http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/50-economic-numbers-from-2011-that-are-almost-too-crazy-to-believe
Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this
economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no
idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we
are going to be in if we don't make dramatic changes immediately. If we
do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S.
economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old
lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just "tweaking" things
here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a
fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth
than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay
on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the
crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article
will be shocking enough to wake some people up.
At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most
homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point.
Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you
share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and
friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of
people to wake up and realize that "business as usual" will result in a
national economic apocalypse.
The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....
#1 A staggering
48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.
#2 Approximately
57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.
#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was
the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate
put out by the U.S. government would be up to
11 percent.
#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now
over 40 weeks.
#5 One recent survey found that
77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today
than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.
#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of
6.8% once you account for inflation.
#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6
million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today,
that number has shrunk
to 14.5 million.
#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that
approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.
#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about
20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
#11 Back in 1980,
less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today,
more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.
#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only
81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.
#13 One recent survey found that
one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.
#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by
4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.
#15 According to a recent study conducted by the
BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal
income in the United States is now
154 percent.
#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only
51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960,
72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.
#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than
5 billion dollars over the past year.
#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined
64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.
#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for
59 months in a row.
#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now
just $6000.
#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.
#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set
a brand new all-time record low in 2011.
#23 As I have written about
previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.
#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation
for five years in a row.
#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis,
health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption
back in 1980. Today they account for approximately
16.3%.
#26 One study found that
approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans
has at least 10 credit cards.
#28 The United States spends
about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.
#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be
558.2 billion dollars.
#30 The
retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute,
46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and
29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
#31 Today,
one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by
36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.
#33 Today, the "
too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by
39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the
bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.
#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data
done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led
by someone 65 years of age or older
is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.
#36 If you can believe it,
37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in
extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.
#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now
33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.
#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased
by 30 percent.
#40 Sadly,
child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty,
36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty,
40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty,
52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and
53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and
one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just
11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for
more than 18 percent of all income.
#43 A staggering
48.5%
of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of
government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about
24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of
nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.
#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit
for about 15 days.
#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of
15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.
#48 If the federal government began right at this
moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per
second, it would take
over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of
more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.
#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S.
government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that
George Washington took office
to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost
completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an
absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence. If the Federal
Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far
better shape. The federal government needs to
shut down the Federal Reserve
and start issuing currency that is not debt-based. That would be a
very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.
During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American
people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go.
Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because
2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.
