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...)

The Real Reason For America’s Looming Retirement Crisis

Did you know that approximately 40 percent of all American workers have absolutely nothing saved for retirement? And did you know that pension funds in the United States are currently underfunded by about six trillion dollars? Social Security is supposed to be the underlying safety net for our entire retirement system, but it is essentially just a massive Ponzi scheme that everyone agrees is heading for a major disaster. Now that the Baby Boomers have started to retire, it is becoming clear that our society simply does not have the resources necessary to keep all of the promises that we have made to them. We are facing a retirement crisis of epic proportions, and by the end of this article you will understand the real reason why we have gotten into this mess. (Read More...)

Goodbye Middle Class: 51 Percent Of All American Workers Make Less Than 30,000 Dollars A Year

The Middle Class - Public DomainWe just got more evidence that the middle class in America is dying.  According to brand new numbers that were just released by the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all workers in the United States make less than $30,000 a year.  Let that number sink in for a moment.  You can’t support a middle class family in America today on just $2,500 a month – especially after taxes are taken out.  And yet more than half of all workers in this country make less than that each month.  In order to have a thriving middle class, you have got to have an economy that produces lots of middle class jobs, and that simply is not happening in America today. (Read More...)

21 Facts That Prove That Dependence On The Government Is Out Of Control In America

Government Dependence Handouts - Public DomainIf you could stay home and watch television, play video games and hang out with your friends all day at government expense, would you do it?  Of course most Americans that collect money from the government each month are not abusing the system.  Many truly are incapable of taking care of themselves, and others are just receiving government benefits (such as Social Security) that they feel that they have earned by a lifetime of hard work.  But with each passing year the number of Americans jumping on board “the safety net” continues to grow rapidly, and a lot of these people should be able to take care of themselves.  Today, the American people collectively receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes.  And remember, the federal government uses our money to build roads, inspect our food and fund the military as well.  So what does this say about our economy?  Could it survive without all of these debt-fueled transfer payments?  And what does this say about our society?  At one time, our nation was known for our Protestant work ethic.  What would our forefathers say about us today?  The following are 21 facts that prove that dependence on the government is out of control in America… (Read More...)

12 Signs That The Decay Of Society Is Accelerating

Police Line TapeWhat in the world is happening to America?  All around us there are disturbing signs that the slow-motion collapse of society is accelerating.  With each passing year, criminals seem to be getting more desperate and more twisted.  Some of the sick things that some people are willing to do to their fellow human beings are simply beyond description.  What kind of psychotic individual would hold elderly men captive for a decade in order to get their Social Security and veteran benefit checks?  How depraved do you have to be before you are able to convince yourself to rape a 16-year-old girl and then throw her body off of a roof?  What kind of heartless teens would pour gasoline on an innocent boy walking home from school and then set him on fire?  The social decay that is eating away at our nation like cancer is starting to get a lot worse, and yet there are still lots of people out there that will flat out deny that society is collapsing.  They have totally bought into the propaganda being pushed by the mainstream media, and they are fully convinced that things in America are actually getting better even though our communities are literally coming apart at the seams all around us.  How much worse do things have to get before everyone finally is willing to admit that we have a major problem on our hands?  The following are 12 signs that the decay of society is accelerating… (Read More...)

Government Website For Immigrants: Come To America And Take Advantage Of Our Free Stuff

A website run by the federal government (“WelcomeToUSA.gov“) encourages new immigrants to the United States to apply for welfare benefits.  This website is run by the Department of Homeland Security and it says that it “is the U.S. Government’s official web portal for new immigrants.”  So your tax dollars were used to build and maintain a website that teaches immigrants how to come into this country and sponge a living off of federal welfare programs paid for by your tax dollars.  What in the world is happening to us?  Yes, we will always need some legal immigration.  We are a nation of immigrants and immigration has been very good to this country.  But at a time when there are millions upon millions of American citizens out of work and at a time when we are absolutely drowning in debt, do we really need to encourage millions more immigrants to come over and take advantage of our overloaded social welfare programs?  WelcomeToUSA.gov actually encourages new immigrants to apply for food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.  Of course not all immigrants are eligible for all of those programs, but if an immigrant can get over to the U.S. and just get signed up for a couple of programs they can enjoy a higher standard of living doing nothing here than they can working at a low paying job back home.  We have created a perverse system of incentives that makes it very attractive to people all over the world to do whatever they can to hitch a ride on “the gravy train” and take advantage of all of the benefits that they possibly can.  And once immigrants get on welfare, many of them never leave.  For example, one study discovered that 43 percent of all immigrants who have been in the United States for at least 20 years were still on welfare.  We can’t even take care of our own citizens, and yet more immigrants hop on to the safety net every single day.  At some point the safety net is going to break and then we won’t even be able to take care of the struggling Americans that really need it. (Read More...)

More Than 100 Million Americans Are On Welfare

There are more Americans dependent on the federal government than ever before in U.S. history.  According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.  Many are enrolled in more than one.  That is about a third of the entire population of the country.  Sadly, that figure does not even include Social Security or Medicare.  Today the federal government runs almost 80 different “means-tested welfare programs”, and almost all of those programs have experienced substantial growth in recent years.  Yes, we will always need a “safety net” for those that cannot take care of themselves, but it is absolutely ridiculous that the federal government is financially supporting one-third of all Americans.  How much farther do things really need to go before we finally admit that we have become a socialist nation?  At the rate we are going, it will not be too long before half the nation is on welfare.  Unfortunately, we will likely never get to that point because the gigantic debt that we are currently running up will probably destroy our financial system before that ever happens. (Read More...)

The Real Obama Budget Deficit For 2011: 5 Trillion Dollars

If the U.S. government used the same accounting methods that most U.S. businesses use, the real federal budget deficit for last year would have been 5 trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars.  So where does the huge difference come from?  I think a simple illustration would be helpful here.  When you go shopping, do you only count the transactions where you use cash, or do you also count the transactions where you signed on the dotted line and promised to pay later?  Of course you count both of them.  Well, the U.S. government does not count promises to pay later when calculating budget deficits.  The “official” Obama budget deficit for 2011 was 1.3 trillion dollars, but according to USA Today when you add in the rise in liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs that adds another 3.7 trillion dollars to the total.  Those are future financial promises that we have made that future taxes are not expected to cover.  This analysis by USA Today squares very well with what analysts such as John Williams of shadowstats.com have been saying for years.  The truth is that our federal budget deficits have actually been far worse than we have been told. (Read More...)