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How the U.S. Will Become a 3rd World Country (Part 1)

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Published : November 11th, 2011
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 The United States is increasingly similar to a 3rd world county in several ways and is accelerating towards 3rd world status. Economic data indicate a harsh reality that obviates mainstream political debate. The evidence suggests that, without fundamental reforms, the U.S. will become a post industrial neo-3rd-world country by 2032.


Fundamental characteristics that define a 3rd world country include high unemployment, lack of economic opportunity, low wages, widespread poverty, extreme concentration of wealth, unsustainable government debt, control of the government by international banks and multinational corporations, weak rule of law and counterproductive government policies. All of these characteristics are evident in the U.S. today.


Other factors include poor public health, nutrition and education, as well as lack of infrastructure. Public health and nutrition in the U.S., while below European standards, stand well above those of 3rd world countries. American public education now ranks behind poorer countries, like Estonia, but remains superior to that of 3rd world countries. While crumbling infrastructure can be seen in cities across America, the vast infrastructure of the United States cannot be compared to a 3rd world country. However, all of these factors will rapidly deteriorate in a declining economy.





Unemployment and Lack of Economic Opportunity


Unemployment, which is a deep, structural problem in the U.S., is a fundamental challenge to economic opportunity. The U.S. labor market is in a long-term downward trend linked to globalization, i.e., offshoring of manufacturing, outsourcing of jobs and deindustrialization.


The U.S. workforce has declined by approximately 6.5% since its year 2000 peak to roughly 58.2% of working age adults and the U.S. now suffers chronic unemployment of 9.1%. Although the workforce grew in the 1980s and 1990s, as dual income families became the norm, the size of the workforce is shrinking due to a lack of economic opportunity.






Officially, long-term unemployment is 16.5% and the ranks of the long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) include 5.9 million, 42.4% of those unemployed. However, prior to the Clinton administration, unemployment measures included workers who are now no longer counted as part of the workforce. Using the more accurate pre-Clinton criteria, unemployment exceeds 22%, only 3% below the worst point (24.9%) of the Great Depression. For countries with populations greater than 2 million, Macedonia leads the world with 33.8% unemployment, followed by Armenia at 28.6%, Algeria at 27.3% and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip both at 25.7%.



Compounding the unemployment problem is the fact that an entire generation of young Americans is being left behind in terms of economic opportunity. Student loans exceed $1 trillion while the labor force participation rate for those aged 16 to 29 who are working or looking for work fell to 48.8% in 2011, the lowest level ever recorded. Lack of economic opportunity among the youth, including millions of unemployed college graduates, is a political wildcard reminiscent of countries like Tunisia.


The structural decline of the U.S. labor market will continue as American workers are merged into a global labor pool in which they cannot yet directly compete for jobs with workers in countries like China and India. In China, for example, gross pay, in terms of purchasing power parity, is equivalent to approximately $514 per month, 57% below the U.S. poverty line. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. trade deficit with China alone caused a loss of 2.8 million U.S. jobs since 2001.


Falling Real Wages and Household Incomes


Workers earning more dollars are actually poorer in terms of purchasing power when the cost of living rises faster than wages,. In fact, if household income is adjusted for inflation, most American families have grown significantly poorer over the past ten years. In 2010, for example, real median household income fell 2.3%. Although the average wage has risen steadily in nominal terms, dwindling purchasing power is a reality for most Americans. When adjusted for inflation, the wages of most Americans have not kept up with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).



According to famed economist Milton Friedman, “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” In other words, prices rise when the money supply is increased faster than population or sustainable economic activity. Apparent economic growth created through credit expansion, i.e., by increasing the money supply, has a temporary stimulative effect but also causes prices to rise. True Money Supply is an accurate measure of inflation.



Although CPI is sufficient to illustrate declining real wages, CPI does not measure the cost of living in a realistic way. According to economist John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, CPI systematically understates inflation.



The decline in real household income has set Americans back to 1996 levels, despite many households now having two incomes rather than one. Dual income families accounted for much of the increase in real median household income during the 1980s and 1990s, but, today, two incomes are barely better than one income was three decades ago. The decline in real wages was obfuscated in the 1980s and 1990s by growth in the workforce, e.g., by women entering the workforce. Real median household income rose while real wages declined because more households had two incomes.



As U.S. wages and household income continue to fall in real terms, both poverty and reliance on government assistance programs will continue to rise.


Growing Poverty


According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate in the United States rose to 15.7% in 2011, with 47.8 million Americans living in poverty (1 in 6). The official poverty line, determined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is $22,314 for a family of four. The number of families living in poverty has risen sharply since 2006 and continues to climb.



The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as “food stamps,” serves 45.8 million households as of May 2011. The program now feeds 1 in 8 Americans and nearly 1 in 4 children.



Based on the outlook for employment and wages, both poverty and reliance on government assistance programs will continue to grow. However, the negative trends in employment, wages and poverty have not affected all Americans equally. In fact, the household income and wealth of the wealthiest Americans has increased sharply, despite the overall deterioration of the U.S. economy.


Increasing Concentration of Wealth


Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, warned that, “Ultimately, we are interested in the question of relative standards of living and … trends in the distribution of wealth, which, more fundamentally than earnings or income, represents a measure of the ability of households to consume.” In other words, concentration of wealth undermines the consumer base of the economy, causing GDP to decline and resulting in unemployment, which reduces living standards. Obviously, the total wealth of society is reduced when wealth is highly concentrated because there is a lower overall level of economic activity.


Economic data from several sources, including the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), show that wealth and income in the United States have become increasingly concentrated with the wealthiest 1% of Americans owning 38.2% of stock market assets, e.g., shares of businesses.



For the wealthiest 1% of Americans, household income tripled between 1979 and 2007 and has continued to increase while household wealth in the United States has fallen by $7.7 trillion. The Gini Coefficient illustrates the growing disparity in income distribution.



In terms of the Gini Coefficient, the United States is now at parity with China and will soon overtake Mexico, a still developing country. It should be noted, of course, that the U.S. remains a far wealthier country overall. If the current trend continues, however, the U.S. will resemble a 3rd world country, in terms of the disparity in income distribution, in approximately two decades, i.e., by 2032.


Welcome to the 3rd World


The United States is quickly becoming a post industrial neo-3rd-world country. Partly as a consequence of worsening unemployment and lack of economic opportunity, falling real wages and household incomes, growing poverty and increasing concentration of wealth, the U.S. government faces a historic fiscal crisis. Dominant corporate influence over the U.S. government, particularly by large banks, weakening rule of law at the federal level and destructive tax policies are compounding the economic problems facing the United States. Barring fundamental reforms or a hyperinflationary collapse of the U.S. dollar (due to the fiscal problems of the U.S. government), the deterioration of the U.S. economy will continue and accelerate. As the U.S. economy continues its decline, public health, nutrition and education, as well as the country’s infrastructure, will visibly deteriorate and the 3rd world status of the United States will become apparent.


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Why do writers keep referring back to Greenspan? His 'policies' have continually proven to be some of the major reasons why we are in this current disaster. His non-action spoke much louder than his action/response to the then looming catastrophe and, guess what? He got away scott-free. Scrupulously avoid investing your money with anyone who continues to hold him in high regard. Shovel him off to some very remote backwater and forget about his destructive advice and commentary.
NOTES FOR A STILL COGENT LEFT HOOK

Introduction

Nothing is worse than hearing people who voted for Obama bitch now about the quality of the bananas they so lusted after in the run-up and vote tally for the somehow preferred above all others, hue-man's election.

So, if a man is absent underlying morality and behaves like a hue-man, he should be dismissed as a man, eh.

Purple Strategies, lacking honor, what is in fact your business metric?

Also, what business rube president is nonetheless executing (not executoring) from and across the most fantastic deficit burgeoning spending in the history of civilization? Why that would be in 2011-12 none other than POTUS the Hue-man. More to the point - Has this man ever thrown a Cogent Left Hook?

-----------------------------
Main Body

Let all good people who would ovethrow the bum currently serving as 2011's Hue-Man POTUS comprehend his quintessential dumba down. It says with substance in the end only and as always just that 'you can fool some of the some time...' On the hand, in current instantiation as provided from 2011's Hue-Man POTUS, to accident it takes the form of the following observation when given ubiquity and made platform for political action - 'You can replace the word, hu-man, in the text above with the word, termite, without loss of semantic.' In contrast, where of ethics bankrupt (relative over relevant) academe then sniffs this to prestige via The Watership Heidegger (his Ideal as some such), ignoring the stench of shit smear('d) as they do.

Imperative - Jurisprudence that Empathy, you Law School dogs of war! Current POTUS doesn't hit with any power at all. He only demands for himself, the respect of the same - citing, I must have if I'm here. Can anyone recall his knockout punch? In utter exaspperation of the refereeing, Hilary Clinton knocked her own damn self out. Importantly, not once did Hue-Man utter, 'the Democratic Party Will Be Alright!' Mark that you Democrat fools. Similarly, war hero during war time McCain and in shame to this country given its currunt prospects regards those wars faired scantly better. To naysayers, it was some somehow separate and superior fiscal emphasis that Hue-man embraced as overriding war time concerns. Look at the finances, y'all.

Succinctly put - To all who have conceded so ignobly to 'just pharmacological' and away from some better older Wright, you shouldn't have. This older version, held like a watch in my arse for years in detention, is now just good bubblegum (under the supervision of my dentist). Hence, when Tarantino et al then scorn, see Hannah Arendt has spoken, well, they are the ones (in some new True Grit so the poorly chosen) who fabricated the recent history. Such does not culminate even the 'Afternoon Delight' fascism of Good Will Hunting or the same found more recently, Thor, by Stan Lee. And so they said of me (again), I was to be first bill entertainment at a party, which front and center disrespected my father?

Who are they? Some kind of 21st Century grand pusher? Some kind of Mr Han? Question, who was and still is the Hue-Man's help? In the face of the aforementioned, such can't be called either business friendly or business savvy. Indeed, with POTUS as Hue-Man Boy, then this crew must be but(t) hue-man chit'lins (of any political persuasion), teat sucking on the underlying perversity now informing the Hue-man Boy's party and hive.

Hey, worthless worm POTUS of 2011. You of vacuous morality, who in your 2006 book as anti Reagon (and for a time harder to take or comprehend, anti-Humphrey), hipped the material cause of other peoples' suffering, I just stepped on your head and ground your skull truly into the hard concrete. At the Xtreme 'American life ain't no game', even underwater, this move, second and third handers, is called - The Free For All. Some have also called it, The Open Season, or even, Defense of Liberty's Deadly Ground. None is some Grand Ultimate. Instead, in consequence of an even more fantastic restraint - the 'natural' rights of its citizens, if this free society is to retain its identity, as chartered it has to fight, and right now, and with the Tooth and Nail if need be, eh.

Everyone knows the terms of boxing; i.e., stick and move or rope a dope, etc. The discourse here is not enough for success. As with the Grand Ultimate, which is yet still more conservative, the power of a Still Cogent Left Hook comes from the waist made general as regards the hip. Any deviation from the gravity of that situation simply renders the strike inefffective. Waist is not waste but they're related by homonym. Waste while important is not generative of the power. It is the actual turn by the body politic in the face of more basic outrage that informs this blow. Confusion of symtom with efficient cause is snake oil lark. On the other hand overcommitment or excess in zeal exposes position to the 'Straight Right Hand.'

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Conclusion

As always if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Assign the rhetorical to business (and so the business of government) only as demonstrated in competition toward a fulfilling outcome; i.e., one that doesn't win the battle but lose the war or as with Change We Can Believe In actually pass up a dollar to pick up a dime marks the truth regards as rational, the necessary application of the metaphor, which likens politics and the sweet science. To all voters in the United States - the Hue Man must go. Obama must go. What will I say when Obama is gone and there is still profound inequity? How about, do I still have functioning teeth? That's number one. Number two, I buckle my shoe. The rest is simply the continued (our hallowed bruising) warfare inherent in the now restored American political process.

Hard lesson for young activists - If the older person (as opposed to the ancient one), who probably less involved now behaves like a kid and still somehow keeps getting in your way says otherwise, then he's hitting you. If he says he is, well then he is hitting you too. Both are his offense and defense. He earned them. Get so experienced. Claim your USA! USA! USA! Start by voting Hue-Man POTUS right the fuck out of office and into the ignomy and disgrace that awaits the man who plays poorly at being President of the United States. Your actions, your political thought executed in a vote to your civic (as opposed to for purchase) independence, speak louder than any of his so called soaring words. This current Hue-Man POTUS is only going to bankrupt your better remaining self.

The skinny - Older people (not the ancient ones) know this better than any now living. They will tell you that paying a money fronted man for a so called share in his 'it's us against them' that doesn't cover the cost of your own fire and teepee is no port in the storm. If you cry out that it can't get worse, here in this case, you are wrong - Current Hue-Man POTUS hurts everyone's opportunities. He has, is, and will continue to injury yours. You know this is true. Here comes the business as usual. Yet if it's true, why call everyone bitch just to serve it up? You'll never get that label from me. Don't confuse satire, which brushes against the truth for the main event. Don't accept the invitation from a clever man for you to join up by sitting on your own face, either, as truth. Only bluster is demeaning in this way. The Truth never is. Doesn't mean you can't get hurt. Just means some pains are better than others. Today's kid already knows the available field medicine.

Americans, Republicans and Democrats, sirs and madams - What is your Quality?
Latest comment posted for this article
Why do writers keep referring back to Greenspan? His 'policies' have continually proven to be some of the major reasons why we are in this current disaster. His non-action spoke much louder than his action/response to the then looming catastrophe and, gu  Read more
dennyc - 11/12/2011 at 4:40 PM GMT
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