I HOPE YOU WILL WATCH THIS VIDEO BELOW AT LEAST TWICE AND SHARE IT WITH ALL YOU KNOW.
IT'S A WAR ON THE MIDDLE CLASS AND THE "WORKING JOE".
THAT IS A HARSH REALITY.
AMERICA HAS BECOME A NATION OF SERFS AND "KINGS".
When inequality gets bad enough, serfs don't have much money to buy products from overlords. This hurts the overlords' ability to get even richer.
That's what's wrong with the American economy right now. The serfs are tapped-out. The overlords are responding by firing more serfs, to increase profits.
BUSINESSES HAVE FIGURED THE WHOLE THING OUT, THANKS TO THE AMERICAN 'RECESSION'.
BUSINESS OWNERS HAVE SEEN THE BIGGEST PROFITS IN 40 YEARS RECENTLY, AND THEY MADE THAT MONEY WITH FEWER AMERICAN WORKERS!
MOST BUSINESSES HAVE LEARNED THEY CAN REPLACE HIGHER-PAYING JOBS IN THE U.S. WITH LOWER-PAYING PART-TIME HELP, THUS REDUCING THEIR EXPENSES FOR ANY TYPE BENEFITS THAT FULL-TIME WORKERS HAD.
BUT TO REALLY INCREASE PROFITS, THEY SHIP JOBS OVERSEAS.
BUSINESSES PAY LOWER WAGES, FEWER BENEFITS, THE WORKERS THEY HAVE ARE DRIVEN TO WORK HARDER, EVEN LONGER HOURS, JUST TO KEEP THOSE JOBS, BUT AMERICAN CORPORATIONS ARE STILL SHIPPING MORE JOBS OVERSEAS TO WORKERS WHO WILL WORK ALL DAY FOR AS LITTLE AS $2-$3 TOTAL.
ALL COMBINED, THIS HAS SO INCREASED PRODUCTION THAT AMERICA'S BUSINESS OWNERS ARE LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!
WALL STREET IS HAVING A BALL, BANKS ARE RAKING IN THE BUSINESS PROFITS IN LOAN INTEREST, AND EVERYONE AT THE TOP IS ECSTATIC.
WHO CARES IF THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WORKER CAN'T AFFORD COST-OF-LIVING INCREASES!
AMERICAN BUSINESSES HAVE ENTERED THE GLOBAL MARKET IN GREATER NUMBERS THAN EVER BEFORE AND CAN SELL THEIR FOREIGN-MADE GOODS CHEAPER TO THE LOCAL MARKETS OVERSEAS AND STILL MAKE HUGE PROFITS!
LEFT BEHIND, STRUGGLING TO FIND AND KEEP JOBS, STRUGGLING TO FIND SECOND, OR THIRD JOBS TO MAKE ENDS MEET, AMERICAN WORKERS ARE BECOMING AN UNNECESSARY EXPENSE TO AMERICAN CORPORATIONS.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE ECONOMY?
AMERICAN BUSINESSES, THAT'S WHAT!!!
IT IS WAR, AND MIDDLE-CLASS AND POORER AMERICANS ARE THE NEW ENEMY.
THOSE TOP 2% HAVE FOUND A WAY TO 'BEAT THE SYSTEM' AND THEY WILL NEVER GO BACK TO THE OLD WAY!
THEY WILL SHIP JOBS OVERSEAS, HIRE FEWER WORKERS HERE, HIRE CHEAPER LABOR HERE, DEMAND MORE WORK FROM THOSE THEY DO HIRE, AND KEEP STACKING THEIR PROFITS.
FORMER ASSISTANT TREASURY SECRETARY PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS HAS SEEN THE WRITING ON THE WALL AND SAYS SO.
<<Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, 'The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West' is now available. >>
He saw that the top 2% in America controls +80% of America's wealth and that the top 1% controls ABOUT 40%.
JUST ONE PARTICULAR AMERICAN FAMILY OWNS MORE WEALTH THAN THE BOTTOM 41% OF ALL AMERICANS COMBINED!
He also knows these are the ones who drive the economy and, right now, they're driving it DOWN!
He calls it "ignored reality that's wiping out the human race".
That may seem like strong language, but give him a few minutes to explain.
Roberts lists 3 major "projects" created by the 1%:
#1~ Economic controlled demolition.
" To inform people is hard slugging. Everything is lined up against the public being informed, or the policymakers for that matter. News is contaminated by its service to special interests and hidden agendas. Many scientists or their employers are dependent on federal money. "
"I have been trying to inform the American people, economists, and policymakers for more than a decade about the adverse impacts of jobs off-shoring on the US economy...
When skilled jobs are sent abroad, the skills disappear at home. So do the supply chains and the businesses associated with the skills. Things close down...
When a First World country exports its technology and know-how abroad to a Third World country in order to benefit from lower cost labor, how does the First World country get the work back?
When First World wages drop, mortgage, car, credit card, and student loan payments do not drop. Americans cannot live on Chinese, Indian, and Indonesian wages. Once the technology and know-how is transferred, the low wage country has the advantage in the absence of tariff protection."
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO OUR ECONOMY?
"Jobs off-shoring diminished the US tax base.
When a job is sent abroad, so is that job’s contribution to U.S. GDP and tax base. When millions of jobs are sent abroad, U.S. GDP and tax base cannot support government spending levels. To the extent that there are any replacement jobs, they are in low-paid domestic services. These jobs do not provide a tax base or consumer spending power comparable to manufacturing jobs and tradeable professional services such as software engineering and information technology."
"Republicans and, increasingly, Democrats, as both parties are dependent on the same sources of campaign contributions, blame “entitlements.”
By entitlements they mean welfare.
SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE ARE NOT WELFARE!
In fact, entitlements consist of Social Security and Medicare. Entitlements are funded by the payroll tax, approximately 15% of payroll. The fact that a person pays the payroll tax all his working life is why the person is entitled to Social Security and Medicare, if they live to retirement age.
Welfare, REAL 'welfare, such as food stamps and housing subsidies, are a SMALL part of the federal budget and are NOT entitlements."
THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO GRASP.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND THINK ABOUT THIS.
"Social Security payroll tax revenues have ALWAYS exceeded Social Security payments. As of today, Social Security revenues exceed payments to beneficiaries by an accumulated $2 trillion. THAT SURPLUS money however, was used by the federal government to pay for its wars and for other (government) spending programs. The Social Security Trust Fund now holds non-marketable IOUs from the Treasury. These IOUs can only be made good from an excess of tax revenues over expenditures, or by the Treasury selling $2 trillion in bonds, notes, and bills and paying off its IOUs to the Social Security Trust Fund.
This is not going to happen.
"AMERICA IS BROKE. THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN ONE TRILLION DOLLARS IN THE HOLE FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS."
THAT $1 TRILLION IS PRINTED LIKE MONOPOLY MONEY BY THE FEDERAL RESERVE, A TRILLION "IMAGINARY", WORTHLESS U.S. DOLLARS EACH YEAR!
FIAT MONEY!
“The Federal Reserve could not care less about the US population. The Fed was established for the purpose of protecting and aiding banks. Currently, the Fed, as if America were a Banana Republic, which America appears to be becoming, is printing one thousand billion dollars ( one TRILLION dollars) per year in order to support the banks and to finance the federal deficit.”
"'What we use for money is, in all reality, DEBT, created by private banks..'"
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS IS A FORMER ASSISTANT TREASURY SECRETARY!
WHAT INSIDE INFORMATION HE HAD AVAILABLE TO HIM WE WILL NEVER HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE, BUT WE CAN LISTEN AND LEARN!
DR. ROBERTS CONCLUDES WITH THIS:
"'...the 99% will take one of two paths:
- Ignore reality, and be weakened or 'killed' by 1%-created “projects.”
- Embrace reality, and enact solutions.
The divergence between what is happening and what you are told is so vast that it pays to be suspicious, cynical even, of what “your” government and “your” presstitute media tell you. The chances are high that it is a lie.'"
HE OUGHT TO KNOW!
THERE ARE 3 MAJOR REASONS OUR ECONOMY IS UNRECOVERABLE.
1) Corporate profit margins just hit another all-time high.
Companies are making more per dollar of sales than they ever have before.
(And some people are still saying that companies are suffering from "too much regulation" and "too many taxes." Maybe little companies are, but big ones certainly aren't. What they're suffering from is a myopic obsession with short-term profits at the expense of long-term value creation).
2) Wages as a percent of the economy just hit another all-time low. Why are corporate profits so high? One reason is that companies are paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. And that, in turn, is one reason the economy is so weak: Those "wages" represent spending power for consumers. And consumer spending is "revenue" for other companies.
So the profit obsession is actually starving the rest of the economy of revenue growth.
3) Fewer Americans are working than at any time in the past three decades.
The other reason corporations are so profitable is that they don't employ as many Americans as they used to. As a result, the employment-to-population ratio has collapsed.
We're back at 1980s levels now.
THE AVERAGE CEO MAKES ABOUT 380 TIMES WHAT AN AVERAGE WORKER IN HIS CORPORATION MAKES!
IT TAKES MOST EMPLOYEES A MONTH TO MAKE WHAT THE CEO MAKES PER HOUR!
That's not what has made America a great country. It's also not what most people think America is supposed to be about.
So we might want to rethink that.
Specifically, we might want to have the goal of our corporations be to create long-term value for ALL of their constituencies (customers, employees, and shareholders), not just short-term profit for their shareholders.
We’ll never have these solutions or even the problem clearly explained until that "1% leaders" in government, money, and media are arrested for OBVIOUS fraud (obvious because debt is NOW being called “money,” and those with fiduciary responsibility in government to explain options to end our debt are silent).
If no arrests, we will have only more debt, more wars, and more lies.
So few Americans have realized the above facts that the criminals in Big Business have no fear of seeing the inside of a jail cell, but documented evidence and hard facts websites are increasing.
DID YOU KNOW THAT MANY courageous writers were prevented by corporate media ownership from reporting major news stories? Some were even fired or laid off. They have won numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Pulitzer.
WRITERS AND NEWS REPORTERS LIKE DAN RATHER, MIKE LEVINE, JANE AKRE, GREGG PALAST JUST TO NAME A VERY FEW HAVE OPENLY STATED THEY WERE, IN ESSENCE, GAGGED ON SOME STORIES.
SEE ALSO : http://www.wanttoknow.info/massmedia
AND http://www.wanttoknow.info/mediainformation
DID YOU KNOW THAT:
- 3,000 respected leaders, including government officials and professors,
have publicly expressed harsh criticism of the 9/11 Commission
Report?
YES, OVER 3.000. 3,000 WITH EVIDENCE THEY CAN DOCUMENT, BUT THEY, TOO, LIKE THE JOURNALISTS, ARE GAGGED BY MSM REFUSAL TO PRINT ANYTHING BUT WHAT THEY'RE TOLD TO.
Many even allege government complicity in the 9/11 attacks.
WHY HAVEN'T WE READ THAT IN OUR MSMs???
The sooner each of us decides that we DO want to know, and that we are willing to open [our] eyes, the more easily we will be able to build a world that supports the good of all of us.'"
IT'S A WAR.
IT'S A WAR ON 'AVERAGE CITIZEN', A WAR ON AMERICA'S BACKBONE, HER WORKERS, HER "MIDDLE CLASS", AND EVEN A WORSE WAR ON AMERICA'S POOR.
What lies behind us and what lies before us
Are but small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - See more at: http://www.insightcourse.net/lessons/01a_unlimited_potential#sthash.uXc5w8ur.dpuf
Are but small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - See more at: http://www.insightcourse.net/lessons/01a_unlimited_potential#sthash.uXc5w8ur.dpuf
What lies behind us and what lies before us
Are but small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - See more at: http://www.insightcourse.net/lessons/01a_unlimited_potential#sthash.uXc5w8ur.dpuf
WILL WE LOSE THIS WAR?Are but small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - See more at: http://www.insightcourse.net/lessons/01a_unlimited_potential#sthash.uXc5w8ur.dpuf
WILL WE CONTINUE TO BE THE "AMERICAN SERFS" AND BOW TO THE WHIMS OF THOSE WHO CONTROL THE MONEY, THE FOOD, EVERYTHING?
ONLY WE, AS INDIVIDUALS, CAN DETERMINE THAT.
NO ONE WILL FIGHT FOR US BUT WE OURSELVES.
THE GOOD NEWS IS...WE ARE THE MAJORITY!
WE ARE A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.
WE HAVE VOICES AND WE HAVE WEAPONS LIKE THIS INTERNET, THESE COMPUTERS WE SIT IN FRONT OF, WAYS TO COMMUNICATE AND BAND TOGETHER.
WE CAN CHOOSE TO REMAIN BLIND TO THE FACTS, OR WE CAN STOP FOOLING OURSELVES THAT "THINGS ARE BOUND TO GET BETTER IF WE JUST DON'T ROCK THE BOAT".
THAT BOAT IS SINKING FASTER THAN MOST CAN IMAGINE.
WE MUST LEARN, OR WE SHALL PERISH!
ADDENDUM:
Inequality in America is worse than at any time since the 1920s.
BUT....Stock markets are thriving even as the economy is barely growing and unemployment remains stubbornly high.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/business/economy/corporate-profits-soar-as-worker-income-limps.html
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
With millions still out of work, companies face little pressure to raise salaries, while productivity gains allow them to increase sales without adding workers.
“So far in this recovery, corporations have captured an unusually high share of the income gains,” said Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “The U.S. corporate sector is in a lot better health than the overall economy. And until we get a full recovery in the labor market, this will persist.”
The result has been a golden age for corporate profits, especially among multinational giants that are also benefiting from faster growth in emerging economies like China and India.
These factors, along with the Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep interest rates ultralow and encourage investors to put more money into riskier assets, prompted traders to send the Dow past 14,000 to within 75 points of a record high in February this year.
Unemployment, after steadily declining for three years, has been stuck at just below 8 percent since last September.
With $85 billion in automatic cuts taking effect between now and Sept. 30 as part of the so-called federal budget sequestration, some experts warn that economic growth will be reduced by at least half a percentage point. But although experts estimate that sequestration could cost the country about 700,000 jobs, Wall Street does not expect the cuts to substantially reduce corporate profits
As a percentage of national income, corporate profits stood at 14.2 percent in the third quarter of 2012, the largest share at any time since 1950, while the portion of income that went to employees was 61.7 percent, near its lowest point since 1966. In recent years, the shift has accelerated during the slow recovery that followed the financial crisis and ensuing recession of 2008 and 2009, said Dean Maki, chief United States economist at Barclays.
Corporate earnings have risen at an annualized rate of 20.1 percent since the end of 2008, he said, but disposable income inched ahead by 1.4 percent annually over the same period, after adjusting for inflation.
“There hasn’t been a period in the last 50 years where these trends have been so pronounced,” Mr. Maki said.
Businesses do not need as many workers as they once did to churn out higher sales and profits.
EXAMPLE: At 218,300 employees, United Technologies’ work force is virtually unchanged from seven years ago, even though annual revenue soared to $57.7 billion in 2012 from $42.7 billion in 2005.
Four days after the company’s shares soared past $90 to a record high last month, United Technologies confirmed it would eliminate an additional 3,000 workers this year, on top of 4,000 let go in 2012 as part a broader restructuring effort. “There’s no doubt we will continue to drive productivity year after year,” Mr. Chenevert said. “Ultimately, we compete globally.”
When companies do hire, it is often overseas, where the growth is. Take 3M, another company among the Dow 30 that is trading at a record high.Unlike United Technologies, the work force at 3M, based in Minnesota, has grown substantially in recent years, rising to 87,677 last year from 76,239 in 2007.
But of those 11,438 positions added, only 608 were in the United States.
The Federal Reserve has also played a crucial role in propelling the stock market higher, economists and strategists say, even if that was not the intent of policy makers. The Fed has made reducing unemployment a top priority, but in practice its policy of keeping rates very low and buying up the safest assets to stimulate the economy means investors are willing to take on more risk in search of better returns, hence the buoyancy on Wall Street amid the austerity in Washington and gloom on Main Street.
Of the broader market’s 13% rise in 2012, about half was a result of the Fed’s actions, Mr. Harris of Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates.
“The Federal Reserve has done a good job stimulating financial conditions and lifting the market,” he said. “It’s been less successful in stimulating job growth.”
THE FED WAS ESTABLISHED TO DO JUST THAT!
FROM THE VERY BEGINNING OF THAT ABOMINATION, IT HAS WORKED JUST FOR THE BUSINESS WORLD, NOT FOR AMERICAN TAXPAYERS, AND NOT FOR THE GOOD OF AMERICA. ITS CHIEF AIM SEEMS TO BE TO BRING THE AMERICAN ECONOMY TO ITS GRAVE!
The reality is that we're hollowing out the middle class by wiping out well-paid jobs with benefits and replacing them with low-wage ones that often lack them. That's damaging not only to people who are living on smaller paychecks – or who are indeed unemployed – but also to the health and viability of the overall economy.
We are living in a zero-sum economy – in which a handful of investors and owners win at everyone else's expense.
The US economy is engaged in a vicious cycle in which low-wage jobs and under-employment stimulate little demand, giving companies little reason to hire workers. Would-be workers then get discouraged and drop out of the workforce. They lack money to buy things, so consumer spending sags and companies don't hire or offer raises to workers they know they can keep. Repeat.
Until we address the following 10 problems head-on, the idea that the economy is truly recovering will remain a fantasy.
http://www.alternet.org/recession-forever-10-reasons-american-workers-are-screwed
Problem 1: wages are falling
Wages for most workers are either stagnating or declining.
UNTIL WE FIX THIS #1 PROBLEM, THE REST ARE IRREPARABLE.
[ I HOPE YOU'LL GO READ AT THAT LINK FOR THE OTHER 9 PROBLEMS. IT'S QUITE EYE-OPENING.]
PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO COMPLAIN LOUDLY ENOUGH TO BE NOTICED!
1.The economy is still very difficult for voters at the pocketbook level. -
1. People believe that American jobs have been fundamentally restructured to pay less; America is producing jobs “you can’t live off.”
SOME COMMENTS FROM "AVERAGE CITIZENS":
"You can’t survive on one income. You can’t buy gas."
"I work 7 days a week to afford my house, my car."
"Often times I worked 5 jobs, never saw the kids. They raised themselves. A majority of politicians don’t understand the hardship."
Sacrifice has become part of the routine:
“After we pay our bills we make sure that our children eat but there’s times my husband and I can’t afford it and we eat peanut butter, potatoes, or rice. We make sure our children are eating 4 food groups but we can’t.”
"Because jobs don’t allow you to make ends meet, you have to cobble together several jobs to make a full time income; two jobs may not be enough, so one parent must work two jobs while the other works one job and cares for children."
THE FOLLOWING GRAPHS SHOW HOW BOTH "PARTIES" RESPONDED TO THE MOST RECENT "STATE OF THE UNION".
IF YOU CAN'T SEE THE VAST DIFFERENCE IN HOW EACH "PARTY" REACTED TO THE FIRST POINT JUST BELOW, WHEN "TAX EQUALITY/THE BUFFET RULE" WAS MENTIONED, I HAVE TO WONDER ABOUT YOU BEING A "PARTY LOYALIST".
[IF YOU CAN'T READ THE CAPTIONS HERE, PLEASE CLICK THE LINKS TO GO LARGER IMAGES. ]
http://www.democracycorps.com/images/thumbnails/images-buffettrule-500x361.png
http://www.democracycorps.com/images/thumbnails/images-MINIMUMWAGE-500x360.png
YET AGAIN, PARTY LINES WERE DRAWN, AND ONCE AGAIN, WHO DIDN'T MUCH WANT TO HEAR ABOUT TAKING CARE OF THE WORKING MIDDLE-CLASS?
THOSE SUCKING-UP THE HARDEST TO WALL STREET!
IT'S THE TOP 2% ALWAYS LOOKING AT PROFIT MARGINS, ALWAYS LOOKING FOR WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES, AND THAT MEANS THEY'RE CUTTING THE THROATS OF "AVERAGE CITIZEN", ANY AND EVERY WAY THEY CAN.
WHEN CONGRESS PASSES THOSE LAWS, SENDS THOSE BILLS UP TO THE OVAL OFFICE FOR SIGNATURE, IT IS NOT US, IT IS NOT "WE, THE PEOPLE" THEY'RE LOOKING OUT FOR!
IT'S THEIR BIGGEST CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS, THEIR PALS ON WALL STREET, THE "BIG BOYS" WHO SEND OUR JOBS OVERSEAS AND ARE WRECKING AMERICA BY DOING SO.
AFTER ALL, CONGRESS OWNS STOCKS, ALL OF THEM DO, EVEN IF THEY HAVE TO "GIFT" STOCKS TO GRANDCHILDREN, NIECES AND NEPHEWS, THEY ALL OWN STOCKS AND HAVE THEIR FINGERS IN WALL STREET PIES. .
THEY LIKE PROFITS, TOO.
WHAT THEY DON'T LIKE ARE THE POOR AND THE AVERAGE WORKER.
[SOURCE: http://www.democracycorps.com/Economy-Project/the-new-american-economy-full-report/ ]
PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO "GET IT".
I HOPE ALL OF US WILL DECIDE TO FACE THE FACTS AND THEN UNITE TO STOP THIS RUNAWAY TRAIN BEFORE WE ALL HAVE TO SIT AROUND AND WISH WE HAD!
KNOW THE ENEMY....AND HERE THEY ARE....26 OF THAT 'RULING ELITE' WHO WANT TO BUY THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!
THIS IS WHAT "SUPER-PACS" DO.
No comments:
Post a Comment