Sunday, June 12, 2011

Is America in Decline?

The official unemployment rate went up to 9.1 percent, as millions of Americans are unable to provide for their families, 45.1 percent of all unemployed Americans have been out of work for at least six months. Two years ago, the number of "long-term unemployed" in the United States was only 2.6 million, now up to 6.2 million.

The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the (WTO) World Trade Organization in 2001. The U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

The number of "middle class jobs" is about 10 percent lower than a decade ago. The number of "low income jobs" in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years, accounting for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States. Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year, the lowest level ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

College tuition in the United States has gone up by over 900 percent since 1978.

U.S. home prices have fallen 33 percent since the peak of the housing bubble, with 28 percent in negative equity. Over one million U.S. families lost their homes to foreclosure in a single year during 2010. New home sales in the United States are down 80% from the peak in July 2005.

The cost of food and the cost of energy have risen at a rate of 17 percent over the past six months. The majority of wages for those working haven’t gone up 17%, and certainly not for new job hires making less than previous earnings.

Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up averaging about 30%. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States was $1.83 in 2009, today it is $3.77. Oil companies will bring in about $200 billion in pre-tax profits this year, while receiving about $4.4 billion in specialized tax breaks from the U.S. government

Because of the economy, 32 percent of Americans have put off doctor visits, delayed preventive care, or have stopped taking medication to save money. But in the long term will only place a burden on health care as it only creates long-term health consequences.

Once Obamacare is fully implemented in 2014, 30 percent of all U.S. employers will "definitely or probably" quit offering employer-sponsored health coverage.

Americans now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government are one out of six.

In 2007, there were about 26 million Americans on food stamps. Today, there are over 44 million on food stamps, with one out of every four American children on food stamps.

The U.S. federal government incurred $5.3 trillion in new debt during 2010, on top of the $61.6 trillion financial obligations not been paid for yet.

Americans think of the federal government when you mention”government debt”, but it is not just the federal government that has an enormous debt problem. State and local government debt has reached an all-time high of 22 percent.

The majority of Americans don't understand that the Federal Reserve and the debt-based monetary system that it runs are the nucleus of our economic problems. All of this debt is will eventually crush and bury us like a ton of bricks. The U.S. government spent over 413 billion dollars on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2010, and it is being projected that the U.S. government will be shelling out 900 billion dollars just in interest on the national debt by the year 2019.

Raising the debt ceiling and going into even more debt we are destroying the economic future of our children and our grandchildren. All it does is buy more time before the unavoidable collision course that is being set.

The stimulus didn’t work, the money has run out, and it only helped foster a temporary fairy tale economy. There is no economic recovery and may have even prolonged it by creatng a false economy, and though many still believe we are in a recession, as a nation we are heading full steam into a depression much worse than ever seen before.

The good jobs continue to decline and the number of Americans losing their homes continues to go up. People are having a much more difficult time paying their bills and our federal government is drowning in debt.

If the hiring to fill 64,000 jobs at McDonald’s is an indication of our new economy, things are about to get a lot worse.

Millions more of American families are about to lose their jobs and their homes as the U.S. economy continues to fall apart.

Government doesn’t ‘need’ to; it ‘must’ operate more efficiently and spend less than it ever has before.

~ Joe Sinagra
    NJ 18th District Assembly Candidate

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