Have to relearn

If one is retired in these days the pension plan somehow has to be protected from the stock market, has to be earning more than interest to live off of and can not be the income from of the value of real estate.  A simple life style has already being adopted by most Americans but new ways will continue to be found as it the economy worsens.

The little book I received four years ago about a WWII English Vegetable Garden I then viewed a charming thing. Now I look at it was a bible for today's life that should be in print for all Americans, maybe for all Europeans also.

The debt bubble has enveloped Greece, Ireland and Portugal and most likely will suck in Belgium, Spain and Italy in the process. There is absolutely no way a financial crisis can be avoided and it’s already been in this stage of failure for two years. No country can bailout these six without destroying themselves. Can 21 nations find $4 to $6 trillion to bail out the six? We do not think so, and we have said this from the beginning. Fragile isn’t the word for it, neither is contagion. The operative phrase is object failure.

Tax breaks for all

Sometimes I talk to friends of mine from the Midwest and they seems to be living in a different country than the one live in.  They are convinced that the life style of American is going to continue as it has for the last thirty years, that both of the invasions of the last ten years were justified and all the problems are solvable with less government interference and more capitalism.  The cost of two billion dollars a week in Afghanistan is not on their consciousness but extending food stamps, VA services or unemployment payments makes them want less government.  

I begin to feel that I am the one of the edge of reality.  I am the one reading the wrong blogs on the Internet, watch the wrong channels for the daily news and truly, it is a waste of time, reading international newspapers.

Dmitry Orlov writes about the collapse of the United States and he speaks with much wisdom and some international first hand knowledge. He thoughts are available for free and one doesn't even have to get a copy of any his books. 

This, I know from reading him.  I would not want to live in the South or the Southwest, there is so much racism and when times get tough, people get angry and with so many guns, crime and  violence are the results.  Probably 90% of the food one would eat in a collapse economy is grown locally.  Remember the oil peak a few years ago and the U.S. imports most of it fuel, if the country as little or no credit, there will be long lines for gas.  Knowing the skills that our grandparents used daily will be of value and it will be the difference of living comfortably or just surviving. 

Sadly, this week not one adult stood up and said that this country doesn't need tax breaks for anyone.  China, Saudi Arab , Iran are among the ones loaning the money for this silliness.   When is truth to power and the public going to be spoken?  Who will listen?

flow of money

  The average annual Social Security benefit is $13,000.  Those living on that benefit are living on a little over a thousand a month.   It is less for a single women because of unequal pay, average benefit is $11,000 a year for a career time of work.  Of course, women outlive men in our society for many women are living on less than a thousand dollars a month.  Imagine a life of being a part time worker and mother, her's benefits are half of that. The little talked about forgotten fact about Social Security is that it is capped at $160,000 for earners.  Why should Bill Gates not pay in to it like the local fireman?  If this one rule was changed, the benefits for all would double and media would have to stop talking about it going broke.  Imagine the change in our total economy is money was out there in the market place.


While some politicians target the sick, the needy and the old they continue to consider the Pentagon budget untouchable. One declared war and another undeclared and more intelligent agencies that the public has a clue about are rat holes eating up our resources . Then the favorite, an unfunded tax break for the top one percent of wealthy has put us as a nation into financial collapse.

It is amazing to hear people say it can not get worst, logic says otherwise, $600 billion trade devastate each year with no tariffs in sight, nothing is going to change. 42,000 factories have closed since the year 2000.  Our dollars are all going overseas.

Job loses, state and city cuts, mortgages defaults this adds up to a depression not a recession.   There is no hope and cheerfulness in this society  for 95% of the population. 

Imports from our companies

 Since we no longer have a strong labor movement in this country the interest of the profit of corporations is the top interests of capitalism without regard of what is best for the United States or the population of this country. In Germany, 50 % of a board of directors of any corporation is made up of the employees, so the long term health of the company is taken into consideration in all changes along with the interest of the shareholders.

Since 1970 real wages have not gone up in this country, simply put people are working more hours, more jobs and have more debt.  The change is partly the introduction of the computer, more women in the work place and more immigrates.

The tax code for corporates have changed, also, along with the social structure of companies. The old method of working one's work up in the business for thirty years and becoming the top CEO is long gone.  Bonus are paid to presidents of that producing quarterly divides, it is all about mergers and taking the factory overseas.  We can say that the Chinese export everything to this country and it is their fault but in truth 60% of those factories are part of American Corporations.  The climate of profit has made it necessary for any corporation to move oversea or go out of business.

The think tanks have created an atmosphere that pictures corporation as the victim of our tax system.  With the freedom to lobby congress and the law makers in the last 30 years nothing is less true.  Laws and the rulings of the supreme court have moved this country to produce the glidden age again. In the meantime, the CEO pay has gone from 24 times a employee's salary in 1965 to 275 times the average employee in 2007. 

We can not bring back the jobs that went overseas.  The unemployment can only be solved by massive public works programs for the common good.  This will not happen while the corporations control our  congress and the White House by funding our elections.  Package the problems any way the media wants , the facts are the facts.