Posted on 04/25/2010 3:51:15 PM PDT by blam
Growing Anger At Collapse Of U.S.A. Standard Of
Living Politics / US Politics
Apr 25, 2010 - 07:03 AM
By: Global Research
Hiram Lee writes: A series of recent studies conducted by the Pew Research Center shed new light on the scope of the economic crisis in the US and the level of hostility the majority of the American population holds for the US government.
Released in March, before the passage of the Obama administration’s health care legislation, a survey entitled “Health Care Reform—Can’t Live With It, or Without It” indicates that 92 percent of Americans give the national economy a negative rating. No fewer than 70 percent of the respondents report having suffered job-related and financial problems in the past year, an increase from 59 percent the year before. Fifty-four percent report someone in their home has been without a job and looking for work in the past year, up from 39 percent in 2009.
The poll saw an aggravation of conditions in every area of economic life studied the year before. Increasing numbers of people are reporting difficulty receiving or affording medical care (26 percent) or paying their rent or mortgage payments (24 percent). More Americans faced problems with collections and credit agencies (21 percent), or had mortgages, loans or credit card applications denied (19 percent).
As could be expected, the poorest Americans are suffering the most. Some 44 percent of those making $30,000 per year or less report difficulty obtaining medical care, compared to 11 percent of those making $75,000 per year or more. A similar gap can be found in the category of rents and mortgages, with 37 percent of those making $30,000 or less reporting difficulty making rent or mortgage payments, compared to 11 percent of those making $75,000 or more. However, the percentage of those facing difficulties paying rent has increased dramatically for both groups since 2009.
Large numbers of workers polled in the study say they have little confidence in job security and prospects for the future, with almost half (49 percent) saying it is “very or somewhat likely” they will suffer “job-related financial stress” in the next year. Twenty-five percent of workers say they expect to be forced to take a pay cut this year, while 24 percent expect to be laid off.
The Pew survey found that 85 percent of Americans reported difficulty finding jobs in their communities. This and other statistics revealing the increasingly dismal employment opportunities facing millions of Americans are provided context in another study released this month by the Pew Economic Policy Group.
“A Year or More: The High Cost of Long-Term Unemployment” reports that no fewer than 44 percent of unemployed Americans met or exceeded the standard measure of long-term unemployment (six months or more) in March 2010. This marks the highest rate for long-term unemployment levels since World War II.
In addition to this, the Pew study reports that “23 percent of the nearly 15 million Americans who are unemployed have been jobless for a year or more.” This translates to 3.4 million people, “roughly equivalent,” the study points out, “to the population of the state of Connecticut.”
These alarming numbers should be considered along with findings in another recent Pew research study entitled “The People and Their Government,” released April 18. This report finds that “by almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.”
Only 22 percent of Americans say their government can be trusted, according to the new survey. The report puts this among the lowest measures of trust in the government in half a century.
The study also shows across-the-board declines in approval ratings for numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Education, the Food and Drug Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Forty-three percent say the government has a negative effect on their daily life, up from 31 percent in 1997.
While approval ratings for the government are remarkably low, with 65 percent saying the federal government and congress have a negative impact “on the way things are going in the country,” the approval ratings for other major institutions are as low or lower. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed say banks and other financial institutions have a negative impact on the way things are going in the country, while 64 percent say “large corporations” have a negative impact. Some 57 percent say the national news media has a negative impact, while 49 percent say labor unions have such an impact.
The report states that “more than six-in-ten (62%) say it is a major problem that government policies unfairly benefit some groups while nearly as many (56%) say that government does not do enough to help average Americans.”
Taken as a whole, the Pew studies from March and April offer additional insight into the growing social misery under conditions of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the outrage it is generating.
Wide layers of the population, who have seen trillions of dollars funneled from the public treasury into the coffers of Wall Street executives while their own living standards have been assaulted, their jobs slashed, their children’s schools closed, and vital social programs such as Medicare cut by billions of dollars, have no faith in the US government to secure their most basic social needs.
The corporate-controlled news media, along with the major institutions overseeing the nation’s educational needs and basic food and medical resources, are considered corrupt and untrustworthy, contributing to the suffering of millions.
President Barack Obama, continuing to pose as a populist man of the people when he finds it necessary or beneficial, stands exposed as the chief representative of the interests of the American ruling elite and the standard bearer in the assault on the working class.
The restructuring of society taking place, in the direct interests of the corporate-financial elite and at the expense of the working population, is not occurring unnoticed. The American and international working class will inevitably find itself drawn into struggle against the present, untenable form of social organization.
Thanks blam. Wow, that’s not good. We’d be in a “Mad Max” situation.
I'm not positive, but I think that some very old vehicles, including planes, just might survive, if they are pre-integrated circuit/transistor. (Cars with contact point ignition for example).
Lot of people in upper middle class neighborhoods are school teachers and other government employees. Go see all the upper neighborhoods near Washington. D.C.
New York Times best selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real...a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages...A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP).
A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies. Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second.
It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future...and our end.
Please tell me she was kidding. . .
Yes...you are correct. My 1979 hurricane generator falls into that category and should survive.
I'm looking at grounded 55 gallon drums to store electronic goods.
My guess is that people with money/land will hire out sharecroppers to convert their lawns into gardens. We can feed a lot of people on 30% of our national lawn acreage.
Of course, the government was talking about razing 30,000 houses in Detroit. This is exactly where the idea won’t work. Too expensive to hire armed guards over the hen house.
Not pretty. I suppose some who are prepared for long term survival would make it. for the rest, it would be very bad.
AAAGGGHHH....I read it a few months ago....I’m trying to FORGET about it (not really...just trying to not make it the focus of my life...LOL)
AWESOME
I read somewhere that she is...apparently there are other videos by her too.
Yup.
He's skinny because he smokes and drinks too much and therefore can't regulate his body temperature.
His lips are blue because of poor circulation also.
He has a lot of gay men's problems.
The internet is your friend. A faraday cage is a metal wiring (the outside of old cars is an example, but it doesn't have to be solid steel, wire mesh like chicken wire is as good) that prevents a nuclear blast from frying the electronics. The old Amiga computer had all of its electronics encased in metal (except the monitor).
But since an EMP would fry most newer cars (plastic does not a faraday cage make), and much electrical equipment (imagine a national power outage that goes on for three years, minimum), any place that did not have a local supply of food and water (Los Angeles, as an easy example) would, in less than three weeks, would be home to a lot of ex-people.
LA has 1-2 weeks of food, but with no electricity, some of it would spoil quickly, and maybe 1-2 weeks of water. Week three is when it hits the fan. Can't evacuate, as cars would block the highways, plus no electricity to power the gas pumps. Would possibly hit the fan from day one, as looting leads to fires that can't be fought. I figure 70% to 98% casualties (dead) by 60 day mark.
Small towns with farms and local water fare much better than this, until winter hits. Then you have thousands sleeping in high school gyms, as the body heat keeps people alive until spring. If our power grid were faraday caged, might recover in time to extract a very painful revenge on the perps, if identified.
Of course, it is possible that other countries would send aid. But wouldn't bet my life on it happening.
You know, it seems like that should work, but keep in mind that true Faraday Cages use conductive mesh. I would be willing to bet that the mesh is much more expensive than sheet metal. Maybe an Electrical or Electronic Engineer can tell you for sure.
BFL
Pot makes your lips dark, according to a black woman on You Tube. I downloaded the video, will have to find the link.
Remember in November!
Look that poison has been festering for a long time,whatever you see however you feel.
Don’t try to let it get you down...........if you have faith in god or whatever path you walk-you will make it through this.
At the end of the day,all these people did was overreach too soon and too fast.Even President Obama can understand this at least better then the idiots raving they’re going to pass Amnesty.
But yeah those liberal yahoos who pretend they are in total control,they’re going to be completely screwed.
This Euro style sustainable living. You take a crowded bus or train to work, if you work. You walk to the grocery store and pay as much as you do now for a weeks worth of groceries for what you can carry home. It's the world they want for us. Many Europeans have already accepted it.
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