11), several developing nations were quick to pledge allegiance to the eugenic deity. In the east-Indian state of Bihar, officials put out the announcement that:

“The Bihar government will soon formulate a new population control policy. The policy will be framed in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF).”

Another Indian state, Karnataka, had President Gladys Almeida “observe World Population Day” at which event she told local government employees:

“There is a need to create an awareness on the need for population control.”

Another individual present said:

“as the population increases, nature takes its own method to control it.”

President Zillur Rahman of Bangladesh pushed to step up an “ongoing social movement” to control the population:

“Mentioning that every child should be born under a plan of the family, the President said, theme of this year population day- ‘everyone counts’ become appropriate in the context of Bangladesh.”

Speaking “while inaugarating the national programme on the World Population Day-2010″, Rahman concluded the event by distributing “population awards among eleven grassroots level workers for their outstanding performance in population control.”

Another compliant nation, Pakistan, had their Federal Minister for Population Welfare Firdous Aashiq Awan announce that:

“The government is taking serious measures to control population growth in the country.”

The government in Islmabad even recruits religious leaders (a trick stolen from the UN) in order to sell population control to the masses:

“(…) religious leaders are being empowered. For the first time, ‘Imam Masjid’ is being made a partner in population Welfare programmes. He would act as a social mobilizer, she (Awan) added.”

There’s more. The United News of India put out a statement by Union Minister of Health and Family welfare “on the occasion of World Population Day”, saying among other things:

“Strict implementation of laws about age or marriage and delayed first child with proper spacing may help in dealing with the population problem.”

Do you see what is happening?

It is not just a handful of nations that are implementing population control measures.

This is literally a global movement.  We are literally witnessing a tidal wave of support for population control sweep across the globe.

The truth is that the global elite are absolutely obsessed with eugenics and with population control.  For those who are new to this and would like more information about this radical agenda, I would recommend reading the following articles that I have published previously on various sites around the Internet....

*Yes, They Really Do Want To Reduce The Population – 22 Shocking Population Control Quotes From The Global Elite That Will Make You Want To Lose Your Lunch

*The Dangerous Myth Of Overpopulation

*One Less Child? Environmental Extremists Warn That Overpopulation Is Causing Climate Change And Will Ultimately Destroy The Earth

*Hillary Clinton: Population Control Will Now Become The Centerpiece Of U.S. Foreign Policy

*New U.N. Report: We Must Reduce The Population To Fight Climate Change

*The Population Control Agenda Behind The Global Warming Movement: For The Environmental Extremists At Copenhagen Population Reduction Is The “Cheapest” Way To Reduce Carbon Emissions

*To The Global Elite The Math Is Simple: Human Overpopulation Is Causing Climate Change So The Solution To Climate Change Is Population Control

The truth is that once you get the facts, there is no denying the reality of the radical population control agenda that the United Nations and the global elite is trying to force on the entire globe.

Population control is here.  It is much more "heavy-handed" in areas where the people cannot resist and defend themselves.  In countries such as the United States where these measures cannot be implemented by force (yet), population control is presented as a "right" or as a "choice".

But whether by force or by persuasion, the global elite are absolutely obsessed with getting the global population under control.

To them it is simple - they believe that climate change is the number one threat to the planet, and they believe that overpopulation is the number one cause of climate change.  Therefore, the global elite believe that population control has got to be number one on the agenda.

You see, they believe that by reducing our numbers, they are actually saving the planet and doing good for humanity.  Of course they will never volunteer to be first in line for any of these population control measures, because they have to be the ones to "guide" and "oversee" this agenda.

So what do you think about all of this?  Do you think that I am making too much of this population control agenda?  Do some of you actually support this population control agenda?  Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....

The Tea Party movement has been one of the most exhilarating things to happen to American politics in decades.  Millions of Americans who have become increasingly frustrated with government and who feel that they are not being represented have banded together to take collective action in what is truly one of the greatest grass roots movements in U.S. political history.  Some have even suggested that the Tea Party movement should become a new political party.  Every single day now, the Tea Party movement makes headlines all over the globe and it has had some tremendous success in getting some candidates elected recently.  But are there problems on the horizon?  The truth is that there are only a few things that almost everyone in the Tea Party movement agrees on.  But there are a whole bunch of issues that are creating major ideological divisions among Tea Party activists.  In fact, most of the issues listed below will create huge arguments at any Tea Party gathering.  The reality is that the Tea Party movement has attracted a very diverse group of people, and there are only a few points that they all agree on.  So can such a fractured movement survive in the long-term?

Before we get to the ideological divisions in the Tea Party movement, let's take a look at the few points that almost all Tea Party activists do agree upon.... 

1) The don't like high taxes.

2) They don't like exploding government spending and exploding government debt.

3) They don't like Barack Obama.

4) They are very angry at the government.

Beyond those four things, there is not that much that the Tea Party movement as a whole really agrees upon.

And that is unfortunate, because it would take a very united, very cohesive organization to truly turn the direction of the U.S. government around.

So what are some of the ideological divisions in the Tea Party movement?  Well, listed below are 10 issues that threaten to divide the Tea Party movement and doom it to failure....

1) Iran - Tea Party activists are deeply divided over Iran.  Many in the "Republican wing" of the Tea Party would advocate an immediate military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.  They would argue that we simply cannot allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.  On the other end, many in the "Libertarian wing" of the Tea Party are completely and totally opposed to ever striking Iran.  They feel that Iran is not a serious threat and that we should not be using our military might to impose our will around the globe.  As Iran continues to become a larger issue in the months ahead, this division in the Tea Party movement will only grow stronger.

2) Afghanistan and Iraq - On a similar note, there are very strong opinions on both sides when it comes to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Many in the "Republican wing" feel that we have to fight the terrorists "over there" so that they will not strike us at home.  Many in the "Libertarian wing" feel like we should not try to police the world and that we cannot afford all of these endless wars.

3) Abortion - This is a major, major point of division in the Tea Party movement.  Up until now, the Tea Party leadership (to the extent that the Tea Party does have leadership) has remained very, very quiet on social issues.  The Tea Party movement has always focused primarily on economic issues, but the truth is that it has attracted a lot of members who care very, very deeply about social issues such as abortion.  Probably a majority of Tea Party activists are against abortion, but there is a very sizable minority that either is pro-abortion or who don't want the movement to take a stand on social issues.  In the end, however, the Tea Party is going to have to take a side on this very important issue.

4) Gay Marriage - This is another social issue that is highly divisive.  Many Tea Party activists are very much against gay marriage, but many others support the gay agenda and feel that we should let people have the freedom to do whatever they want.  In fact, some of the most prominent Tea Party "heroes" have actually endorsed candidates that have ties to the "Log Cabin Republicans".  For now, many Tea Party groups have decided to stay mute on the issue of gay marriage, but that cannot last forever. 

5) National Security And Civil Liberties - There is a huge, huge ideological divide on these issues in the Tea Party movement.  Many of those who were fans of the Bush administration believe that we should do whatever we can to keep ourselves "safe" from terrorism.  On the other end, many of the more freedom-minded members of the Tea Party movement feel that our liberties and freedoms are being rapidly destroyed and that the United States is very quickly becoming a Big Brother police state.

6) Support For Israel- This is a very, very touchy issue.  There are many in the Tea Party movement that have an unflinching allegiance to the nation of Israel.  They would point out that Israel has always been a great friend to the United States and that we share a great deal in common with them.  On the other end, there is a growing anti-Israel movement in the United States, and some of these groups have unfortunately been attracted to the Tea Party movement. 

7) Drugs - Many on the "Libertarian wing" of the Tea Party movement openly advocate the immediate legalization of drugs.  They argue that the criminalization of marijuana and cocaine is similar to what the United States went through with prohibition during the 1930s.  On the other end, many on the "Republican wing" of the Tea Party movement would want nothing to do with the legalization of drugs.  They argue that drugs have already decimated our cities enough, and that if we legalize them it will unleash an absolute nightmare upon our communities.

8 ) Trade - Globalism and free trade are highly divisive issues among Tea Party activists.  The Wall Street crowd would argue that globalism and free trade have brought us increased prosperity and have lifted the entire world economy.  Many others in the Tea Party movement would counter by saying that millions upon millions of jobs have been shipped to the other side of the world and lost permanently and that now we do not have nearly enough jobs for everyone in America. 

9) Separation Of Church And State - This issue will set off a firestorm at just about any Tea Party gathering.  The words "separation of church and state" are not anywhere in the U.S. Constitution, but many people quote them as if they are.  Many people feel that "religion" should be completely pushed out of every corner of public life.  But many others believe that this country was founded on Christian principles, and that when we seek to banish these principles we are turning our back on the foundation that this nation was built upon.  In particular, the debate over whether intelligent design should be taught alongside the theory of evolution in public schools is something that almost always draws out explosive emotions - especially among Tea Party activists.

10) The Federal Reserve - To many in the Tea Party movement, this is the most important issue.  Many Tea Party activists believe that the Federal Reserve is the heart of America's economic problems and that is must be shut down.  However, many others in the Tea Party movement (particularly those sympathetic to Wall Street) believe that it would be crazy to shut down the Federal Reserve and that it could collapse our entire economic system.

So as you can see, there are some very important issues that divide Tea Party activists.  Almost all of them can agree that they don't like high taxes, that they don't like reckless government spending and that they don't like Barack Obama.  Beyond that, it is really going to be hard to get Tea Party activists to agree on much of anything.

And that is truly unfortunate.  The U.S. political system desperately needs to be reformed.  The U.S. government desperately needs to change course.  The nation that so many of us love is slowly dying, and many have hoped that it will be the Tea Party movement that restores things to how they should be.

But can such a deeply divided movement actually truly succeed? 

Well, perhaps they will be able to vote out Barack Obama in 2012, but will the person replacing him be much better?

Actually, just about anyone would be significantly better than Obama, but the point is that both parties have been slowly killing America for decades and there just does not seem to be much hope that things can be turned around.

Do you agree?  Do you disagree?  Feel free to tell us your thoughts in the comments section below....

The 22 statistics that you are about to read 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.  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 ten 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 6 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.

The following are 22 statistics that prove that the rich are getting much richer and the poor are getting much poorer in America....

#1) According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

#2) The number of Americans with incomes below the official poverty line rose by about 15% between 2000 and 2006, and by 2008 over 30 million U.S. workers were earning less than $10 per hour.

#3) According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

#4) According to that same poll, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.

#5) A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.

#6) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

#7) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#8) Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

#9) 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.

#10) 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.

#11) One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.

#12) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

#13) Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

#14) In the United States, the average federal worker now earns about twice as much as the average worker in the private sector.

#15) An analysis of income tax data by the Congressional Budget Office found that the top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.

#16) In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.

#17) More than 40% of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.

#18) For 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.

#19) 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.

#20) Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.

#21) According to one new study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

#22) According to Professor Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley, the gap between what the top 10 percent of Americans earn per year and what the rest of us earn has been widening sharply for the last 30 years.  His measurements show that the top 10% percent of Americans now take in approximately 50% of the income.

Over the past several decades, the U.S. economy has become increasingly reliant on debt.  The vast majority of people take out a mortgage when they purchase a home, the vast majority of people require a big loan in order to buy a vehicle, and the number of Americans who use credit cards to make purchases at retail stores has skyrocketed over the years.  It has gotten to the point where credit is the life blood of the U.S. economic system.  Unless your business is a convenience store or a fast food joint, being able to accept credit cards or arrange credit for your customers is absolutely crucial.  In fact, the economic boom that the United States has experienced over the last 30 years has been largely due to a rapidly expanding pool of credit.  Americans have gone deeper and deeper in debt with each passing year as they pursue the American Dream.  But now that so many lending institutions have substantially tightened their lending standards and now that so many Americans have such low credit scores, how is the U.S. economy going to function?     

That is a very good question.

The truth is that U.S. economic growth is very highly dependent on consumer spending, and consumer spending is very highly dependent on the ability to get credit.

But today there is a money crunch.

Banks and lending institutions, having been burned so badly by the reckless lending during the early and middle part of the past decade, have really, really tightened their standards.

So now it is much harder to get a home loan, a car loan or even a credit card.

In addition, as a recent USA Today article pointed out, a record number of Americans now have very low credit scores.... 

Figures provided by FICO show that 25.5% of consumers — nearly 43.4 million people — now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It's unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use.

Historically, only about 15 percent of Americans have had credit scores that low.

That means that the number of "bad credit risk" Americans is getting pretty close to doubling.

And that is very bad news for the economy.

If Americans can't get loans then the U.S. economy is going to grind to a standstill.

Just consider this quote from that same USA Today article....

"I don't get paid for loan applications, I get paid for closings," said Ritch Workman, a Melbourne, Fla., mortgage broker. "I have plenty of business, but I'm struggling to stay open."

If you have tried to get a home loan over the past year, then you know how frustrating that can be.  On our sister site, a reader named John (who actually has very good credit) described the infuriating experience that he went through when he tried to get a mortgage....

I was just turned down for a home loan. My credit score is 799, my wife’s 804. We had $40,000.00 to put down, which was almost 30%. BUT! Our bank turned down our application! Why? They required us to have 6 months “operating expenses” in the bank after all closing costs were covered. They came up with an arbitrary number on their own, based on our bills and such. We had that amount and more on top of our closing monies. Then why were we denied the loan? Several thousand dollars were from “cash” and the bank required that “cash” be in the bank for at least 60 days or they wouldn’t consider it fluid funding. Needless to say we didn’t make the closing date and are hiring an attorney to avoid being sued (by the seller).

Can you imagine?

Now remember, this is someone with a credit score of 799.

If the process is that frustrating for him, what is it going to be like for the rest of us?

The truth is that the credit markets are broken.

In an attempt to rectify the mistakes of the past, the lending pendulum has swung all the way from "anyone can get easy credit" to "virtually nobody can get a loan".

So now we are facing a massive money crunch.

If people can't get loans, homes won't be purchased, car dealerships will close, retail stores will have a horrific holiday season and the economy will come to a standstill.

The sad thing is that this is exactly the kind of thing that happened at the beginning of the Great Depression.  Credit was severely tightened and all of a sudden nobody seemed to have any money and the economy seized up.

Could history be repeating itself?

Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on this topic below....

Americans have typically viewed themselves as some of the most "good" and "moral" people on the face of the earth.  But is this actually still true today?  Or have things fundamentally changed?  The truth is that so many of us are so busy trying to make money and chasing after the American Dream that we don't even realize what is happening to our society.  The reality is that the United States is facing a moral crisis of unprecedented magnitude.  Wickedness and evil are rapidly growing in America, and as much as people don't want to hear it, no "political solution" is going to work unless the United States finds a way to stop this horrific moral decline as well.  A lot of people out there think that they have "an economic formula" or a "political philosophy" that will "fix" America, but every single one of them is wrong.  Nothing will "fix" America unless the moral and spiritual problems are addressed as well.  Unfortunately, each year things just seem to get even worse.  The following are 25 signs that wickedness and evil are out of control in America....

#25) Many people have moved to places like Montana in an effort to escape the evil that is sweeping across America.  But even Montana is rapidly changing.  One public school system in Montana is considering a comprehensive sex education plan that includes teaching first grade students that people can be sexually attracted to the same gender.  10 year old students would be taught about "various types" of sexual intercourse.

#24) In a sign of just how materialistic our society has become, one new poll found that 61% of all Americans between the ages of 44 and 75 say that running out money is their biggest fear.

#23) U.S. health officials recently announced that approximately 16 percent of all Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes.  Keep in mind that herpes is just one of dozens of sexually-transmitted diseases that are out there.

#22) A bipartisan bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would require all U.S. airports to use the new full-body security scanners that can see the details of our naked bodies right through our clothing.

#21) Scientists at Columbia University are warning that the dose of radiation from the new full body security scanners going into airports all over the United States could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated.  Yet authorities are going to force us to walk through them and get fried with massive doses of radiation anyway.

#20) It was recently reported that 115 girls at just one high school in Chicago either already have a baby or were currently pregnant.

#19) More than 70% of all males in the United States between the ages of 18 and 34 visit at least one pornographic website in a typical month.

#18) One California couple recently attempted to sell their six month old baby for $25 outside a Wal-mart.

#17) Some time ago, a Focus on the Family survey discovered that 47% percent of all American families said that pornography is a problem in their home.

#16) In a world where terrorism is perceived to be the greatest threat, the U.S. government is increasingly feeling the need to watch, track, trace and control virtually everything that we do.

#15) A 10 year old boy was recently named the grand marshal for a gay-pride parade in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

#14) It is estimated that 89 percent of all pornography is produced inside the United States.  About 11 percent is made in the rest of the world.

#13) During a recent television interview with Larry King, former first lady Laura Bush revealed to the world that she is actually very much in favor of legalized gay marriage and a woman's "right" to abortion.

#12) A 6-year-old girl was recently handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.  Back in the old days she would just be sent to the principal's office.

#11) Law enforcement officials estimate that approximately 600,000 Americans and 65,000 Canadians are trading dirty child pictures online.

#10) Students at a New Haven, Connecticut high school will not be graduating "in the year of our Lord" this year or in any future years, according to the superintendent of schools.  The school district has removed the traditional phrase from high school diplomas after someone complained.

#9) At the biennial General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, delegates approved a measure that would allow the ordination of openly gay or lesbian clergy.

#8) One North Carolina pastor is demanding an apology from lawmakers in his state after he was dismissed from his chaplain duties for praying in Jesus’ name.

#7) Recently, the opening prayer at the opening session of the Virginia General Assembly was delivered by a radical imam.  Apparently there was no problem with him praying to the god of Islam.

#6) Two Christians were recently arrested for sharing the gospel and singing Christian hymns on a public sidewalk outside an Islamic mosque in Philadelphia.

#5) The U.S. government continues to waste money on truly bizarre research studies that have no apparent value.  In recent years the U.S. government has spent $2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes and has spent $400,000 tax dollars to pay researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk.

#4) The FDA has announced that the offspring of cloned animals could be in our food supply right now and that there is nothing that they can do about it.  Yet the same FDA conducts military-style raids on Amish farmers for selling unauthorized organic milk.

#3) One Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut has been arrested and charged with stealing $1.3 million in church money over seven years to use for male escorts, expensive clothing and luxury hotels and restaurants.  Unfortunately, there are dozens upon dozens more examples of religious leaders throughout the United States betraying their congregations in similar ways.

#2) A while back, one survey found that 25 percent of American employees that have Internet access visit pornographic websites while they are at work.  What does it say about us when we can't even wait to get home to engage in such wickedness?

#1) Perhaps the most horrible wickedness that we have committed has been against the most helpless and the most innocent members of our society.  Since Roe v. Wade in 1973, more than 50 million babies have been slaughtered in abortion facilities across the United States.

So how can anyone still refer to the United States as a "good" nation when all of this is going on?

Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion....

Are we moving into a time when the extraordinary advances that have been made in the fields of nanotechnology, neurology, psychology, computer science, telecommunications and artificial intelligence will be used by governmental authorities to control the population?  Already, governments around the world are using the threat of "terror" as an excuse to watch us, track us, scan all of our electronic communications and force us to endure "security measures" that are so extreme that even George Orwell could have never dreamed them up.   So what is going to happen one day when some crazed individual actually does set off a weapon of mass destruction in a major city?  The temptation to use these emerging technologies to control the public will become almost irresistible.  At this point "mind control" is still a dirty word to many, but after the next couple of "9/11 style events" the general population will be crying out for something to be done to ensure their security.  When society experiences a complete and total meltdown in the years ahead, governments around the world will be tempted to do just about anything, including using mind control, to restore order.  That is why some of the most recent advances in the field on nanotechnology are so chilling.

In particular, what a team of researchers at the University at Buffalo have discovered is truly alarming.  The following is an excerpt from their recent news release....

Clusters of heated, magnetic nanoparticles targeted to cell membranes can remotely control ion channels, neurons and even animal behavior, according to a paper published by University at Buffalo physicists in Nature Nanotechnology.

Using nanoparticles to remotely control animal behavior?

It doesn't take a doctorate to understand the implications of such a technology.

What if "nanobots" that had the capacity to control human minds were programmed to search out and attach themselves to key areas of the human brain?

Such "nanobots" would be far too small to even be seen by the human eye, and people could become "infected" with these creatures without even knowing it.

Hordes of these nanobots could be released into the atmosphere or in public areas and infect thousands (or even millions) and nobody might even realize it.

If governments could find a way to use nanobots to remotely control the minds of the general population, a mass mind control program could be implemented without the general public even realizing what is going on.

Yes, this is just how scary this technology is.

But it gets even worse.

You see, when it comes to nanotechnology we are dealing with something far more dangerous than we can even imagine.

For example, if something goes horribly wrong and we develop speed-breeding self-assembling nanobots that get out of control, they could theoretically devour all life on Earth in fairly short order.

Think of the scene at the end of the recent Keanu Reeves movie entitled "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and multiply it by about a million.

But even if such a scenario never plays out, the mind control potential of nanotechnology is bad enough.

Not that other mind control technologies aren't equally as dangerous.

The truth is that all kinds of mind control technologies are being developed.

Video game makers are busy developing games that you control not with a joystick or a gamepad but rather with your brain waves.  So could such a technology someday be used in reverse?

Of course most people by now have heard of  MK-ULTRA and other mind control programs that were developed by the CIA and other U.S. government agencies.

The U.S. government insists that all such programs have been discontinued.

But are they telling the truth?

And what are other governments around the world developing in secret?

There are other mind control technologies out there that are incredibly dangerous as well.

In fact, there are many who suggest that electromagnetic waves could potentially be used to control thoughts and influence behavior.  Think of what just one terrorist could do with such technology.

But one of the most disturbing developments of all is the increasingly rapid merger of men and machines that is now taking place.

People have been looking for ways to stay more "connected" to the Internet for a long time, and now some are actually suggesting that we should find a way to directly connect our brains to the Internet.  A recent article on the website of the Science Channel put it this way....

What if it were possible to connect your brain to the Internet, either wirelessly or through a cable, download digital information at high speed, and then translate it automatically into a chemical form that could be stored by your brain cells as memory?

The same article explained what some of the benefits from such a connection might be....

If you could pump data directly into your gray matter at, say, 50 mbps — the top speed offered by one major U.S. internet service provider — you’d be able to read a 500-page book in just under two-tenths of a second.

But what about the dangers?

What if the Internet could end up controlling you?

Or what if a really bad computer virus was downloaded into your brain?

Think it can't happen?

Well, British researcher Mark Gasson infected an RFID chip in his hand with a computer virus and found that the virus-infected chip implanted in his hand was able to contaminate external systems.

Imagine if that started happening on a large scale.

And someday it might.

Especially as we approach the time that futurists refer to as "The Singularity".

The Singularity is hard to define, but basically many futurists believe that the merging of man and technology is happening at such an increasingly rapid pace that at some point the new "transhumans" will become virtually incomprehensible to normal human beings.  The idea is that by merging man and machines, transhumans will become smarter, stronger, healthier and more powerful than we could have ever dreamed possible.

So will men and computers fully merge someday?

Let's hope not.

But even now, an increasing number of people are developing ways to tag humans with RFID microchips.

In fact, one company called Somark has developed a breakthrough in chipless RFID ink.  Their "RFID tattoos" are applied using a geometric array of micro-needles and a reusable applicator with a one-time-use ink capsule.

So how easy is it to apply one of these RFID tattoos?

Well, it takes about 5 to 10 seconds to tattoo an animal or a human.  Once the tattoo has been applied, an RFID reader can read it from up to four feet away.

But who needs a tattoo?  IBM has actually announced that they have developed a "bar code reader" that can read your DNA.

Very frightening stuff.

The truth is that the vast majority of people do not want their DNA scanned and they do not want RFID chips implanted into them.

But RFID chips are being implanted into people more than ever before.

The reality is that microchipping of humans is becoming quite commonplace in the United States.  For example, RFID implants are being implanted in thousands of elderly Americans living with Alzheimer's disease who are at risk of wandering off and getting lost.  In addition, RFID chips are being implanted into many people who are chronically ill so that doctors can access their medical information quickly in an emergency.

The truth is that there are some people who are quite eager to be chipped.  One columnist named Don Tennant recently published an article entitled "Chip Me – Please!" in which he expressed his excitement that Barack Obama's new health law may include coverage for RFID chip implants that contain patient identification and health information.  In fact, Tennant makes the following stunning admission in his article....     

All I can say is I’d be the first person in line for an implant.

So is this our future?

Is everyone going to be taking lots of microchips and implants?

Will there come a day when microchips and implants are made mandatory?

After all, what better way to truly identify someone?  Identification cards and papers can be forged or can get lost.  But if you implant someone with a microchip how are they going to lose that?

However, we all know that the potential for abuse of all of the technologies mentioned in this article is just too great.  If someday a tyrannical regime gets a hold of these kinds of ultra-powerful technologies the results could be absolutely nightmarish.

Whatever you think of the war in Afghanistan, there is no denying that the recent reports of rampant financial corruption going on even at the highest levels of Afghanistan's government are extremely troubling.  The United States has spent billions upon billions of dollars to help Afghanistan set up a "democracy", but now there is news that corrupt government officials have been shipping billions and billions of dollars out of the country and have been buying luxury villas in Dubai.  Apparently many Afghan officials have decided to achieve "the American Dream" the same way that many U.S. politicians have achieved it - by lying, cheating and stealing.  The Wall Street Journal recently reported that over three billion dollars in cash has been flown out of Kabul International Airport in recent years.  Considering the fact that this is far more than the Afghan government collects in tax and customs revenue annually, it is obvious that there is a huge, huge, huge problem with corruption in Afghanistan.  Much of the cash being shipped out of the country is from the drug trade, but the narcotics money does not account for all of it.  Investigators allege that a significant portion of this money that is being shipped out of the country is actually aid money that comes directly from U.S. taxpayers. 

One U.S. official who is investigating corruption and Taliban financing recently gave his bleak assessment of what is going on.... 

"A lot of this looks like our tax dollars being stolen. And opium, of course."

The truth is that rampant, in-your-face corruption is going on in a country that we are currently occupying militarily and that we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to supposedly try to bring democracy to.

Afghan officials aren't even trying to hide it.  As Der Spiegel described recently, this corruption is going on right out in the open....

Brigadier General Mohammed Asif Jabarkhel sits with folded arms in his office, just a few steps away from the security checkpoint at Kabul International Airport. "Of course I know what's going on here," the 59-year-old head of the airport's customs police grumbles from beneath his thick moustache as a fan whirs in the background. "But, in this country, who's allowed to speak the truth?"

Jabarkhel is referring to the huge amounts of money regularly being secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases. According to some estimates, since 2007, at least $3 billion (€2.4 billion) in cash has left the country in this way. The preferred destination for these funds is Dubai, the tax haven in the Persian Gulf.

You know, there is just one major airport in the capital of Afghanistan.  How hard would it be for the U.S. military to get a handle on what is going on at that one airport?

What in the world are we accomplishing anyway?  Are we there to keep corrupt Afghan officials safe enough so that they can smuggle billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars out of the country and buy luxury villas in Dubai?

While the corrupt Afghan government officials live the high life, U.S. soldiers are paying the price.  In fact, the violence in that nation is rapidly getting worse.  It was recently reported that a majority of all combat-related U.S. casualties in the nine-year-long war in Afghanistan have occurred since Barack Obama was inaugurated about a year and a half ago.

So now there have been more U.S. casualties in Afghanistan under Obama than there were under George W. Bush.

Isn't that wonderful?

But now Obama even wants to send U.S. civilians to Afghanistan.  During a recent speech in Racine, Wisconsin, Obama called for sending a "civilian expeditionary force" to Afghanistan and Iraq to help "overburdened" U.S. military forces build infrastructure.

And yet Obama denies that we are engaged in "nation building".

Considering the fact that U.S. cities such as Detroit now look like bombed-out war zones, shouldn't we be devoting our resources to building up our own infrastructure?

No, we have to send billions to Afghanistan instead so that corrupt government officials can steal it and ship it out of the country.  The previously referenced article in Der Spiegel summed up the situation this way....

It is clear that much more money is making its way out of Afghanistan through Kabul's airport than is being officially declared and logged. For example, important politicians and businesspeople can often board planes from the airport's special VIP area without being searched. And if customs officials do conduct a search and find a suitcase stuffed with millions of dollars in cash, people with powerful connections often step in to make sure that the luggage makes it out of the country with its owner -- no questions asked. "A couple phone calls are made," General Jabarkhel says with frustration in his voice, "and the person can carry on."

Meanwhile, the United States continues to spend mind-boggling amounts of money to keep Afghanistan safe and secure.

According to a report from the Pentagon to the U.S. House of Representatives, it costs the United States $1 million per year for each U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. 

In addition, it has come out that the U.S. military spends about $400 per gallon of gasoline in Afghanistan.

Why is it so expensive?

Well, Afghanistan is a landlocked nation.  In order to get gasoline to U.S. forces operating in remote regions, it often has to be sent by helicopter.  But sending gasoline by helicopter is incredibly inefficient.

So needless to say, the U.S. military is burning up massive amounts of money in Afghanistan. 

But that is nothing when compared to the sacrifices that the dead and wounded U.S. soldiers have made.

So how is the Afghanistan government repaying us?

They are taking our aid money and buying expensive villas in Dubai with it as Der Spiegel recently detailed....

A number of Afghan businesspeople have purchased expensive villas in Dubai, once only attractive as a golfer's paradise. These include a brother and a cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of Karzai's former vice presidents and the brother of Mohammad Qasim Fahim, one of the country's two current vice presidents. Asking prices for the stylish, Roman-style houses built along the beaches of the man-made island Palm Jumeirah, for example, start at $2 million. Until just a few years ago, many of their current inhabitants were far from wealthy.

As the Washington Post has discovered, these properties are often only registered under the names of the individuals issuing the loans, such as Sherkhan Farnood, the founder and chairman of Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest private bank, who was also a key supporter of President Karzai during his 2009 re-election campaign. Like many of his clients, Farnood now spends the majority of his time in Dubai. And among the 16 shareholders in his bank are Mahmoud Karzai, the president's business-minded older brother, and Haseen Fahim, the brother of Afghan Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Are you angry yet?

Perhaps we should let these corrupt Afghan officials pick up arms and start defending their own country against the Taliban.

Perhaps then they would not have so much time to be running around buying luxury villas in Dubai.

Is the state of Illinois bankrupt?  Well, if Illinois is not totally broke already it is certainly well on its way.  The state government has now quit paying even the most essential bills.  It spends three dollars for every two dollars that it takes in.  The state of Illinois now ranks eighth in the world in possible bond-holder default.  That is actually one spot ahead of the state of California.  As much of a mess as California is (as we have previously detailed at length), Illinois is in even worse shape.  Every major rating agency has downgraded Illinois debt, and Illinois now pays millions of dollars more to insure its debt than any other state in the nation.  So yes, the state of Illinois is a complete and total basket case.  For a long time, many analysts had expected California to be the first state to go "belly up" financially, but now Illinois seems to be the favorite.  Not that Illinois is alone.  Thousands of state, city and local governments across the United States are facing massive debt problems.  All of the borrowing that was done to push communities towards achieving the American Dream is now coming back to haunt localities with a vengeance.  Debt is a very seductive and yet very cruel master, and the government of Illinois is rapidly finding out just how painful it can be to drown in a sea of debt. 

So just how bad are things in Illinois at this point? 

Well, an excellent article recently published in the New York Times did a great job of describing the fiscal panic that has gripped the state....

Even by the standards of this deficit-ridden state, Illinois’s comptroller, Daniel W. Hynes, faces an ugly balance sheet. Precisely how ugly becomes clear when he beckons you into his office to examine his daily briefing memo.

He picks the papers off his desk and points to a figure in red: $5.01 billion.

“This is what the state owes right now to schools, rehabilitation centers, child care, the state university — and it’s getting worse every single day,” he says in his downtown office.

Mr. Hynes shakes his head. “This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services,” he says. “That is obscene.”

Have you ever heard of a state not paying its bills for essential services for an extended period of time? 

This isn't just a financial crisis in Illinois - it is a financial nightmare.

But it just isn't the ongoing expenses that are causing a massive financial headache for the state government of Illinois.  The state's massively underfunded pension system has become a financial black hole which seemingly has no solution.  The state has just kept borrowing billions upon billions of dollars to make scheduled payments, but that just keeps making the state's financial situation even worse.

"Their pension is the most underfunded in the nation," Karen S. Krop, a senior director at Fitch Ratings told the New York Times recently. "They have not made significant cuts or raised revenues. There’s no state out there like this. They can’t grow their way out of this."

And that is the truth - Illinois is now such a financial mess that no amount of economic growth can reverse the situation.  The state is literally drowning in debt without any real hope of turning the situation around.

The state government has already made deep cuts to public health and social service programs, they have already slashed many government agencies to the bone and they have already fired thousands of teachers.

And yet the red ink keeps marching on at an accelerating pace.

In the New York Times article referenced above, there was a stunning description of the financial chaos that government agencies in Illinois are now experiencing....

The Community Counseling Centers of Chicago is another of those workaday groups that are like the stitches on a baseball, holding together poor and working-class neighborhoods. With an annual budget of $16 million, the agency tends to families torn by crime and violence as well as people who are psychologically stressed and abusing drugs.

On any given Monday morning, the agency’s chief administrative officer, John J. Troy, 61, has no idea how he is going to keep its doors open until Friday. He said the state had not come through with an expected $2.2 million, which is about six months of arrears. He has laid off and recalled employees three times in the last two years.

“Two weeks ago, I had days to meet my $420,000 payroll and all I was looking at was a $200,000 line of credit from a bank,” recalled Mr. Troy. “I drove down to Springfield and said, ‘Hey, you owe us $3 million.’ They said: ‘Oh, that’s nothing. We owe another agency $10 million.’ ”

How in the world can a government even function under such circumstances?

Well, the truth is that it can't.

And unfortunately things are going to get even worse.  Already, the U.S. economy as a whole is teetering on the brink of a depression, and there is every indication that we are headed for incredibly difficult economic times ahead.

If we do fall into a depression or a very deep recession, that would likely be enough to totally collapse the finances of the Illinois state government.

So could Illinois actually go bankrupt?

Well, not in the way that a corporation would go bankrupt, but Illinois could experience something similar.

An article in Slate recently described how it would work....

Say the state can't make its debt payments, and no one will lend it any more money. In that case, the federal government can step in and put the state into receivership. This would involve the assignment of an accountant to manage the state's debt, overseen by a judge. It would be a lot like bankruptcy, except instead of following a structured set of steps—informing creditors, appointing creditors' committees, a 120-day window to file a plan, etc.—a receiver has the authority to force creditors to renegotiate loans in a speedy fashion. However, the accountant in charge would not have the power to make decisions about the state's budget, such as which programs needed to be cut and which taxes had to be raised. (No state has ever gone into receivership.)

Actually, some have suggested that if the state government of Illinois "fails", something even more dramatic could happen.  Steve Janke of the National Post suggested in a recent article that Illinois could actually once again turn back into a "U.S. territory"....

Now that seems extremely unlikely to happen, but it is an indication of just how desperate things have become in Illinois that such things are even being discussed.

The truth is that Illinois state finances are in such a wreck in large part because the state is currently experiencing an economic nightmare.  Back in 2006, the unemployment rate in Illinois was only about five percent.  Today the unemployment rate in the state is at about 11 percent.  Large corporations have moved tens of thousands of jobs out of the state and Illinois ranks in the top ten nationally in home foreclosures.

But other states are having a very hard time of it as well.  What truly sets Illinois apart is the rampant corruption and mismanagement that have characterized state government for decades.

Actually, it seems like almost every place where a liberal political machine has been entrenched for decades (Illinois, California, Detroit, etc. etc.), the local governments are now facing financial nightmares of unprecedented magnitude.

Of course this is happening on the national level as well, where the liberal "borrow and spend" economic policies of George W. Bush have given way to the ultra-liberal "tax, borrow and spend" economic policies of Barack Obama.

The truth is that massive amounts of government borrowing and spending is never the solution to anything.  It only sets up tremendous economic pain down the road.  But America has not learned, and now we are going to learn some very hard lessons in economic reality.

Once upon a time, the United States was a place where you felt like you had almost unlimited freedom.  You could get in your car and travel from coast to coast without anyone hassling you.  You could do any type of work you wanted - or even not work at all if that is what suited you.  You could say whatever you wanted to say and associate with whoever you wanted to associate with.  You could write mail without fearing that the government would read it and you could make phone calls without fearing that the government was listening in.  It was a place where freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and freedom of movement were respected and protected.  But over the past couple of decades (and especially since 9/11), things have been fundamentally changing in America.  The American Dream used to be about liberty and freedom, but now it seems to be all about giving up our liberty and freedom for safety and security.  Today, tens of millions of frightened Americans are cheering as the U.S. government implements Big Brother security measures that are so extreme that they would have made even Stalin, Hitler and Mao cringe.  But it is not just in America where the open society is dying.  It is literally happening all over the globe.  In a world where real and imagined terrorism is perceived to be the greatest threat, governments are increasingly feeling the need to watch, track, trace and control everyone and everything.

To an extent, our own technological advances have brought this situation about.  Humanity has created awesome weapons of mass destruction that humanity simply does not have the moral capacity to handle.  There are literally millions of people out there today who would use a weapon of mass destruction in a populated area if they could get their hands on one.   

Now the truth is that the majority of people in the world are not prone to such violence, but when you are talking about weapons of mass destruction, it only takes one.

It would only take one nuke or chemical warhead or biological weapon set off in the middle of a major city to set off a worldwide panic.

So are there legitimate security concerns?

Yes, there are.  We simply cannot allow one person to walk into the middle of a major city and instantly destroy it.

Thankfully that has not happened yet, but it seems inevitable that someday it will.

But to protect ourselves against the weapons of mass destruction that we have created is it necessary to completely destroy our liberty and freedom?

That is the path on which we are headed.

In the name of "security", we have pushed freedom of speech into special "free speech zones" at public events.  These "free speech zones" often resemble little more than prison cages.  The truth is that we are only a couple of steps away from eliminating free speech altogether.  Already, Christians are being arrested in various areas across the United States for quietly passing out literature on public sidewalks.  How long will it be until we have absolutely no freedom to say whatever we want?  How soon will it be until websites like this are totally shut down?

Already, it is a well known fact that the U.S. government filters all electronic communications (including all of your phone calls and all of your emails) through a complex computerized filtering system.  The goal is to scan all communications for certain keywords, and to intervene before a "threat" can materialize. 

But weren't we just supposed to be looking for "foreign terrorists"? 

Well, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller, now "homegrown terrorists" represent as much of a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.

Are you starting to get the message?

Things have fundamentally changed.

Now searching for "homegrown American terrorists" is as big a part of the "mission" as searching for al-Qaeda is.

If that doesn't send a chill down your spine then you are probably dead.

The truth is that our society is transitioning from one of great freedom to one that is increasingly resembling George Orwell's 1984.

Yes, we need some security, but is there any excuse for how bizarre things are getting?

For example, organic milk is now considered such a threat that the FDA has been conducting military style raids on Amish farmers in the state of Pennsylvania.

Are Amish farmers now as big a threat as al-Qaeda?

Things are really getting weird.

Barack Obama is pushing a plan to create a national database that will store the DNA of all individuals who have been arrested but not necessarily convicted of a crime.

Have you ever been arrested for anything?

Would you like your DNA to be forcibly taken and put into Barack Obama's secret database for the rest of your life?

Not only that, but U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham have been promoting legislation that would institute a biometric national identification card for all Americans.

Are you ready for a national ID card?

Did you ever think the day would come when security officials in the United States of America could pull you aside and ask you for "your papers please"?

In addition, new legislation that was being promoted by U.S. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman would allow the U.S. military to round up large numbers of Americans and detain them indefinitely without a trial if they are believed to "pose a threat" or if they have "potential intelligence value" or for any other reason that the President of the United States "considers appropriate".

Talk about tremendous potential for abuse!

Under such a law, any American could be picked up for any reason whatsoever!

But the state of Florida has taken things even farther.  The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice will now start using analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents, putting "potential offenders" under specific prevention and education programs.

Perhaps you thought that "pre-crime" was just for science fiction movies.

No, the reality is that America is quickly turning into a bad science fiction movie.

Just check out the video news report about TSA security abuse posted below.  Yes, we do need security at our airports, but do TSA officials have to act like Nazi thugs to get their jobs done?  Do they have to treat us like dehumanized cattle?  Is it not possible to keep everyone safe and still leave us with a few shreds of dignity?  What you are about to watch will have your jaw on the floor....

But things are about to get even worse.  The new full body security scanners going into airports all across the United States can actually see through clothing and produce very clear and very detailed images of the exposed bodies of everyone who walks through them.

So are you willing to let gawking security officials examine your entire naked body just so that you can get on an airplane?

What happens when these scanners start going into bus, train and subway stations all across the United States?

Is it inevitable that we must be treated like a herd of human cattle that does not deserve any privacy or any dignity?

But if one weapon of mass destruction goes off anywhere in the world, the cry for even greater Big Brother security measures will become absolutely deafening.  It seems as though today people are willing to give up just about anything in order to feel safe and secure.

Not that security is a bad thing. 

But if we have to give up all of our liberty and all of our freedom and if we are forced to live in a closed Big Brother police state just to feel safe, what does that say about us?

The open society is dying.

Liberty is dying.

Freedom is dying.

If you plan on standing up and saying anything about what is happening to society, now is the time.

Today is July 4th - America's Independence Day.  But are we really a free nation?  The truth is that it is really hard to argue that we are "free" when our currency system and our economy are run by an unelected privately-owned central bank.  You see, the truth is that the U.S. government does not "print money" whenever it wants.  Under the current system, in order to get more U.S. currency, the U.S. government has to borrow it.  The Federal Reserve creates the new currency out of thin air and then either keeps the "U.S. Treasury bonds" they get in return from the U.S. government or they sell them off to others.  But what kind of sense does that make?  Why does a "free government" have to go into debt to print its own currency?  It is the U.S. government that should be printing U.S. currency - not a privately-owned bank called the Federal Reserve.  The truth is that the Federal Reserve is about as "federal" as Federal Express is.  And no unelected private central bank should be "running" our economy.  Actually the free market should be running our economy, but if anyone is going to run it, it should at least be the government that we have elected.  But instead we have a group of unelected bureaucrats making our interest rate decisions, determining our money supply levels and deciding which of their friends get big bailouts.  That isn't the American Dream!  What kind of "democracy" and "freedom" is that?  The sad truth is that as long as we allow an unelected privately-owned central bank to run our economy we will not be truly free.    

The reality is that the Federal Reserve desperately needs to be audited.  The Federal Reserve has never undergone a true comprehensive audit since it was created back in 1913.  The truth is that we have very little idea of what is really going on inside that institution.

And yet they control our currency and our economy.

U.S. Representative Ron Paul had introduced a bill that would have mandated a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve, but it has now officially been defeated. 

Ron Paul’s proposal to audit the Federal Reserve, which had previously been co-sponsored by 320 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, failed by a vote of 229-198.

Every single Republican in the House voted in favor of the measure, and even 23 Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans, but it was not enough.

You see, the Federal Reserve convinced 122 Democrats who were originally co-sponsors of Ron Paul's proposal to jump ship and vote against the measure.

It was truly a sad day for America.

Ron Paul has released a video expressing his disappointment over the defeat of the "audit the Fed" provision....

Congress just can't seem to do anything right these days.

What in the world is so threatening about actually getting to see what is going on inside the Fed?

After all, they print all of our currency and they basically run our economy.

Don't the American people have the right to examine what is going on?

Well, apparently the Democrats do not think so.

How "free" can we be when a private central bank has so much power over us and yet we cannot even examine what they are doing or how they are doing it?

In fact, Ron Paul told MSNBC that he believes that the Federal Reserve is more powerful than Congress.....

"The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress."

When we allow such powerful institutions to rule over us without any kind of accountability whatsoever, we dishonor the sacrifices that our founding fathers made to give us liberty and freedom.

As we celebrate July 4th, let us reflect on the extreme sacrifices that those who came before us were willing to make.

The following is a piece entitled "The Price They Paid" by an anonymous author....

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two Lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty wouldbe death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress Without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. The owner quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his grist mill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Are you ready for a world currency?  If the United Nations has anything to say about it, that is exactly what we are all going to have shoved down our throats.  A new United Nations report released on Tuesday essentially declares war on the U.S. dollar and publicly calls on the nations of the world to abandon it as the global reserve currency.  This new report entitled "The U.N. World Economic and Social Survey 2010" is one of the most blatant attempts yet that we have seen from a major international organization to move us in the direction of a world currency.  For years it was denial after denial after denial that a global currency was being considered.  Of course we knew all along by reading their policy papers that the eventual goal of the globalists was indeed to move us over to a global currency.  Finally, in just the past year, the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights (SDRs) were promoted by the G20 as "an international reserve asset" that could be used as a unit of payment for IMF loans.  SDRs are currently made up of a basket of various currencies from around the world, but now there are much bigger plans for the SDRs. 

According to the new U.N. report, the U.S. dollar should be abandoned in favor of a new world currency based on these SDRs....

"A new global reserve system could be created, one that no longer relies on the United States dollar as the single major reserve currency."

So why abandon the U.S. dollar?  Well, the U.N. report says that we must abandon it because it has not been "stable" enough....

"The dollar has proved not to be a stable store of value, which is a requisite for a stable reserve currency."

But of course it has not been stable!

It is the very same globalists that are pushing for this new world currency that have been behind the destruction of not only the U.S. dollar but all paper currencies around the world.

In fact, there are many who are speculating that the recession that the world economy is now being "pushed" into is actually a contrived crisis which is designed to pave the way for the grand solution that the globalists have wanted all along.

So exactly what is that grand solution?

During a speech back in May, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn called for the introduction of a global currency backed by a global central bank which would act as the "lender of last resort" in the event of a severe economic crisis.

That is what the globalists have always wanted - a global currency and a global central bank that we all pay taxes to.

Right now the world is not likely to go for it, but if the upcoming recession (or depression) is deep enough, then the would might just be willing to accept a global currency and a global central bank.

You see, it is the exact same problem/reaction/solution paradigm that the globalists have used time after time after time to get their way.

Even now, globalist organizations are lining up their proposals for global taxes that they wish to impose on all of us as we recently described on one of our sister sites....

*The World Health Organization recently announced that it is ready to impose global taxes on all of us.  The World Health Organization says that it needs a lot more money and that it has some creative ideas for how to get it.  Two of their main ideas for "raising revenue" are a global tax on Internet use and a global tax on paying bills online.  These taxes would go directly to the World Health Organization.

*The IMF is actually calling for two new global taxes.  One would be an international deposit insurance tax, and the other would be a tax on the profits of financial institutions worldwide.  The IMF says that the funds would be used by them to prevent another major financial crisis.

So are you ready for a world currency and a world central bank that you will pay your world taxes to?

Malaysian economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the U.N. assistant secretary general for economic development, admitted during a news conference that "there's going to be resistance" to the idea of a world currency.

You think?

Oh, did they expect that we were just going to hand over our national sovereignty to them without any resistance whatsoever?

It is bad enough to have the Federal Reserve (a privately-owned central bank controlled by international bankers) controlling our currency right now.

If we ever allow the globalists to institute a global currency, a global central bank and global taxes then you can kiss our freedom and our national sovereignty goodbye.

But do you see any coverage of this on any of the big news channels? 

Of course not.

The vast majority of the American people have no idea this is going on.

They are too busy catching up on the latest celebrity gossip and lining up to watch the new "Twilight" movie.

Our founding fathers are not here to stand up for our liberty and freedom, so it is up to you and I.

We must get the word out about the plan for a global currency and a global central bank before it is too late.

As housing prices have plummeted over the last several years, an increasing number of U.S. homeowners have suddenly found themselves with home loans that are much larger than what their homes are now worth.  So a large number of them have opted for what is known as a "strategic default" - they have simply walked away from their homes and have let the banks take them back.  Many Americans simply decided that it was not a part of their "American Dream" to pay off a loan that is for two to three times what a house is actually worth.  Over the last several years, strategic defaults have enabled more than a million Americans to get out from under crippling mortgages.  But now, Fannie Mae has announced a massive nationwide crackdown on strategic defaults.  Fannie Mae says that it will be closely examining the mortgage data to determine who is strategically defaulting and who is not, and they are going to be "going after" those who they believe have committed strategic defaults. 

So what can Fannie Mae do to those who have committed strategic defaults?

Well, the truth is that mortgage laws vary widely from state to state.  But in areas where they are permitted, Fannie Mae plans to pursue deficiency judgments.  A deficiency judgment is a court order that requires a defaulting borrower to pay the entire remaining unpaid portion of the mortgage after a foreclosed home is sold.

In addition, Fannie Mae says that it will also seek all costs associated with getting a house back on the market.

Not only that, but Fannie Mae also says that those who have committed strategic defaults will not be able to obtain another Fannie Mae-backed mortgage for at least seven years after the strategic default.

And that threat has some real teeth to it, because there aren't too many places where you can get a home loan these days.  In fact, mortgages bought or backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the Federal Housing Administration accounted for 95% of all new U.S. home loans last year.

Freddie Mac already "blacklists" strategic defaulters for five years, and it has announced that it will study what Fannie Mae has done and will "consider additional changes to our polices as needed to responsibly manage risks."

The Federal Housing Administration is cracking down too.  Legislation currently pending in the U.S. Congress would impose a lifetime ban on FHA loans to strategic defaulters.

So for those who have committed strategic defaults or who are considering strategic defaults, the message is clear....

The party is over.

Can you imagine walking away from a mortgage only to have Fannie Mae come after you for $250,000 a couple years later?

There are a lot of people out there who are going to be in for a rude wake up call.

So just how many people have done strategic defaults?

Well, in the past year it is estimated that at least a million Americans who could have afforded to stay in their homes chose to walk away.

And the number of those choosing to strategically default seems to be growing.

In fact, 31 percent of all U.S. foreclosures in March were identified as strategic defaults by researchers at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.  That was up significantly from just 22 percent in March 2009.

And with approximately 24% of all homes with mortgages in the U.S. underwater as of the end of 2009, there is the potential for millions more Americans to engage in strategic defaults.

But the reality is that this wave of strategic defaults has absolutely devastated mortgage companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In the first quarter of 2010, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw about 1,000 foreclosures a day, which is one about every 90 seconds.

This gigantic mountain of foreclosures has turned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into financial black holes that the U.S. government has to continually pour money into.

The Congressional Budget Office is now projecting that the final bill for the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be as high as $389 billion.

But that projection may turn out to be quite conservative.

Other analysts are warning that the cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach as high as $1 trillion.

1 trillion dollars?

Talk about a bailout!

But that is where the U.S. mortgage industry is at.

It is a complete and total mess.

That is why Fannie Mae has decided to crack down on strategic defaults.

Something had to be done to stop the bleeding.

But for homeowners that had been viewing a strategic default as a potential way out of a bad financial mess, this is really, really bad news.

Are you sure that you want to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?  In a previous article we documented a number of the health dangers from this oil spill that many scientists are warning us of, and now it has been reported on CNN that the vast majority of those who worked to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are now either sick or dead.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Almost all of them are sick or dead.  In fact, the expert that CNN had on said that the life expectancy for those who worked to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill is only about 51 years.  Considering the fact that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now many times worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, are you sure you want to volunteer to be on a cleanup crew down there?  After all, the American Dream is not to make big bucks for a few months helping BP clean up their mess and then drop dead 20 or 30 years early. 

This news clip from CNN is absolutely stunning.  If this is even close to true, then why would anyone want to be involved in helping to clean up this oil?....

The truth is that what we have out in the Gulf of Mexico is a "toxic soup" of oil, methane, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, other toxic gases and very poisonous chemical dispersants such as Corexit 9500.

Breathing all of this stuff is not good for your health, but the reality is that the true health toll of this oil spill is not going to be known for decades.

However, the early reports are not encouraging....   

*Already, a large number of workers cleaning up the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico report that they are suffering from flu-like symptoms.

*According to another new report, exposure to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in 162 cases of illnesses reported to the Louisiana state health department.

*In addition, according to one local Pensacola news source,  "400 people have sought medical care for upper or lower respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, and eye irritation after trips to Escambia County beaches."

This is going to be something that we all want to keep a very close eye on.

But it is not just oil spill cleanup workers and people who have gone to the beach who are reporting health issues.  The following is a report from a reader named Dee....

My 2 friends and I have been sick with headaches and vomiting, also it feels like heartburn, just feeling lousy. We have not been to the Gulf but there is an inlet at the end of our street. We live on the West side of Pensacola FL. near the Bayou. At first I thought it was just me. My 2 friends are having the same symptoms, all at the same time. Right now I have a dull headache, and my stomach is queezy. I have been thinking maybe the chemicals from the oil cleanup or the oil itself is causing us to be ill. It has been raining all day off and on. I started feeling ill late last night. I was wondering if anyone else in Pensacola have the same symptoms.

So what can we conclude from all this?

Well, it is still very early, but when this crisis is all said and done the biggest tragedy of all might be the health devastation that this oil spill has caused.

If the Exxon Valdez oil spill is any indication, a lot of pe0ple are going to end up dying early deaths. 

So once again, do you really want to go down there and clean up this oil?

Of course all of this oil is not just going to clean itself up.

But if we all refuse to participate, who will clean it up?

Perhaps BP CEO Tony Heyward and other high ranking BP executives could roll up their sleeves and go down there and start cleaning up all of that toxic sludge.

It's their mess, so let them clean it.

***UPDATE***

A number of readers have expressed serious skepticism regarding the claims made by the CNN expert in the video. 

If anyone has hard data that would refute her claims, please send it our way and we will be glad to post it.

There have been some really disturbing health reports coming in from the Gulf region, and yet many public authorities have actually reopened beaches that were closed and are letting people go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico once again.  But is this safe?  On the American Dream blog we try to report the facts, but on this question we don't know what all the facts are.  Perhaps some of those living along the Gulf coast can let us know exactly what is happening down there.  The reality is that there have been a lot of people claiming that they have become seriously ill in recent days.  But could these people just be imagining things?  Are the health dangers being overblown at this point?  Or could the health effects of this oil spill be far worse than authorities are letting on as has happened during so many other disasters in the past?

These are some very important questions.

Certainly the fact that so many people are seeking medical assistance has got to be a major concern. 

According to one local Pensacola news source,  "400 people have sought medical care for upper or lower respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, and eye irritation after trips to Escambia County beaches."

But in spite of that, the Escambia County Health Department has lifted a health advisory on Pensacola Beach.  This was against the advice of a federal environmental official.

Even Florida Governor Charlie Crist is insisting that it is safe to go back into the water.  In the video posted below, you will see him telling CBS News the following about the oil in the Gulf....

"It is much more of a nuisance than anything else at this point."

A nuisance?

Is he serious?

Apparently he is.

Meanwhile, a large number of workers cleaning up the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are reporting suffering from flu-like symptoms.

A couple of our readers who live in the region are also reporting health problems associated with the oil spill....

Kim:

I have been sick last week with Nausea and headaches my co workers have had similar systems and we live in Jacksonville Florida

Debra:

I live in Gretna, La just a little past the Huey P Long bridge. I have had headaches for several days now. I am also having trouble breathing like i am having a asthma episode. I don’t even have asthma. If it gets any worse i am going to the hospital.

All i can say is someone needs to look into this seriously, The air smells like burning crayons (that is the best way to explain it). It has smelled like this for several days now.

If anyone else has reports such as these we would love to hear them.

The truth is that it is not just the oil that we need to be worried about.

The "oil volcano" that BP has unleashed on the bottom of the Gulf is also sending massive amounts of methane into the Gulf of Mexico.  In fact, Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler says that methane gas levels in some areas of the Gulf of Mexico are "astonishingly high".  Some scientists have gone so far as to warn that all of this methane could potentially create "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico where oxygen is so depleted that literally nothing lives under the water.  

In addition, huge amounts of hydrogen sulfide and benzene are also being released into the Gulf as we noted in a previous article....

Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical asphyxiant, similar to carbon monoxide and cyanide gases.  It causes "biochemical suffocation" by inhibiting cellular respiration and the uptake of oxygen.  Benzene is a highly carcinogenic gas that can cause death if inhaled at high enough concentrations.  Not only that, benzene has been shown to cause leukemia in all its forms.  High levels of both gases have been detected at testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico.

If all of that we not bad enough, the dispersants that BP has been using to break up all the oil are also highly toxic to humans.  In fact, Corexit 9500 is so incredibly toxic that the UK's Marine Management Organization has completely banned it, so if there was a major oil spill in the North Sea, BP would not be able to use it.

And yet BP has dumped over a million gallons of dispersants such as Corexit 9500 into the Gulf of Mexico.

So are there legitimate health concerns about this oil spill?

Yes, there are.

The truth is that we need some honest answers, but so far BP and the U.S. government have not been very forthcoming.

Hopefully things will become much clearer for all of us in the days ahead.

Before you read this, please be warned that the subject matter of this article is controversial.  It is going to upset a lot of people who read it.  In fact, it is likely to absolutely infuriate a large number of people.  Why?  Well, because it asks some really hard questions.  You see, most Americans prefer to see this nation as a "good" and "moral" country that God has richly blessed.  And there is no denying that God did tremendously bless the United States in the past.  But over the past several decades we have been relentlessly pushing God away as a society.  We have indulged in an orgy of endless greed, we have made lust and sexual gratification a national pastime and we have killed over 40 million babies since abortion was legalized in 1973.  Our families are fractured and our love has grown cold, and yet we continue to borrow mountains of money so that we can go buy things at the store to make ourselves feel better as we pursue "the American Dream".  The truth is that the United States is not a "good" nation anymore.  In fact, we have become filled with evil and wickedness.  But most Americans seem to think that there will never be any consequences for all of this evil and wickedness.  In fact, most Americans seem to expect God to snap to attention whenever we decide that we need to ask Him to do something for us.  Of course the rest of the time we are more than happy to totally ignore Him.  As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis continues to get worse, many Americans are beginning to wonder where God is in all of this.  Well, is it possible that God has taken His hand of protection off of us due to all of our wickedness?  Is it possible that America could actually deserve what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now?    

That is a controversial question.

If you disagree with what you are about to read, that is okay.  In fact, feel free to leave a comment expressing your disagreement.  The idea that God could be displeased with the United States is not a pleasant thing to think about.  In fact, the mere suggestion of such a notion is enough to make some people screaming mad.

But let's try to think about it from God's perspective for a while.

The truth is that for decades we have pushed God out of our schools, out of our jobs, out of our government  and out of virtually ever corner of public life.  When we go home at the end of the day we are surrounded by forms of entertainment (television, movies, music, video games, Internet, etc.) that relentlessly tell us that Christianity is untrue, irrelevant, or should be openly mocked.

So now a smaller percentage of Americans than ever consider God to be an important part of their lives.  This is especially true when it comes to our young people.

A recent survey by LifeWay Christian Resources revealed that an overwhelming majority of young adults in America today do not go to church, do not pray and do not read the Bible.

Just consider a few of the results from their survey of 18 to 29 year old Americans....

•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.

•65% rarely or never attend worship services of any kind.

•67% don't read the Bible or any other religious texts on a regular basis.

Not only are we not putting God first as a nation - the truth is that most Americans want nothing to do with Him at all.

And increasingly, those who do express faith in God are being openly mocked in public.

For example, after a student at one community college in California gave a speech in class about his Christian beliefs and values, the instructor refused to give him a grade and instead wrote the following on his evaluation form: "Ask God what your grade is."

The militancy of those who seek to wipe every reference to God from public life can be absolutely stunning at times.

Seniors at a New Haven, Connecticut high school will not be graduating "in the year of our Lord" ever again.  The school district has removed the traditional phrase from high school diplomas after someone complained.

It is almost as if "God" and "Jesus" have become forbidden words.

Well, except when people want to use them as cuss words.  In fact, it is extremely difficult to find a major Hollywood motion picture these days that does not use "God" or "Jesus" as a curse word.

Not only that, most people seem to think that misusing the names of God is rather cute and funny.

What do you think God thinks about it?

It's something to think about.  

But we don't have time to think about it.

In fact, we have filled up our lives with being busy. 

We are so busy teaching our young people that they evolved from animals, and yet we are so shocked when they start behaving like animals.

We have adopted Darwinism as an official religion in our schools.  However, even many atheist scientists are now admitting that life is so improbable, and the physical characteristics of the universe are so finely tuned to accommodate it, that it really seems that the universe "knew we were coming" - and yet they still will not admit that God exists.

No, we don't want anything to do with the God of the Bible, but America seems more open to other "gods" than ever.

For example, the U.S. Air Force Academy has officially added a worship area for pagans which was dedicated during a ceremony held on March 10th.

Isn't it wonderful to know that pagan worship is alive and well at the U.S. Air Force Academy?

Islam is rapidly spreading in the United States as well.  In fact, did you know that the opening prayer at the opening session of the Virginia General Assembly was recently delivered by a radical imam? 

The truth is that Islam is rapidly growing in the U.S. and Christianity is in rapid decline.

We are headed down the same road that the U.K. and much of Europe has already taken.

So just how bad are things in the U.K.?

Well, approximately 20,000 pagan revellers recently descended on Stonehenge to mark the summer solstice.

The truth is that paganism and occultism are experiencing a dramatic resurgence.

Of course it should not be any surprise considering the fact that Harry Potter, witches and vampires are some of the greatest Hollywood heroes right now, but whenever Christians are shown in the movies these days they are almost always portrayed as something bad.

Once you become conscious of the anti-Christian propaganda you will start to see it everywhere.

And as our society turns away from God we start to see the symptoms pop up all over the place.

In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, it describes for us how people will be in the last days....

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Is that not a perfect description for what we see today?

One thing in particular that always gets my attention in that portion of Scripture is the part about how people will be disobedient to their parents.

Today, the lack of respect for mothers and fathers is astounding.  In fact, you can see this very clearly in many television shows where the father is portrayed as a bumbling idiot who does not deserve an ounce of respect from his wife or from the children.

The truth is that the family itself is under attack in society and we see families falling apart everywhere.

But should it be any surprise that families are falling apart when we murder approximately a million babies in the United States every single year?

Abortion is a national disgrace, and anyone who think that God does not care that we have killed over 40 million babies since 1973 is severely deluded.

So why are there so many abortions in the United States?

It is to dispose of the "unwanted side effects" of our sexual promiscuity.

In fact, we seem absolutely determined to make the next generation even more sexually promiscuous than we are....

*The World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides recently hosted a "no-adults-welcome" panel at the United Nations where Planned Parenthood workers were allowed to distribute a brochure entitled "Healthy, Happy and Hot."

*Parents at one local high school in Shenandoah, Iowa were absolutely outraged recently after young teenagers were instructed on how to perform graphic sexual acts during a Planned Parenthood sex education class.

*Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick says that he objects to a new policy in Provincetown allowing even elementary school students to receive free condoms, and to do so without telling their parents.

Elementary school students receiving free condoms?

What in the world has happened to us?

What has happened to us is that we have become a very sick society.  U.S. health officials recently announced that approximately 16 percent of all Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes.

And that is only one of the dozens of sexually-transmitted diseases that are out there.

The truth is that lust has become an American pastime.

More than 70% of all men in the United States between the ages of 18 and 34 visit at least one pornographic website in a typical month, and approximately 89 percent of all porn is produced in the United States.

Not only that, but law enforcement officials estimate that about 600,000 Americans and 65,000 Canadians are trading dirty child pictures online.

Is it comforting to know that there is such a large army of sickos out there today?

Actually, in today's society, virtually anything goes.  In fact, a 10-year-old boy was recently named grand marshal for a gay pride parade in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

But aren't some Americans standing up for morality? 

After all, when we had the Bushes in the White House weren't they trying to get America on the right track?

Well, no.

During a recent interview with Larry King, former first lady Laura Bush revealed to the world that she is actually in favor of legalized gay marriage and a woman's "right" to abortion.

Yes, you read that correctly.

It looks like millions of Americans were totally fooled by the Bushes.

But the truth is that the entire nation is going crazy.

For example, one California couple recently attempted to sell their 6-month-old baby for $25 outside a Wal-mart.

How sick is that?

The truth is that even our law enforcement authorities cannot always be trusted anymore.  One police officer in Oklahoma recently tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe because they considered her to be a "threat".

It is almost as if we have totally lost our ability to think clearly.

But the reality is that crime is everywhere.  There are nearly 12 million crimes committed in the U.S. every single year.  That is by far the worst in the world.  No other nation has more than about 6 million reported crimes every year.

Not only that, but there are also approximately 500,000 robberies and approximately 1.2 million car thefts in the United States every single year.

America is rapidly turning into a wasteland.

In fact, when it comes to one particular vice (lying), nobody seems to be better at it than our politicians.  Our politicians regularly lie through their teeth and the American people just accept it because we have been taught that lying is just what politicians do.

But it turns out that corruption is everywhere.  In fact, the corrupton of the financial system has become so widespread that it is almost impossible to keep up with all of the scandals that keep erupting.  The U.S. government is now completely overwhelmed with trying to prosecute all of the thieves and jackals down on Wall Street.

So why is there so much corruption down on Wall Street?

It is because of greed.

If there is one thing that the American people love, it is money.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world is literally starving.

Just consider the following statistics on world hunger....

Already 1 billion people in the world go to bed hungry every single night.

Already somewhere in the world someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds and 3/4 of them are children under the age of 5.

Already approximately a third of all children in the world under the age of five suffer from serious malnutrition.

Do those statistics make you sad?

They should.

We have hoarded the wealth of the world in order to make our own lives more comfortable. 

But that wasn't enough.

We had to have more.

So we borrowed and borrowed and borrowed.

We spent the money that belonged to our children and then we spent the money that belonged to our grandchildren and then we spent the money that belonged to our great-grandchildren.

Now the U.S. government has accumulated a debt of over 13 trillion dollars that is literally impossible to repay.

And yet we keep on borrowing.

In fact, the total of all government, corporate and consumer debt is at a level of about 360 percent of GDP.

At no point during the Great Depression did we ever get anywhere close to such a level.

And yet we keep on borrowing.

We have become absolutely addicted to debt.

And it is going to destroy us.

A tsunami of red ink, created by our gluttonous greed, is headed our way and it is going to wipe out the U.S. economy. 

The United States once had the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and now our greed and gluttony have brought it literally to the brink of destruction.

So in light of everything discussed above, do you still think that the United States is a "good" nation?

Do you think that God should snap to attention and fix our problems whenever we ask Him to even though we have rejected His ways?

Do you think that it might just be possible that we deserve what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico?

It's something to think about.

It is hard to put into words the environmental devastation taking place in the Gulf of Mexico right now.  Thousands upon thousands of sea creatures have died from the oil already, and the ultimate death toll could be in the millions.  In addition, as BP uses "burn boxes" to burn off some of the oil floating on the surface of the Gulf, thousands more sea creatures are literally being burned alive.  The tragedy is unspeakable.  Not only that, but scientists are now warning that the massive amounts of methane escaping into the Gulf could potentially create massive underwater dead zones in which nothing can live.  Meanwhile, massive amounts of oil are coating American coastlines and beaches.  And unfortunately, all of this is just going to get even worse as more oil continues to gush violently into the Gulf of Mexico each day.  It is like a really bad dream that we just can't wake up from.

So just how bad are things already? 

Just consider a few of the reports of environmental devastation in the Gulf which have come out in recent days.... 

Dolphins Coated With Oil        

The dolphin population in the Gulf of Mexico has been absolutely devastated by this oil spill.  One particularly heartbreaking report described how one dolphin was actually crying as people scraped oil off of it with their bare hands.  The dolphin ended up dying a brutal death.

And thousands more dolphins will be dying in the days ahead.

"We're going to lose a lot of them," Dr. Denise Herzing, research director for the Wild Dolphin Research Project recently said. "It is unconscionable and it is criminal. It is akin to a nuclear power plant explosion underwater."

Sea Turtles Burned Alive

A boat captain who has been working to rescue sea turtles in the Gulf claims that he has actually seen BP ships burning sea turtles and other wildlife alive as they burn off some of the oil spill.  According to Captain Mike Ellis, this is what is happening to them.... 

"They drag a boom between two shrimp boats and whatever gets caught between the two boats, they circle it up and catch it on fire. Once the turtles are in there, they can’t get out."

An article in the Los Angeles Times says that BP uses "burn boxes" as large as 500 square miles in which up to 16 controlled burns will take place in a given day.

Can you imagine how many sea creatures are being burned alive in these massive "burn fields"?

Dead Zones

One new study suggests that the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico may devastate the endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna population so badly that it could possibly go extinct.

But it isn't just endangered populations that are threatened.

Scientists announced on Tuesday that as much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been discovered in some areas near the oil spill, which would be more than enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create massive underwater dead zones.

Meanwhile, unprecedented numbers of sharks, dolphins, turtles and fish are showing up just off the Gulf coast as they seek to escape the advancing oil.  Right now millions of sea creatures are caught between the certain death of the rapidly spreading oil and the certain death of being trapped on shore.  Once the oil reaches the shore there will be no place else to go and the loss of life will be unimaginable.

Oil-Coated Beaches

What all of this oil is doing to American beaches is another great tragedy. The following videos will absolutely have your jaw on the floor.  This first video contains footage of oil sticking to kids on a beach in Destin, Florida...

This next video contains aerial footage of Pensacola beach.  Keep in mind that the beaches of the area were once considered to be the whitest beaches in America...

This third video is incredibly alarming.  It actually shows the surf on Pensacola beach bubbling like acid.  What in the world could be causing this?...

This final video was done by someone who claims that it is raining oil in Louisiana.  In fact, there have already been a number of reports of "black rain" in various areas along the Gulf.  Let's hope that this type of thing does not start to become widespread...

So are things about to get even worse?

Well, there is at least one oil industry insider that is now saying that we may actually have to evacuate the gulf states.  Just check out the following excerpt from a recent Washington Post article...

"We're going to have to evacuate the gulf states," said Matt Simmons, founder of Simmons and Co., an oil investment firm and, since the April 20 blowout, the unflagging source of end-of-the-world predictions. "Can you imagine evacuating 20 million people? . . . This story is 80 times worse than I thought."

Now, let us hope that such a scenario does not ever come to pass.  Such a thing would be unimaginable and could very well collapse the U.S. economy.

But already the CDC is warning "everyone, including pregnant women" to avoid areas affected by the oil spill.

The truth is that the oil spill in the Gulf is already making a lot of people sick, and there are some legitimate questions as to whether the air in areas affected by this oil spill is still safe to breathe. 

If you live along the Gulf and you know of health problems in your area, please leave a comment and let us know what is going on.  The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is rapidly turning into one of the greatest disasters in U.S. history, and the mainstream media is not telling us the whole story.  Hopefully by working together we can get the truth about what is really going on out to the public.

Many people wonder why so many of us are so hard on illegal immigration.  Well, it is not because we are against migrant workers coming into the United States to help agricultural giants pick fruit.  Certainly those workers should not be entering the country illegally - so if there is a real need for them a mechanism for bringing them in legally should be worked out.  No, the reality is that securing our border is actually a national security issue.  Federal agents and local law enforcement officials are now openly announcing that they are outgunned, outmanned and are increasingly being shot at by the Mexican drug cartels that are openly conducting military operations inside the United States.  Things have actually gotten so bad that the U.S. government is warning U.S. citizens to permanently stay away from certain areas of Arizona.  The truth is that so many of us are so worked up about illegal immigration not because we want to deny the "American Dream" to all of the people south of the border, but rather because we are actually witnessing a military invasion of our soil by some of the most ruthless and powerful drug cartels on earth.  It is unconscionable for our politicians to stand by and do nothing to secure the border as foreigners continue to pour in and openly conduct military operations against the American people.

Do you doubt that things are really that bad?

Well, let's listen to what federal agents and local law enforcement officials along the border are saying.

Federal border officials recently said that Mexican drug cartels have not only set up shop on American soil, they are actually  maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona.  From these forward bases, the armed drug cartel scouts can monitor every move made by U.S. border agents and law enforcement officials.  Federal agents say that drivers regularly bring these drug cartel scouts food, water, batteries for radios and everything else that they need to stay in the wilderness for long periods of time.

Are you alarmed yet?

One agent who patrols the border and who asked to remain anonymous told Fox News the following....

"To say that this area is out of control is an understatement."

A different federal agent put it this way in an email to Fox News....

"Every night we’re getting beaten like a pinata at a birthday party by drug, alien smugglers."

Not only that, but Arizona police have been openly threatened that if they try to interfere with all of this drug traffic they will be "taken out" by drug cartel snipers.

Yes, this is actually happening in 2010.

There is open war along the U.S. border and the Obama administration refuses to lift a finger.

And it is open warfare that is taking place.

In the video posted below, take special note of the following quotes from Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu....

"Drug cartels control this area."

"Local law enforcement cannot handle and stop this on our own."

"We are outgunned, we are outmanned and we don't have the resources here locally for us to fight this."

Local law enforcement officials and border agents are crying out for the U.S. federal government to do something.  Securing the border is one of the very few things that the U.S. federal government is actually supposed to do according to the Constitution.

And yet for years they have refused to do their duty to protect the American people.

This next video is a news report that explains how the U.S. government has now actually made some parts of Arizona permanently off-limits to U.S. citizens because of the threat of violence from Mexican drug cartels....

Are you starting to understand?

Things are totally out of control.

In light of all this, it is no wonder why Arizona passed the new law that it did.

But instead of letting Arizona protect their citizens, and instead of focusing on trying to figure out how to solve the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis, Barack Obama has decided to declare war - on the state of Arizona.

That's right - instead of stopping this military invasion by Mexican drug cartels, Barack Obama is fighting to force Arizona to stand down.

Meanwhile, other communities around the United States are taking their cue from Arizona.

For example, residents of Fremont, Nebraska, recently voted in favor of a measure that makes it illegal to harbor, hire, or rent property to an illegal immigrant.

That will discourage illegal workers from coming in, but it still won't do anything to stop the drug cartels from running rampant because they don't need jobs.

So what is Obama's solution?

Well, it is being reported that several U.S. Senators have learned of a possible plan by the Obama Administration that would provide mass amnesty for all illegal aliens without a vote by Congress.

And Obama would continue to leave the border wide open.

So why is he leaving the border wide open?

Well, that is actually very complicated, but Senator Kyl believes that he knows one reason.  According to Senator Kyl, Barack Obama told him that he's not securing the U.S. border on purpose....

Of course Barack Obama denies this.

But if Barack Obama is using the border as a bargaining chip to get "comprehensive immigration reform" pushed through, then there are hardly words to express how disgusting that is.

The truth is that we can secure the border if we want to.  We have secured the border between North Korea and South Korea for over 50 years.  During that time not a single North Korean has gotten through illegally.

And securing the border is a national security imperative.  Not only are we being openly invaded by Mexican drug cartels, but border officials tell us that an increasing number of radical Muslim jihadists are sneaking over the Mexican border into the United States.

Considering how huffy politicians in Washington D.C. get about the threat of terrorism, how in the world can they allow millions of people to continue to enter the country unchecked across the Mexican border?

Frankly, it is a recipe for national suicide.

No politician should ever utter one word about "national security" unless they are willing to secure the border.  Otherwise they are engaged in rank hypocrisy.

Whether you are pro-immigration or anti-immigration, one thing that we should all be able to agree on is that we do not want armed Mexican drug cartel smuggling bands and radical Islamic terrorists crossing our borders.

But it is happening today, and it is going to happen tomorrow, and it is going to keep happening until someone in Washington D.C. decides to start doing something about it.

Is freedom of speech dead in America?  Well, if not, it is rapidly dying.  The most recent example to illustrate this comes out of Dearborn, Michigan.  On June 18th, two Christians decided that they would peacefully pass out copies of the gospel of John on a public sidewalk outside a public Arab festival in Dearborn, and within 3 minutes 8 policemen surrounded them and placed them under arrest.  Remember, these Christians were on a public sidewalk and were only very quietly handing out literature.  Even their cameraman was arrested for simply filming what was taking place.  The cameraman was not even involved in handing out the literature.  Yet the police arrested him.  At least two people claim that some bystanders cried out "Allahu Akbar!" as the Christians were being led away in handcuffs.  Later, the group was told that they would have to go at least five blocks away to hand out their copies of the gospel of John.  Freedom of speech has always been a big part of the American Dream, but as this incident and many others like it demonstrate, freedom of speech is rapidly being destroyed in the United States.

And the American people are just standing around and letting it happen.

The video posted below tells the story of what just happened a few days ago in Dearborn.  Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla and Negeen Mayel attended the 15th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival on June 18th with the intent of peacefully passing out copies of the gospel of John outside the festival on a public sidewalk.  The festival covers 14 blocks and was free and open to the public.  Qureshi and Mayal are former Muslims who have now become Christians.  Wood is a former atheist.  All of them are from a group called Acts 17 Apologetics.  What happened to them literally minutes after they started passing out copies of the gospel of John will have your jaw on the floor....

But this is far from the only example of free speech being trampled on in America.

We have all heard about the "free speech zones" which law enforcement authorities set up wherever major politicians go.  Often these "free speech zones" are so small and so enclosed that they resemble little more than jail cells.  Apparently Americans still have freedom of speech as long as they do it in a little cage set up by authorities.  The implication of these free speech zones is that everyone outside of the cage does not have the right to exercise free speech.  How sick is that?

Brian and Doris Johnson were recently arrested for attempting to pass out free Bibles at the Twin Cities Pride Festival in Minnesota.  The truth is that it is hard to even get police to come out to your house if it has been broken into these days, but if you try to pass out Bibles at a "pride" festival they will come down on you like rabid dogs.

Michael Anthony Marcavage, founder of Repent America ministries, was recently arrested for holding signs depicting graphic images of aborted babies and preaching to people waiting in line to enter the Liberty Bell Center in downtown Philadelphia.  Apparently speaking out against abortion is not "politically correct" enough to be protected.

Authorities have even attempted to ban home Bible studies in some areas of the United States.  That is just how bad things are getting out there.

Of course we all remember the University of Florida student who cried out "Don't taze me bro!" after he was tackled to the floor and manhandled by police simply for asking John Kerry the wrong question....

The most disgusting thing about that whole situation was when news "anchors" on some of the major networks actually applauded the tazering of that poor young student. 

Whether you agree with that student or any of the other examples of free speech above, the truth is that we all need to stand together to protect it.  If free speech is taken away from one of us, then it is taken away from all of us.

Without free speech it is very easy for a nation to turn into another Nazi Germany.  In fact, a large number of nations around the globe are already headed down that path. 

Someday websites such as this will be shut down because they are "offensive" to someone out there.  Already, the FCC is pushing for tighter speech restrictions on the Internet because they say it has become more difficult for the public to separate "the facts" from "bigotry masquerading as news".

Of course the "facts" would be whatever they consider to be "politically correct" and "bigotry" would be anything that disagrees with them.

Do you see how that works?

The truth is that Americans are going to continue to be pushed into free speech zones, they are going to continue to be arrested for handing out literature on public sidewalks and the government is going to continue to place tighter and tighter controls on the Internet unless we stand up and say something.

Do not take freedom of speech for granted.  We are rapidly losing it, and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to get back.

Is the state of California bankrupt?  Well, an increasing number of politicians and economic analysts are answering that question in the affirmative.  The truth is that California is a complete and total economic disaster area.  The state government of California is projected to have a budget deficit of at least 19 billion dollars this year, and next year the budget gap is projected to grow to 37 billion dollars.  To put that in perspective, the entire budget for the government of California is only about $125 billion per year.  Already, California's credit rating is the lowest of all 50 states, and there are persistent rumors that it is about to go lower.  If California's credit rating is slashed, it will be very expensive for them to borrow the money that they desperately need.  Once upon a time, the state of California was the poster child for the American Dream, but now it is on the leading edge of America's rapidly unfolding economic nightmare. 

Leaders from both major political parties in California have been increasingly using the word "bankruptcy" in recent weeks.  In fact, California Attorney General Jerry Brown was very open about California's horrific finances when he recently told a group of young Democrats the following....

"California is deeply in debt. You could say that it's bankrupt."

Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project was even more direct when she recently issued the following ominous warning about California's finances....

"We are on the verge of system failure."

The truth is that California is literally drowning in a sea of red ink.  They keep making larger and larger budget cuts, but the financial problems just continue to get worse.

Already, the severe budget cuts are turning California into a shell of what it once was, and yet everyone agrees that even deeper cuts are needed.  But what will California look like at the end of this?  The new "normal" may look a whole lot different from the "California Dream" that once drew so many people to the state.  A recent article in the Globe and Mail put it this way....

Mass layoffs, slashed health and welfare services, closed parks, crumbling superhighways and ever-larger public school class sizes are all part of the new normal.

The biggest crisis of all may be the state's pension fund.  CalPERS currently has about $16.3 billion more in liabilities than assets.  Not only that, but a state report released earlier this year says that California is also facing a $51.8 billion bill for the health and dental benefits of current and future state retirees.

Ouch.

So where in the world are the taxes going to come from to pay for all of these obligations?

It is hard to see a way out of this mess, especially considering the fact that California's economy is coming apart like a 20 dollar suit.

Right now businesses are shutting down in California at an alarming rate.  In the region around Sacramento there is now one closed business for every six that are still open.

Not only that, but unemployment in California has reached unprecedented levels.  There are now 8 counties in the state that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.

To put that in perspective, consider the following.  The number of people now unemployed in the state of California is equal to the populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.

Yes, things really are that bad in California.

Nobody has a safe job anymore - not even teachers.  Just recently, the state of California handed pink slips to nearly 22,000 teachers across the state.

Can you imagine firing 22,000 teachers?

Unfortunately, firing all of those teachers barely even made a dent in California's budget problems.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pledging to seek "terrible cuts" in an effort to get California's financial situation under control, but the truth is that there are not many more areas that can be slashed without voter approval.

Bob Herbert of the New York Times recently described California's horrific budget crisis this way....

California has cut billions of dollars from its education system, including its renowned network of public colleges and universities. Many thousands of teachers have been let go. Budget officials travel the state with a glazed look in their eyes, having tried everything they can think of to balance the state budget. And still the deficits persist.

On top of everything else, California's health care system is also on the verge of collapse.  In fact, literally dozens of California hospitals and emergency rooms have shut down over the past ten years.

Why have so many shut down?

The truth is that many hospitals and emergency rooms simply could not afford to stay open as they were endlessly swamped with illegal immigrants, unemployed Californians and homeless people who were simply not able to pay for the services that they were receiving. 

As a result of these hospital and emergency room closings, the rest of the health care system in California is now beyond overloaded.  This had led to brutally long waits, diverted ambulances and even unnecessary patient deaths.

And unfortunately, the number of people in California who are unable to pay for their emergency medical care is only increasing.

According to one study, approximately 1 out of every 4 Californians under the age of 65 had absolutely no health insurance last year.

So could California actually go bankrupt?

Well, yes.

An article in Slate recently described how it would work....

Say the state can't make its debt payments, and no one will lend it any more money. In that case, the federal government can step in and put the state into receivership. This would involve the assignment of an accountant to manage the state's debt, overseen by a judge. It would be a lot like bankruptcy, except instead of following a structured set of steps—informing creditors, appointing creditors' committees, a 120-day window to file a plan, etc.—a receiver has the authority to force creditors to renegotiate loans in a speedy fashion. However, the accountant in charge would not have the power to make decisions about the state's budget, such as which programs needed to be cut and which taxes had to be raised. (No state has ever gone into receivership.)

Let us hope that this does not happen, but the truth is that California is facing a rapidly rising tide of red ink that it cannot possibly handle.  Without a massive amount of federal money, California finances are doomed.

But California is far from alone.  They are just on the bleeding edge of a horrific financial bloodbath.  State and local governments all over the United States are in financial panic mode, and as the U.S. economy continues to implode, things are only going to go from bad to worse. 

So buckle up my friends - we are in for a bumpy ride.

Will we see the start of another housing collapse before the end of 2010?  That is what a number of top economists are beginning to fear.  The truth is that there are some very troubling signs in the housing numbers.  The massive tax credit that the U.S. government was offering to home buyers helped prop up the housing market for quite a while, but now that the tax credit has expired, many real estate professionals are bracing for the worst.  The reality is that foreclosures continue to set all-time records, the mortgage industry is a complete mess and another massive wave of adjustable rate mortgages is scheduled to reset in 2011 and 2012.  As the U.S. economy continues to falter, and as the nation starts to deal with the economic fallout from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, many are now wondering how in the world Americans are going to be able to afford to purchase millions of these homes which are still massively overpriced.  The American Dream is still way too expensive for the vast majority of Americans.  So are there signs that housing prices in the U.S. could be on the verge of another major decline?

Well, yes.

The truth is that massive U.S. government intervention helped stabilize U.S. housing prices for a while, but the tax credit expired at the end of April.  As home buyers rushed to finalize their purchases in March and April it made the housing numbers look promising for a couple of months, but now things are rapidly becoming unglued again.  We'll get to the statistics in a moment.

But first it is important to note that mortgage institutions have been seriously tightening their lending standards over the past couple of years.  The days when virtually anyone could easily get approved for a huge home loan are long gone.  The surviving lenders have been burned way too often and they have learned some very hard lessons.  They are scrutinizing mortgage applicants much more thoroughly now. 

So why is that important?

Well, when you have less loan applicants being approved that means that you have less potential buyers in the marketplace.  Less potential buyers means that there is less demand for homes.  When there is not a lot of demand, prices go down.

Of course short-term demand had been artificially inflated by the huge tax credit that the U.S. government was offering to home buyers.  But now that the tax credit is over, the numbers tell us that the housing industry could be in for some very hard times...

-Newly signed home sale contracts dropped more than 10% in May.  Some analysts are warning that this could just be the very beginning of a new string of monthly declines. 

-Internet searches on real estate websites are down approximately 20 percent compared to this same time period in 2009.  If people are not looking for homes it is because they don't plan to buy any time soon.

-According to the U.S. Commerce Department, housing starts in the United States fell 10 percent in May, which represented the biggest decline since March 2009.  Not only that, but the data also revealed that single-family home starts suffered their biggest drop since 1991.  Considering that there is a record number of unsold homes right now in the U.S., it is extremely unlikely that things will turn around for home builders any time soon.

-The number of U.S. home foreclosures set a record for the second consecutive month in May.  This is a clear sign that the very worst of the U.S. housing crisis is not in the past.

-As of March, U.S. banks had an inventory of approximately 1.1 million foreclosed homes, which was up 20 percent from a year ago.  The fact that the backlog of unsold foreclosed homes is still growing has got to be extremely troubling for the entire U.S. real estate industry.

-The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that over 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period.  That was a new all-time record and was up from 9.1 percent a year ago. 

-On top of everything else, a massive "second wave" of adjustable rate mortgages is scheduled to reset in 2011 and 2012.  This means that even more U.S. homeowners are not going to be able to afford their mortgages and there are going to be even more foreclosures.

-Authorities now tell us that the cost of fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage companies that purchase or guarantee the vast majority of all U.S. home loans, will be at least $160 billion and could grow as high as $1 trillion.  Without Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the entire U.S. mortgage industry would simply collapse.  So it is a really troubling sign to see that they have become giant money pits that require constant infusions of U.S. government cash just to survive.

-In fact, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are scheduled to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because their stock prices have been trading under $1 per share for more than 30 trading days.  That is how far they have fallen.

The frightening thing is that the economic effects from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have barely been felt yet.  The disaster in the Gulf threatens to push that entire region into a devastating depression, and the economic shockwaves from the oil spill are surely going to be felt from coast to coast.  Considering the fact that the U.S. housing industry is already on the verge of a major crisis, the last thing it needed was a disaster of this magnitude.

So, no, things are not going to be getting better for the U.S. housing industry.  Anyone who thinks so is seriously deluded.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is already the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, but what most people don't know is that it is rapidly turning into a public health disaster of frightening proportions.  Reports are scattered and mostly anecdotal at this point (as BP and the U.S. government try to keep a lid on information getting out), but it is becoming increasingly clear that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and/or the chemical dispersants being used are making a lot of people sick.  So far most of the reports have been about breathing difficulties, vomiting and various flu-like symptoms.  But it is the health effects that will take a long time to show up that are the most concerning.  For example, this oil spill has released massive amounts of benzene into the Gulf.  Benzene actually enters human cells and damages DNA material.   In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services tells us that exposure to benzene has been proven to cause leukemia.  So are we about to see a massive wave of cancer sweep the Gulf coast?

At this point nobody knows.  What is becoming clear is that a whole lot of people are becoming ill. 

Several days ago, the state of Louisiana announced that 71 cases of oil spill-related illnesses had been reported to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals up to that point.  A significant number of those had not even been involved in any of the clean up efforts. 

But the cases of illness are most prominent among those involved in cleaning up the oil spill.  CBS news has reported that more than 75 oil spill disaster workers have already been treated for mysterious symptoms.

The most common symptoms being reported by oil spill disaster workers include vomiting, dizziness, headaches and shortness of breath.

The wife of one fisherman who is involved in disaster relief efforts in the Gulf recently told CNN what her husband has been telling her about what is really going on out there....

"I received several calls from him saying, 'This one's hanging over the boat throwing up. This one says he's dizzy, and he's feeling faint. Everybody's loading up their stuff, tying up their rigs and going back to the docks.'"

Down in Texas, they are referring to these illnesses as "TILT" - Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance.  The following is an excerpt from a local news report out of San Antonio....

For weeks now, local hospitals have tracked patients with suspicious symptoms coming in from the gulf coast. Doctors are having trouble distinguishing it from the flu.

"What makes it challenging is that patients show up with non-specific symptoms. Headaches, fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, upset stomach," lists Dr. Claudia Miller at UT Health Science Center.

So what in the world is causing all this?

Nobody knows for certain yet.

But if the smell of the oil on some Gulf beaches is already so strong that it burns your nostrils, then what in the world is this oil going to do to our health?

Needless to say, this is a story that the mainstream media needs to start following a lot more closely.

One of our readers named Debra from Louisiana recently left a comment describing the breathing difficulties and headaches that she is now experiencing....

I live in Gretna, La just a little past the Huey P Long bridge. I have had headaches for several days now. I am also having trouble breathing like i am having a asthma episode. I don’t even have asthma. If it gets any worse i am going to the hospital.

All i can say is someone needs to look into this seriously, The air smells like burning crayons (that is the best way to explain it). It has smelled like this for several days now.

A reader named Stacy on our sister website recently posted a very alarming comment regarding what is happening in her area down in Florida....

We live in the navarre, florida area and in the past week almost every family we know has had vomiting and diarreha. This could just be anecdotal – maybe we just have a stomach bug circulating, but it is strange. We had a huge storm the week before it happened that blew in from the gulf so who knows.

Also, the city of destin, florida has taken it upon themselves to close the destin pass with their own purchased boom and barges. This is an elite destination and they are not waiting around for bp and their hired prison workers to clean the beaches. Apparently, the coast guard was at the meeting and told the locals that they will face criminal prosecution, but they don’t care. They are protecting their million dollar properties.

Another commenter from Louisiana named Joe says that everyone in his family is dealing with these kinds of health issues right now....

We live near Hammond, LA which is some 60 miles NORTH of New Orleans, LA. For the past two to three weeks we have been having mild flu like symptoms. I hardly never get sick but cannot get ride of a runny nose and a constant headache that only goes away when I leave this area (heading North). My entire family has the same problems as well as many of our friends in the area.

The most frightening thing is that nobody knows exactly what we are dealing with here.

Are there any other factors other than all the oil that is causing all of these health issues?

Are these illnesses being caused by the extremely high levels of methane that scientists have detected in the Gulf of Mexico?

Are the 1 million gallons of dispersal agents such as Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 that BP has poured into the Gulf to blame?

Are people becoming sick due to all the hydrogen sulfide and benzene being released by the oil spill?

Considering the fact that exposure to benzene has been proven to cause leukemia, it is imperative that we get some answers sooner rather than later.

And unfortunately, the threat from this oil spill is only going to continue to grow.

The truth is that this is not just an "oil leak".

This is an "oil volcano" that is pumping out oil at such high pressure that BP is totally at a loss for how to stop it.

In fact, BP’s Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles recently told CNN that BP’s data indicates that BP can’t cap the leaking oil, or it might cause the well casing to blow out.

So when will this oil volcano be stopped?

Nobody knows.

Meanwhile, at least one industry expert is estimating that the oil beneath the surface of the water already covers 40% of the Gulf of Mexico.

40% of the Gulf of Mexico?

And it is still getting worse?

It is hard to even find the words to describe how horrific this nightmare is becoming.

If you live along the Gulf coast and you know of some health issues where you live, please leave a comment below.  Hopefully if we all work together we can start to piece the facts together about this very dangerous health crisis....

The United States government will never have another balanced budget again.  Yes, you read that correctly.  U.S. government finances have now reached a critical "tipping point" and things are going to spin wildly out of control from this time forward.  Why?  Spending on entitlement programs and interest on the national debt are now accelerating at exponential rates.  Some time around 2020 they will eat up every single dollar of federal revenue that is brought in before a penny is spent on anything else.  Of course the solution to all of this would be to radically cut entitlement programs, but no U.S. politician in his or her right mind would do that.  After all, do you think elderly people (who vote in droves by the way) would vote for you after you just cut their Social Security checks in half?  That is not the way the world works.  You see, democracies always get into trouble once the people realize that they can vote for the candidates that promise them the largest gifts out of the public treasury.  That is where the United States is at now.  Over 100 million Americans now receive direct payments from the United States government.  For millions of Americans, the American Dream now means getting a government check and kicking back and enjoying life.  We have become a nation that is chock full of people that can't take care of themselves and that are totally dependent on the monolithic nanny state that the U.S. government has created.

Now, the truth is that helping the poor and those who cannot help themselves is always a good thing.

Nobody is denying that.

But are there really 100 million Americans that cannot take care of themselves?

Of course not.

The welfare state has gotten wildly out of control and now we are drowning in an ocean of red ink because of it.

In fact, unless the underlying laws for the entitlement programs are rewritten and unless benefits are cut to the bone, it will be mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to balance the federal budget from this time forward.

You are skeptical of that claim?

The following are 14 reasons why the U.S. government will never have a balanced budget ever again.... 

#1) Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent of GDP.  By 2080, they are projected to eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP.

#2) Approximately 57 percent of Barack Obama's 3.8 trillion dollar budget for 2011 consists of direct payments to individual Americans or is money that is spent on their behalf.

#3) Nearly 51 million Americans received $672 billion in Social Security benefits in 2009.  That number is projected to grow substantially in years ahead as waves of Baby Boomers begin to retire.

#4) According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2010 the Social Security system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes.  That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.

#5) Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers.  Today, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers.  By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

#6) The U.S. government "borrowed" 2.5 trillion dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund, and now it turns out that the Social Security system is going to start needing that money.  So where will the U.S. government get an extra 2.5 trillion dollars?

#7) Over 40 million Americans are now on food stamps and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting that more than 43 million Americans will be on food stamps by the end of 2011.   

#8) Entitlement programs are not subject to budget freezes or budget cuts - unless Congress changes the underlying laws.

#9) The lobbies for those receiving entitlement payments are extremely powerful.  That is why so few politicians will ever even mention the possibility of cutting Social Security payments.  Old people vote in high numbers, and cutting their benefits would really piss them off.

#10) Interest on the U.S. national debt now makes up 7% of the budget and it is climbing rapidly.  This is an expense that must be paid or else U.S. government finances collapse.

#11) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the U.S. budget deficit for 2010, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply the tax rate for every American by 2.4.  That would mean that the 10 percent tax rate would become 24 percent, the 15 percent tax rate would become 36 percent, and the 35 percent tax rate would have to be 85 percent.  Keep in mind that this is before unemployment taxes, Social Security taxes and state taxes are paid.  Do you think any American would ever put up with a federal income tax rate of 85 percent? 

#12) According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the U.S. national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019.  That is before one penny is spent on anything else.  As the U.S. government graph below reveals, the financial picture only gets more bleak in the years beyond that.... 

#13) The present value of projected scheduled benefits exceeds earmarked revenues for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare by about 46 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.  So that means that the U.S government is going to have to find an extra 46 trillion dollars from somewhere to pay all those benefits.

#14) The vast majority of the American people have become soft and don't know how to take care of themselves any longer.  We now have millions upon millions of people who are totally dependent on the U.S. government for survival.  As the government takes care of more and more people the red ink will increasingly get worse.  At what point will it cause U.S. government finances to totally collapse?

Needless to say, the U.S. government is facing a financial crisis that is absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history.  There is no way out of this mess that does not involve a massive amount of economic pain. 

As of June 1st, the U.S. National Debt was $13,050,826,460,886.97.  But as you can see from the data above, things are about to get a lot worse. 

We are heading into a financial black hole that will literally rip apart this nation if something is not done right now to fix things.  But the folks down in Washington D.C. don't seem the least bit interested in fixing things.  In fact, about the only thing they seem determined to do is to spend even more money and get us into even more debt.

The course we are on now can only end badly.  Hopefully our representatives in Washington D.C. will wake up while there is still time.  If not, the tsunami of red ink that is headed our way will devastate all of our lives.

While most of the attention so far has been on the millions of gallons of oil that have escaped from the damaged BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico, many environmentalists are now wondering if the real danger to humans from this whole crisis may be the massive amounts of benzene and hydrogen sulfide that are escaping into the air.  Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical asphyxiant, similar to carbon monoxide and cyanide gases.  It causes "biochemical suffocation" by inhibiting cellular respiration and the uptake of oxygen.  Benzene is a highly carcinogenic gas that can cause death if inhaled at high enough concentrations.  Not only that, benzene has been shown to cause leukemia in all its forms.  High levels of both gases have been detected at testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico.  In addition, it is being reported that many fishermen in the Gulf that have been assisting with cleanup efforts have been getting seriously ill from breathing that air.  There have been reports of symptoms including headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes, coughing, sore throats, and stuffy sinuses.  So as this oil spill continues and even more of these gases are released, are people across the southeast United States about to start breathing air that is filled with highly toxic gases?  Are we about to see the American Dream turned into a total nightmare for tens of millions of Americans?  What some scientists are now telling us about the release of these gases is truly frightening.

At some testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico, levels of benzene have been detected at over 3000 parts per billion (over 3 parts per million).  The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has set a maximum workplace exposure limit of 1 part of benzene per million parts of air during an 8 hour workday.  So already some testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico have detected levels of benzene that are three times higher than what the OSHA considers to be safe.

Not only that, but WWLTV in New Orleans is reporting that hydrogen sulfide has been detected in the Gulf of Mexico at levels as high as 1,192 parts per billion.  The concentration threshold at which humans begin to experience physical symptoms from hydrogen sulfide is about 5 to 10 parts per billion.

Needless to say, this is beyond alarming.

On May 14th, WWLTV in New Orleans ran the following video report on the levels of hydrogen sulfide and benzene in the air at that time....

So what kind of damage can breathing these two chemicals do?

Let's break them down one at a time.

Benzene

Breathing high levels of Benzene can cause the following....

*Drowsiness

*Dizziness

*Rapid Heart Rate

*Headaches

*Tremors

*Unconsciousness

*Death (at very high concentrations)

Long-term exposure to Benzene can do a ton of damage to the human body.  Benzene actually enters cells and damages DNA material.  In addition, benzene is known to cause harmful effects on bone marrow and it can cause a decrease in red blood cells, leading to anemia. 

For women, long-term exposure to benzene can result in irregular menstrual periods and a decrease in the size of their ovaries.

In addition, as mentioned previously, benzene is a known cancer-causing agent.  In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services tells us that exposure to benzene is known to cause leukemia.

Hydrogen Sulfide

Breathing high levels of hydrogren sulfide can cause the following....

*Eye irritation

*Respiratory irritation

*Nausea

*Dizziness

*Coughing

*Headaches

*Breathing Difficulties

*Fluid In The Lungs

*Shock

*Convulsions

*Comas

*Death (at very high concentrations)

Hydrogen sulfide is considered a broad-spectrum poison, meaning that it can poison several different systems in the body at the same time.  As mentioned previously, hydrogen sulfide is a chemical asphyxiant.  It is similar to carbon monoxide and cyanide gases.  It can be extremely deadly at high concentrations.

So if the levels of these two gases continue to climb, will some areas along the Gulf coast need to be evacuated?

That is a legitimate question.

Right now this is a development that needs to be very closely watched, but so far the mainstream media does not seem that alarmed by the buildup of these gases.

Just as the authorities insisted that the air was safe to breathe at ground zero after 9/11 (but were proven horribly wrong later), they are also promising that the air in the Gulf of Mexico is safe to breathe now.

But if you live in that region you are going to need to do your own research.  BP does not care about you and they are not going to let you know if the air is a health danger to you and your family.  Do not just blindly rely on what the "authorities" tell you to do.  If things continue to get worse with these gases, you are going to have to make your own decision about whether or not it is best to get away from the coast for a while.

Benzene and hydrogen sulfide are nothing to scoff at.  Both gases can have very serious health effects.  If any of you out there have any additional information on these matters, please let us know and we will do our best to get it out to our readers.

Most Americans have absolutely no idea, but a very dark philosophy is spreading like wildfire among the global elite.  This philosophy is an obsessive belief that humanity has become a cancer that is destroying the earth.  There are now large numbers of global leaders that are convinced that the exploding population of the world has become like a virus or a plague, and that it must be combated as such.  In fact, it would be very difficult to understate just how obsessed many members of the global elite are with population control.  The United Nations puts out position papers about it, universities have entire courses dedicated to it, radical population control advocates have been appointed to some of the highest political positions in the world, and some of the wealthiest people on the planet get together just to talk about it.  Those who believe in this philosophy are constantly talking about the need for "increased access" to abortion, contraception and other "family planning" services.  But even with all of their efforts, the population of the world is still expanding and those who believe in this population control philosophy are getting nervous.

So just who are these people among the global elite who believe so fervently in population control?  Some of the names you are about to read below might totally shock you.  Many of them are some of the biggest names in the world.  For example, Prince Charles gave a major speech just the other day in which he bemoaned the rapidly expanding world population: "I could have chosen Mumbai, Cairo or Mexico City; wherever you look, the world’s population is increasing fast. It goes up by the equivalent of the entire population of the United Kingdom every year. Which means that this poor planet of ours, which already struggles to sustain 6.8 billion people, will somehow have to support over 9 billion people within 50 years."

Many among the global elite believe that the growing world population is the number one problem facing the world.  Many of them are absolutely convinced that overpopulation is the primary cause of "climate change", is ruining our environment, and threatens to turn the entire globe into one gigantic third world slum.

Of course all of that is nonsense, but this is what they actually believe, and the scary thing is that most of them are in positions of power and influence where they can actually do quite a bit to advance their insidious agenda. 

The following are 22 shocking population control quotes from the global elite that will make you want to lose your lunch....

#1) The March 2009 U.N. Population Division policy brief....

"What would it take to accelerate fertility decline in the least developed countries?"

#2) Microsoft's Bill Gates....

"The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's heading up to about nine billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."

#3) Barack Obama's top science advisor, John P. Holdren....

"A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men.

The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births."

#4) George W. Bush's science advisor Paul Ehrlich....

"Each person we add now disproportionately impacts on the environment and life-support systems of the planet."

#5) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg....

"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of."

#6) A United Nations Population Fund report entitled "Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate"....

"No human is genuinely 'carbon neutral,' especially when all greenhouse gases are figured into the equation."

#7) David Rockefeller....

"The negative impact of population growth on all of our planetary ecosystems is becoming appallingly evident."

#8) Jacques Cousteau....

"In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day."

#9) CNN Founder Ted Turner....

"A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal."

#10) Dave Foreman, Earth First Co-Founder....

"My three main goals would be to reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with it’s full complement of species, returning throughout the world."

#11) Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh....

"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels."

#12) David Brower, first Executive Director of the Sierra Club....

"Childbearing [should be] a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license ... All potential parents [should be] required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing."

#13) Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger....

"The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."

#14) Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger. Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12....

"Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."

#15) Princeton philosopher Peter Singer....

"So why don’t we make ourselves the last generation on earth? If we would all agree to have ourselves sterilized then no sacrifices would be required — we could party our way into extinction!"

#16) Thomas Ferguson, former official in the U.S. State Department Office of Population Affairs....

"There is a single theme behind all our work–we must reduce population levels. Either governments do it our way, through nice clean methods, or they will get the kinds of mess that we have in El Salvador, or in Iran or in Beirut. Population is a political problem. Once population is out of control, it requires authoritarian government, even fascism, to reduce it…."

#17) Mikhail Gorbachev....

"We must speak more clearly about sexuality, contraception, about abortion, about values that control population, because the ecological crisis, in short, is the population crisis. Cut the population by 90% and there aren't enough people left to do a great deal of ecological damage."

#18) John Guillebaud, professor of family planning at University College London....

"The effect on the planet of having one child less is an order of magnitude greater than all these other things we might do, such as switching off lights. An extra child is the equivalent of a lot of flights across the planet."

#19) Professor of Biology at the University of Texas at Austin Eric R. Pianka....

"This planet might be able to support perhaps as many as half a billion people who could live a sustainable life in relative comfort. Human populations must be greatly diminished, and as quickly as possible to limit further environmental damage."

#20) U.S. Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton....

"This year, the United States renewed funding of reproductive healthcare through the United Nations Population Fund, and more funding is on the way.  The U.S. Congress recently appropriated more than $648 million in foreign assistance to family planning and reproductive health programs worldwide. That’s the largest allocation in more than a decade – since we last had a Democratic president, I might add."

#21) Clinton adviser Nina Fedoroff....

"We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can't support many more people."

#22) The first of the "new 10 commandments" on the Georgia Guidestones....

"Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature."

As the world watches in horror as the financial nightmares in Greece, Spain and Portugal unfold, most Americans are oblivious to the fact that a great day of financial reckoning is soon coming to the United States as well.  The truth is that the United States is not "the richest nation in the world" anymore.  What the United States actually has become is the biggest debtor in the history of the planet.  In our lust for the "good life" and the American Dream we have spent ourselves into a financial black hole from which there is no escape.  U.S. government spending has been wildly out of control for decades, but over recent months Obama, Pelosi, Reid and their cohorts have taken things to an entirely new level.  Certainly it cannot be denied that the Bush administration badly mismanaged America's national finances, but budget deficits during his administration were generally in the three to five hundred billion dollar range.        

So what is the U.S. budget deficit projected to be for 2010?

1.6 trillion dollars.

In fact, the Office of Management and Budget in Obama's White House estimates that the federal budget deficit this year will be approximately 10.6 percent of GDP.

In case you wondering, yes, that is really, really, really bad.

The U.S. government has already piled up the biggest mountain of debt that the world has ever seen, and we are adding to it at a staggering rate.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, on June 1st the U.S. National Debt was $13,050,826,460,886.97.

How in the world did we get over 13 trillion dollars in debt?

How is that even possible?

If you were alive 2000 years ago and you started spending one million dollars every single day when Christ was born, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.

That is how large one trillion dollars is.

In fact, if you went out today and started spending one dollar every single second it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.

But the United States is not one trillion dollars in debt.

The United States is 13 trillion dollars in debt.

If you donated one dollar every single second to pay off the national debt, it would take you over 403,000 years to come up with enough money to pay it off.

Are you starting to get the picture?

We are in trouble.

And unfortunately, the debt just continues to accelerate.

Based on data from the International Monetary Fund, it is being projected that the national debt will exceed the gross domestic product of the United States in 2012.

That is a threshold that many economists are warning us that we must not cross.

But cross it we will.

And it isn't just government debt that is the problem.

The total of all government, corporate and consumer debt in the United States is now equal to 360 percent of GDP.  That is a far greater level than the U.S. ever approached during the Great Depression.

So are our politicians and leaders doing anything about this horrific crisis?

No, they keep on spending money like Wall Street executives that have been let loose on the Vegas strip.

Obama, Pelosi and Reid continue to push an endless parade of insane spending bills, but now even some of their Democrat allies are thinking that maybe enough is enough.

During a "closed-door meeting" with a small group of House Democrats last month, Nancy Pelosi heard complaints from members of her own party that were not happy about having to vote on big spending bills at a time when many American voters think government spending is wildly out of control.

Now why in the world would American voters think that U.S. government spending is out of hand?

Could it be the $2.6 million tax dollars that was spent to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes?

Could it be the $400,000 tax dollars the U.S. government paid researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk?

The examples could go on and on.

When it comes to wasting money, nobody does it better than the U.S. government.

But guess what - you can help.

The U.S. government is actually taking online donations that will go towards paying off the national debt.

You can help bail out Obama, Pelosi and Reid.

Of course whatever money you send them will probably be thrown right down the drain as well.

The truth is that we have become a wildly corrupt society that is recklessly throwing away the national wealth that our forefathers left to us.

But instead of taking responsibility and working to correct their mistakes, members of the Obama administration are blaming capitalism and the free market for our troubles.

In fact, a key member of Barack Obama’s Fiscal Responsibility Commission says that "worshipping the market" has failed America.

What in the world?

So what will work?

European-style socialism?

Things aren't going too well for Europe either.

The truth is that the entire globe is now caught in the grip of a devastating sovereign debt crisis.

So just how bad are things going to get?

Anthony Fry, the senior managing director at Evercore Partners, recently told CNBC that things are getting so bad out there that he is "considering investing in barbed wire and guns".

Yes, the good times are just about over.

But it did not have to turn out this way.

We could have lived within our means and left America in great shape for the generations that follow us.

But we did not do that.

Instead we have saddled our children and grandchildren with the greatest debt burden in the history of the world.

What we have done to future generations is beyond criminal.  One day, if they get the chance, they will look back and curse this generation for what we have done to them.  We spent all their money and we have stuck them with the bill for our wild excesses.  We have taken the great American economic machine and we have driven it straight off a cliff. 

And yet we are so proud of ourselves.  We think that we are so special and that we have all the answers. 

The truth is that we have wrecked the financial future of all the generations of Americans that are going to follow us.  Over and over we kept sending the same jokers back to Washington D.C. and they kept on spending our money like it was some kind of giant game of Monopoly.

So now we are going to pay the price. 

All of us.

A tremendous amount of economic pain and hardship is coming and it is going to affect all Americans.  Nobody is going to be able to escape it completely.  We are about to reap what we have sowed.  We are heading into what many analysts are already calling "the greatest depression".

Already 40 million Americans are on food stamps.  But things are going to get a lot worse in the years ahead.  The America of tomorrow is not going to be anything like the strong, powerful, prosperous country that we all used to know and love. 

But it is our fault.  We continued voting for the members of both political parties that kept recklessly getting us into increasing amounts of debt year after year.  We did not keep them accountable.  We did not wake up.  So now we are going to pay a very hard price.

Most Americans have been paying very little attention to it, but right now Europe is desperately fighting to avoid a complete financial and economic collapse.  As the euro continues to fall precipitously, European leaders are openly declaring that this is the biggest financial crisis that Europe has experienced since at least World War II.  So exactly what is causing all this?  Well, just like the United States, countries throughout Europe responded to the economic crisis of the last several years by spending a ton of money.  The problem is that quite a few of these European nations got into debt way over their heads.  In particular, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy are literally drowning in debt.  There is a very real possibility that several of them may soon default on their debts.  If that happens it could set off a financial shockwave that could encircle the entire world.  Because of the interconnectedness of the global economy, a financial meltdown in Europe would have a dramatic impact on the U.S. economy.  In fact, the continued ability of millions of Americans to enjoy the American Dream is dependent on events that are currently playing out in Europe.  Most Americans completely do not understand this, but it doesn't make it any less true.  If Europe's economy goes down hard, the already very fragile U.S. economy will be crushed as well.

So just how bad is the situation in Europe right now?

Well, let's hear from some of the experts.

The following are 20 quotes about the economic collapse in Europe that will make your hair stand on end....   

#1) Andrew Lilico, chief economist at Policy Exchange:

"Greece will certainly default on its debts, and it is an open question whether Greece will experience some form of revolution or coup – I'd put the likelihood of that over the next five years as around one in four."

#2) Bank of England Governor Mervyn King:

"Dealing with a banking crisis was difficult enough, but at least there were public-sector balance sheets on to which the problems could be moved. Once you move into sovereign debt, there is no answer; there's no backstop."

#3) GFT Forex's Boris Schlossberg: 

"I think we run the risk of seeing 1.16/1.17 before the next selling phase dies down. The euro is just absolutely hated here. The European rescue package still faces some regional opposition. There were rumors the German high court could rule it was unconstitutional. They don't have a federal mechanism to put it in place, and there's worries that at any point in time, the rescue package could be sabotaged."

#4) Jeremy Batstone-Carr, analyst at Charles Stanley:

"The world is in the midst of a gigantic credit collapse."

#5) German Chancellor Angela Merkel:

"The current crisis facing the euro is the biggest test Europe has faced for decades, even since the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957."

#6) Charles Lieberman, chief investment officer of Advisors Capital Management:

"Investors don't have the confidence that Europe will be able to address its shortfalls, or that European growth can recover enough to help these economies."

#7) U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron:

"Today we spend more on debt interest than we do on running schools in England. But £70bn means spending more on debt interest than we currently do on running schools in England plus climate change plus transport. Interest payments of £70bn mean that for every single pound you pay in tax, 10 pence would be spent on interest."

#8) Jeremy Charlesworth, manager of the Moonraker Commodities fund:

"Yet the European Union has decided that the solution to the debt crisis is even more debt and confidence in the recovery package has now evaporated. When people abandon bonds and Western currencies they will look for real assets, which can't be created at the touch of a button."

#9) Michael Pento, Chief Economist at Delta Global Advisors:

"The crisis in Greece is going to spread to Spain and it’s going to be very difficult to deal with. They are bailing out debt with more debt and it isn’t sustainable. It’s a wonderful scenario for gold."

#10) Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago:

"The fear in Europe is very palpable, and it’s spreading to the U.S."

#11) Dan Burrows of Daily Finance:

"You don't have to be a member of the build-a-bunker-in-Montana crowd to believe gold could hit $2,500 in the next couple of years."

#12) Tim Congdon of International Monetary Research:

"The eurozone will lose three or four members"

#13) Paul Donovan, the Senior Economist at UBS:

"Now people are questioning if the euro will even exist in three years."

#14) Equity Strategist Peter Boockvar:

"Not becoming the next Greece is the European rallying cry to get budget cuts passed and there is nothing like a crisis to get politicians to act."

#15) A recent editorial in El Pais:

"To maintain debt solvency Spain must squeeze public spending: yet this policy undermines the chances of recovery which itself causes further loss of confidence."

#16) LEAP/E2020:

"LEAP/E2020 believes that the global systemic crisis will experience a new tipping point from Spring 2010. Indeed, at that time, the public finances of the major Western countries are going to become unmanageable, as it will simultaneously become clear that new support measures for the economy are needed because of the failure of the various stimuli in 2009, and that the size of budget deficits preclude any significant new expenditures."

#17) Anthony Fry, the senior managing director at Evercore Partners:

"I don’t want to scare anyone but I am considering investing in barbed wire and guns, things are not looking good and rates are heading higher."

#18) Greg Peters, global head of fixed income and economic research with Morgan Stanley:

"Really, what I worry about most is the sovereign debt crisis becoming a rolling crisis and hitting the shores of the UK and the United States."

#19) Bob Chapman of the International Forecaster:

"There is still no question in our minds that Greece was a setup to lead to a deflationary collapse later and the Greek people refused to listen. As a result it is now apparent that Greece is even worse off than the elitists imagined. We do not see European bailouts going any further. The result is the US and UK will follow. Financial Europe is history. You should all keep in mind that this is child’s play. Wait until England and the US go down, perhaps before the end of the year."

#20) The front page of Der Spiegel, May 5th, 2010:

"Euroland, burned down.  A continent on the way to bankruptcy."

A rapidly increasing number of American families are finding it really, really hard to make ends meet each month.  The price of food, gas, health insurance and other basic necessities has continued to escalate, but wages have not followed suit.  So more Americans are finding themselves squeezed financially at the end of every month.  Instead of having extra money with which to enjoy the American Dream, millions of families are now experiencing the American Nightmare of working too hard but never having quite enough.  But what can be done?  Certainly we can all cut back on unnecessary expenditures, but there are some expenses that just cannot be eliminated entirely.  We all have to eat, we all have to drive to work and we all have to pay the rent.  In fact, it is very hard to imagine any American family making it on less than $50,000 a year.  Of course millions of American families are making it on far less than that,  but it isn't easy.  The truth is that $50,000 doesn't go nearly as far as it used to.

To demonstrate this, let's do a little exercise.  Let's set up a monthly budget for an average American family of four.  Both parents work either in or near a big U.S. city, so they both need cars.  In our scenario the children do not go to private school, they don't have their own cars and they don't have cell phones.  We will give them $4000 to make it through the month ($50,000 a year comes out to about $4000 a month) and we won't factor in expenses that don't happen every single month such as automobile repairs, appliance replacements, property taxes, registration and license renewals, etc.  We are also going to assume that our family does not have any credit cards.

So can our "average American family" make it on $4000 a month?

Let's break it down....   

Rent Or Mortgage: $1000

In rural areas this expense could be quite a bit less, but in our scenario the family lives in or near a big U.S. city (where most of the jobs are) and so $1000 a month is a very conservative number for rent or for a mortgage payment.  In fact, in most of the largest U.S. cities this number is completely unrealistic, but let us assume that they can find a little house to squeeze into for $1000 a month.

Power, Water And Garbage Collection: $300

Our family can certainly turn down the heat and not run the air conditioning, but utility expenses are still going to be there.  $300 a month is a fairly conservative number for a small house - especially if the house is located in a colder climate. 

Phone, Internet And Television: $100

Some families have cell phone bills that run into the hundreds of dollars each month.  But not our family.  For our purposes, we will assume that our family has basic phone service, basic Internet service and basic television service totalling approximately $100 a month.

Student Loan Payments: $200

The vast majority of people graduating from college these days have student loan debt.  We'll assume that our family only has to make a very modest student loan payment each month.

Car Payments: $400

Both parents work, so they both need a car to get to work.  We'll assume that they both purchased used cars to save money and so the monthly payments on both vehicles are not too bad.

Auto Insurance: $100

They can't drive the vehicles without auto insurance, and so we will assume that they both have good driving records and that the insurance premiums are fairly reasonable.  If either of their two children drive this expense will be much, much higher.

Health Insurance: $400

Let's assume that our family of four is generally in good health and is living in a state where health insurance premiums are not wildly out of control.  $400 a month seems about right.

Food And Toiletries: $800

This breaks down to $50 for food and toiletries per person every week.  That is actually not a lot when you think about it.  But we'll assume that our family is fairly economical and looks for ways to cut grocery costs.

Gas: $200

With gas hovering around $3.00 a gallon, assuming that our family will only spend about 50 bucks a week on gas may be a bit of a stretch.  But let's give them the benefit of the doubt.

So, after adding up all of the expenses, our hypothetical family has spent $3500 of the $4000 they have earned for the month.  That is before they have spent anything on clothes, entertainment, charitable giving or anything else.

But wait, our family has not paid any taxes yet.

Federal and state taxes will take at least $1000 out of the $4000 that they earn each month.

So that would only leave them with $3000 to make it through the month.

Oops!  It looks like they didn't make ends meet after all.

So what do you think of this budget?

Are the assumptions reasonable?

Is it possible for an average American family of four to make it on $50,000 a year?

Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion....

U.S. banks are being shut down by federal regulators at a staggering pace this year, and yet most Americans seem completely oblivious to it.  In fact, federal officials have already shut down 81 U.S. banks this year, which is about double the number that were shut down at this time last year.  So why aren't more people upset about this?  Well, part of the reason is because the FDIC is doing it very, very quietly.  The bank closings for each week are announced every Friday, which means that they pass through the news cycle over the weekend almost unnoticed.  For example, banks in Nebraska, Mississippi and Illinois with total deposits of almost $2.3 billion were shut down by federal regulators on Friday.  So did you hear about it before now?  If not, why not?  Shouldn't the fact that we are experiencing a banking system collapse be headline news?  But most Americans are more than happy to remain blissfully ignorant of what is going on.  In fact, most Americans seem far more interested in what is happening on American Idol or Dancing With The Stars.  But when the American Dream starts dying for tens of millions of Americans as the economy collapses perhaps more people will start to care.

So just how bad is the banking system crisis?

Well, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair says that 775 banks (approximately ten percent of all banks in the United States) are now on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's list of "problem" banks.

So should we be alarmed by that?

Well, there were only 252 U.S. banks on the FDIC's problem list at the end of 2008.

There were 702 U.S. banks on the FDIC's problem list at the end of 2009.

Now there are 775.

Do you know if your bank is on the verge of failing?

You might want to check.

But even if all of our banks fail the FDIC has plenty of money to cover our federally-insured banking accounts, don't they?

Unfortunately, they do not. 

The FDIC is backing nearly 8,000 U.S. banks that have a total of $13 trillion in assets with a deposit insurance fund that is pretty close to flat broke.

It was recently reported that the FDIC's deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which actually represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.

But the bank failures on Friday drained another $313.6 million from the FDIC’s deposit-insurance fund.

And the way things are trending, the banking crisis could get a whole lot worse?

Why?

Well, Americans are simply not doing a very good job of paying their bills.

During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans at U.S. banks that were at least three months past due increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

16 quarters in a row.

Just let that sink in.

If that is not a trend, then what is?

Oh, but the U.S. government will never let the entire banking system fail, right?

Well, they won't let the "too big to fail" banks go under, we have seen that.

But the small and mid size banks?

They fall into the "not big enough to bail out" category.

And where in the world is the U.S. government going to get more money to bail anyone out?

The reality is that the U.S. government is now over 13 trillion dollars in debt.

To give you an idea of just how horrific that is, if you started spending a million dollars a day on the day that Christ was born, you still would not have spent a trillion dollars by now.

That is how big a trillion is.

But for this year alone it is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars.

So, yes, pretty much wherever you turn we are facing a financial nightmare.

What should we do about all this?  Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts....

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.       

America Your Cities Are Broke

Once upon a time, municipal bonds (used to fund such things as roads, sewer systems and government buildings) were viewed as one of the very safest of investments. 

But now all of that is changing.

According to Distressed Debt Securities, in 2009 183 municipal borrowers were unable to make $6.4 billion in loan payments.

Just two years earlier, those numbers were 31 and $348 million.

As you can see, that is not a good trend.

The truth is that municipal governments are facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis.

In fact, the National League of Cities recently announced that municipal governments will collectively come up somewhere between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.

So where will all of that money come from?

It will have to come from spending cuts, tax hikes or handouts from the federal government.

Or, if something is not done, we are going to see a massive wave of municipal defaults.

Case Study: Detroit

The situation is particularly dire in areas that have been hit hardest by the economic crisis.

To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of 280 million dollars, the city of Detroit issued 20-year municipal notes totalling 250 million dollars in March.  But there is a real question as to whether or not Detroit is actually going to be able to meet these obligations.  In fact, Detroit officials are openly admitting that if the financial state of the city does not rapidly improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.

What a sad state of affairs for what was once one of America's greatest cities.

During the economic boom times of the 1950s, Detroit was a thriving metropolis of approximately 2 million people.

Today, the current population is less than half that and people are leaving in droves.

But even the people who are still there can't get jobs.  The mayor of Detroit says that while the "official" rate of unemployment in Detroit is 27 percent, the "real" unemployment rate in his city is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 percent.

But at least houses are cheap.

In Detroit, it is not uncommon to see homes advertised for under $1000, and in fact there are some houses in the city that you can actually purchase for just one dollar.

Not that you would want to live in those homes.

Violent crime is dramatically increasing in Detroit and vandals have been running around stripping everything of value off of many of the homes.

So what is Detroit doing about this crisis?

Well, they have decided to downsize.

Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb recently announced a plan to close 44 Detroit schools.

Also, Mayor Bing has promised to bulldoze 3,000 Detroit homes this year, and an additional 7,000 over the following three years.

But that will only make a dent in the urban blight.  According to one estimate, the city of Detroit has 33,500 empty houses and 91,000 vacant residential lots.

So if you are looking for some really cheap housing you might want to consider moving to Detroit.

Just don't count on getting a job.

America Your States Are Broke

But it is not just local governments that are broke.  Entire U.S. states are on the verge of bankruptcy.

In fact, a large number of U.S. states are preparing for their biggest budget cuts in decades.

An article in CNN recently put it this way....

"Think states have made deep spending cuts? You ain't seen nothing yet."

In 2008 and 2009, economic stimulus money helped many states make it through the financial crisis, but now that money is drying up and many states do not know what they are going to do.

Already, half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.

That would have been unthinkable a couple of decades ago, but these are desperate times.

In fact, New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent.

But those bills have got to be paid some time.

So what has caused this huge financial mess?

Debt.

Just like the U.S. federal government, state governments have gotten themselves into reckless amounts of debt, and now the day of reckoning is here.

And things are going to get a lot worse.

According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed.

So what happens when the U.S. government says that it wants to stop making those payments for the states?

But the pension crisis on the state level is something that is far more alarming.

Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars. 

Yes, you read that right.

3.2 trillion dollars.

So where will that 3.2 trillion dollars come from?

Nobody really knows.

Case Study: California

Many states are in massive financial trouble, but California is perhaps in the worst condition of all.

The economic crisis has hit the "golden state" particularly hard.

Businesses are shutting down at a stunning rate.  In the area around Sacramento, California there is now one closed business for every six that are still open.

Unemployment in California is absolutely exploding.  There are now 8 counties in the state of California that now have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.

In fact, the number of people now unemployed in the state of California is equal to the populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.

The truth is that in this economic environment, not even teachers are safe.  Just recently, the state of California handed pink slips to nearly 22,000 teachers across the state.

Can you imagine firing 22,000 teachers?

But canning all of those hard working teachers barely even made a dent in California's budget problems.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is promising to seek "terrible cuts" in an effort to bring the exploding debt of the government of California under control, but the truth is that it is hard to squeeze blood out of a rock.

Bob Herbert of the New York Times recently described California's horrific budget crisis this way....

California has cut billions of dollars from its education system, including its renowned network of public colleges and universities. Many thousands of teachers have been let go. Budget officials travel the state with a glazed look in their eyes, having tried everything they can think of to balance the state budget. And still the deficits persist.

The truth is that California is bankrupt.  They can try to keep borrowing more money as fast as they can in an effort to push their problems off to another day, but in the end California is going to go belly up.

But the same thing could be said for the entire U.S. economy.  The total government, corporate and consumer debt of the United States has now reached 360 percent of GDP and is accelerating.  We have reached a point where there is simply no way out.  The only thing that can even delay the inevitable is to borrow even more money and to try to crank the debt spiral up one more time.

We have created an economic nightmare of epic proportions, and we have wrecked the future for our children and our grandchildren.

What a mess.

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.

But the truth is that you cannot defy the financial laws of the universe forever.  What goes up must come down.  The borrower is the servant of the lender.  Cutting corners always catches up with you in the end.

Sometimes it takes cold, hard numbers for many of us to fully realize the situation that we are facing. 

So, the following are 50 very revealing statistics about the U.S. economy that are almost too crazy to believe....

#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.

#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010.

#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.

#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.

#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.

#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP.

#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.

#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.

#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.

#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.

#40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.

#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.

#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.

#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.  Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.

#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.

#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.

#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.

#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases.  Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.

#32) In California's Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.

#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period.  That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.

#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.

#29) 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.

#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.

#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.

#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010.  That was almost twice the level of a year earlier.

#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.

#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even worse.

#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250 million of 20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its financial state didn't improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.

#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.

#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.

#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars. 

#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their  payments to the unemployed.

#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United States.

#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.

#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record.  But things look like they are going to get even worse.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.

#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000 vehicles and has become the new "Car Theft Capital of the World".

#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year.

#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000 doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care "reform" bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand more.

#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care "reform" bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by 2019.

#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.

#9) 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.

#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.

#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.

#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000 (depending on the interest rate).

#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.

#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in "Generation Y" pay their monthly bills on time.

#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.

#1) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax rate by 2.4.  Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate would have to be 85 percent.

How in the world does anyone expect the U.S. military to be successful in bringing peace to Afghanistan?  The Taliban is constantly reinforced and supplied from bases in Pakistan, they are constantly being supplied with arms by Iran, and the Saudis keep sending them huge amounts of cash.  Meanwhile, U.S. troops are expected to endlessly patrol a land teeming with radical Islamic militants, many of which would just love to brag to their buddies about how they killed a U.S. soldier.  U.S. forces have now been in Afghanistan for nine years (keep in mind that the U.S. was in World War II for less than 4 years) and the conflict against the Taliban seems to have no resolution in sight.  The U.S. has been successful in imposing a limited form of democracy, but the truth is that the Afghan government is composed of radical Muslims that have no interest in such things as freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  The truth is that the "Afghan Dream" does not even remotely resemble the American Dream.  In fact, the current Afghan government is so questionable that many people are openly asking what difference there really is between this new government and the old one under the Taliban. 

Up to this point, it is estimated that the U.S. government has spent over 247 billion dollars on the war in Afghanistan.

So what have we gotten for 247 billion dollars?

Other than occupying a land filled with goat herders and radical Muslims, not that much.

Well, we have presided over an unprecedented boom in the opium trade in Afghanistan.  In fact, Geraldo Rivera of Fox News recently conducted a very eye-opening interview with a U.S. soldier about U.S. support for the opium trade in Afghanistan.

So how in the world can the drug trade in Afghanistan dramatically increase with our troops occupying that country?

That is a legitimate question.

Meanwhile, General Stanley McChrystal says that coalition forces are attempting to stop Iran from sending arms to the Taliban and from training their fighters.

According to McChrystal, Afghan insurgents are being trained inside Iran and are being given weapons by the Iranians to use in fighting NATO forces.

First of all, if Iran is actually doing this, it is an open act of war against the United States.

Secondly, it shows how impotent the United States has become if they allow this to continue to go on.

What kind of foreign policy are we running anyway?

If Iran is giving arms and training to the enemy that we are at war with, then there is no excuse for not striking Iran back.

At the same time, it is being reported that millions of Saudi dollars have flowed into Afghanistan over the past four years, the country’s intelligence officials say, with the sponsorship of terrorism its most likely use.

One major U.K. newspaper recently ran a major article about the flow of this money into Afghanistan....

According to members of the Afghan financial intelligence unit, FinTraca, the funds, totalling more than £920 million, enter from Pakistan, where they are converted into rupees or dollars, the favoured currency for terrorist operations.

“We can trace it back as far as an entry point in Waziristan,” said Mohammed Mustafa Massoudi, the director-general of FinTraca in Kabul. “Why would anyone want to put such money into Waziristan? Only one reason — terrorism.”

So is anyone else alarmed that millions of dollars that we are spending on Saudi oil could be flowing into the hands of Taliban fighters that are killing U.S. troops?

And the tactics that the Taliban fighters are using are getting dirtier and dirtier.  In fact, Taliban fighters have developed one tactic where they lure NATO troops into areas where there is lots of greenery, as the greenery makes it easy to bury IEDs undetected.

For those who do not know what an IED can do to a soldier's body, you should visit a medical hospital some time.

But what is really sad is that these soldiers who are fighting so bravely in Afghanistan are often treated very poorly by the U.S. government once they get home.

U.S. government officials seem to be able to do a great job of laying wreaths and holding ceremonies, but when it comes to actually getting military veterans the care and benefits that they desperately need, the attitude seems to be "deny, deny, deny until they die". 

Meanwhile, the "democratic" Afghan government continues to crack down on Christian organizations.  Afghanistan suspended two church-based aid groups on Monday over allegations that the organizations are sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Islamic country.

What in the world?

Didn't we go over there to bring those people freedom?

So if they don't have freedom, then what in the world have we actually accomplished?

One of the ways that you can judge the character of a nation is by how they care for their military veterans.  On this Memorial Day, we remember those who have fought and died defending the American Dream, but this should also be a day when we check and make certain that those who have served this country so bravely are being taken care of.  Unfortunately, a cold, hard examination of the facts reveals that the U.S. government is doing a horrific job of caring for our military veterans.  U.S. government officials seem to be able to do a great job of laying wreaths and holding ceremonies, but when it comes to actually getting military veterans the care and benefits that they desperately need, the attitude seems to be "deny, deny, deny until they die".   

The truth is that we have made it extremely difficult for our military veterans to claim the benefits that we have promised them.  Vets have to fill out an absurdly complicated 23 page application and if they make even one small mistake their applications can be stonewalled for years.  The U.S. Veterans Administration actually has a policy under which they pay large bonuses to employees that meet certain application processing goals.  This explains why approximately 70% of the claims submitted to the Veterans Administration are refused or sent back to be redone.  In fact, using the Freedom of Information Act, one local NBC station was able to learn that $250,000 was paid in bonuses to VA employees who work inside the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Virginia in just one year alone. 

Not only that, but a report issued by the VA's Office of Inspector General said the department issued millions of dollars in performance awards to employees nationwide over a two year period in 2007 and 2008.

According to CNN, one retired VA official was singled out for improperly approving a very large number of bonuses and the report said that she "acted as if she was given a blank checkbook to write unlimited monetary awards."

Yes, you read all of that correctly.

We actually pay government employees huge bonuses for turning down the benefits applications of our military veterans.

Does that sound like America to you?

The reality is that the level of negligence at some VA offices can be absolutely shocking....

Back in 2009, a VA office in Detroit turned in 16,000 unprocessed mail and 717 unprocessed documents that were stuck in storage and hadn’t even been looked at. Many other documents were found in shredding bins, not just in one office but in several regional offices.

Things have gotten so bad that even 60 Minutes has done a report on the horrific treatment our veterans are receiving at the hands of the VA....

200,000 backlogged appeals?

Yes, you heard the video correctly.

But that 200,000 figure is just for backlogged appeals.

There are many more veterans who have been waiting months or even years for the VA to review their cases for the first time.

The following is a list of facts about the treatment of our veterans from the Veterans Services Transparency website....

•1,000,000 veterans, are currently waiting for the VA to review their cases, many have been waiting for years. And would you believe it, the VA is still telling many of them that “their records have been lost.” (Source of numbers: Veteran Affairs web-site)

•400,304 (42%) of the veterans returning from Gulf War II have symptoms of Gulf War illness and have asked the VA for help. By the VA’s own records, over 178,000 (45%) of these soldiers have possible mental disorders (including PTSD and Traumatic Brain Damage). (Source of numbers; Analysis of VA Health Care Utilization Among US Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) Veterans, January 2009, pages 7, 11)

•58% of the Gulf War II veterans are between the ages of 18 - 29. These young adults are not being told when they enlist that there is a greater than 40% chance their future will be destroyed or severely altered by Gulf War illness. (Source: January 2009 report - Veteran's Affairs)

•Of 133,057 potentially eligible disabled retirees, 28,283 were denied retroactive pay awards and 8,763 died waiting for their cases to be heard. (Source: Congressional Report reported in the ArmyTimes on July 21, 2008)

•Since 2001 there have been over 575,000 cases of Gulf War illness and no documented cases of recovery. But there have been at least 6,500 documented deaths.

•175,000 Gulf War I veterans with serious and persistent health problems, Gulf War illness, have been waiting over 17 years for assistance from the VA. During this period the VA has denied applications over and over again, shredded records, hid unopened claims in storage, and actually altered original documents to fit the program of denial designed by the VA leadership. (Source of numbers: Page 17 - Gulf War Illness and Health of Gulf War Veterans - Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses)

It kind of makes you want to run out and sign up for the military, eh?

These young men and women have fought and have sacrificed for us.

Now they are being pushed aside like so much refuse.

But even the care that the VA does provide to our veterans is often so poor that it makes headline news. 

Some time ago, ABC News did an investigation of VA hospital conditions across the United States.  The following is a list of just some of the things that they found during the course of their investigation.....

*Bathrooms filthy with what appeared to be human excrement

*Dirty linens from some patients mixed in with clean supplies

*Examining tables that had dried blood and medications still on them

*Equipment used to sterilize surgical instruments that had broken down

*Some patients were forced to beg for food and water

*Veterans that were neglected so badly that they developed horrific bedsores and dangerous infections

But those are the vets that were able to get care.

Many others are still waiting.

ABC News found that getting a first appointment at a VA hospital can take months and months.....

Veterans who responded to a survey by the American Legion in 2003 said it took an average of seven months to get a first appointment at a VA hospital. In some hospitals, patients have waited as long as two years.

So should we be proud of all this?

Should we applaud the U.S. government on this Memorial Day for taking such great care of our veterans?

No, the truth is that we should all be ashamed at how our veterans are being treated.

But like so many other things involving the U.S. government, nothing is likely to change any time soon.

Once Memorial Day has passed, and all the wreaths have been laid, hundreds of thousands of disabled vets will continue to have their applications denied and the care that they so desperately need withheld from them.

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?   

This is yet another example of how far America has fallen.  Once upon a time our system of free enterprise greatly rewarded those who take initiative, but today's version of "capitalism" is all about permits and lawyers and corporations and making it next to impossible for the "little guy" to rise up and make a go of things.  The following is a video news report about the ordeal that the authorities in Tulare have put this little girl through....

So did the authorities have any legitimate reasons for shutting down the lemonade stand that the little girl was running?

Well, yes.  The lemonade stand was positioned near a very, very busy intersection and there was the possibility that it could have caused an accident.

But there is a reason why the story of this little girl is resonating so profoundly with so many people. 

It is because our society has become structured in such a way that it is becomes increasingly difficult for our young people to make it in this world.

In a piece recently published on MSN Money, journalist Joe Queenan described the environment that 2010 college graduates are being thrown into as they enter the real world....   

They will enter an economy where roughly 17% of people aged 20 through 24 do not have a job, and where two million college graduates are unemployed. They will enter a world where they will compete tooth and nail for jobs as waitresses, pizza delivery men, file clerks, bouncers, trainee busboys, assistant baristas, interns at bodegas.

Today our young people are saddled with record amounts of student loan debt, and when they graduate they enter a world that contains very few prospects for them.  At a time when so many graduating college students should be optimistic about an unlimited future, they are instead having to deal with the pressure of severely reduced expectations. 

One of our readers recently left a comment that expresses this sentiment incredibly well.  The truth is that it is hard to be optimistic about the future when the U.S. economy is crumbing to pieces all around you.... 

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Concerned Reader:

I read this forum all the time and I am a 21-year-old college student myself. Frankley I do no see much employment opprotunities available right now. The counsoulers at my high school always told us to get in to the “Med-ED” professions because that was where all the jobs are currently being made. But with this healthcare bill being passed I forsee the collapse of our hospital industry which means no medical jobs for college graduates. The same goes for education, most teachers quit within the first year of employment and with the ever growing number of high school drop outs and illiterate students there just does not seem that much of a lucrative buisness.

The same goes for engineering and software employment. Because of the large abundance of Chinese and Indian labor tech firms and aircraft enginnering companies would rather hire these foreign students becuase they have a better work ethic and they have no liabilities unlike the American graduates. These guys will work harder for less money and their presecence impedes American students from gainig employment status.

As for myself, I am not sure what to go to college for any way. My funds are nearly depleted and my father wants me to take out student loans to continue my education. I constantly argue with him becasue I know that the student loan industry is just another big bank scheme such as credit cards and home loans. I told him I might as well take out a loan on a $300,000 house and max out three or four credit cards rather than take out student loans. I will benefit in the long run if I do not take student loans.

There are several reasons why tutition is skyrocketing. First is the growing demand for limited space in the colleges. Thousands of people are applying to colleges in an attempt to keep up with the jones and any one from high school graduates to middle aged people and retirees are joining in record numbers. Secondly, you take a local or state university and they have to have all kinds of bells and whistles in regards to sports. They have to have huge stadiums and tracks and what not. This stuff costs money, both for the college and the sponsors who charge the university. The bills for this stuff are then redistributed towards the students in higher tuition bills.

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It would be nice if we all could tell "Concerned Reader" that this is only a temporary downturn and that things are going to be better than ever very soon, but that is not the truth.

The truth is that we are witnessing the early stages of the complete and total collapse of the U.S. financial and economic systems.  We have squandered the great wealth our forefathers left us, we have dismantled our once great manufacturing base, we have shipped millions of our jobs overseas and we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

So our economic future looks bleak to say the least.

Fortunately, there is much more than money to live our lives for.

We are moving into what will be one of the most chaotic times in human history, but it will also be filled with some of the greatest opportunities to make a difference.

So for those who consider their lives to be defined by what they own and by how much money they have, a whole lot of disappointment is coming.

But for those who are looking for meaning, purpose and adventure, the times in which we now live are perfect.

It is during the darkest times that the true lights shine the brightest.

When it is your time to shine make the most of it.