“The Middle and Working Class Manifesto” by Rev. Paul J. Bern.
Watch the video at http://youtu.be/VZguRDJmCqc
Chapter Eight; Apocalypse Soon?
This chapter will be the conclusion of the first half of this book,
“Explaining the Manifesto Part One: Stating the Problems”. In the first
half of this book, I have explained and documented certain basic facts
regarding the fate that awaits the entire US middle class if we don't
stand up as a united people and do something about our situation. I have
shown my dear readers that the US middle and working classes are
gradually being liquidated by the ultra-rich through a systematic
confiscation of wealth. It is the top 1% of those who hold somewhere
between 95% and 99% of all the wealth in this formerly great country,
and much of this wealth used to be squarely in the hip pocket of the
middle class. It is they who have out-sourced a large portion of middle
class jobs to the third world while leaving good hard-working Americans
out in the cold. It is the wealthy who are foreclosing on our homes and
throwing everything America owns into a pile sitting at the curb. It is
the wealthy who have looted our pension funds, who are driving our
health insurance costs through the roof, who have been pillaging the
Social Security coffers in Washington, and who are the paymasters for
all the lobbyists in Washington. It is the wealthy who have turned war
into a stalemate for profit as the infrastructure back home in America
crumbles to dust while our schools deteriorate. It is the wealthy who
have turned America into the world's largest arms merchant and flooded
the global market with every imaginable kind of gun that one could ever
hope to have, and often with no questions asked. It is the wealthy elite
who have more people behind bars than any other country in the world,
due in large part to the fiasco known as the “war on drugs” that has
been ongoing since the 1970's.
There can be no doubt that American society is coming apart at the
seams as a direct result of all the financial shenanigans that is going
on in Washington or on Wall Street. Here is a list of those signs as
posted on the Internet a couple of years ago. Since then, things have
only gotten worse. How much longer are we going to put up with this?
1)
The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an
unprecedented level. The U.S. already had the highest inequality of
wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since
the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the
top 1 percent, the gap between the top 1 percent and the remaining 99
percent of the U.S. population has grown to a record high.
2)
As the stock market recently went over the 23,000 mark, surging to an
all-time high, the three big banks that took taxpayer money and
benefited the most from the government bailout have just set a new
global economic record by issuing $70 billion in annual bonuses last
year. Bloomberg reported: “Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities
firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine
months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation
expenses.” Goldman Sachs is on pace for the best year in the firm’s
history, and it is also benefiting by only paying 1 percent in taxes.
3)
The profits of the economic elite are “now underwritten by taxpayers
with $23.7 trillion worth of national wealth." As the looting is
occurring at the top, the U.S. middle class is just beginning to
collapse.
4) Workers
between the ages of 55 to 60, who have worked for 20 to 29 years, have
lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time
period, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans went up by $30 billion,
bringing their total combined wealth to $1.57 trillion.
5)
Home foreclosure filings "hit a record high in the third quarter (of
2012)… They were the worst three months of all time… 937,840 homes
received a foreclosure letter" in this three-month period; “3.4 million
homes are expected to enter foreclosure by year’s end, with some experts
estimating that next year will be even worse.” President Obama has
enacted a $75 billion taxpayer funded program that has been a
spectacular failure in stemming the foreclosure crisis and has proven to
be another massive waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.
6)
25 million people are unemployed or underemployed. This means we have
25 million people who urgently need to increase their income, and
they’re quickly running out of options. The unemployment rate is
expected to rise further and remain high for several years. “The
president’s chief economic adviser warned that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay ‘unacceptably high’ for years to come."
The New York Times reports: "Americans now confront a job market that
is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects
are still getting worse. Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one,
the worst ratio since the government began tracking….” As this ratio
continues to grow, it will lead to a further reduction in wages --
average worker wages have seen a sharp decline over the past year.
Economist Nouriel Roubini, a man who accurately predicted our current
crisis, just reported on unemployment stating: “Think the worst is over?
Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening….
So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at
the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work
and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better
hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while.
The jobs just are not coming back.”
7)
As the few elite banks thrive, there have been 123 U.S. bank failures
thus far this year. Recently, three banks that the government declared
“healthy” and gave taxpayer money, have folded. The Wall Street Journal
reports: “U.S. regulators have seized or threatened at least 27 banks
that got capital infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program,
including some lenders government officials knew were troubled when they
awarded the money. The troubles put taxpayers at risk of losing as much
as $5.1 billion invested in the banks since TARP was launched in
October 2008.”
8)
As bankruptcies surge across the board, 10 U.S. states are on the verge
of bankruptcy, with several ready to declare a financial state of
emergency. California, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New
Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin are all “barreling toward
economic disaster, raising the likelihood of higher taxes, more
government layoffs and deep cuts in services."
9)
This is occurring at a time when the “federal budget deficit for the
fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars
greater than the year before." In total, "U.S. public debt topped
$12 trillion for the first time in history… The public debt topped $10
trillion back in September 2008. The debt is quickly approaching the
statutory limit of $21 trillion, meaning Congress would have to raise
the ceiling to prevent a shutdown of government operations."
Economist Dean Baker explains the risk of running such a large deficit: "The
debt limit must be increased at regular intervals in order to allow the
government to function normally because the government is currently
operating at a deficit. If the debt limit is not passed, then at some
point the government will not be able to pay workers and contractors. It
won’t be able to send out Social Security checks or make payments for
Medicaid and unemployment insurance to state governments. And, it will
not be able to make interest payments on government bonds, effectively
defaulting on the national debt." Needless to say, all of this will
make life drastically more difficult for American citizens. As the
middle class continues on the path of economic decline, the number of
citizens living in poverty has already hit an all-time high.
10)
Although the government’s official figure tries to low-ball the number,
47.4 million U.S. citizens live in poverty, and the U.S. poverty rate
is the highest in the industrialized world. Predictably, homelessness is
rising at an increased rate as well. The U.S. government does not tally
the numbers but interested organizations say that more than 3 million
people were homeless at some point over the past year. The fastest
growing segment of the homeless population is families with children.
Children have been hit especially hard by the economic crisis.
11)
50 percent of U.S. children, one out of every two children, will need
to use food stamps to eat. One out of every two children in the United
States of America will need to use food stamps… to EAT!
If you didn’t think starvation was a serious threat in the U.S., just read this new Washington Post report: “The
nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who
lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping
track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50
million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last
year to get enough to eat…” Several independent advocates and policy
experts on hunger said that they had been bracing for the latest report
to show deepening shortages, but that they were nevertheless astonished
by how much the problem has worsened. 'This is unthinkable. It’s like
we are living in a Third World country,' said Vicki Escarra, president
of Feeding America."
The United States Department of Agriculture released these findings in a
study that was completed back in December 2008, which means these
numbers don’t take into account the millions more unemployed throughout
2009-2012. The numbers of people living in poverty and struggling to eat
has seen a significant increase since then. This a national tragedy.
But it gets much worse.
12) In 2008, according to the Census Bureau, the number of U.S. citizens without health care grew to a record 46.3 million. “The new
figures, however, understate the severity of the economic downturn
because a large portion of the nation’s job losses and unemployment rate
increases occurred after the Census survey data was collected in March
as part of the annual Current Population Survey." And now President Trump and his conservative friends want to end Obama-care too? This is completely nuts!
13)
Lack of health insurance has caused 45,000 preventable U.S. citizen
deaths in the past year. The American Journal of Medicine recently
released a study that stated, “Nearly two out of three bankruptcies stem
from medical bills, and even people with health insurance face
financial disaster if they experience a serious illness.”
A 3-year-old Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study reported that 17,000
children have died due to lack of health care. You can also add in a
recent report that revealed that 2,266 U.S. veterans have died in 2008
due to lack of insurance. The 30 million now uninsured and the 45,000
preventable deaths per year statistics are expected to drastically rise
over the next few years. As the Senate continues to strip meaningful
amendments from a health care bill that wouldn’t even take effect until
2018, it has become clear that, despite the media hype, the health care
bill is going to fall far short of meaningful reform and continue to rig
the game in favor of large insurance company profits at the expense of
the U.S. population. With the highest cost healthcare in the world,
current trends will continue and much needed change is not on the
horizon.
Never before has the United States had so many citizens with so little
means, little to no income and heavy debt. Debt and costs of living have
now shackled U.S. citizens just as they have shackled people throughout
the world. The economic hit men have now hit the United States as well
and millions of American citizens are now effectively sentenced to a
slow death. Economic Imperial blow-back has hit the mainland. And the
clock is ticking louder by the day…
14)
The gun and ammunition manufacturing industry in the United States has
over 200 companies producing billions of dollars in annual revenues.
This huge manufacturing base cannot fulfill demand quickly enough. The
demand for guns and ammunition has hit a record high and the gun
industry cannot produce enough bullets to keep up with orders. Americans
are arming themselves to the teeth!
15)
In the past year, 100 new armed militia groups have been formed, as
militia members have doubled in numbers. Federal authorities are gravely
concerned about the “uptick in militia activities." One federal
authority recently said, “All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s only
a matter of time before you see threats and violence." So let’s break
down these numbers.
You have a population of 50 million people who are in desperate need of
money, they most likely have no health insurance and can’t afford to
get health care or help of any kind. Part of this population probably
also has loved ones who can’t get life sustaining medical treatments, or
loved ones who have already died due to lack of costly medical
treatment. The clock is ticking loud for these people and they are
running out of options fast, and time delayed is time closer to death.
While the richest 1 percent have never had it so good, a significant
percentage of the U.S. population now has firsthand experience in this.
Millions upon millions of Americans are poor, broke, struggling,
starving, desperate… and armed. We are sitting on a powder keg! We are
now witnessing the critical unraveling of U.S. society.
The unraveling of American society is not the only thing that's going
on. The US dollar has been the standard world currency since the end of
World War Two. However, there are increasing signs that the dollar's
status as the world's chief form of currency is being challenged....
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Watch the video at http://youtu.be/VZguRDJmCqc
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