More and more we’ve been told the United States is recovering from the “Great Recession” (what a laugh, right?). They say real-estate is making a comeback, more jobs are being created by the hour, and though the road to recovery is slow, America will eventually bounce back. Personally, that’s the biggest load of hogwash I’ve ever heard. Anyone with a half a brain and good instincts could see the economy isn’t bouncing back, for several reasons:
#10 Aging Population
Like Japan, many worry about the Baby-Boomer generation. They are getting old in increasing numbers and there simply isn’t enough money in the Social Security fund to pay for all of them. Many are lower-class citizens who haven’t saved enough for retirement and other nothing at all; some are in debt. When the time comes, they will have to move in with their friends and children in order to survive their declining years.
#9 Plummeting Currency Values
Every time the government borrows money, they print more to replace the money they borrowed, causing a rapid decline in the value of the American Dollar. Compared to its full buying power and potential in 1914, the value of the American Dollar has depreciated 2300%, which means our currency is twenty times less valuable than it was a century ago.
#8 Increasing Deficits
The Federal Government has been continuously spending more and more money to pay its ever-mounting pile of bills. Roughly 40% of the Federal budget is paid for with borrowed money from countries like China, Germany, UK, and Japan. Unfortunately, instead of solving the problem by reducing spending and paying off the debt, the government’s solution is to increase taxes on an already strained economy or continue to borrow money.
#7 Skyrocketing Unemployment
Official unemployment numbers are somewhere between 6% – 9% nationally. In reality, the number of unemployed is closer to 23% and rising, because people were dropped from unemployment benefits when they ran out and then removed from the census.
#6 Shrinking Manufacturing Potential
With so many jobs being exported overseas, America’s ability to manufacture its own goods is decreasing by the hour. Worse yet, most of the tools required to rekindle manufacturing in our country are now being built in other countries, so we can’t bring those jobs back even if we wanted to. Even more degrading is our people being required to train the foreigners taking their jobs.
#5 Increasing Cost of Living, Decreasing Wages
A politician will tell you wages have increases dramatically since 1947, but what they don’t tell you is that prices have increased faster. Also, due to increasing deficits, debt, and loss of value, even with increasing wages to compensate the total buying power of the public has dropped 30% in the last seventy years.
#4 Degradation of the Rule of Law
Now of days, the rule of law means almost nothing to our leaders. They continuously violate the Constitution with laws like the Patriot Act, run illegal surveillance on the citizenry…well, if you’ve been watching the alternative media lately you pretty much get the picture. It’s an open secret most politicians care more about reelection than right and wrong, and why would they? Morals don’t win elections.
#3 Excessive Regulation and Taxation
While most people believe the major burden of taxation is on the poor and middle class, it’s actually on the middle and upper class citizenry, which is why so many businesses are failing. Those that create jobs, build schools, hospitals, universities, and provide most opportunities are the most heavily taxed. By contrast, the lower class pay less than -9% in income taxes. Regulations put a further stranglehold on the economy, costing trillions every year.
#2 Lack of Virtue
America’s character has deteriorated over time. Most Americans don’t even vote anymore and virtually none of them take an active interest in the political landscape of their country. On the ballots, most just mark straight Republican or Democrat without even bothering to look at the names of the candidates, unless it’s the Governor or the President; they look for which party promises the most of what they want, usually money, jobs, or welfare handouts.
#1 No Collective Vision
The Space Program was one of the most successful human endeavors in history, until it fell by the wayside in favor of social endeavors that ultimately failed because of poor management and lack of popularity. Since then, this country has lost all sense of national direction and aspires to nothing but paying its bills from week to week.
Any one of these major societal problems could put the United States in its grave, given enough time, especially if no one cares enough to fix them. Given all these factors robbing most Americans of their good sense (if they had any to begin with after all this time), it’s unlikely anything will change. So, I suggest we all put paper bags over our heads and wait for the end to come. Oh, and I’ll be needing a drink…a really big one.
