Beware of bubbles of false hope. Right now there is a lot of talk about
how the U.S. economy is improving, but it is all a lie. The mainstream
media can be very seductive. When you sit down to watch television
your brain tends to go into a very relaxed mode. In such a state, it
becomes easy to slip thoughts and ideas past your defenses. Sometimes
when I am watching television I realize what the media is trying to do
and yet I can still feel it happening to me. In this day and age, it is
absolutely critical that we all think for ourselves. When you look at
the long-term trends and the long-term numbers, a much different picture
of the U.S economy emerges than the one that is painted for us on
television. Over the long-term, the number of good jobs in America has
been steadily going down. Over the long-term, the number of Americans
living in poverty and living on food stamps has been steadily going up. Over the past couple of decades, tens of thousands of businesses,
millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of our national wealth have
gone out of the country. Our debt is nearly 15 times larger than it was
30 years ago, and U.S. consumer debt has soared by 1700% over the past
40 years. Year after year the rate of inflation goes up faster than our
incomes do, and this is absolutely devastating the middle class. Anyone who believes that we can keep doing the same things that we have
been doing and yet America will still have a bright economic future is
delusional. Until the long-term trends which are taking the U.S.
economy straight into the toilet are reversed, any talk of a bright
economic future is absolute nonsense.
In America today, we have such a short-term focus. We are all so
caught up with what is happening right now. Our attention spans seem to
get shorter every single year. At this point it would not be hard to
argue that kittens have longer attention spans than most of us do. (If
you have ever owned a kitten you know how short their attention spans
can be.) Things have gotten so bad that most of our high school
students cannot
even answer the most basic questions about our history. If people are not talking about it on Facebook or Twitter it is almost as if it does not even matter.
But any serious student of history knows that is is absolutely
crucial to examine long-term trends. And when you look at the long-term
trends, it rapidly becomes apparent that the U.S. economy is in the
midst of a nightmarish long-term decline.
The following are 24 statistics to show to anyone who believes that America has a bright economic future....
#1 Inflation is a silent tax that steals wealth from
all of us. We continue to shell out increasing amounts of money for
the basic things that we need, and yet our incomes are not keeping
pace. Just check out the following example. Gasoline prices have been
trending higher for several years in a row as one blogger recently noted....
January 2009 $1.65
January 2010 $2.57
January 2011 $3.04
January 2012 $3.29
#2 If you can believe it, the average American household spent approximately $4,155 on gasoline during 2011.
#3 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#4 Health care costs continue to rise at a very alarming pace. 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%.
#5 Getting a college education has also become
insanely expensive in America. After adjusting for inflation, U.S.
college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.
