From coast to coast, major U.S. cities are being transformed into war zones, and our politicians seem powerless to stop the carnage. If we can’t even feel safe walking down the street anymore, what does that say about our society as a whole? Over the past couple of months, I have published article after article documenting the shocking deterioration of our society as a whole, but most people that I interact with still seem to think that conditions will return to “normal” eventually. Unfortunately, I do not believe that is going to be the case. The riots and violence that erupted in 2020 have sparked a wave of civil unrest that has spilled over into 2021, and we continue to see incidents of civil unrest on an almost nightly basis. For example, over the weekend rioters in Portland set the ICE building on fire while agents were still working inside. Hearts have grown so cold in this country, and it is only going to get worse. (Read More...)
Jobs
Hordes Of Demoralized Police Officers Are Quitting Their Jobs, And America’s Streets Are Less Safe As A Result
The United States has never faced a more severe law enforcement crisis than it is facing right now. All over the nation, police officers are quitting in droves, and many of those jobs are going unfilled because of the difficulty in recruiting new applicants. Since the death of George Floyd, police officers have been relentlessly demonized by the corporate media, police budgets have been dramatically slashed in major cities all across the country, and many prominent politicians have publicly expressed disdain for their local law enforcement authorities. In such an environment, serving the community as a police officer is not an attractive option, and it makes perfect sense why so many officers have been throwing in the towel on their once promising careers. (Read More...)
If You Believe Life Will “Return To Normal”, You Have A Fundamental Misunderstanding Of The Times In Which We Live
Despite all of the craziness that is going on out there, many pundits are trying to convince us that life will soon “return to normal” and that great days are just around the corner. They are telling us this despite the fact that the state of Texas has been in a state of collapse this week, the real economy continues to implode, the unemployment numbers are going up, civil unrest continues to rage in our streets on a nightly basis, and our entire planet continues to become even more unstable. Those that believe that happy days are here again have a fundamental misunderstanding of the times in which we live. This isn’t a period of time when America is going to “build back better”. Rather, this is a time when America is going to go even deeper into “the perfect storm”. (Read More...)
When Corporations Become More Powerful Than The Government, Our Definition Of “Big Brother” Needs To Change
Throughout human history, our God-given liberties and freedoms have often been brutally crushed by oppressive governments, and that is still happening all over the world today. But in our time, an additional threat to our liberties and freedoms has emerged. Global corporations just continue to get larger and more powerful, and in recent years they have been increasingly using that power to shape society. This is a very dangerous trend, because in the western world many of the constraints that our national governments are forced to operate under simply do not apply to corporations. This gives them an enormous amount of leverage, and they are using it. (Read More...)
Stories Of Economic Despair From America’s Worst Economic Downturn Since The Great Depression Of The 1930s
The economic pain that we are witnessing right now is far greater than anything that we witnessed during the last recession. U.S. GDP declined by 32.9 percent on an annualized basis last quarter, more than 100,000 businesses have permanently shut down since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the United States, and more than 54 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the last 19 weeks. Up until just recently, a $600 weekly unemployment “supplement” and a federal moratorium that prevented many evictions had helped to ease the suffering for millions of American families, but both of those measures have now expired. As a result, a tremendous amount of economic pain which had previously been deferred will now come rushing back with a vengeance. Millions of American families are no longer going to be able to pay their bills, and experts are warning that we could soon see an “eviction crisis” that is absolutely unprecedented in American history. (Read More...)
63 Percent Of All U.S. Jobs Created Since 1990 Have Been Low Wage Jobs
If you have a good paying job, you should probably try to hold on to it as hard as you can, because those types of jobs are steadily becoming rarer. Since 1990, the U.S. economy has produced millions of jobs, but as you will see below nearly two-thirds of them have been low wage jobs. Of course this is one of the biggest factors causing the systematic erosion of the American middle class. Today, half of all U.S. workers make less than $33,000 a year, but meanwhile the cost of living has been steadily increasing. Housing costs, health insurance and other basic necessities have been rising much faster than our paychecks have, and this has put an enormous amount of financial stress on hard working American families. (Read More...)
For Countless Americans, Living In Their Vehicles Has Become “The New Normal”
Once again tonight, countless numbers of Americans will sleep in their vehicles, and this is a problem that is getting worse with each passing year. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the homeless population in the United States hit 552,830 in 2018, but many believe that the true number is actually a lot higher. Because in order to accurately count the homeless you have got to find them first, and many homeless do not want to be found. But even if the HUD figure is accurate, it is still a great national tragedy to have such a high number of homeless, and a large percentage of those homeless Americans are living in their vehicles. (Read More...)
62 Percent Of All U.S. Jobs Do Not Pay Enough To Support A Middle Class Life
We just got more evidence that the middle class in America is rapidly disappearing. According to a shocking new study that was just released, 62 percent of all jobs in the United States do not pay enough to support a middle class life. That means that “the American Dream” is truly out of reach for most of the country at this point. Today, Americans are working harder than ever but the cost of living continues to rise much faster than our paychecks are increasing. Earlier this month, I went and looked at the latest numbers from the Social Security Administration, and I discovered that 50 percent of all American workers make less than $30,533 a year. But that is just above poverty level. In fact, the federal poverty level for a family of five is currently $29,420. Most families are just barely scraping by from month to month, and most U.S. workers are just one major setback away from falling out of the middle class. (Read More...)