« Networks of Empire and Realignments of World PowerPresident Obama and the US Generals in Search of Navigational Change »

Decline and Fall (Maybe) January 1, 2011

January 1st, 2011

The Happy New Year Edition (with some good news about 2011)

Michael Collins
 /></p>

<p>The best thing about 2010 is that it's over.  It was a year filled with utter stupidity, mendacity, and greed beyond all bounds on the part of our rulers, also known as <a href=The Money Party. Lots of fiddling while Rome and the rest of the world burned. Knowledge is power and among the ruling elite in the United States, the power was off. Somebody forgot to pay the bill or paid with a bad check, no doubt.

A Decade of Job Stagnation In 2000, 135 million citizens were employed. In 2010 there were 139 million Americans employed. Given the 9.7% increase in population since 2000, we would expect to see at least 148 million citizens with jobs. Nobody much wants to talk about this or the true unemployment figures produced by the US Census called "U6". That measure accounts for, "Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force." Bureau of Labor Statistics

The "U6" unemployment figure is 17%, well above the official 9.8% we hear all the time. The official number accounts for 15 million citizens. But when we use U6, we add 9 million citizens forced by economic conditions to work less than they want in part time jobs and 2.5 million marginally attached to the work force - those who gave up looking and get no benefits. That gives us a real world total of 26.5 million citizens out of work or working part time against their will.


Using more refined, politically neutral measures (closer to those in the Great Depression), the over all unemployment percentage is 22.5%, a total of 34.6 million citizens without employment. Shadow Government Statistics calculates the real unemployment rate by adding in "long term discouraged workers" (those who stopped looking), a measure the government no longer uses.

If people don't have jobs they suffer more, have less advantages to offer their children, and drift quickly into poverty. They face homelessness and risk falling so far behind they'll never recover. Thanks to the dreadful members Congress who voted for the new bankruptcy bill in 2007, those unemployed will always have their medical bills to pay. Thoughtful bunch.

The Response - Crackpot Economics You'd think that the government would have the most able hands on deck for this economic storm. But we've got the same old crew, dominated by Wall Street insiders and big bankers without credibility. These are the folks creating MPD (multiple personality disorder) economics. They argue that we have to focus on the deficit and get that down (even that policy was disastrous in the Great Depression). Then they argue that we need to give away $900 billion in tax revenues so the top 1% will have enough wealth to trickle down on the rest of us. .

They can't have it both ways. Lowering the deficit while lowering income at the same time is simply absurd logic. They think nobody is paying attention. It's important to know that the people behind these policies know exactly what they're doing. They just think we're stupid, a fatal error. The key players now include Obama, the Bush Clan, Bill Clinton, and the usual suspects from Wall Street and the big banks.

They have their own media monopoly to crank out the nonsense. The Fed is doing its part with Quantitative Easing 2 which, as Numerian says, "… is experimental and unprecedented, except when it was used in Weimar Germany with disastrous results, or more recently in the hyperinflationary economy of Zimbabwe."

Other Major Failings We got health care reform but Congress forgot to do anything for the people. The elimination of "preexisting conditions" as a means to open up more coverage for adults was postponed until 2014. The self-employed are totally screwed with their rates doubling and tripling in some cases. And there was no action to curb the outrageous cost of pharmaceuticals thanks to a major cave in by the president. Medicare, for example, is barred by law from negotiating discounts from big pharma. That about sums it up. The only reform was a massive bailout for the health insurance companies.

Nothing has been done to address the rapid increase in citizens in poverty. That would require jobs. The only jobs those in power produce are for themselves and their cronies.

The Gulf of Mexico was polluted by the worst oil company by a long shot, BP. The president surrendered national sovereignty over the 200 mile off shore exclusive economic zone by allowing BP to run the cleanup. That included permission for the use of a highly toxic oil dispersant, one that they knew toxic. But it did the job required. It kept the evidence off the surface. Shame about the rest of the Gulf. They don't care. They don't have to.

Presidential Hit Squads This year saw a radical shift in power from everyone else to the White House. The president's national security advisor revealed that the White House had a hit list of US citizens abroad determined to be terrorists. Never mind the time honored process of arrest, indictment, trial, and sentencing. If some bureaucrat nominates a "bad guy," he's toast. Shame if that turns out to be one of us. There's no reason this needs to be limited to citizens overseas since it's the ultimate in lawlessness from the start. Piss off the wrong person and you're in the cross hairs.

The United States still occupies Iraq and Afghanistan. While China offers to invest in a top to bottom railroad system from China to the warm water port at Karachi to distribute their goods, US predator drones bomb villages killing ordinary citizens along with whomever they're after. 800 military bases worldwide spread ill will. As economist Michael Hudson points out about the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China): "When they say we don't want to hold dollars, by that they mean, we don't want to finance our military encirclement, which is what the dollar standard has financed."

The Good News The best news out of 2010 is that the forces in control, The Money Party, have been unable to crush the will of the people to survive and see future opportunities for improvement. All over the country families are helping each other weather the storm, parents and adult children are opening up their homes to others in need, adjusting their retirement plans, taking extra jobs, and working harder to stay afloat. Ad hoc communities of care and compassion are emerging to buck the tide of government indifference, malfeasance, and fraud.

The United States has an inverted pyramid of intelligence. The vast majority have far greater talents, knowledge, and wisdom than the ruling elite, who have failed miserably at every turn over the past year and decade, for that matter. The goal is to wrench power from the fumblers before they do totally irreparable damage.

Perhaps those in the under thirty generation are the key. They were told to work hard, go to school, and acquire skills. They were also sold on the magic of the stock market. All they've seen over the past decade is a flat job market, stock manipulations, wasteful wars, and hysteria about terror - all at the expense of rebuilding the nation's infrastructure (which would spark a real recovery) and producing work worthy of a people who want the best for their families, friends, and the country.

Happy New Year. Time to throw the bums out.

END

This article may be reproduced in whole or part with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • Bilderberg Meeting attendees (1954-present): politicians, CEOs, and thought leaders gather secretly to discuss global policy and economic trends. Chapter One: The Lords of War and Waste By Ned Lud It begins not with a bang but with a gleam of wealth,…
  • Ned Lud dedicates this to Mark Aurelius Netanyahu: The Prime Minister of Permanent Emergency The Godless Horseman: War Eternal, Peace Never He doesn’t ride in on a white horse—he arrives in Merkava armor, draped in Holocaust memory and wrapped in the…
  • by Janet Campbell Image via Freepik Children on the margins rarely have the luxury of being heard. Their needs are either diluted in policy debates or romanticized in feel-good campaigns that vanish as quickly as they arrive. But improving the lives of…
  • By David Swanson Late last century I figured out that I needed to work on a job dedicated to making the world a better place. I know not everyone can find such a job if they try. I appreciate all the other useful jobs that millions of people do — if not…
  • By Mark Aurelius One can feel the anger. One can feel the rage and disgust. It is a resentment severe but it is far from being some kind of blind hatred. Who could have thought Trump’s White House and Cabinet picks would be this fr..king frustrating,…
  • Robert David I. The New American Panopticon In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, exposing the government’s lies about the Vietnam War. Today, a different kind of betrayal unfolds—not through war, but through data, algorithms, and…
  • Tracy Turner In recent years, Trader Joe's and Aldi have emerged as successful grocery store chains, with their private-label products that usually bear organic labels. But behind such appealing labels lies a disturbing reality: a significant proportion…
  • By Chris Spencer I. The New Alchemists: Turning Paranoia into Profit In the digital crucible of the 21st century, a strange alchemy has emerged: paranoia transmutes into profit, and the specter of chaos becomes a business model. Surveillance—once the…
  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War Approaching 50 years since the end of the American War, as the Vietnamese call it, and something over 70 years since the start of it, depending when you start the clock, truth and reconciliation remain incomplete. I…
  • By Mark Aurelius Has there ever been a word more super-charged, politicized, and over-bloated with frothing and rabid connotation, in our modernity, than terms as hate, hatred, hate speech or acts of hate? Perhaps there are some, but one’s noggin can be…
April 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30      

  XML Feeds

Social CMS engine
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi