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.
Functioning power after an EMP attack might stick out like a sore thumb.
The frightening thing about an EMP attach is the hundreds of millions of transformers and electrical sub stations that will be hard to replace with no infrastructure to repair them or make new ones. There isn’t a strategic reserve of them that we can just whip out new ones.
What would happen to nuclear plants I wonder? Hmm the controls don’t seem to be working...
“You may be correct...but, at this point, I’m preparing to be in the surviving 10%. (ahem) I suppose I could change my mind at any time though.”
In my case, I don’t think that I could get to that point...if you and some bunch of people are living quietly in the middle of nowhere after ‘it’ happens - people will check you out. If you fight them off, more people will check you out. If you fight them off...then even more. I couldn’t even defend my house - and I don’t have a compound.
But you may have a better situation.
It isn't the transformers that are such an issue - it's the newer control circuitry and relaying equipment associated with the operation of circuit breakers and metering that are the bigger concern. A lot of the older, rugged electromechanical equipment has been replaced by newer solid state equipment due to the reduced cost and increased precision and functionality. A panel of relays that would take a week or two to calibrate can be replaced by one or two electronic-based devices that take but a few hours to calibrate.
The downside to all this is that there is an increased vulnerability to EMP-type events. While these things aren't as fragile as, say, an IPod, they are certainly not as resistent to EMP events as the older devices that they replace.
When we first started changing out our electromechanical controls with electronic-based devices, we kept a redundent set of older relays and controls working alongside the newer ones. Once the newer ones proved their reliability, that policy ended and we now see many power substations and plants with a minimal amount of the older equipment.
I think that in the aftermath of an EMP event, we'd have many small pockets where power was available, but we'd also have many areas where there'd be no power for quite a long time. I don't think we have a large enough stockpile of the older stuff around to rebuild much of the grid's control system. In effect, we'd have many perfectly-functioning generators, transformers, circuit breakers, and such that could not be used because there'd be no means with which to control them.
This is somewhat speculative - I am in the industry and I have worked with much of this equipment, but it's hard to know the extent of damage that an EMP would cause without testing the theory. I don't want to do that!
bookmark
With the government money printing presses running full blast, with a substantial portion of our foodstuffs being diverted to ethanol production, with an attempt to crap and tax our energy sources, there seems little doubt that runaway inflation is going to make much of our planning ineffective.
Keep your powder dry
Sounds logical, at the present rate we're moving. I was thinking of the transition period as I have memories of how people acted before the hurricanes in Florida - a recurrent pattern.
XenaLee: “Which party do you represent? Really?”
I don’t represent a party. I only represent myself and the truth as I see it. President Bush was a good president in some ways. In many other ways, he was a bad president. He wasn’t nearly as bad as Obama, of course, but he certainly didn’t turn back the era of big government.
I found his compassionate conservatism to be just another form of liberalism. He didn’t want to reduce government so much as make it more efficient (a fool’s errand) and more citizen friendly. Rather than eliminate government charity, he sought to expand it further with his faith-based initiatives.
Using other people’s money for favored charities, such as billions for AIDS in Africa, is little different than what the leftists do. Had he used his power as president to ask for voluntary donations to a private fund to help Africans, I would have been inclined to support him. But he didn’t ask. He took, just like the left.
I could go on about how much government expanded under President Bush’s and a Republican majority in Congress, but why bother. If you can’t see the Republicans haven’t delivered on smaller government in any significant way, then there’s no explaining it to you.
It’s not that I’m a purist, BTW. That’s a common accusation. No. I just want Republicans to actually deliver smaller government like they promise. It doesn’t all have to be rolled back at once, but certainly it isn’t too much to expect them to cut or eliminate a few programs? I mean, really, they couldn’t even eliminate funding for NPR. And I reiterate that tax cuts with INCREASED spending are as irresponsible (if not more so) than tax increases with increased spending.
Gerald Celente, Trends Research Institute.
That was 25,000,000 when the population was 200,000,000.
Would be closer to 40,000,000 now.
Key quote: “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.”
No, depreciation makes the debt more expensive as the dollars are worth more. Inflation is what makes the debt cheaper, although .gov now sells some bonds indexed to inflation.
Imagine you bought a 45K house in the early 70’s. After the Carter years of 10-15% inflation you were paying back dimes on the dollar in the 80’s.
“our republic has been subverted”
I’ve always said that I don’t blame Pelosi, Reid, Kerry, Byrd, et al for being morons. I blame the people who voted for them.
bump
What did people THINK Barack Obama meant when he said that Americans were living too well and couldn’t continue to just set the thermostat at whatever they wanted, drive whatever vehicle they wanted wherever they wanted etc...
This was the CHANGE he swore he’d impose of the Ugly American.
save for later, I assume.
Just damn.
Speechless.
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