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The middle class in the United States is being systematically destroyed, and nobody is doing much of anything to stop it. Our incomes are shrinking, our share of the income pie is at an all-time low, our jobs are being sent overseas, debt burdens have soared to unprecedented heights and millions of formerly middle class Americans have fallen into poverty. America once had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen, but now it is rapidly being shredded. Unfortunately, this is particularly true for younger Americans. Today, families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent. That is astounding. The truth is that there are not enough decent jobs for the hordes of young people that are entering the marketplace each year. Once upon a time, a college degree was just about a guaranteed ticket to the middle class, but in 2011 more than half of all college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed (Read More....) [...]
 While most of America is suffering through one the worst economic downturns in U.S. history, the Obamas are living the high life at your expense. During 2011, U.S. taxpayers spent an astounding 1.4 billion dollars on the Obamas. Meanwhile, British taxpayers only spent 57.8 million dollars on the entire royal family. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture? So where did the 1.4 billion dollars go? That money paid the salaries of their staff members, it paid for their transportation and housing costs, it paid for entertainment and vacations for the Obamas, and $102,000 was even spent on a “dog handler” for the family dog Bo. In his new book entitled “Presidential Perks Gone Royal: Your Taxes Are Being Used For Obama’s Re-election“, author Robert Keith Gray reveals some absolutely shocking details about the enormous amounts of U.S. (Read More....)
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What is the number one job of the U.S. government? Well, at this point the federal government in spending more time and money on redistributing wealth than it is on anything else. In fiscal year 2012, 62 percent of the federal budget will be spent on entitlements. How much farther do we have to go until everyone finally admits that we have become a socialist nation? Our government has become the largest engine of wealth redistribution in the history of the world, and the redistribution of wealth has greatly accelerated during the presidency of Barack Obama. Yes, wealth redistribution as a share of the economy also grew under George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, but Barack Obama has taken things to an entirely new level. Back when Ronald Reagan took office, less than 30 percent of all Americans lived in a home where at least one person was receiving government benefits. Today, an all-time record 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives government (Read More....) [...]
What in the world have we done to our kids? If you spend much time with them, you quickly realize that the next generation of Americans is woefully unprepared to deal with the real world. They are overweight, lazy, undisciplined, disrespectful, disobedient to their parents, selfish, self-centered, and completely addicted to entertainment. And that is just for starters. We feed them insane amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup and then when they become overactive we pump them full of prescription drugs to calm them down. Instead of raising our children ourselves, we allow the government schools and the entertainment industry to do it. By the time they reach the age of 18, they have spent far more time with their teachers, their video games and the television than they have spent with us. Our young people are #1 in a lot of global categories, but almost all of them are bad. Young people in the United States are more obese than anyone else in the world, more sexually active than anyone else in the world and they become pregnant more often than anyone else in the world. Of course it probably doesn’t help that we have the highest divorce rate in the world either. Our families are a complete and total mess and it is our kids (Read More....) [...]
If a major economic crisis hit us right now, the vast majority of Americans would be extremely vulnerable. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 40 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck all of the time, and 77 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time. This is why there was such a problem with foreclosures during the last recession. When millions of Americans suddenly lost their jobs many of them quickly found that they were unable to pay their mortgages because they had no financial cushions. For decades, Americans have been trained that it is okay to get into debt up to their eyeballs and live paycheck to paycheck because times will always be good and jobs will always be easy to get. Unfortunately, times have changed and many Americans do not realize that what has worked in the past is not going to work any longer. Our economy is completely and totally falling apart, and economic success is no longer defined by whoever is able (Read More....) [...]
Guess who is going to need a bailout right after Spain? The Italian economy is the 8th largest economy on the entire planet and right now it is being absolutely overwhelmed by a tsunami of debt. In an attempt to address this problem, Italy is going down the exact same path that Greece, Portugal and Spain have gone. And so far, we are seeing the exact same results that we have seen in those other countries. Austerity causes economic growth to slow down, and that causes unemployment to soar. When unemployment rises, tax revenues go down and you end up missing your original deficit reduction targets so you have to implement even more austerity measures. It is a vicious cycle that we have seen play out again and again in Greece over the past five years. But unlike Greece, Italy is way too large to be completely bailed out. The truth is that there are only 7 economies on the entire globe that are larger than the Italian economy. Plus, keep in mind that the 12th largest economy in the world, Spain, is also on the verge of formally requesting a bailout. (Read More....) [...]
 ****Today we have a guest post by Barbara Fix. She is an outstanding writer and I think that you are really going to enjoy what she has to share with us below. We encourage everyone to visit Barbara at the Survival Diva Blog http://www.survivaldiva.com/.****
Many of us have dreams of buying a cabin or a home on acreage, but if you haven’t been able to afford your dream property, take heart. There may be factors you are unaware of.
Get Your Land For Free!
Yes, you heard right! Places like Beatrice, Nebraska: Curtis, Nebraska: Marne, Iowa; and rural land dotted throughout Kansas are being offered for free in an attempt to infuse sagging populations. If you are not shy of open spaces with few amenities, and you are willing to pre-qualify for a home loan, or build a home within a certain time-frame, it’s time to do an Internet search to see what’s available.
It’s likely this trend will continue as small towns seek to draw new blood. So, what’s the catch? With each new student, these struggling communities receive increased revenue from the government for schools. They also stand to increase (Read More....) [...]
 We’re entering into a phase of American society that is undoubtedly going to be rather tumultuous and interesting. There are big changes in the works that take years to materialize, but the impact of them will be nothing short of massive. I’m going to attempt to outline some of these major developments.
The area I’m discussing here is mostly financial but the ramifications spread outside the realm of finances. We’re going to start with demographics. In America and other developed countries, we have a bit of a conundrum as aged workers enter the latter years of their life where they have had embedded expectations for some time that they will enjoy a nice retirement full of golf and cruises. The problem, of course, is that almost all that are planning to retire are broke or near broke.
Further weakening the situation is the fact that many of these potential retirees were planning on using their homes as a means to retire. As a housing bubble materialized in the mid 2000’s, these same people doubled down on this idea, took on more debt, and tried to hit a home run in the wealth department by leveraging up on the skyrocketing home values. We all know how that ended, and many of these folks that participated are now worse off years later as a result of a housing bust.
While using your primary residence as a retirement funding vehicle is probably silly in the first place, (Read More....) [...]
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