– 17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine (Economic Collapse, April 29, 2014):
No, the economy is most definitely not “recovering”. Despite what you may hear from the politicians and from the mainstream media, the truth is that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than it was prior to the last recession. In fact, we are still pretty much where we were at when the last recession finally ended. When the financial crisis of 2008 struck, it took us down to a much lower level economically. Thankfully, things have at least stabilized at this much lower level. For example, the percentage of working age Americans that are employed has stayed remarkably flat for the past four years. We should be grateful that things have not continued to get even worse. It is almost as if someone has hit the “pause button” on the U.S. economy. But things are definitely not getting better, and there are a whole host of signs that this bubble of false stability will soon come to an end and that our economic decline will accelerate once again.
The following are 17 facts to show to anyone that believes that the U.S. economy is just fine:
#1 The homeownership rate in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.#2 Consumer spending for durable goods has dropped by 3.23 percent since November. This is a clear sign that an economic slowdown is ahead.
#3 Major retailers are closing stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#4 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed. That means that one out of every five families in the entire country is completely unemployed.
#5 There are 1.3 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than when the last recession began in December 2007. Meanwhile, our population has continued to grow steadily since that time.
#6 According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project, the quality of the jobs that have been “created” since the end of the last recession does not match the quality of the jobs lost during the last recession…
- Lower-wage industries constituted 22 percent of recession losses, but 44 percent of recovery growth.
- Mid-wage industries constituted 37 percent of recession losses, but only 26 percent of recovery growth.
- Higher-wage industries constituted 41 percent of recession losses, and 30 percent of recovery growth.
#7 After adjusting for inflation, men who work full-time in America today make less money than men who worked full-time in America 40 years ago.
#8 It is hard to believe, but 62 percent of all Americans make $20 or less an hour at this point.
#9 Nine of the top ten occupations in the U.S. pay an average wage of less than $35,000 a year.
#10 The middle class in Canada now makes more money than the middle class in the United States does.
#11 According to one recent study, 40 percent of all Americans could not come up with $2000 right now even if there was a major emergency.
#12 Less than one out of every four Americans has enough money put away to cover six months of expenses if there was a job loss or major emergency.
#13 An astounding 56 percent of all Americans have subprime credit in 2014.
#14 As I wrote about the other day, there are now 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity.
#15 Ten years ago, the number of women in the U.S. that had jobs outnumbered the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps by more than a 2 to 1 margin. But now the number of women in the U.S. on food stamps actually exceeds the number of women that have jobs.
#16 69 percent of the federal budget is spent either on entitlements or on welfare programs.
#17 The number of Americans receiving benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million.
Taken individually, those numbers are quite remarkable.
Taken collectively, they are absolutely breathtaking.
Yes, things have been improving for the wealthy for the last several years. The stock market has soared to new record highs and real estate prices in the Hamptons have skyrocketed to unprecedented heights.
But that is not the real economy. In the real economy, the middle class is being squeezed out of existence. The quality of our jobs is declining and prices just keep rising. This reality was reflected quite well in a comment that one of my readers left on one of my recent articles…
It is getting worse each passing month. The food bank I help out, has barely squeaked by the last 3 months. Donors are having to pull back, to take care of their own families. Wages down, prices up, simple math tells you we can not hold out much longer. Things are going up so fast, you have to adopt a new way of thinking. Example I just had to put new tires on my truck. Normally I would have tried to get by to next winter. But with the way prices are moving, I decide to get them while I could still afford them. It is the same way with food. I see nothing that will stop the upward trend for quite a while. So if you have a little money, and the space, buy it while you can afford it. And never forget, there will be some people worse off than you. Help them if you can.
And the false stock bubble that the wealthy are enjoying right now will not last that much longer. It is an artificial bubble that has been pumped up by unprecedented money printing by the Federal Reserve, and like all bubbles that the Fed creates, it will eventually burst.
None of the long-term trends that are systematically destroying our economy have been addressed, and none of our major economic problems have been fixed. In fact, as I showed in this recent article, we are actually in far worse shape than we were just prior to the last major financial crisis.
Let us hope that this current bubble of false stability lasts for as long as possible.
That is what I am hoping for.
But let us not be deceived into thinking that it is permanent.
It will soon burst, and then the real pain will begin.
Great article! I did some research for a nonprofit a while back, and found that an average of 20% of American households (some states were @18%, many were at 22% plus) suffer food insecurity some time during each month. In the meantime, congress keeps cutting food stamps. It is like our corrupt leaders are at war with us. He said 49 million, that is about right.
I am not surprised 62% of all workers make $20 or less an hour…..when I see the wage levels of people coming out of college with full 4 year degrees, it is shocking, and many are not making close to $20.00 an hour & have to wait six months for medical coverage. This is after many months of sending out resumes and dedicated job searches.
When I graduated from college in 1979, I had a job within a month, my first month, I billed $18K, and earned 35% of that…….there are no jobs like I had any longer. Medical insurance was provided within the first month.
I ended up leaving, one of the managers decided to open his own firm, and I went with him, and in time became a partner. It was a good life, and earnings (even in the lean years) were decent.
I ended up doing research for others who worked in my industry, finally went to work on site as a fully retained worker, and my earnings were outstanding. Today, if anyone could find such a job, they are lucky to bill $25.00 an hour. The entire industry has been destroyed by the global economy.
There is no hope, and for me, that is the tragedy. I look at our young people, and wonder what is in store for them. Looking at Fukushima, I am only glad I won’t be here to see it.
56% of all Americans have subprime credit. That is no surprise considering the millions of foreclosures, as jobs continue to melt away at better than a million a month, and wages continue to fall. Also, the trick of a Visa card account dinging someone who was late on a Macy’s card has made it much worse. The idea they can do that is an outrage. Credit has become very user unfriendly, and I now avoid it like the plague. If I want something, I buy it, or wait until I can afford it. I am not putting my life in the hands of these rapacious greedy guts.
I wonder what percentage of our annual GDP is spent on the President, Vice President and the entire congress’ vacations and expense accounts, including the free new vehicles every year.
The stock market is a sham. 85% of all transactions are high frequency skim and sell by greedy guts who buy and sell huge amounts of securities in less time than one blinks an eye. That is pure market pumping, and they drain money out every transaction, not one cent is left in the market.
Only 15% of the market is genuine, made up of investors who buy stock for all the old fashioned reasons. We have no way to know how much they buy on margin……so even their numbers are suspect.
The fact the world has moved away from the US is the greatest loss of all. The arrogant, overbearing and heavy handed behavior of our leaders towards other nations, and their own people tells me we are on life support right now. Everything we ever supposedly stood for is gone, and we have total idiots in power.
God help us. Nobody else can.
Still the US middle class suffer OSTRICHITIS!
Marilyn,
I’ve been studying it all as well, though from a practical level. The people I know are what I call ‘bottom feeders’.
I believe in the future, those that cannot get either professional employment or as clones of a globalcorp, will retrench to bottom feeder status, self employed, time served skilled, traders, dealers, small scale manufacturers etc to meet demand.
Mankind will always re-organise. Of course this does not take into account WWlll, Fukushima or Hanford, and is purely optimistic.
Can’t beat a dreamer…..it’s a much nicer world.
To Squodgy: The US tax system has always been against the self employed, often made up of the dreamers you say make a better world. Every year it gets harder for them. The US dislikes self-employed because they have more say over the money they earn, nobody withholds it. True, they have to pay in quarterly, but they want to control all money. This is why they are seeking a moneyless system.
Without these people, many inventions, such as the telephone, the cherry picker (I knew the man who invented it, he dropped out of high school, his teachers disliked him because all he wanted to do was engineering and design.) and many other great inventions.
It takes a special drive to start a new business or nonprofit, and the corporate clones who are thrown out of their jobs can never touch such things, they have no inventing abilities, or drive……both are needed for the dreamers to succeed.
Personally, I think we are in deep trouble. Not just because the world economy is hundreds of trillions under water in each nation……the entire world GDP per annum averages (using their numbers which are probably inflated) $50-65 trillion.
The debt that is out there today can never be met. The air we breathe is becoming a problem as our oceans die…..80% of our oxygen comes from the living oceans.
Cutting down all the trees doesn’t help, either, trees bring rain and breed oxygen. But, the greedy guts don’t care.
Add in Hanford and Fukushima, and we are facing our own extinction.
I used to be a dreamer, some called me a visionary. Today, friends see me as a visionary because my predictions often become reality. I warned everyone about the crash of 2007-08, but I am hoping I am wrong this time. I have never wanted to be wrong any more in my life than I am today. I see no hope for humanity. We have criminals in charge, and they don’t care if we survive or not so long as they can keep grabbing.
In all my life, I have never seen such mindless things enacted into law regardless they will destroy our air, soil, water supplies and our entire planet. I was never radical, I was considered a moderate. I believed logic and reason were essential in governing.
But, our founders made a big mistake setting up a republic. People are not created equal, and most ended up too lazy to pay attention or vote. As a result, the criminals got into power, and thanks to the fool in the white house today, all our civil rights (even habeas corpus, a right of man since 1215 has been destroyed) are gone. The idea people can rule is a joke, nothing good ever came out of gaggles of fools.
It is no accident history has been made by men, not groups of idiots such as the US has now. This nonsense against Putin is one example, and if the US is stupid enough to wage war against him, they will lose.
Here, on the west coast of the Americas, we are all doomed thanks to Fukushima at the west, Hanford at the north, New Mexico at the east, San Diego at the south…..we are surrounded by nuclear accidents that cannot be stopped.
Dream all you can, I have nothing left to dream about…..in my opinion, mankind is in deep denial. Facing one’s own extinction is tough, but I wish we had a government such as was shown in the movie “On the Beach” in 1959. The government in the movie (about a post nuclear war) was organized enough to give the people pills so they could die easily. The fools we have today can’t pass a jobs bill, let alone pills for something so radical.