While the general population is aware something is seriously wrong, people remain extremely confused about the root of the problem. This is because what’s happening all around us isn’t socialism and it isn’t free market capitalism. It is actually a return to something much more ancient and much more oppressive. It is a return to serfdom, neo-fedualism and oligarchy.
Attempting to explain this reality to people is the primary focus of my life at the moment. It’s incredibly difficult to do, because stories spun by mainstream media and other vested interests convince the gullible population to fight amongst themselves in petty, meaningless narratives.
That said, some days are easier than others when it comes to highlighting the clear and negative impacts of the trends currently afflicting American life and the world at large. One such day occurred a couple of weeks ago when I penned the post: Child Poverty Jumps by 2.6 Million in Developed World Since 2008, While Number of Global Billionaires Doubles.
Today is another one of those days, with two articles coming across my screen proving once again that what is happening isn’t a recovery; it is oligarch theft.
First, we learn from the Boston Globe that:
The poverty rate in Massachusetts is the highest it’s been since 1960. The inflation-adjusted wages of the lowest-paid workers haven’t budged in decades. Income inequality in the state has become greater than in the nation as a whole.
A report out Monday by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center details the plight of the poor since President Johnson declared a war on poverty 50 years ago. The report’s findings were at the center of a symposium held Monday in Boston to take stock of Johnson’s “Great Society” initiatives and to unite social service agencies, government officials, academic researchers, and others to set a new agenda for addressing poverty.
US wages and productivity increased in tandem from 1948 into the mid-1970s, according to the report. Since then, workers’ earnings have flat-lined even as productivity has climbed. In Massachusetts, productivity more than doubled between 1979 and 2012, adjusted for inflation, but the median income climbed just 18 percent.
At the same time, wages for the top 1 percent of earners skyrocketed. If wages across all income levels had grown equally, workers in the bottom 80 percent would be earning around $10,000 more a year, while the 1 percent would be earning almost $1 million less.
The poverty threshold is less than $19,000 a year for a family of three in Massachusetts. When the “near poor” — those with incomes twice the poverty rate — are included, one in four Massachusetts residents are considered to be in need.
Without programs such as food stamps and the earned income tax credit, the poverty rate would rise to nearly 27 percent.
This poverty measure shows how much public benefit programs have helped residents, Berger said, presenting “a clearer vision of what’s actually happening.”
The above statement about how public benefits are helping residents is another part of the problem. I have argued time and time again that food stamps and other forms of “public assistance” are actually corporate welfare (see: McDonald’s Math: You Can’t Survive Working for Us). They allow corporations to not pay their employees a living wage, and instead have taxpayers pay the difference, thus subsidizing record corporate profit margins. It basically allows the following “chart of neo-feudalism” to evolve:
In case all that isn’t enough to get you excited about the recovery, the Washington Post reported earlier today that child homelessness in the USA is hitting record levels. We learn that:
SAN FRANCISCO — The number of homeless children in the United States has surged in recent years to an all-time high, amounting to one child in every 30, according to a comprehensive state-by-state report that blames the nation’s high poverty rate, the lack of affordable housing and the effects of pervasive domestic violence.
Titled “America’s Youngest Outcasts,” the report being issued Monday by the National Center on Family Homelessness calculates that nearly 2.5 million American children were homeless at some point in 2013. The number is based on the Education Department’s latest count of 1.3 million homeless children in public schools, supplemented by estimates of homeless preschool children not counted by the agency.
The problem is particularly severe in California, which has about one-eighth of the U.S. population but accounts for more than one-fifth of the homeless children, totaling nearly 527,000.
Ah California, ground zero of the American tech billionaire assembly line. Where VCs bleed cash with reckless abandon and children sleep in closets.
Meanwhile, at the G-20 meeting:
USA! USA!
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Michael, do you know what a grunch is?
Michale is not a Grunch, he is a watchman on the wall warning all who will listen, and shame is, not many do, their ears and eyes are full of sand.
You are about to lose all your savings and all control of your human capital – the chips are soon, already planned and provided for, so too the cashless society – it will happen so quickly it will make your head spin.
Have a good long look at the bank bail in protocol enacted by the G20 nations plus New Zealand – presumably including Russia and China. Your money is now officially not yours, by law. It belongs to the bank it is deposited in in which you hold an interest thereby, and an obligation to their ongoing debts. It is catch 22 – if you leave your money in, the banks stay afloat and you lose your money – if you take it out you contribute to the collapse and so your money becomes worthless. In short, you are screwed if your treasures are laid up on earth.
The deluge of debt which will drown the world in insolvency – as in the days of Noah – is simply the net result of all the debts humans hold over others – and it is a delicious irony that this collapse will occur in the Jubilee year, when all debts are meant to be rescinded and released and all lands and assets returned to their original owners.
This will be very interesting, especially for us Grunches, who will try not to say,”We told you so, you assholes!”
“Michale is not a Grunch,”
Nobody said he was.
Why don’t you eschew making up bullshit if you’re going to talk to people in public?
You said it all, there is not much to add. Except this: Thomas McFreeman’s website The Art of Debt Guerrilla Warfare – how to beat debt collectors when your back is against the wall.
For some time the People I talked with knew something was happening. Change can be and has been gradual. “Grapes of Wrath” by Steinbeck. Then consult a Behavioural Analyst.
Denial increases gradually because the Public Media are still believable and can cook a good story. History has had ‘tipping points’; We have had a few lately. With more the percentage of ‘believers’ will increase. As the ‘dust’ builds day-by-day, the urge to find ‘safe havens’ grows.
Where do we go?
There is only one safe hiding place from the wrath to come…under the everlasting arms – to wit, Jesus, the Ark. This from the VA Aramaic Trans.
Especially not verse 10. The hour of loss to come upon the whole world…and to come quickly means SUDDENLY AND WITHOUT WARNING…but I can assure you, not prematurely…it will be in the fullness of time, the time having been shortened for the sake of the elect.
7. And to the angel of the church of Philadelphia, write:
These are [the things] that says
He who is Holy,
Who is the Truth,
Who has the Key of David,
The one that opens and no human locks
And that which he locks and no human opens:
8. I know of your works, and behold, I placed before you an open door, that which no human can close, since you have little strength, and you [observed and protected] my manifestation, and you did not blaspheme against my name.
9. Behold, I am presenting from the synagogue of Satan those who call themselves “Jews” and are not, except they are liars. Behold, I will make them come and worship at your feet, so that they know that I loved you.
10. Since you obeyed my manifestation of hope, I will [then] protect you against the hour of devastation (loss) that is destined to come upon all the inhabitants of the world, to teach a lesson to those that dwell on the earth.
11. I shall come quickly. Protect what you have, so that no human should chance upon your wreath [and steal it.]
12. The victor
I shall make them
…pillars in my temple of God,
Never to be thrown out,
…and I will write upon it
……my name of God,
And of New Jerusalem
…that descends (rests) from heaven
……before my God,
And of my name
…that which is new!
13. Whoever has ears,
…should listen what the Spirit
……is telling the churches.
The number of abandoned cats and dogs in my neighborhood is approaching 2009 levels.
Yay, recovery!
The obvious solution is to do more of what created the mess in the first place.