Have you ever wondered why things have been going so badly for the United States in recent years? Our economy is falling apart, we have been plagued with heat, drought and endless natural disasters, our cities are absolutely crumbling, we just keep getting involved in even more wars and Americans are more anxious and more overweight than ever before. So why are so many bad things happening to America? Why do we lead the world in so many bad categories? Why does nothing seem to be going right? Are we under some kind of a curse? It is almost as if we have entered a “perfect storm” that just keeps getting worse. In the old days it would seem like something bad would happen to the United States every once in a while, but now massive problems seem to be hitting us in rapid fire fashion. At this point, many Americans have “crisis fatigue” because our problems never seem to end. Each new crisis just seems to overlap with all of the other problems that are still going on. So why is this happening, and what is our country going to look like if our problems continue to multiply at this rate?
The following are some of the bad things that are happening to America right now….
Heat And Drought
This summer, thousands of new high temperature records have been set all over the country, and weather conditions are much drier than normal in most of the nation.
In fact, the drought that we are experiencing right now is being called the worst drought in more than 50 years. More than 1,000 counties in the United States have already been declared to be official disaster areas, and there is no end to the drought in sight.
All over America this drought is killing the corn and this is causing the price of corn to soar. The following is from a recent Financial Post article….
Chicago Board of Trade corn for December delivery has soared 54% since mid-June, reaching a contract high of US$7.78 on Monday and approaching its record price near US$8.
Soybeans for November delivery soared to a new contract high of US$15.97 before slipping back a few cents.
Crop watchers were alarmed that corn rated poor-to-very poor jumped to 38%, versus 30% last week and 11% a year ago.
The record high for the price of corn is just $7.99 a bushel. Many believe that the price of corn will soon blow well past that price and could eventually reach $10 a bushel.
Unfortunately, there is not much hope on the horizon. It is being projected that these very hot and very dry conditions will persist well into August.
Wildfires
The extreme heat has also been responsible for an unusual number of wildfires in the western United States this year. The recent horrific wildfires in Colorado made headlines all over the nation.
Sadly, these wildfires are part of a rising trend. The truth is that the 6 worst years for wildfires in the United States ever recorded have all happened since the year 2000.
So what is causing this to happen?
What is causing so much of the country to go up in flames?
Tornadoes
Earlier this year, many areas of the heartland of America were absolutely ripped to shreds by very powerful tornadoes.
More tornadoes happen in the United States than anywhere else in the world, and unfortunately we have seen a tremendous amount of tornado activity in this country in recent years.
In 2009, there were 1146 tornadoes in the United States.
In 2010, there were 1282 tornadoes in the United States.
In 2011, there were 1691 tornadoes in the United States.
Overall, 2011 was the worst year for natural disasters in U.S. history.
So where will 2012 rank when everything is all said and done?
Fukushima
Radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster will be affecting Americans for many years to come.
Most Americans do not think much about Fukushima anymore, but the truth is that Fukushima is still putting out a tremendous amount of radiation, and that radiation travels eastward towards us.
A couple of months ago, one reporter discovered that radiation levels in rain falling on Los Angeles were five times above normal.
But we don’t hear about this in the mainstream media, do we?
One recent study concluded that the highest concentration of Fukushima radiation in the Pacific Ocean will eventually be just off the west coast of the United States.
But our “authorities” tell us that there is no reason to be concerned, so most Americans will continue to ignore the incredible tragedy that continues to unfold at Fukushima.
If you are not sure what to think about what is going on at Fukushima, perhaps the following statistic will get your attention….
Recent tests have shown that 36 percent of all children living in the Fukushima Prefecture in Japan have abnormal growths on their thyroid glands. After the Chernobyl disaster, less than 2 percent of all children living in the area surrounding Chernobyl were found to have abnormal growths on their thyroid glands.
Economic Collapse
The last recession was the worst economic crisis that America has faced since the Great Depression, and our economy has never even come close to recovering from it.
Now we are on the verge of another global financial meltdown that appears likely to be even worse than the last one.
Peter Schiff, the president of Euro Pacific Capital, says that the U.S. economy is headed for a crisis that will make the recession of 2008 and 2009 look like a walk in the park.
So what is going to happen if the economy goes into the toilet and unemployment skyrockets much higher than it is now?
That is frightening to think about.
Poverty Explosion
Even during this “economic recovery”, poverty in America continues to soar.
For example, since Barack Obama has been president the number of Americans on food stamps has risen from 32 million to 46 million.
Overall, 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives benefits from the federal government according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is an all-time record high.
The Death Of American Cities
The United States once had dozens of great manufacturing cities that were the envy of the entire globe.
Today, many of those cities have degenerated into crime-ridden, drug infested hellholes.
Things have gotten so bad in Detroit that thousands of homes are literally being torn down in an effort to “make the city safer”….
As the next step in an April deal between financially strapped Detroit and the state of Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder is finalizing a plan to tear down thousands of abandoned houses in a bid to make the city safer.
Detroit has been hard-hit over the past four decades by a steep drop in population, a steadily eroding tax base and crippling budget deficits, resulting in countless barren streets punctuated by vacant lots and burned-out buildings.
Increase In Crime
Have you noticed that crime is on the rise in many of our communities?
The murder rate in Chicago is up 38 percent so far this year, and justifiable homicide rose by 79 percent in Detroit during 2011.
Criminals are getting bolder and are doing things that we have not seen before.
For example, on Saturday night a mob of 300 teens invaded a Wal-Mart in Jacksonville, Florida and went absolutely wild. They started stealing stuff, breaking stuff and throwing food at each other without any concern for what the security guards would do.
When have we ever seen stuff like this happen in America before?
America already has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire planet by a very wide margin.
How many more people do we plan to lock up?
Meanwhile, even many Americans that are not considered to be “criminals” are becoming very cold-hearted. Just check out what happened in Arlington, Virginia recently. A video surveillance camera captured footage of numerous people walking right past a man that had just been hit by a car and was dying on the sidewalk. He was lying face down and bleeding and nobody even went up to him to see if he was okay.
If you were in a similar situation, would you stop to help that man?
Gang Violence
All over America gangs are taking over local communities.
According to the FBI, there are now a total of 1.4 million gang members living in America. Just since 2009, that number has risen by 40 percent.
To get an idea of how deeply Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated our cities, just check out the maps on this article.
As I wrote about the other day, there are only 200 police officers in Chicago’s Gang Enforcement Unit to go up against an estimated 100,000 gang members living in the city of Chicago right now.
With numbers such as those, it is easy to see how violence in many of our cities could spiral out of control very, very quickly.
War
The United States continues to get pulled into more wars, and the conflicts that we are already involved in never seem to end.
Just today, 22 NATO supply trucks were destroyed in Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan has already lasted much longer than World War II did, and there is no end in sight.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama has gotten the U.S. military involved in conflicts in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and a whole bunch of other places. The following is from a recent Wired article….
The center of the US drone war has shifted to Yemen, where 23 American strikes have killed an estimated 155 people so far this year. But you wouldn’t know about it — or about the cruise missile attacks, or about the US commando teams in Yemen — by reading the report the White House sent to Congress about US military activities around the globe. Instead, there’s only the blandest acknowledgement of “direct action” in Yemen, “against a limited number of [al-Qaida] operatives and senior leaders.”
The report, issued late Friday, is the first time the United States has publicly, officially acknowledged the operations in Yemen and in nearby Somalia that anyone with internet access could’ve told you about years ago. But the report doesn’t just fail to admit the extent of the shadow war that America is waging in the region. It’s borderline legal — at best. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the president to inform Congress about any armed conflicts America is engaged in. Friday’s report isn’t just uninformative about Yemen. It doesn’t even mention the US campaign in Pakistan, even though the Defense Secretary says America is “at war” there.
So what is next?
Well, there are endless headlines warning that war with Syria is coming.
Other headlines warn that war with Iran is coming.
Where will this all end?
Anxiety Epidemic
Americans today are more unhappy and more anxious than ever before.
The following is from a recent Business Insider article….
According to a recent World Health Organization study, 31 percent of Americans are likely to suffer from an anxiety problem at some point during their lifetimes — compared to 25.3 percent of those in Colombia, and 24.6 percent in New Zealand, the countries that rank second and third. You’d think people in developing or unstable states — those preoccupied with concerns farther down on the Maslow Scale — would be more anxious than we are. Not so. “According to the 2002 World Mental Health Survey, people in developing-world countries such as Nigeria are up to five times less likely to show clinically significant anxiety levels than Americans, despite having more basic life-necessities to worry about,” writes Taylor Clark, author of Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool. “What’s more, when these less-anxious developing-world citizens emigrate to the United States, they tend to get just as anxious as Americans.
“The United States has transformed into the planet’s undisputed worry champion,” Clark adds.
Obesity Epidemic
Of all the major industrialized nations, the United States is the most obese, and a recent Gallup survey found that Americans are more concerned about our obesity epidemic than ever before.
And nobody can deny that we are getting fatter.
Back in 1962, only 13 percent of all Americans were obese.
Today, approximately 36 percent of all Americans are obese.
Drug Addiction Epidemic
The United States has a higher percentage of drug addicts than any other major industrialized nation does.
We love to escape the pain of our every day lives.
At this point, the United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use in the entire world.
The United States also has a higher percentage of people addicted to prescription drugs than anyone else does.
So what does that say about us exactly?
Child Abuse Epidemic
In the United States, we treat our children very badly.
Sadly, there are more than 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States every single year, and the United States has the highest child abuse death rate on the entire globe.
Teen Pregnancy Epidemic
When our kids grow up they tend to be very sexually active as teens.
Amazingly, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate on the entire planet.
And all of this sexual activity is rapidly spreading disease among our teens. According to one study, one out of every four teen girls in the United States has at least one sexually transmitted disease.
Divorce Epidemic
We like to make movies and television shows about families, but the truth is that the family structure in the United States has been breaking down for a very long time.
Today, the United States has the highest divorce rate in the world by a very wide margin.
Some example for the rest of the world we are, eh?
16 Trillion Dollar National Debt
Right now the U.S. national debt is $15,884,155,929,632.05.
We will shortly cross the 16 trillion dollar mark.
This is the greatest debt in the history of the world and it is beyond criminal that we plan to pass this debt on to future generations.
Our greed has destroyed the future for our children and our grandchildren and yet we continue to borrow trillions more because we just can’t help ourselves.
Political Nightmare
On top of everything else, we have a horrifying lack of leadership here in America.
Our last four presidents have been four of the worst presidents in U.S. history, and in 2012 we are faced with an incredibly depressing choice at the polls.
Is Barack Obama really the best that the Democrats can do?
The American people elected an incompetent con man to the highest office in the land. Virtually every decision that he makes is wrong and virtually everything that he has tried to do while in office has been a failure.
The Republicans dislike Barack Obama so much that they picked the candidate most like Obama out of the entire Republican field to go up against Obama.
What kind of sense does that make?
Is Mitt Romney really the best that the Republicans can do?
Right now the best selling point that Republicans have for Romney is this….
“You better vote for him or you will get another four years of Obama”.
But Mitt Romney would certainly also be a bad president and would lead us down the exact same road that Obama has.
This fall, Americans will either get to vote for the worst president in U.S. history or another guy who will almost certainly be one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
How depressing is that?
So as this nation continues to fall apart, we are guaranteed to have an absolutely horrible leader in the White House.
Perhaps we are really cursed.
So do you have an opinion about why so many bad things are happening to America?
Please feel free to post a comment with your opinion below….
