Living The Dream: What Do You Own – Really?

If someone came up to you and asked you what you own, what would you say?  It may seem like an obvious question, but it is actually a lot more complicated than you might think.  We live in a very materialistic society.  In fact, a large percentage of Americans today define their lives by what they “own”, and a large percentage of Americans consider “living the American Dream” to be about accumulating a house, several cars and a massive pile of possessions.  But what does it mean to “own” something anyway?  Does it mean to have something in your possession?  Well, if that was the case then someone leasing a car for three years could be considered the owner.  But that obviously is not the case.  Does “owning” something mean that nobody can legally take that thing away from you?  Well, if that is the case then perhaps we all “own” a lot less than we think we do.  (Read More...)

Economic Austerity Measures: Bitter Financial Medicine For Nations That Have Been Living Beyond Their Means

Over the past several decades, most of the major industrialized nations have been borrowing and spending unprecedented amounts of money.  This has enabled them to greatly stimulate their economies, and has allowed hundreds of millions of people to live fabulous lifestyles.  But there is a problem when nations try to live beyond their means for decades.  A big problem.  The problem is called debt.  Right now the world is facing a sovereign debt crisis that threatens to throw the entire globe into a very, very deep recession.  In fact, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King recently called this the worst financial crisis in history.  While that might be a bit dramatic (at least at this point), the reality is that the situation in the financial world is becoming very, very serious.  You see, debts have to be paid back eventually.  All over the globe, national governments are trying to deal with debt and interest on debt that has piled up so dramatically that they don’t know what to do about it.  For example, the United States is in a complete mess.  The U.S. national debt is scheduled to soon surpass 13 trillion dollars.  To get an idea of how big that is, if you went out and spent one dollar every single second,  it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.  It would take you more than 403,000 years to spend 13 trillion dollars.  Are you starting to get the picture?  This gigantic debt that the U.S. government has accumulated is about to turn the American Dream into the American Nightmare.  It is literally impossible for the United States to ever pay the national debt off, and as it continues to explode it will increasingly become a crushing load that the U.S. economy can simply not support. (Read More...)

10 Reasons Why The Rand Paul Victory In Kentucky Is So Important

Declaring that “we’ve come to take our government back”, Tea Party favorite Rand Paul, the son of U.S. Representative Ron Paul, soundly defeated Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson in a Republican primary fight for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Republican Senator Jim Bunning.  He will now face Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, the winner of the Democratic primary, in the November election.  It is hard to understate just how important this victory is for the Tea Party movement.  The entire Republican establishment was behind Grayson and they tried desperately to get him enough support to win the primary.  But it did not work this time.  Usually when the Republican machine gets behind somebody, they have no problem winning a primary.  Could this be a signal that politics in America is changing?  Could this be a sign that the American people are so sick and tired of what is going on in Washington that they simply refuse to listen to the two big political machines (the Republicans and the Democrats) any longer? (Read More...)

11 Points Of Comparison Between Life In The United States And Life Under Hitler From A Woman Who Has Experienced Both

Have you ever heard of Kitty Werthmann?  She was a child when Adolf Hitler took control of her beloved country of Austria and stripped away their freedoms, and she is now speaking out about the chillingly similar loss of freedoms that we are currently experiencing in the United States.  It is often said that “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it”.  So, perhaps we should listen very carefully to what Kitty Werthmann has to say.  She has been there.  She has lived through it.  The truth is that when you do sit down and compare what happened under the Nazi regime and what is happening in the United States today, the parallels are absolutely shocking.  The American Dream is not guaranteed for us or for our children.  Freedom must be guarded.  If not, it will be taken away.  In fact, our freedoms are already being stripped away at blinding speed, and once they are gone they are incredibly difficult to get back. (Read More...)

Why Are So Many Horrible Things Happening To America All Of A Sudden?

Once upon a time the United States was a land of abundance and prosperity that was truly blessed from sea to shining sea.  Tens of millions of Americans enjoyed living the American Dream in a land filled with happy, healthy and prosperous people.  But these days it seems as though there are new stories of tragedy and despair almost daily.  Whether it is the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or the horrific flooding in Tennessee, or the tornadoes ripping through the Midwest, or the gut-wrenching economic despair in cities like Detroit, it just seems like a whole lot of horrible things are happening to America all at once.  So why is all of this hitting the U.S. right now?  Why does it seem like there is just about nowhere in the United States right now that is untouched by a major crisis? (Read More...)

The Dangerous Myth Of Overpopulation

Today, there is a growing belief that many of the world’s problems are directly related to overpopulation.  Whether it is world hunger, the lack of fresh water, the damage we are causing to our environment, or “climate change”, those who believe in the myth of overpopulation have no hesitation blaming all of those problems on the “fact” that there are way too many people in the world.  What is even more frightening are the solutions that many of those people who believe that the world is overpopulated are proposing.  The solutions they propose include more abortion and “family planning” services, “one child” policies and mass sterilizations.  In fact, there are even some in the radical environmental movement that insist that we need to get rid of 80 to 90 percent of humanity in order to “save” the environment.  (Read More...)

The Coming Economic Collapse Of Japan – And Why You Should Be Extremely Concerned About It

Most Americans pay very little attention to what is going on in the economies of other nations.  But they should.  The reality is that in today’s global economy, what is happening on the other side of the world can have a dramatic impact on the U.S. economy.  In particular, the ongoing implosion of Japan’s economy should greatly concern us all.  Japan is the 3rd biggest economy in the world and is one of America’s most important trading partners.  If Japan experiences a total economic collapse it will create a tsunami of financial panic around the globe.  In fact, it is likely that a default by the government of Japan would plunge the world into such an economic nightmare that the American Dream would quickly vanish for millions of American families.  So just how close is Japan to a financial collapse?  Well, Fitch Ratings says that Japan’s gross public debt has reached 201 percent of GDP and is likely to continue to pile up into very dangerous territory for the foreseeable future.  It is estimated that this gigantic mountain of debt amounts to 7.5 million yen for every person living in Japan.  Needless to say this is extremely troubling.  Japan has the highest level of public debt to GDP of any of the industrialized nations.  Japan is literally drowing in red ink.  Meanwhile, even with all of the massive government spending that has caused all of this debt, Japan’s economy still continues to implode at a frightening pace.  Japan’s discouraging battle with deflation dragged into its 13th straight month in March as prices continued to decline and the unemployment rate rose sharply.  In fact, the number of unemployed in Japan totalled 3.5 million in March.  This represented a 4.5 percent rise from the same period a year ago. (Read More...)

Why Arizona Got It Exactly Right

The state of Arizona is taking a ton of heat for the anti-illegal immigration law that they just passed.  Barack Obama is outraged and is directing his administration to look for ways to challenge the law.  The government of Mexico has issued a travel advisory for the entire state of Arizona.  Latino groups are promising unprecedented turnouts for the upcoming May Day protest marches.  There has even been graffiti popping up in Phoenix that is threatening to “burn this racist city” among other things.  But you know what?  The state of Arizona got it exactly right.  This is not about stopping legal immigrants who want to come in the “front door” and pursue the American Dream legally.  America will always need that kind of immigration.  No, this is about stopping the never-ending wave of serial criminals, gang members, drug dealers and economic parasites that have been endlessly parading unchecked into Arizona.  If the federal government was not going to act, then the state of Arizona had to.  Now other nearby states are studying Arizona’s new law and are considering implementing similar measures themselves. (Read More...)