by-Larry @ 6:42 PM CDT
The wealthiest nation in the world, the United States currently has 37 million Americans living in poverty. In other words, one in every eight Americans are living in poverty. 43 percent of these Americans are living in severe poverty.
Of the severely poor, 10.3 million are white, 4.3 million are black and 3.7 million are Hispanic. That is a 56 percent faster increase than the overall poverty population grew. These numbers have risen every year since 2000.
Why is the wealthiest nation in the world quickly becoming a nation of poverty? The answer lies in the effects of NAFTA and other trade agreements. NAFTA started in January of 1994 and there has been an increase of U.S jobs moving to other countries since it was implemented.
China and India have received the greatest benefit from Free Trade agreements while U.S workers see their workplaces close and their jobs being shipped overseas. The amount of products shipped to the U.S from China are at record levels, as are the amount of American jobs that go to China.
These unemployed U.S workers end up in lower paying jobs such as in the service industry and many lose their homes to foreclosure and bankruptcy. Today 44 million workers earn less than $11.00 an hour as a result of the U.S trade policies.
The Bush administration has been quietly working out an agreement to completely remove any barriers with Mexico and Canada to create the North American Union. Congress doesn’t have to approve this agreement and it will result in a further exodus of U.S jobs.
Bush’s ability to negotiate trade agreements without the approval of Congress expires in July. If the Congress doesn’t take away this option, Bush will be able to sign agreements with South Korea and the agreement to create the North American Union.
It has been said a nation will be judged by how it treats its own citizens. As 37 million live in poverty and more to follow, George W Bush will not be judged very well.
Today 44 million workers earn less than $11.00 an hour as a result of the U.S trade policies.
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Larry:
Those are staggering numbers and it’s shameful! In fact, it hurts me to know that!
Wake up MSM!! These are the real issues in this country!
Excellent post Larry, thank you!
s-q,
That is outrageous!!
To put insult to injury there are some cities which do not allow a citizen to feed the Homeless..
I heard it today on the radio..
It has become illegal in some areas of metropolitan cities to care in the US!
This is what Bush and Cheney has brought our Nation and by using four phrases to shield themselves against anything:
Executive Privalege
Homeland Security
National Security
War on Terror
Homeless ministries are seeing people line up to get free food in record numbers.
Food banks are struggling to keep enough food in stock to help feed the poor.
This is Bush’s America!
Larry,
What a miserably failed Administration!
Hi GEF!
Yes, I’ve heard about some cities won’t allow citizens to give water to the homeless on hot days! Unbelievable! Would they treat a thirsty neighbor that way?
Disgraceful!
Larry:
People can’t live on $11.00/hr…especially with gas at high rates, utilities have skyrocketed across the country and food, etc. etc.
GEF:
Many larger cities are passing laws that limit how many meals a homeless ministry can distribute in a month to the poor.
Dallas and Atlanta are just two of many, and they also make the homeless ministries buy a permit to give out food.
Homeless ministries struggle to get donations now, much less having to buy a permit to give a limited amount of meals to people who are hurting.
This is Bush’s America!
Larry they are the lucky ones actually,
Read this;
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2446#more
As oil prices continue to rise, and the scramble for oil gets worse, Billions on this planet will suffer.
Susie,
The severely poor live on an average of $5,600 a year. How can anyone live on that?
Larry, Suzie-Q,
Like Iacocca said:
Where is the outrage ?
The Home of the Brave has turned into the Home of Apathy and Scared Sheep!
Tradin’ Cards Collect them all!
Clif, that story is chilling between oil prices and mortgage crunch things look very bleak.
clif, Larry,
Actually there are 3 problems..
1. Petro-Dollar falling
2. Subprime Mortgage fiasco
3. Debt Bubble
The Mortgage Bubble Burst and it will cascade to the Debt Bubble very soon!
It’s beyond bleak..
The Oil Drum
http://www.theoildrum.com/
And it’s archives is where I’m spending a hell of a lot of time, some there think the saudi’s may just be “peaking” right now, which means declining supplies of Oil for the future, and the resulting chaos economic calamities and possible collapse of the western OIL BASED capitalist economies and societies.
It gonna be a hell of a ride.
Nice trading cards GEF. Good for posting.
GEF it gets much deeper than that, as quite a bit of our economy is based on the discretionary spending by people with “extra capital” they get out of credit cards and cashing out the equity of their real property, which means as the whole house of cards collapses, jobs will disappear and whole localities which depended on those discretionary spending jobs will become vast wastelands, “Disneyland’s” entire empire is built on discretionary spending as an example.
there are numerous others, and the debt servicing sector of the economy will also collapse as the debt balloons out of sight, also ther auto industry along with it’s entire structure of repair shops new parts stores and Insurance industry will not be far behind. (in the game of basic survival, insurance is a luxury)
I have described three segments of what I call the Iron Triangle: (1) The auto/housing/finance group (the “Debt” group); (2) The mainstream media group (the “MSM” group) and (3) Some major oil companies, some major oil exporters and some energy analysts (the “Energy” Group).
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Clif:
This is very interesting….I’ve learned something new. Thanks for the link!
The severely poor live on an average of $5,600 a year. How can anyone live on that?
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Larry:
No one can live on that! No way in this economy.
The loan industry has the fastest growing percentage of unemployed of any group.
s-q that entire website is a GOLD MINE of information the MSM for some reason conveniently ignore, and it’s bearing down on all of us like a Cat 6 Hurricane.
Larry,
Here’s the main link to the Tradin’ Cards!
http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/cards.html
Clif:
I’ve been so busy.. but I intend to take a good look at that site this weekend! It looks very interesting and a wealth of info!
clif,
Yes, I understand it does go deep…
But the outcome is the same.
Econ Tank and Deep Depression like no one can imagine…
Worse then the so-called “Great Depression”.
The added problems of crop failures and missing bees to pollinate crops as well as Monsanto’s GMO nightmare will have DIRE circumstances on feeding America.
I believe that once the Econ does tank and the Govt comes to the realization that GMO food is dead food which is fully dependent on petrochemicals for growth, there will be a Huge National Outcry for natural crops.
At that point Monsanto and the other GMO corporations will cease to exist!
Too bad the “natural food ” economy might only be able to feed 2-2.5 billion people planet wide, as we have 6.5+Billion people at present and rising….
Watchdog to Fitzgerald: Re-open Plame investigation in light of Rove’s ‘missing’ emails
Raw Story
The Untouchable is coming for Karl Turdblossom NOW!! No way out this time Karl!!
LOMAO
40% of adult homeless males served honorably in the military.
38% of homeless males are 38 years old.
32% of homeless females are 32 years old.
There are 11,000 homeless in Nashville.
There are 18,000 homeless in Los Angeles.
These figures do not cover the poor living in projects or sub-average homes.
Clif,
Yep..
Well America will not be able to export her food which will cause Resource Wars on a Planetary scale..
There will be a quick reduction in people living on the planet!
This is the NWO-EU plan!
A smaller manageable pop!
Larry,
quote:
40% of adult homeless males served honorably in the military.
That’s how much Bush & Cheney care about our Troops…
GEF, America might not be able to FEED all it’s own people let alone export food.
We still have tens of millions living in poverty with some very hungry people there, and that is definately gonna get worse.
Suzie-Q,
The Hoofbeats of Justice are coming fast after Rove and he will not escape!
You’re right GEF. Clif can tell you many soldiers who did happen to get out of the service in the past 5 years are now homeless.
There is a waiting list for homeless shelters that cater to veterans in Los Angeles.
Clif,
yes of course..
Guns will go off in many cities..
Mobs will rule. The Govt will be powerless..
Even shooting people all day won’t stop the panic…
People will get shot for taking potable water..
It will be surreal…A whole new word!
Clif,
But you can’t have apathy on an empty belly and no TV…..
One of the problems in the world is increasing population. The world had 1 billion people in 1900, and is 6.5 billion today and expected to hit 9 billion by 2030. And, they all want a rich lifestyle as pictured by the MSM of America.
Too bad as the population starts to sky rocket the oil is starting to decline…..
Here in the good ole USA there will be a hell of a lot extra legal means employed to survive, but in the end if you haven’t planned for this your just going back to being hunter scavengers in the post oil fueled industrial world.
There is a waiting list for homeless shelters that cater to veterans in Los Angeles.
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Larry:
That is horrible! They shouldn’t have to wait! Our jobs situation and economy are such a mess! However, it can be fixed…with the right people!
Bush has almost destroyed this country!
Larry,
What gets me how pathetic and irresponsible that mass media has gotten by hiding all this from the American people.
Big Media will get blamed for not reporting it when the SHTF in this country!
People will be in the streets asking why weren’t we warned and then the people are going to take their collective wrath out on many people and buildings..
Most of those will be leaders..
Larry I don’t have a OIF break down, but this is very illustrative of the problem with homeless vets who a significant portion are PTSD suffers who self medicate to keep the horrors trapped in their minds at bay.
“while an estimated 500,000 veterans were homeless at some time during 2004, the VA had the resources to tend to only 100,000 of them.”
Tens of thousands of homeless combat vets roam the streets of the country, they offered their lives to defend, everyday. The reichwing greedy mentality just says fuck’em, they are losers.
clif,
quote: Here in the good ole USA there will be a hell of a lot extra legal means employed to survive, but in the end if you haven’t planned for this your just going back to being hunter scavengers in the post oil fueled industrial world.
Yep! Best start learning organic farming now I’m thinking…
Clif, in Nashville there are many veterans under the Jefferson street bridge every week to get food.
Several are in mid 30;s and recently got out of service.
I’ve been working to find a survival lifestyle for a number of years, have a garden, and also wood stove, am now working on self generated electricity.
No outstanding debts, and quite a few useful tools, but no vacation trips for years.
3 acres in a very small community, and know a few locals with skills that I don’t have. (Most think I’m wacked because I tell them Oil prices are quite cheap right now)
But given time they will “understand”.
We still have tens of millions living in poverty with some very hungry people there, and that is definately gonna get worse.
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Clif:
Do you think it will be worse than the Great Depression? I think it will…
Larry,
In downtown Miami they beg the fatcat Commissioners who pass right by them as if they were scum of the earth.
I’ve seen it.
These people have the power to do something and they just call the police to arrest them.
Clif,
That’s the ticket ma’ lad!
*Cheers*
Too bad the “natural food ” economy might only be able to feed 2-2.5 billion people planet wide, as we have 6.5+Billion people at present and rising…
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Clif:
Only 1/3 will survive in that case but if Dumbyeah starts a nuk-klear war the food will be contaminated! But there may not be anyone left that needs food anyway!
GEF:
I don’t doubt it. They aren’t living like that. They don’t care.
Larry,
“They shall reap what they have sown!”
It will make Both the Great depression and the Katrina experience look mild by comparison.
People will lose their homes and most of their “investment income” as business’s collapse, both because they can’t find enough customers, and the fact it costs way too much for the sheeple to travel from their McMansions in their SUV’s to their “discretionary spending” based jobs. Once the house of cards called the American economy starts to collapse, the federal debt is gonna prevent Uncle Sam from stepping in like Roosevelt did in the first economic meltdown we had.
Banks and finance companies will first try to collect on the debt they loaned out, but they will collapse as they receive properties they can’t sell to cover their costs and as the financial system stalls, even formerally ‘safe” jobs will start to feel the pince, government workers will face lay off as local and state governments go into debt with rapidly shrinking tax bases.
As the local then state governments become insolvement, the social programs and public safety programs will grind to a halt, which will force the federal government to declare martial law…..
Hence the;
Patriot act,
Halliburton build prisons for Homeland security,
Changes in “Habeas Corpus”, and the “posse comitas” act to empower who ever sits in Bush’s chair, has the power to control a rapidly disintragating situation.
Welcome to the future as we will see it.
Goodnight Peeps..
Nice talk!
Later GEF
Clif: I think all that is coming soon. Bush has the economy propped up but it won’t stay propped for long.
Good night GEF!
Larry and Clif:
Right now the future looks gloomy but I do think we can get a grip on things if Bush would go along with Congress on the troop with drawl guideline. It’s the war that is beating down America. Also, our jobs need to come back home to the good old USA!
S-q you DON”T get it, the war is for the OIL assets as the world tries to FIGHT each other for SHRINKING supplies, NOTHING will stop the collapse once the entire world knows the oil supplies are never going to grow, but shrink from now on.
Oil is the REAL capital in the worlds economy, since it is what has under written the greenback since Nixon took us off the gold standard.
Dollars Finance the economy, OIL drives it.
with No oil all the dollars mean squat.
Susie,
Ending the war would be a start. It is drain on the economy and now some of the Repugs are wanting to start the draft.
The Saudi’s have been producing and exporting less since 2005, Mexico is in decline, Brent and Norway ditto, Indonesia has gone from an exporter to importing oil.
Every year we need to find around 2 million barrels a day of NEW reserves to replace those which keep playing out, hence the soon to be decline in oil if the Saudi’s and the largest oil field on this planet is in decline.
NOTHING can replace Ghwar if it is in decline especially with Cantrell in Mexico off by 25% and Burgan in Kuwait down 20% and the North Sea and Brent past peak, not to mention Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.(which is why they want to drill Anwar so badly for the years worth of Oil there.
S-q you DON”T get it, the war is for the OIL assets as the world tries to FIGHT each other for SHRINKING supplies, NOTHING will stop the collapse once the entire world knows the oil supplies are never going to grow, but shrink from now on.
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Clif:
If I am understanding that correctly, you’re saying the war will never end? There will be war forever more because of the shrinking amount of oil??
Wars will be fought over the shrinking resources, especially when the national interests realize that who ever controls what OIL is left CONTROLS the entire planet.
WW2 was essentually a resource war, where both Germany and japan were fighting for resources they didn’t have internally, and they attacked places where those resources existed, especially OIL, Japan went after Indonesia and china for OIL and Coal, while Germany had to go after Romania and Russia for oil.
In the end the “winners” got the lions share of access to the resources for the next half century, and what is happening right now is the beginning of the next resource wars gambit for world domination.
WW2 was just the out growth of WW1 the empire war of Europe for world domination France and England won and kept their empires intact, Austria-Hungry and the Ottoman empire’s LOST and were broken up so they could not compete any more.
Germany lost it’s over seas empire and was shrunk back into borders it could not sustain under it’s rise of Hitler and his empire ambitions.
am now working on self generated electricity.
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Clif:
I just noticed that.. is it solar energy? I think more areas should go to solar, such as where I live.
Wars will be fought over the shrinking resources, especially when the national interests realize that who ever controls what OIL is left CONTROLS the entire planet.
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Clif:
Reminds me of that movie, “Dune”, where who controlled the ‘Spice’.. controlled the world!
A little, but I am more interested in wind energy at the moment.
especially here in KY
If you drive down Interstate 25 through Wyoming you will see wind mills strung all thoughout the state.
In some very similar ways, Dune is a good analogy, OIL is our spice for the moment.
However the “spice” was a renewable resource in Dune, Oil is a limited resource.
Our spice will get more and more scarce, and the war for it more intense, especially when the military is fighting just to supply itself.
In the end the oil will still run out but those who have dominated in the end will dominate the next era of the human race, whether we find a new energy resource to power our quest onward, or we fall back to an 19th century existence with some very modern networks like the Internet and computers, among things Oil won’t take away, the world will probably end up a small very rich and powerful minority with the rest of humanity working for them in a much lower living style.
Think of the end of the 19th century industrial and transportation base for the masses with a very small 21st century style elite ruling over them.
Larry I’m looking into a vertical turbine, instead of a large bladed windmill, smaller scale, and probably easier to use by a small group of people with out large machinery.
Clif I’ve seen those. The windmills in Wyoming are 3 bladed but must work as they are all over the state. Especially with those winter Wyoming winds.
Clif & Larry:
Our country has been too dependent and too wasteful with natural resources since the invention of the gasoline engine. Well, there were steam engines at one time.. and trains ran on coal but I do believe the auto industry was the beginning of the end for fossil fuels. Correct me if I am wrong, guys..
Our country needs to get other sources of energy ASAP but I am afraid it’s a little too late.. It should have happended 30-40 years ago, at least.
Larry it’s the size especially the height, which requires cranes and large machinery, I’d prefer a less machine intense solution to maintainence, and installation.
Also I’m looking into finding a generator and then working from there, right now I’m just working out what my real Kilo watt needs are, plus what the “peak kilowatt” need might be.
“It should have happened 30-40 years ago, at least.”
There was a man named James Earl Carter, he tried to warn us, but we preferred the fairy tales of a tired ex-actor named Ronnie Reagan.
Don’t know how many square feet you have but it should take that big of one.
Susie,
As long as big oil funnels money to politicians, I doubt they will look for alternate energy.
Until it is too late.
Larry it’s the conversion of Wind to kilo watts, and how much you need.
I’m still looking into efficiency’s and ease of maintenance, which will help me determine what I could handle.
Clif, do you know how to set all that up?
There was a man named James Earl Carter, he tried to warn us, but we preferred the fairy tales of a tired ex-actor named Ronnie Reagan.
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Clif:
Yep, fairy tales until reality sinks in and it’s here now!
Larry I ain’t got that far yet, still working out How exactly I use electricity, and what changes I might have to make if I produced my own.
That will lead me ti the size power unit I need and how I might emplace it, the tall bladed systems put me off because of the machinery I would need, but they might end up being what I need.
There is a lot to learn and I am just starting.
“Yep, fairy tales until reality sinks in and it’s here now!”
the reality based world will bite a whole lot of pseudo-christian reichwingers in the ass, and they will not be ready to deal with it unless they give up the neo-con inspired fairy tales, and start working for a more sustainable lifestyle.
The economy can’t last much longer with oil supplies dwindling, millions of jobs overseas, and Bush’s wars draining already borrowed funds.
Clif and Larry:
We all know the problems but what are your ideas for the answer to the economy, jobs, energy, etc.
1. Smaller localized economies based much more on real needs and less on Pet Rocks the latest plastic craze, and the idiotic advertising created perceived needs.
2. Energy, decentralized local production using wind solar power hydro and co-generation using waste heat from other uses like metals forging and purification, along with solar power created hydrogen, for some needed transportation sources, but mass transit especially RAIL using electricity, and NO air transport because of the fuel it wastes.
3. The economy has to turn from the centralized capital rules all to a more stabilized needs based economy.
Clif:
Excellent ideas and very realistic!
When you said, no air transport, do you mean cargo or passengers too?
NO AIR TRANSPORT, people or things, we need to understand how much basically diesel fuel is wasted in air transport for convenience.
Mass transit based in electrified railways would be a renewable way to move masses pf people but we would have to re-learn a different style of traveling. And living on this planet.
We also gotta stop burning diesel at 5 miles a gallon to truck ding dings and ho hos down the interstate, go back to rail traffic in most towns, and more local industrial work instead of shipping a drill half way around the planet, when somebody right here could make it.
Clif:
Sorry, I got tied up on the phone.
Yes, I agree with the rail.. it worked before and it would work again!!
Good night Clif and see ya tomorrow!
later s-q
Wow Suzie-Q! You weren’t kidding. 82 comments on this post! LOL Leave it to Larry to get the conversation started.
Wow! Can you say ECHO CHAMBER?