Bad and Not Bad
Economic statistics paint a pretty grim picture: annual growth coming out of a recession at an anemic 2.4%; unemployment rising at 9.6%; and foreclosures again on the rise.
Here in California the jobless rate is 12.5%. And where I live in Fresno County it hovers at 16%. Bleak.
I can see some of that general depression when my son’s friends gather out here at the farm. About 5-6 guys he knows are in their mid-twenties. Like him, all have BAs and skill sets (accounting, teaching credentials, computer degrees, bio certifications, etc.); all are “semi” working at part-time jobs (no benefits); and living at home. None have been able to find the sort of job we used to count on — a full-time entry position at about $30K that invariably leads to both advancement and higher salaries, along with retirement and health benefits. Higher education does not lead to a good job; no higher education leads to even less.
Great Expectations?
And yet, I don’t sense Dickensian poverty, in that the half-employed somehow through parental support, or cheap Chinese goods, or exemption from income taxes, seem to have plentiful appurtenances and even fairly nice cars. So what’s going on?
I was curious about this. So equipped with rough statistics, I decide to write down what I saw over a few days. Warning note: I live in southern Fresno County, rated, in per capita income, 49th out of California’s 56 counties.
I am not far from the Tulare County border (57th of 58th), at the nexus of the illegal alien explosion in Selma, California (rated in per capita income at 874 of 1076 California communities, at $12,834 per capita income).
I am also about 10 miles down Mt. View Ave. from Cutler/Orosi (1074 out of 1076 at $4,984), and in a 10-mile radius of about 5-6 communities that are ranked among the poorest 20 cities in California by per capita income. So this is what I would call an impoverished region.
Or is It?
I shop at the Food 4 Less 2 miles away, on the outskirts in town. Often I am one of only two or three English speakers in the huge store. People sometimes gawk at me as some sort of weird alien. The local Wal-Mart is not far away; English also seems rarely spoken there by the customers.
I ride a bike about 20 miles every other day I am not up in Palo Alto, usually heading west toward Highway 41, along little used, pot-holed one-lane roads that cut across the fabric of rural impoverished southwestern Fresno County. I see some strange things — cars simply dumping their wet garbage along the isolated roads, packs of pit bulls that seem to roam wild through the vineyards, a low-rider who cruises too close to my bike to give me the “look,” an occasional nut shooting his pistol without worry about trajectory, and again very few of the more refined sorts that live and work at Stanford. It is a rough Wild West frontier of sorts. (To wear biking gear [e.g., spandex, bright colors, designer shades, etc.] would be to beg violence.)
My point? Here in one of the poorest regions in California we are engaged in a great experiment of trying to turn mostly Mexican nationals (thousands without English, legality, or high school diplomas) from Oaxaca and Jalisco into American suburbanites within 10-20 years. And, of course, there is endemic poverty that translates into every depressing statistic imaginable. But there is something even stranger. By world and historical standards this is not an impoverished region.
The Veneer
What do I mean by that? I continued my informal survey of cars at Home Depot 3 miles away:15 late model Ford or Chevy pickups, 5 of them crew cabs. There were 22 (I counted) SUVs: Tahoes, Yukons, Escalades, etc.; at least 12 were what I would call new or nearly new. In addition, I saw 5 Honda Accords and 3 Camrys. Many, of course, are used, but they look great, both the result of better built cars, and an affluent society whose castoffs are better than the top-of-the-line new models twenty years ago.
Inside, the aisles were busy, especially the flower and garden section (is that a sign of disposable income?). About 2 miles away there is a large subdivision at the border of vineyard land. The homes are about 5-years-old, about 1800 sq. feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Newer cars are parked out front. I think the hot water is as hot as in those homes in Beverly Hills; the roofs leak less than brownstones on the Upper West Side, and the ranges cook as well as those in Atherton. I imagine the new air conditioners work as well as those in Chevy Chase.
On the face of it, here in one of the most impoverished areas of a bankrupt state, things are not going well. But yet, by any abstract measure, we are far wealthier than, say, in the mid-1960s when things were booming.
OK-How Can That Be?
Let me explain. In 1984, in my first year teaching at California State University, Fresno, a doctor’s wife used to brag that she was getting a “mobile phone.” About a year later she packed in a monstrosity in a suitcase-like contraption. It looked like a first-aid kit, and I recall that she boasted it cost over $1,000.
Yesterday, I saw about 150 people on i-Phones, BlackBerrys, and flip cell phones in the food store, many of them at the checkout line using social service prepaid food cards. The mobiles seemed to all work better than that $1,000 suitcase phone of yesteryear. Many users were text-messaging and emailing.
I remember our foreign language department’s first computer about 1985. It was a huge black-screened Burlington something. The secretary had a five-page booklet of prompts as ugly orange letters flashed across the screen. This week in the Selma Park I saw two impoverished men in straw hats playing checkers on a Mac laptop.
Today, a Spanish-speaking family was buying a bike for their son at Wal-Mart; it was about $50; in 1975 (35 years ago) I remember saving up in graduate school to buy a crappy bike for $50 to ride from East Palo Alto to the Stanford campus.
Statistics Lie
I could go on, but you get the picture. Poverty is now relative more than absolute. Statistics don’t quite reveal the true story of the underprivileged. In further curiosity, about the health care mess, I drove by the Selma Hospital Emergency Room, the Parlier Health Center, and another state-run medical clinic in Selma. All were packed, as was the Rite-Aid drug store prescription department.
In other words, a number of cosmic forces have combined to redefine poverty as I once saw it growing up in Fresno County, where outhouses, an occasional dirt street, and clunkers by the side of the road were common. Statistics on per capita income don’t factor in a number of criteria that have revolutionized American life.
1) Workers of world. The addition of over 1 billion Chinese and Indian workers in the capitalist global system in real dollars has made cheap consumer goods accessible to even the very poor. DVD players, Blu-ray discs, cell phones, Chinese-made jeans and shoes (indistinguishable to the naked eye from designer fashions) are now within the grasp of 300 million in this country. On very little money, a poor family that by federal statistical standards is proof of our collective failure has a cheap laptop, cell phone, TV, and can thus enjoy an electrical existence well beyond what was available to the billionaire in 1980.
2) Federal entitlement. The gargantuan expansion of federal and state entitlement, from subsidized housing and food, to free clinics, cheaper medicines, and free education programs for the disadvantaged, has meant that millions don’t save for college, don’t buy private health care insurance, and don’t have dental plans — and yet find that their families have access to health care and higher education in a way undreamed of by the middle class of the 1960s.
Yesterday at the AM/PM gas station, three Mexican nationals (yes, I am profiling) who spoke only Spanish at the gas island all had braces to correct an apparent overbite. In contrast, I remember in 1964 the rich kid in Selma who wore a bothersome horse collar around his neck as we gossiped that his parents were “millionaires” to afford such a contraption. For all the liberal hysteria, the U.S. entitlement industry is huge and gives even new arrivals from Mexico often the semblance of a middle-class existence. We get no credit for this, but millions leave central Mexico, not just for jobs, but for the larger landscape of a humane society in the north.
3) Non-compliance with the law. I conclude that the enforcement of the law is capricious. The number of those in my town who want to cut limbs, tile floors, haul trash, or do some roofing for cash is enormous. One can be on welfare, disability, or unemployment and augment income through cash wages, and it is done ubiquitously. Such stealthy workers do not appear in statistics as employed, but, together with federal largess, no taxes, and cash income, they can carve out an existence that ensures they are not poor by past standards.
I have had several minor brushes with uninsured drivers, either being hit by two of them, or having about five or six end up in my vineyard. I think we have a police force, but there seems to be very little consequence to driving without registration, insurance, or a license, since in all cases the drivers lacked one, or all, of the above “requirements.” In other words, vast numbers of Americans simply do not pay for the sort of fees the majority does, and that too saves money.
4) Taxes and debt. Lots of people are not paying income taxes and renouncing debt. April 15 is seen as a holiday rather than some Satanic reckoning, given that in my town most get credits rather than further bills. Cash sales denominate at swap meets (an enormous one down the road every Sunday draws thousands) and roadside food, produce, and gift stands, where sales taxes are nonexistent. In addition, our local airwaves are dominated by three commercial themes: how to get out of credit card debt, avoid paying the IRS, and skip out on your mortgage. It seems that 24/7, some fast-talking salesmen blurts out how you need not meet any of your contractual obligations.
Cruel Hearted?
Every time I read how the United States is cruel, without compassion, and destroying the poor, I wonder if the aggrieved DC-NY blogger or columnist has ever left his cocoon. Poor? It is now a relative term that means no Yellowstone or Yosemite or Disneyland with the family, no office at home, no big-screen TV in two rooms, no camp for the kids, and no new car every 4-5 years. No cultural opportunities or much travel. No daily Starbucks hit. But as far as clothing, housing, basic transportation, and appurtenances go, our poor are the 1960s rich. For about $2,000 one can buy new clothes at Wal-Mart, get into a Selma subsidized apartment, and buy enough food and furniture to experience what the once wealthy thought was their own monopoly.
To suggest all this is seen as either lunatic or reactionary, but it is true.
We have Dickensian statistics, but we are not London of the 1850s — or even Fresno of 1965.
ahh … the clash of theories vs empirical evidence … liberal economic theories always seem to fail miserably once they are actually measured in the real world …
great article sir … once again you show that having ideas based on your real world experience are far superior to those that form their ideas based on theories …
“Today, a Spanish-speaking family was buying a bike for their son at Wal-Mart; it was about $50; in 1975 (35 years ago) I remember saving up in graduate school to buy a crappy bike for $50 to ride from East Palo Alto to the Stanford campus.”
- Victor – did you buy the bike at WALMART in 1984, idiot? i SERIOUSLY doubt it. You paid $50 for a bike like your colleague paid $1000 for a mobile phone. Comparing your $50 academic GULLIBILITY in 1984 to a Mexican’s $50 frugality in 2010??? They were buying the cheapest bike they can afford – you were a yuppie on a field trip. My family bought my first bike for $5.00 in those years. I feel sorry for your students because you are shamelessly idiotic.
Not surprising – subsidized public employees like you are all thats left of the middle class and you are all blissfully out of touch. Our lives cost as much as they do because you get paid far more than your merit until the day you die. Your stupidity comes at our expense – enjoy it while you can my poor little fool.
MX
Maximillian’s family bought his first bike in the 1980′s for $5.00, My dad worked two jobs to support our family, he saved up so I could get my first Schwinn bike for my Birthday in 1966 for about $20.00. I was so proud until someone in the neighborhood decided I needed to “share the wealth”. 44 years later I still work and pay taxes so the other half can live. I guess I was just born a sucker, or probably not raised properly as I was forced to let go of the nipple. But of course I comfort myself in the knowledge that it is all George Bush’s fault.
The author left out any estimate of income from illegal drug activities, which I suspect would be substantial in that area.
1. Since the Obama Administration isn’t very keen on following the rule of law, what if the states stopped following federal law?
What if the local school districts required that students be citizens in order to attend school?
What is citizenship was a requirement for food stamps?
What if hospitals stopped delivering babies free for illegal aliens?
The states can just tell the feds that they are broke and can’t fund programs for illegal aliens.
The 10 million illegals in this country could then self-deport themselves. And, at the same time, put to rest the liberal cannard that “we can’t deport 10 million illegals.”
2. We need to forget about the false precision of economic stats. The *real* unemployment rate is closer to 20%. The stats don’t count the self-employed who go out of business. The stats don’t count lots of things.
When Christine Romer said unemployment would not exceed 8% if the stimulus package passed, she exposed how fake the economics field has become.
Economists can’t agree on anything. Or you can get an economist to say anything.
To think that economists really *know* what the unemployment rate is now is the height of folly. We all know that it is much worse than it is reported.
Foreclosures pending is a solid number that can’t be fudged. That’s the key to what unemployment is.
Cornhead:
What if pigs could fly?
What if Dr. Hanson ran for the presidency in 2012?
Very talented historian and writer with a brain that goes a mile a minute. Not a man for politics.
Larry in the Silicon:
If I could see a 2 hour nationally televised debate between Barack Hussein Obama and Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, with Obama defending what he has done to this country, and Dr. Hanson describing how to undo the damage and begin the healing process, I would be a happy, and certainly not undecided voter.
“Not a man for politics”? The statement leads me to wonder what you base your opinion on. Have you ever read any of the books authored by Dr. Hanson? Have you seen any of his serious presentations that are widely available for viewing online? Are you by any chance ready to advocate for another corrupt politician who will be seeking entry to the big time Ruling Class”? Another echo in lieu of a choice for the little people?
What’s your prescription to start to fix a broken and corrupt political system? Any ideas at all?
Just asking.
If politics in this nation were a business for men with the intelligence and integrity of Dr. Hanson, this would be a better nation and a better world. That it is not is its own lesson. He has too much respect for himself and his family to put them through what a political life would be.
It’s sad that this is the case, but I suspect I’ve nailed it.
I would vote for him!
If pigs could fly, I’d go: “wow! What can’t bacon do?”
If Dr. Hanson ran for President, I’d likely vote for him.
Any more questions?
“We need to forget about the false precision of economic stats. The *real* unemployment rate is closer to 20%. The stats don’t count the self-employed who go out of business. The stats don’t count lots of things.”
Nor does it count those who are under-employed.
Economists… reminds me of the joke: An economist is someone who can tell you 364 ways to make love, but doesn’t know any women.
If we simply started putting the employers in jail, accept none of their excuses as to why they can’t check them out and see if the are illegal. They knew they were illegals before they ever hired them. The illegals would not be able to get work and would self export, criminals on the other hand would need guidance and direction on the need to leave, after they get out of jail of course
Last job I got hired for required that I prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was an American. I am a white male, speak English with an American accent and have a drivers license and a military retiree ID card, none of that counted. Found an old passport, the other option was a US birth certificate.
In Canada, the exact same issue has been in existence for decades. Is it compassion to allow “refugee claimants” gain residency, or foolishness?
The rest of the world has played the political hand to its advantage. Any opposition to unchecked immigration, yields the gratuitous label, of those continuously indulging in ad hominem, as “racist”. In a dinner conversation a few weeks back centred around the irony of Clint Eastwood’s “intolerant” or proud character, being of Polish descent, the conclusion amongst this ‘progressive’ crowd was that America is still very racist.
Yet, with demographic decline in the U.S. and Canada, immigration is essential. So, what about a policy that actually does the job. Legitimate applicants and people who look to make a move as contributing members of society need not apply. The process is so distorted that the only way to be accepted in Canada is to lie about the threat to your life in the homeland and apply as a refugee claimant. To put in an application that you would like to move to this country and work is a waste of effort for the 0% chance of being accepted.
Immigration policy has the potential to make or break both our countries over the next decade or less. Maybe it’s too late.
And believe me, that a productive individual looking to make a new start that is willing to accept the values of a new country, is more than welcome, brown, yellow, pink, purple, or green. For those that believe that it’s their right to impose themselves on the traditions and culture of our country, please look elsewhere.
Enough of the debate at cross purposes, and indulging in “I’m going to prove you wrong, therefore I’m right”. The theoretical notion of a want for affiliation versus tolerance of others is a debate worth discussing. The practical issue of immigration policy now, matters today, and does not garner the luxury of time to weigh the issue in an academic context.
I’m also Canadian and have similar feelings about most of our refugee claimants. I understand that there are some miserable hellholes on this Earth – North Korea comes to mind – and that there are genuine refugees from areas like this; I have every sympathy for the real refugees and would welcome them to this country. But I have a strong impression that most of our refugee claimants are in fact simply economic opportunists.
I could go on at some length about this but a single example will suffice to show you what we are dealing with. I saw an actual interview with a refugee claimant on TV a few years ago. (A disgruntled immigration official had illegally taped some typical interviews at Pearson Airport in Toronto, one of the main arrival points for refugee claimants, and leaked them to the media anonymously.) One of these interviews stuck in my mind. A black man arrived at the immigration official’s desk and declared that he wanted to file for refugee status. The man had a foreign accent that sounded African (as opposed to American or Caribbean) to me. Knowing that there were many despotic governments in Afrca, I assumed he would talk about some bad experience he had had in Africa. I was wrong. This man explained that he needed to stay in Canada because his country of origin would persecute him and keep him from practicing his profession. The immigration official asked him what his profession was; the man replied that he was a manager of rock bands. Then, the official asked him his place of origin: Boston!
I think my chin must have hit the floor. I’ve been to Boston several times and saw no sign whatever that rock band managers in Boston were unable to practice their “profession” there! I started to understand why immigration officals in this country are upset. It has to be enormously hard to pretend to take ridiculous claims like this seriously.
Henry, Canada and the United States were built by immigrants, which I’m sure is understood among us. With demographic decline in both countries, the only solution is going to be a strong immigration policy and implementation.
I would have to believe that there are many Mexicans who work very hard, appreciate the values of family, and would be the most desirable applicants.
To forgo the process, only removes the policy from those in charge of this very important element of a countries’ future, and creates uncertainty for valid applicants who could be worthy and valuable additions to a country.
Let’s hope that the situation doesn’t deteriorate to crisis mode before it’s addressed. Unfortunately, that’s the typical catalyst, but here’s to hoping, even if it’s a long shot.
All quite true, and I would add that an illegal alien friend of mine – who I would call poor – just took his family to Yosemite for a week, staying in a hotel there and enjoying all that any other tourist would. The U.S. is a great place to be poor, unless you insist on following the rules.
Excellent observations Dr. Hanson. I fancy myself an amatuer historian – miltary history to be specific and self taught, at that – and I find that it has given me a perspective on life that no other course of study could provide. Miltary history encompasses the entire range of human behavior, magnified through the intense prism that matters of life and death provide. I find that this perspective allows me to take the long view on the everyday events that I also observe and it is our loss that so many people either dismiss history or actively seek to ignore it. Perhaps if they understood it better they would gain a much desired side effect – gratitude. Gratitude for the fact that this is the most benevolent, tolerant country that has ever existed. Clearly a country with blemishes, but also one that has the ability to address those blemishes and has demonstrably done so throughout its history. Too many people lack that perspective and that gratitude and screech like spoiled children demanding every whim be satisfied immmediately. And in the course of making those screeching demands, very likely destroying this most noble and precious experiment. To those who would dismiss the study of history I would ask one question – “why do you not touch a hot stove?” And the answer would be because they would be burned. And my response would be “how did you learn that you would be burned? Is it perhaps because you have learned from your own history – that it hurts to touch a hot stove?” If acknowledgement and use of history is so important in preventing physical hurt to ones self, how much more important to learn from history to prevent even greater harm to one’s very existence. Clearly Progressives have distorted or entirely removed history from standard educational curricula for the very puprose of not having to answer the uncomfortable questions that an informed population would have. It is much easier to forge bravely ahead into the Progressive future without having to answer pesky questions like “how many millions will you kill this time as you implement your ideas – which sound oddly familiar to me?”
There was this article in the Financial times about the struggle of Middle class in the US. The picture is that the American dream is tarnished, it seems to be hard for the middle class to achieve an higher income level. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1a8a5cb2-9ab2-11df-87e6-00144feab49a.html
I do not live in the US, so I’m wondering if this picture is true? If we combine that article with VDH description of California’s poor, the broader picture seems to be that ‘the poor/immigrants’ are better of, the middle class is stuck and the higher income keep rising?
Sound more like some mix of Russia (squeezed middle class living next to very wealthy) with Europe (welfare industry for the poor)
yes thats a correct picture. we are ” middle class” and struggle with every month’s set if bills, school taxes are killing us, while absentee landlords rake in the cash.
Us too, Granny. I have three college degrees. My wife and I both work. We don’t have a/c, our two cars are both ten years old, and we can’t possibly afford a family vacation. In fact we meet most or all of the criteria Dr. Hanson sets forth for being ‘poor’ in his third-to-last paragraph.
Every few month another tax bill comes due and we wonder how we are going to scrape together enough money to pay it. This was not a problem 15 years ago when we bought our house and made half as much money as we do now. We haven’t been able to save money for years. We are in much worse shape than my parents were at a comparable point in their lives.
There are times I wish I was on welfare. Certainly this whole work for a living thing hasn’t panned out nearly the way I expected it to.
“Sound more like some mix of Russia (squeezed middle class living next to very wealthy)…”
When did Russia get a middle class? Lenin and his minions exiled and/or dispossed anyone who could reasonably be considered middle class starting in 1917. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Russia’s strange dance with capitalism, a small middle class may have emerged but certainly nothing comparable to the US or Western Europe.
I think you’d be surprised. When in Russia and Ukraine recently, there is most definitely a middle class. More precisely, an upper middle class, living alongside an oligarchic class, and the remnants of the socialist working class which is still a large segment of the population, but hardly a majority, and live mostly in rural villages. I have a picture of a city in Eastern Ukraine, T34 tanks and statues of Lenin in the foreground, a parking lot filled with BMW and Mercedes, some Toyotas, and a giant big screen TV with commercials playing day and night. The old Krushchev-era, miles-long sections of 10-story apartment buildings are surrounded with so many cars there is barely room to walk on the street, sidewalk, and “grass” if you can call it that. There is more litter, but not much more and not in Moscow; the driving is horrendous. There is nothing we have here that they don’t have there, except the sense of personal safety and a generally low degree of widespread thievery that in most areas of the US we take for granted. But there is most assuredly a(n emerging, but affluent) middle class, and they are much more free from government meddling in day-to-day affairs than we could ever hope to be.
After fifty or so years of trying to “help” the middle class, the state has damn near succeeded in destroying it.
It IS hard for the middle clas to break into the upper crust. I’m middle class and struggle to raise my income above the middle. Wife works, we try to cut corners, etc.
Should I complain? I own 5 cell phones, three ipods, seven tvs, a house I share with the bank, three cars, four digital cameras — all a product of my middle class income (and my teenager’s “need for entertainment/communication/transportation.)
The “middle” lives better than we ever have, as long as we have a job. When the job disappears, then things are bad. I fear a realignment of pay scales if our Great Recession turns into something worse. But VDH is right. We got it good –
Larry Niven, SF author and Sage of Psychology,
wrote a story titled ‘The Magic Goes Away’;
Magic was a declining natural resource, then the
Magician’s Guild made the major mistake of using
most of what they had left in a misguided attempt
to bring it back by bringing the moon closer to
the earth. When the last reserves were exhausted,
everything which depended on magic vanished;
Do you suppose it could be some sort of metaphor ?
Hey man…don’t you know that in my “heart” I am poor, in my soul I am weak, and in my wallet…I want more!
In other words, get off the street and let me continue playing my game!
Good post Dr. Hanson. Its a good description of what the intellectual decay of the Left has devolved into and the consequences involved. The Great Shift occurred. According to Marx capitalism would produce a society in which the majority of people would not have the essentials of life: food, shelter, and clothing to keep them alive. In other words, it would create a near universal condition of absolute poverty.
The essential problem for the Marxists was this never occurred. In point of fact absolute poverty essentially vanished in the advanced capitalist societies. The Great Shift, the ideological shell game, was to take the Marxist equations and substitute the idea of relative poverty to take the place of absolute poverty that was the original basis of the Marxist critique of the Capitalist system.
The current crop of “progressives” have all the intellectual and moral qualities of the street hustler who wants to engage you in a game of Three Card Monte.
That’s not true. Marx predicted relative poverty. Many Marxists – and maybe Marx himself – tried to make it look like he was predicting absolutely poverty.
I see people who live in a house with 10 other people but has a big flat screen tv, many new or almost new cars and trucks out front, and there are 14 children there as well, that makes 24 in a three bedroom, one bath house. All those children go to school here, no one in that house pays any taxes. The owner pays tax on it as a one family home. Those folks can get free health care at a clinic a short bus ride away, and I, you, we, pay for this. I do not have a very new truck, a huge flat screen tv, I have to pay for my health care, and for my home.
There have been revolutions fought because the very rich denied the very poor the basics of life, perhaps the next revolution will be fought by the so called middle class against the very rich left wing liberals and the very poor who benefit from there policies. I am tired of people and politicians with there hands out. When will the man who gets up and goes to work every day, pays huge property tax, and an outragious utility bill get some help ?
I keep my heat at 64 in the winter, my AC at 78 in the summer, I save plastic containers to re use, and shop in thrift shops for clothes, shoes and books. I see my neighbors, who have no jobs, going out to dinner and the movies, I cant afford that. There is something wrong in this country.
Yup, poverty is a relative thing. And, relative to most countries, Mexico is not poor.
http://thebasstardo.blogspot.com/2010/07/mexico-is-not-poor.html
Love your link. So instead of Central Americans it looks like we should be bringing in shiploads of really poor people from Tanzania, Liberia, Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Madagascar, Guinea or Niger – each of which is at least 17 [or more] times poorer than the poorest peons in Mexico. We’ll have them do the jobs “Americans won’t do”, and send our southern border jumper neighbors back home in their SUV’s and crewcab pickups until they can get into the legal entry line.
I like that idea, but it’s probably just demagoguery, because the true definition of that is: “to treat an issue in any manner opposed by the god of all intellectual knowledge residing in the white house”. You can look it up!
great blog ..I bookmarked your site.
regards
Gregg Easterbrook wrote about this fascinating psychological phenomenon a while back where people in America now seem to feel worse and worse in spite of the fact that by most objective standards our lives get better and better over time. I believe he called it the “Progress Paradox”.
I personally believe that the ubiquitous mainstream media, which thrives mostly on the basis of emotional manipulation and relentless negativity, is to blame for much of this.
The mainstream media produce what their audience will buy.
Expecting the MSM to raise the bar on themselves in an industry where margins are tightening, and the mediums are changing, and the barriers to entry are lowering, is only going to leave us in a mode of blame frame, and no further ahead.
The MSM is a form of entertainment in that it’s an industry with revenues based on ad sales. Those are a function of ratings. If the MSM is anything, consider it a mirror reflection of popular attitudes.
In other words, the accountability is with the audience. As long as the audience consumes, unknowingly, or blindly, what is presented, it is indeed the audience that is the core source of the problem for what’s produced in the MSM.
“The MSM is a form of entertainment in that it’s an industry with revenues based on ad sales. Those are a function of ratings. If the MSM is anything, consider it a mirror reflection of popular attitudes.
In other words, the accountability is with the audience. As long as the audience consumes, unknowingly, or blindly, what is presented, it is indeed the audience that is the core source of the problem for what’s produced in the MSM.”
Well said, David. Exactly the reason I long ago quit reading newspapers and news magazines, and stopped watching network news. And then not long after that I quit watching prime time television. Then I stopped consuming celebrity in any guise. No more late night television talk shows, no entertainment news, and certainly no celebrity news. Not surprisingly, the quality of my life has vastly improved for having done so. And I revel in the time I have for reading good books.
Everyone should try it. Just turn it off. Katie Couric isn’t telling you anything you haven’t already learned if you have a computer and Internet access. Stop caring what Paris, or Brittany, or Lindsey or whomever the drug-addled tart of the day is up to. There is no value, no profit in knowing the details of their self indulgent and self destructive behavior. Just turn it off. It feels good. Liberating, even.
That’s inspiring Woodsman.
Additional point is that we are the media. These discussion threads, and quality writing and insights from the Dr. Hanson, and others (rare others) like him are where I focus my reading as well.
We were poor graduate students in the 1960s, married with four children, and we had a house, a car (one VW bug), bicycles, enough to eat, we were not on food stamps. We had a joint income of $19000/year, of which $7000 paid for child care and yes, we paid for the carer’s social security. Our carer was a U.S. citizen who spoke English. What didn’t we have? Medical insurance (we paid doctors when we needed them), a television set, air conditioning (didn’t really need it), new clothing (I made the children’s clothes or got theirs and mine at the Goodwill). We had a washer and dryer but no dishwasher. we got our furniture at the Goodwill or Salvation Army or made it ourselves. We didn’t go on vacations that cost money. We only made local telephone calls. We did not consider ourselves “poor”!
You are right about “poverty” in the U.S. today
In 1973 I made $5200 per year, I did have health insurance and a TV, but no AC. Now I wear a Rolex and buy a lot of my clothes at Goodwill by choice. If you have a cell phone, cable TV, a reasonable new car with payments, if you buy cigarettes and liquor, you are not poor. Your choices just suck. I see no legal problem with testing welfare and food stamp recipiants for drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Fail the test loose the free stuff. Most of these programs are just a way for hack politicians to buy votes anyway.
This is a very valid proposal.
That, and I like it!
A great deal of this “prosperity” is dependent upon a mountain of borrowed money and eventually the bills will come due!
I think you nailed it. The combination of near complete avoidance of paying income taxes, while parasitizing the same system for all the benefits it lavishes, is a huge reason why these people are poor in the John Steinbeck mode.
Just think of how many more resources we’d have for Americans if the Left, and the idiots on the Right, had not permitted 12,000,000-20,000,000 illegals into our precincts!?
Crime would be down.
Rapine taxes would not be necessary.
Programs would be available for those who paid, or are likely to pay taxes, once their circumstances improved.
How likely is it that this throng of illegals, determined to suck everything they can out of Fat America, with their contempt for our immigration laws, with their contempt for our civic codes, with their contempt for our system of taxation, how likely is it that this throng numbering in their millions will EVER follow our laws, become good citizens, and assimilate?
The morons on the Right who imagined that illegals would eventually assimilate and eventually lean right due to their traditional Christian heritage, were (and are) monstrously wrong. These illegals are permanent minions of the hard anti-American Left. They will never become Americans, especially in such gargantuan numbers. We now have litle permanent cesspool colonies of transplanted Tiajuanans, Oajacans, and Tenemaxtlanders. Bit by bit un-American anti-American communities all over America are springing up like so many poisonous mushrooms in our post-modern multi-culti nirvana. For the rest of us, for real Americans, this social experiment has become a never-ending nightmare.
The non-stop America bashing is corrosive, and in combination with the growing list of parasites and their elite abettors, America is heading for cataclysmic violence.
Mr Hanson’s point is plainly true, and better yet, inarguable.
This suggests that a Grand Permanent Solution to safety net policy is within reach:
1) throw out all Federal & State welfare bureaucrats and entitlement programs requiring their “deft touch”
2) Replace these with a 100% secure safety net– Anyone has an automatic, no questions asked entitlement to walk in without giving a reason and live in barracks housing (containing 500 2-room apartments per barracks), and receive all the government surplus food a healthy diet requires, along with access to a public toilet, a group-quarters living room where a functioning TV is on, where one family doctor and one policeman are onsite all the time. Anyone can earn whatever they want on the side, and live there as long as they want unless behaving criminally or obnoxiously.
3) No one will want to stay there permanently, since gov’t surplus cheese and broccoli, and sharing a toilet, become pretty irritating. So as soon as people have enough, they move away and have NO FURTHER CLAIM ON THE TAXPAYER. They leave to make it on their own. If they fail, and need to move back in, they can do so, no questions asked.
3) The healthy individual and family life available in these cheap to operate group barracks will EXCEED the health and comfort available to the KING OF FRANCE, or any king 200 years ago.
In other words, we can, deliver an ABSOLUTE standard of living exceeding that of the royalty of history, or that of 80% of the rest of the planet today and thus have no obligation to change the standard ever again.
As a result of going with an absolute, objective standard, all complaining, all debate can end. No bureaucracy is needed. And the cost to a society which is growing DECLINES in relative terms every year.
Thank you for bringing the reader right up to the doorstep of this point, Mr Hanson.
If we all lived supporting the underground economy there wouldn’t be enough money to produce the items for sale in the underground economy. Makes you wonder if the utlimate outcome isn’t some Road Warrior existence in the face of economic anarchy.
The scam I encountered in California involved insurance, or lack thereof. We were rearended by a Peterbilt truck with a load of mexican tomatoes enroute to Portland, OR. Our RV was totalled which apparently was karma biting us for having one in the first place. The driver of the truck had an insurance card that a computer kicked out when he paid the minimum for 6 months coverage. The driver immediately cancelled said insurance but kept the card. Seems the DOT inspection stations ask for papeles but don’t check to see if they actually reflect a policy in-force. The CHP said the insurance companies would handle it. That was in Whittier, CA. at the interchance of the 605 and I-5. Then insurance commissioner Poizner responded with some verbiage that reminded me of “as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and the buffalo roam, long fly the flag…etc.”
I inquired if I had to invite the truck driver from Mexico to our house for dinner this year as part of my sin for having insurance and driving a class C RV?!
The illegals are actually allies in destroying socialism. They are able to thrive on 1/3 of what sucker taxpayers have to make. They are putting unsustainable burders on the socialist “safety net”. The American ethic is “Beat the System”, and the illegals are expert at it, rivalling even the blacks. You cannot have socialism in a mixed culture without a shared work ethic. Hispanics and blacks are trained to hate their european-american benefactors. Beating the system is revenge against whitey. They have powerful allies in our illegitimate government and in the liberal fascist oligarchy that is our ruling class. The solution is to adopt their methods and beat the system by going underground and not paying taxes.
Everyone will participate in the underground economy when things get tough. That’s how the Russians survived Communism. If what an individual does is worth less, then he will compensate by cutting out the taxes, which are extraneous burdens as far as he is concerned. Only a few of us are old enough to remember that we fought a revolution that had to do with taxation without representation.
C’mon Rick, you’re paranoia is overwrought. Do you have friends who are black, hispanic, asian? If so, do they talk an imminent race war against “white”? If you do not have friends who are non- caucasian…well, there’s the problem. You are tunnel-visioned, my friend…
Considering the downside of following the law, I wonder how many illegals would really want to change their status. Heck, if you had the choice of keeping everything you’ve made and getting a government check too ….. wouldn’t you?
I know, “honest” people don’t feel comfortable with that, but some see our definition of honest as just being stupid.
I too live in a rural ghetto–in southern Oregon. The educated children tend to leave–mostly to Portland. The remaining young adults seem to migrate between their parents homes and weird pseudo-communes. We too have an “off the books” economy, a cash-only society that lives a jolting mixture of poverty and luxury. Cellphones and big screen TV’s in a room filled with unwashed dishes, dirty clothes, dog shit and dogs. The state and local laws seem to be arbitrarily enforced but thankfully the police are not obviously benefiting financially from this form of corruption.
There is a general disregard for the rule of law for all misdemeanor and lower class felonies–with the exception of the fish and game laws–which are uniformily enforced. There is thriving market in medical marijuana, which seems to be way to augment income with no taxation.
Most of these youth appear to have no goals, ambitions or plans. The occasional ones with ambition, or with a need to be educated, never seem to catch a break, and there is a poor success rate when they try to escape this ghetto through traditional avenues using routine means and conventional support.
This is not the world in which I grew up.
“get off the street and let me continue playing my game!”
I agree (with your sarcasm and cynicism).
You gotta’ laugh, otherwise you’d be cryin’ at how your hard-earned tax dollars are spent. The War on Poverty is unending, no matter what your lying eyes tell you.
Remember the campaign to end hunger in America? I believe that was the rationale behind food stamps and food banks. I’ve been a physician for more than 25 years and have never seen or heard of a patient (in this country) who suffered from malnutrition/starvation/food deprivation as a primary diagnosis (ie, not related to alcoholism, mental illness etc.). Unlike the rest of the world, an epidemic of obese “poor people” is the real worry here.
The lack of objectively poor people in the US is another reason behind the Leftist fixation on racism, social justice and amnesty for illegals. Gotta’ have a Cause to keep playing the game, or the gig’s up.
Sounds like Greece to me; at least the cash economy part of the description. Rings true!
jobless recovery and ‘prosperous depression’ are both caused by the same thing–
the knowledge that HUGE TAX INCREASES are only a few months away, which causes businesses to push contracted transactions forward on the calendar so that the taxes they pay on those transactions are lower than if they’d left the transactions on the schedule for next year.
If I were a wealthy man with a family and a mortal illness, I would find some way to off myself before year end, to avoid burdening my family, who’d have to come up with cash equivalent to more than half the value of the estate I might leave them if I didn’t leave it to them until 2011.
If I already had commitments to do business, I’d be jamming as many of them into 2010 as possible. 2011 is going to FALL OFF A CLIFF economically. It won’t be a ‘recovery’, only jobless. It won’t be ‘prosperous’, only a depression.
It’s all coming together.
IF things keep going the way they are going, then this is what will happen.
States will continue to jack up property taxes even while home values fall (due to very few buying homes). This will lead over time to more and more home owners defaulting on their mortgages. This will cause the states to crank property taxes up even more, leading more home owners to default. Eventually the banks will own most of the homes, and most people will rent the homes from the banks. The people who saved the most to pay off their mortgages will be the ones hurt the most, the ones who skated on paying their mortgages and spent their money on toys will be the winners.
But the Feds will prevent the banks from cranking the mortgages high enough to permit the banks to pay the taxes to the states, so the banks will fail and be taken over by the Feds. Eventually the Federal government will own the banks, which will own the homes. Of course, in theory we will all collectively “own” the government, so we will own the banks, which own the homes. Collectively.
Gosh. Sounds like Socialism.
Well food is cheap, clothing is not to bad, electronics are cheap. However education costs are way inflated, you pay a lot for a devalued product. Insurance, medical care, and items manufactured in the US are overpriced because of the “tort lawyer tax. I wonder how life would be if the punitive damage part of civil suit law was eliminated?
White man travels to “minority” area to experience this “poverty” he has read about in Dickens; finding none such thing, he turns his Subaru Forester around and goes home to pen an article about ungrateful immigrants, whilst peering through his bay window, and shaking his fist at the kids on his lawn.
You, sir, are either hilariously satirical or a shallow nincompoop. Your listed assumptions are so far off the mark they won’t even allow you to apply the word “assume” to “me”, only to you. If you had read the post and some of the comments you’d have discovered the “white guy” in question has lived in the described area most of his life; the locale is not – per se – a “minority area”; and the lack of poverty indicators he observes are consistent with virtually every community in the southwestern US, if not more widespread than that. Sorry it doesn’t fit your narrative. Apparently reality seldom does.
Nathan — You really don’t get it. VDH is right on the money, 100 percent. I was just in a big market in agricultural Arvin (Central Valley, Kern County), where there is (on the books) 40 percent unemployment. The store was jammed with shoppers, music and a festive atmosphere and the parking lot filled with cars, some new, most of them average. The shelves were overflowing with quality products and the meat and seafood departments were large and doing brisk business. In my nearby town many large hispanic families live near me — young, and they speak no English (one defaults to Spanish to engage in conversation).In addition to government credit cards, there is free cothing and meals from the Salvation Army, free health care and innoculations and free meals (most of the meals clients are poor elderly white people). Please come and personally experience what VDH has described.
1) Dr. Hanson has always lived in this community he is righting about.
2) He farms there and reports on the people and things he sees in his daily routine of trying to make a living.
3) You’re ignorant for saying what you said without doing a little investigating first.
Nathan, You wrote a very funny reply.
It was funny, but not too accurate. Mr. Hanson isn’t pillorying the immigrants, he’s pointing out how our system spreads wealth around to even the poor. In America, the poor are equivalent to middle – upper middle class of other nations.
The problem lies in the fact that the American middle class is being pillaged by the wealthy from above (they pay nearly 0% taxes due to corporate breaks), and from the welfare / subsidized class from below. Some 60 % of Americans (including illegals here getting any welfare) are now ‘net tax receivers’ – they get more from all levels of government, than they ever pay.
Being that government never produces anything of value, it must attach to the wealth of the middle class – and their willingness to put in the day by day effort that produces wealth. Problem is, they’re, percentage wise, just a dwindling 40 % – getting lower every year, decade by decade.
This gravy train must stop – it’s already hopelessly in debt. More Americans need to grasp the simple truths of economics summarized by Gary North “Thou shalt not Steal, even by majority vote.”
The State used to be viewed as the entity of public justice, mainly. Now it’s a sugar daddy, passing out favors to buy influence here, ripping off the unwary taxpayers over there.
May I heartily suggest visiting the best Libertarian Economics site on the web:
http://www.LewRockwell.com superb economic views – anti-State, pro-Liberty and generally written from a broad Christian perspective – recognizing the foundations of Liberty – ‘the Laws of Nature & of Nature’s God’ (quoting the Declaration of Independence) – which is 180 degrees counter to the Secular Socialism that is corroding our private lives, our families & our communities – which are no more communities, but rather competing collectivist entities.
Time to turn back the State building Collectivism in all it’s forms. It’s ‘we the people’ that hold the power – stop letting some damn unelected government bureaucrat tell you how things should be.
And Nathan, try looking a little deeper, at yourself – the world and at what motivates people to do what they do. America doesn’t need people to come here & plunder the wealth – it needs people to come here & build the wealth – themselves, their families & business.
This will NEVER happen with government telling everyone how much tax to pay, how to run their business & who to hire & on what terms…….the Tea Party movement is a sign that Americans are waking up to the simple truth that the government MUST follow it’s own laws, or it’s time to forge a new government “to provide new guards for their liberties”
When the people lead, the leaders will follow. When do we get started ?
Samuel Adams, Jr.
I HAVE NEVER HEARD FROM A MORE GREEDY UNCHRISTIAN BUNCH OF NAZIS IN MY LIFE.
What? You got invited to Chelsey Clinton’s wedding? Congratulations. Were you flown out there on a government owned jet like Nancy Pelosi?
Don’t get out much, do you?
27. ryaN
I have rarely seen a more perfect example of projection.
“Cries of “hate speech” just keep us in intellectual chains of our own forging.” Says Kathryn Jean Lopez in a recent article.
Nazis!? hmmm
ryaN, you are projecting. Are you aware of that?
It seems these “poor” “impoverished” are being subsidized just for being defined as such. They are able to use their subsidies to pay for any and all tech conveniences they desire. And they have been bribed as a constituency, and they are obviously addicted to these subsidies. If someone wants to voluntarily pay for such a subsidy, fine, but I’m paying for it and I’m I have no choice in the matter, and I face jail time, if I say “…hold on a minute, doesn’t this make me a slave to this bribery scheme?” and this help a subset of the economy only, and amounts to an eddy that further subsidizes the tech market, particularly the blackberry, cell phone and laptop industry. After that what’s leftover cycles around the flea markets and avoids the state sales taxes, and income tax is avoided as well.
People that fat and happy will probably riot and burn everything in sight the moment the gig is up and their subsidy vanishes, by state or “federal” (read- national) bankruptcy.
but these are the effects of withdrawl symptoms, observable on any addict once the thing addicted to is not available
“The number of those in my town who want to cut limbs, tile floors, haul trash, or do some roofing for cash is enormous. One can be on welfare, disability, or unemployment and augment income through cash wages, and it is done ubiquitously.”
Boy, is that true! It’s called “The Underground Economy” and it’s growing by the day. You usually get a hefty discount if you pay in cash and no sales taxes are added. You are going to see more and more of this as fewer and fewer people are going to be able to pay all of the taxes that are heaped upon them. Federal, state, and local governments don’t realize that by taxing people out of existence people will do what they always do: survive. So they will simply stop paying taxes, as many do in countries like Greece or Italy. And the Feds wonder why tax revenues are going down so fast. It isn’t just the economy. It’s people getting fed up with giving most of their money to the government and it’s only going to get worse over the next few years.
I appreciate how drastic my approach to the problem may be; but I find myself sitting at the same table, ever more often, with ever more citizens, all wishing what they were discussing didn’t sound like conspiracy theory. Or like revolutionary radicals of the 60s, plotting “against the man.”
Seems a general, organized, nationwide tax-strike on 4/15/11 would stop the taxpayer subsidy that enables/promotes the “underground” economy, rid the country of illegals faster, reduce the size of gov’t and regulation at all levels, and thereby avoid much of the devastation you predict. Sooner means less tragedy across the US. It’s not like the ruling class is not busily producing innumerable new regulatory agencies as fast as they can, whose function is to issue regulations. Congress now enacts over 60,000 NEW laws per year.
Defunding the gov’t, eliminating the financial resources, reduces the ruling class to printing money; intentionally opposing the wishes of the tax-paying country class. The question becomes: Will they quit? They’ve already got many billions stashed and they’re building organizations of hundreds of thousands of paid kapo-wannabees with OUR tax dollars, all to influence future voting; ie, to further enhance/cement their positions.
Isn’t this the first order issue we need to resolve with our rulers?
Foreign aid? Cry havoc! A tax revolt is surely a less violent solution. Funding one’s demise is suicidal. Having laws that sanction any means of collection is immoral. Those who would live off and use those funds to systematically carry out the sentence are what, if not like the regimes of Joseph, Mao, Adolph, Idi and Pol of just the last century?
A couple of years ago, the Chairman of the Dallas Federal Reserve said that “to return the US econmy to sustainability would require cutting the gov’t structure (at all levels) by 50% over just 2 years. And absent that draconian exercise, the nation had little chance of regaining our world-leading stature.” Google it.
Meanwhile, bureaucrats everywhere are firing police, fire, EMT, 911 operators and teachers, et al. Cause regulations require compliance, hence we’ve got to have compliance enforced, so huge payrolls are created to enforce each new regulation.
Ergo, the longer we wait, the harder the task. Wait long enough, it’ll be all underground economy. I mean if it all inevitably and inexorably leads to Mad Max, and rope, any point short of that is much to be desired. Refusing to enable one’s enslavement is the moral path, no matter one’s religious belief. Or, our Founders were simply wrong, wrong, wrong.
The reason those young people with degrees do not have a full time job which allows them to be self supporting and start their own families is the same reason why poor people can today buy consumer durables that would have been great luxuries a few decades ago. Jobs, and manufacturing production have been exported, millions of jobs, hundreds of entire industries.
I think you have to take a few steps back to see what the overall damage is, and it is that the American dream is being destroyed for young people trying to start their lives and for people who are now American working class and who are competing for construction jobs, and other semi skilled employment, as the illegals have taken over those jobs in most American communities. And due to unemployment, stagnant wages, poor quality of life there is no way today for so many to reach for the American dream for themselves or for their children, since money or grants for college are out of reach for so many, and as shown, even with the degrees, there is no employment for them when they graduate.
We can have all those cheap consumer durables, and we can keep the cost of getting our yard work done cheaply, but at what overall cost?
Check out the emergency hospital systems in large California cities like the LA metro area, they have gone bankrupt providing services for illegals, and illegals have crowded out the people, Americans, who should have the social safety net that has been destroyed by illegal aliens.
And wait until the state and local governments have to raise taxes and layoff more teachers, cops, firemen, and further reduce services as the illegals take a bigger portion of state and local services, and as has been noted, pay little or no taxes.
And wait until it has happened to you, as it happened to me that some illegal has started using your social security number, and see how much you like straightening out that mess.
I would like to see a prosperous Mexico, China, etc. but the best way to make that happen is to have Mexicans produce goods for Mexico, Chinese people produce goods for the Chinese market, rather than have our work shipped offshore, resulting in so many long term unemployed in the US, that is no way to build sustainable global prosperity.
We have been on the wrong track for a long time and I hope people will wake up and see the greater damage that has been done.
Doctor Hansen,
Excellent observation. Having lived on “P” street, walking to swimming pool on Blackstone and swimming at Friant life in Fresno forges, or “fries” it’s inhabitants.
Memories and experiences demand we find national leadership that will exploit America’s technological prowess and leapfrog our country into prosperity, as we did in the 1960s. In short, America needs leadership that will give us an objective. For example, JFK pointed us to the moon.
In this area, automation of low skill jobs would create five times as many American jobs than those that are displaced. Effectively, skilled American jobs are created and demand for cheap illegal labor goes away.
Using your telephone example, America has the technology to change many of the conventional metrics we are saddled with today. Raising the bar simply forces the “cheaters” (e.g. China)that enslave their populaces to compete fairly, or those that “milk” the goodwill of others to saddle up and become citizens or get out.
Sean
I wasn’t depressed until I read this. Chicken Little was right.
Barrack Hussein Obama; The colon cleanser for American capitalism.
THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH is that we won The War on Poverty.
The poor fought hard, but we overwhelmed them in battle after battle by buying them homes, cars, clothes, gourmet foods, fine wines and liquors, medical care and FDA approved drugs. The final battle was won when we handed each of them special credit cards backed by the US treasury.
But we cannot disband our victorious army and go home. Now that peace has broken out we must buy the losers honor and dignity. And the soldiers who fought so bravely to vanquish poverty want to remain not as an army of occupation but as mentors to help the vanquished rebuild. We must teach them that event though they lost the War on Poverty, they are not losers.
I also resent freeloaders and illegals. At the same time, I’m proud of my country for being so rich and so generous. I don’t know how to reconcile those conflicting feelings.
Would Mr. Hanson’s life be more secure if his neighbors didn’t get foodstamps or free-ish housing? Probably not, because instead of ripping off the taxpayer, they’d be stealing from him directly.
Sadly, we need a secure border (to keep them from getting in), and we need to deport those who break too many rules. But at the same time, we need to find a way to legalize and Americanize the majority who will remain, and to convince them to pay their fair share.
I don’t know how to do that.
Dan – how to deal with the issue – apply the law. What are the consequences for residing illegally in the United States? It’s written in law, therefore apply it.
If people have to go and cut their own grass, or pay more money to get it done, it’s all upside. The former is a step forward in people breaking a sweat (one nick in the obesity epidemic), and the latter assists in increasing employment.
Sounds like all upside to me.
Ask them all to leave, and return under circumstances that are condusive to becoming law-abiding citizens. BTW, economic collapse restricts that inclination to be generous to tribe, then family; every time.
If you really want the big picture, you should read up on the Elliot Wave Theory. He actually predicted this depression in the 40′s. But we are only in the beginning stages now. Robert Prechter who uses the Elliot Wave thoery believes we will hit bottom with the Dow below 3000. The stats will be clear then. The big fall should begin at the end of this summer if not before. By the way, this fall has nothing to do with either political party, yet both will be blamed in the end.
Robert has made some bad calls over the years. Don’t bet the farm on this one being correct. Although I do not agree on his timing, in the longer term, he may be right. The country is getting very close to the point of no return.
Have you been to Chevy Chase to experience the air conditioning lately? PEPCO insures the accountability-free and third-world status of utilities in the People’s Nation’s Capital. Fresno has at least one bright spot, electricity, even if it comes by virtue of Nuclear Energy from Arizona!
Just start referring to Illegal Aliens as “Illegal Demoñcrats”.
One aspect of analysis is missing here, that immigration was hardly an issue when the economy was humming, good to have that cash laborer around to trim the hedges and clean the toilet. The downturn in the economy was caused by the manipulation of mortgage securities and associated derivatives by Wall Steet with the collusion of banks and assisted by the Fed. The evaporation of trillions of paper dollars is what has created this “weird sort of depression.”
Immigration and Budgets are wag the dog issues to mask the crimes that have left us in this mess.
When I was a child, my parents who were products of the Great Depression, were very clear on the division of Wants vs. Needs. Needs were food, shelter, basic clothing and the basics of life. Needs had to come first. Wants were the frills that made you popular, beautiful or powerful. Because my parents didn’t buy into the idea of society owing them anything, they lived modest lives of hard work for which many irresponsible people labeled them as saps. I have to admit, I followed their ways and it has not been easy. It’s hard not to be bitter when you cannot afford braces for your own middle class child, but see special programs that provide them for free for children whose parents do not pay into the system. It is hard not to be disappointed when you see your own children work full time jobs eschewing the party time image of high school and college while other students are given scholarships based on little more than the accident of birth. This is the great divide. And what is truly sad is that in too many cases, giving people free things or benefits creates a situation where they stop appreciating it. This is part of the reason that Habitat for Humanity insists on sweat equity. If you participate in paying for or creating something, you cherish it because it is part of you. But by shoving free programs, education, scholarships, healthcare and more, we cheapen their value. I see this play out all the time in my classroom. Students who have to pay for their own supplies are careful with them and keep track of them. Students who are given supplies, very often waste, lose or even deliberately destroy those supplies because having not paid into the cost, they have no value. This is an increasing problem in our society and it’s one that crosses racial lines. I predict that as the liberals in government continue to embrace new immigrants and champion their rights over the need of middle class citizens we will see a significant shift in political alliances.
For more on this idea, you might want to look at my blog discussing the analogy of Extreme Home Makeovers and socialism in our government here:
http://sumofallthingsaccording2me.blogspot.com/2010/08/creeping-liberalism.html
Any more insight, Dr. H., and you’d be a societal X-ray machine.
As it is, Dr. Davis Hanson’s diagnosis is grim – the prognosis worse, and the patient remains steadfastly in denial and beyond.
It’s situation critical, and the patient is holding the Doctor responsible and attacking the messenger.
Sedation is next, to decide what to do – this will take the form of public employee’s paychecks getting reduced or not paid.
After that, it’s likely that there will be a further rise in those seeking employment; greater tension between communities – be that defined by income level, ethnicity or cultural, public vs private; and the trend line is declining – in prosperity, living standard, and lifestyle.
Time to consider the medicine, procedure, treatment, remedy and whatever it will take, before some very dire consequences become a reality.
What do those 5-6 young men think of all of this? I know what I would be thinking…. Sure you can find an old F-250 4×4 to satisfy your testosterone driven windshield cowboy instinct just like your dad did at that age. But then what? Even if they are fortunate enough to find full time employment in the Bay Area, they will never come close to their parents standard of living. And it is all relative. (Cleaning my plate because people were starving in China didn’t do much for me) What if you find that special cowgirl? I know few Gen X or Millennials what can even think about a family of their own. What goes through your mind while you fight your way down the aisles of oversized non english speaking etc etc families at Walmart? That might be a bit cruel but you can see how the mindset will become far more conservative.
Am I the only one who foresees a day of reckoning when the various forms of government subsidy for our pampered lifestyles runs out? The truck, the cell phone, the HDTV and your parents house only go so far. It’s too bad their WW2 era grandparents won’t be around to remind them of what is really important. Baby boomers haven’t done a very good job with their kids.
Great article. Most Americans today really don’t have any idea what being POOR is. What I find most amusing is when I read about people that haven’t been able to find a job for 2 years. The truth is, most could find a job if they weren’t so damn lazy. Physical labor, for example. A lot easier to kick back, turn on the tube and collect the checks, though!
Thanks, Victor. That was very illuminating and insightful.
It’s the technology that makes all these possible.
Certainly poverty is relative. I’ve been to countries where the poverty is deep, overwhelming, frightening and never ending. Not just a lack of cell phones or designer jeans, a lack of food, basic housing, education and a future filled with more poverty and despair. In America even the poor have cell phones, computers, nice cars, government hand outs of money for college, even a chance to put money away for the future by joining the military. We have it pretty damn good.
I wonder who’s fault is it ? And who should change it ? Illegals don’t make desicions all they do is take advantage of what your governent gives them , no just illegals get aid , there is a lot of them that work every day and pay taxes just like you the difference is they can not get unemployment or retirement , I am amazed by how small you criteria is . Congratulations
Very few IA’s pay taxes (they work in the underground economy) and the few that do (under false or stolen identities) acquire many times more in benefits than they pay into the system.
That doesn’t even begin to include the other peripheral costs such as a violent crime rate six times higher than the rest of society, tens of thousands of uninsured motor vehicle accidents (not to mention around 8,000 TA deaths per year), and on and on.
That is a great point about the lack of law enforcement regarding public benefits, employment, taxation, etc. Liberals would rather perpetually raise taxes than enforce the law and ensure that taxes are paid by ALL at the going rate. That would drive up receipts without having to increase rates across the board and induce mass punishment. But I assume it’s just self-serving. They want the tax rate as high as possible (socialism). And they don’t want to punish their largest constituency (self-serving pandering). So they tax the rich. Wasn’t it Margaret Thatcher who said that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money??
Dr. Hanson – Let me add my congratulations on a great article. Those who responded to your ruminations on the widespread availability, low cost, and improving quality of consumer goods by launching diatribes against outsourcing and globalization reminded me of Tom defending his job to the Bobs in the movie Office Space:
Tom Smykowski: Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the god d#mn customers so the engineers don’t have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can’t you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
Tom was what we used to call a middle manager, and he earned a comfortable, middle-class living. But improvements in computer and communications technology mean that buyers and sellers need many fewer go-betweens. That is the force that has allowed prices of consumer goods to decline, and for the new poor to enjoy a relatively higher standard of material comfort.
One other point – when the share of income earned by the large group in the middle goes down, the share earned by the few at the top (the few who, unlike Tom, really can talk to customers) goes up. The structure of our economy now is such that the reward to the top few percent is going to be greater than it was 30 years ago. No amount of jealousy and class warfare is going to change that dynamic.
Good luck to your son and his friends, and my daughters while we’re at it.
Hyperbole Morphing into Reality: America’s Looming Revolution?
It’s easy to engage in negative hyperbole in discussing the current president even if that exaggeration sometimes seems unfair.
His policies, his associations, the statutes and regulations he and his swampy congress have pushed through, the now-exposed media conspiracy to grease his way into office and cover up his gaffes and flaws, the national upheaval and divisiveness he has created naturally lend themselves, and him, to occasional, irrational overreaction.
No president has ever won the hearts and minds of 100% of the American people; even George Washington was disparaged by some former Tories. However, from his inauguration and in the campaign leading up to November 4th, 2008 when he so often slipped and tipped his hand as to his true designs on the country, this chief executive escaped general distrust.
At the inauguration he insisted on taking the oath of office using the middle name he never really used; during his run for the presidency he kept preaching but never defined “change” and slipped and admitted what should have been incriminating ideas such as his Saul Alinsky-Marxist plan to “share the wealth.”
The mass media let it all slide, never doing its job, never inquiring and investigating his reasons for suddenly invoking the name Hussein, never asking what specifically he meant by sharing the wealth and just how he would accomplish that redistribution of Americans’ hard-earned money.
The bitter fruits of his socialistic thinking and scheming are daily becoming more and more apparent so is it any surprise that people, many of whom supported and voted for him just 20 months ago, have become so disenchanted, frustrated, and furious with Barack Hussein Obama that their emotions sometimes get the best of them and they hyperbolize their feelings? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1820)
I watch with glee as Americans wake up to the nightmare of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism = anti white culture. Literally…that is all it means. The country we grew up in is dead. Rest in Peace. America will Balkanize soon and it can’t happen soon enough. We will not recover? Why? We are filled with stone agers who cannot function in a nation-state. It is really that simple.
Mr Hanson, while this article on its own has a veneer (to use your own term) of an empirical “study”, an examination of your past scholarly production and public comments reminds us that it is just another piece meant to advance your own ideological agenda. Granted, it is true that poverty here in the US is not of Dickensian proportions witnessed within developing countries. The US enjoys unprecedented wealth in the history of mankind, and this was bound to trickle down. So by extension are you arguing that suffering doesn’t occur in our country (due to the ubiquity of commodities)? You are forgetting – or ignoring – the reality of suffering that I am sure takes place in other regions of our vast country (not to mention in other areas in Fresno country you failed to observe). To suggest that this narrow of slice of empirical reality you locate on your bike trail and your local Home Depot is somehow a fractal of the whole is intellectually dishonest. Seems what you’re really mad at is the young brown kids in the lowrider “mad-dogging” you, or the food-stamp recipients shopping at Hope Depot (such mentions indicate that your racial anxiety could not be suppressed). This is NOT an accurate reflection of the truly impoverished in our country. Behind the statistics you deride (infant mortality, rising death rates due to malnutrition, etc) is a human being who suffered needlessly. The fact is that the US spends the lowest among all advanced countries in helping the underclass. The wealthiest country does the poorest effort in helping its downtrodden. Are we Americans to be proud, or ashamed of this fact?
As an aside, I just read about Lord Conrad Black being released from prison (for white-collar crimes). Seems this aristocrat did an about-face on his political views on poverty, race, and crime in America, and intends to be a crusader for the underprivileged. Such experience is much more compelling than “evidence” culled through an observation of cars in a parking lot.
Great history lesson Dr. Hanson.
Someone mentioned 10-12 million illegals living in America?
That might have been true 10 years ago.
California has at least 7-8 million
So the rest of America only has 2-3 million?
What a crock!
There are at least 20-25 million illegals living here.
Obama and the Democrats know that number also.
They also know illegals will be very grateful to/for the party granting amnesty.
Look for a presidential order in our future.
And if you think the DOJ sued the state of Arizona to uphold the higher law?-
Let me offer you some prime real estate close to the Mexican border.
I don’t know, VDH. I mean, there are people living in Central Mexico who have to suffer with a corrupt government, filled with greedy politicians who line their pockets, flaunt the rules that others must abide by, a law enforcement structure that enforces or fails to enforce laws at their whim, living in states that are bankrupt and operating in permanent deficit. Anyone with a couple of firing synapses would want to leave such a place and travel to …say…California.
It is the dream of those sneaking across the southern borders here to one day make Mexico look more like America. I believe that leftist legislators share that dream. Why, if you look hard and long enough…and we close our eyes…well, maybe open them instead, we can see the dream. And feel it.
You know, it’s funny, VDH…I don’t begrudge the person who fails to return my money clip, that I foolishly and absentmindedly left sitting on a counter at WalMart, when I put it down to put a new office key on my key chain. It was such a dumb thing fo me to do. Sure, I would have liked to have that money back (and my leather money clip that I received as a present), but, I fully expected to not find it when I returned the next day. It was my own fault for leaving such an easy temptation and it would have taken a superior morality to return it. Many possess the ability to resist the temptation, but a large number do not.
If you make the test tempting enough, if it is easy enough, and virtually impossible to be caught, if the consequences are so minimal as to be not any deterrence at all…so that it doesn’t feel like a sin, much less a crime…then conscience will not be a guide, heck, not even a fleeting pang of guilt.
We send out mixed messages about how serious we are about people picking up that money clip on the counter. And that message could not be more muddied today. Our federal government in this administration is basically saying…”You would be a sucker not to sneak in, hide out, cover up, and hunker down.” “Feel free to lie, cheat and steal…we do”.
“America today has no pride, only apologies for who we are, what we’ve been, our language, our culture, our laws, our borders and our jobs are not worthy of protection. As long as you vote for the “permanent party”, you can help us tear down the establishment and replace the last generation of stalwarts, clinging bitterly to an America that no longer exists, except in their memories”
Bring us your gang bangers, your addicts, your drug pushers and identity thieving masses. Those who yearn to commit mass larceny. As long as they vote Democrat, we see them as brothers of another mother.
Another excellent article!
Excellent article and answers the question that I have been asking for the past few months. I live just off I-40 in New Mexico and I have noticed that there has been a real resurgence of heavy traffic on said interstate. Lots of trucks and bunches of automobile and RV’s. Sure, there are the usual numbers of illegals traveling in SUV’s and pickups. Those vehicles are their true homes, if the truth be told, and provide them with the mobility needed to take advantage of whatever economic opportunities they are headed for. But, the majority of travelers are whites.
Now where are they getting the money to do all this if unemployment is so high, and I do believe that the real unemployment numbers are around 20% or more. I see none of the signs of real poverty that my parents experienced in the 30′s. A lot of the people on the road might be “grapes of wrath” types but they are doing it in expensive vehicles and RV’s and eating well the whole time. In the meantime, in my town businesses, including those that cater to the denizens of I-40, are crying for competent drug free employees. Dr. Hanson, you have given me at least a partial answer.
“From each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” This philosophy tends to turn nations which adopt into places of low ability and high need.
One is led to the inescapable conclusion of Mr. Hansen’s opinion that his neighbours in Fresno would come down very actively on the “pig” side of the ancient, Socratic question of whether one wanted to be a satisfied pig or an unsatisfied human.
But there is another element more reminiscent of the Prince of Denmark, whether ’tis nobler to obey the outrageous demands of government or to fight their pompous overtures through mere dismissal?
The Entitlement Culture takes on a new dimension if you can ignore the demands of the state while still able to draw down its benefits – then it merely takes integrity to live what we used to call an honest life.
What curious ethical decisions can be raised with this set of alternatives.
I’m surprised Dr. Hanson didn’t bring this up, but I wonder how much debt (credit card and otherwise) has been racked up by the people he’s observing. Illegal aliens can get credit cards just like everyone else…and for all the talk of a credit crunch you can still get a card, just with a $5000 limit instead of $10,000. In my little corner of Northwest Florida, we don’t have anywhere near as big of a illegal problem as California. But unemployment is around 10-12% and everyone always complains about times being tough as they drive behind the wheel of their new SUV while yapping on an android/iphone. My husband and I have been debt free for about 2 years now and we don’t buy anything we don’t have the cash for. Sometimes I wonder if we are the only people (in our age group – late 20s) out there like that. We have an old tv (not even HD!), cars with over 100,000 miles, and prehistoric cell phones. Our friends have all that nice new stuff but groan about trying to pay off the interest each month. But I can’t help but get a little upset when I see the welfare brood mare at Walmart with her 8 kids and ebt card playing with her iphone and all the kids have fancy clothes and sneakers. Oh well that’s what I get for being responsible!
Selective enforcement? Soooooo…..
which laws are we going to recognize?
which laws shall we ignore?
A VERY slippery slope indeed.
The solution is to create an international mega city near the junction of Arizona/New Mexico and Sonora/Chihuahua, half in Mexico-half in US. The U.S. Army can set up a huge tent city (use surplus) and begin laying out infastructure. Workers get Fed minimum wages to build from ground up. This will take care of the immigration problem for a Century. A poor person can come to the city and the opportunities for advancement are endless, etc. This will be cheaper in the long run and the immigrant will have an environment that fulfills the reason for immigration.
What about hiring the 25-30 million (and counting) unemployed US citizens, instead of catering to the invaders?
A while back my wife told me the story of how they brought an overweight dog to vet.
“This dog is being overfed. Who is responsible?”
Her mother, brother and the dog all looked at her father. A man of great gustatory gusto and a trencherman par excellence.
That’s where Hanson’s article leaves me. Because there is a real sense that if the entitlements are the result of bleeding heart policies run amuck and voted into law, his fellow county members seem to be casting their votes with dollars to the underground economy.
If we take away those dollars and jail grandma for hiring an illegal to mow her lawn or fine the roofing contractor severely for hiring undocumented workers, perhaps you will reach the level of poverty among illegals that would be appropriate for public assistance. If illegal immigrants are guilty of gaming the system, we shouldn’t forget that they are enabled by people who benefit from the underground economy and it’s ability to circumvent taxation.
A public service announcement for United Way frequently plays on the radio here in the South Dakota city where I live. The lady with a thick Hispanic accent tells how she enables her poor neighbors to collect several thousand dollars in Earned Income Credit every year. She says when they hear how much they can get, they are so happy! EIC is money given to people who don’t earn enough to have to pay income tax. So it’s OUR money, not THEIR money. What will happen when there are more people on the dole than there are people working to pay the taxes that fund the dole?
i perfectly understand your pain but why cant you do the about turn and get jobs in faraway places like india or any other places where you will be hired.arab countries singapore india are a few just give it a try.
Professor Hanson’s article might serve as a model for detailed journalism based upon first-hand knowledge. He exposes the deception inherent in official statistics, especially as they are interpreted by liberals. I might add that American society has never been so accommodating to an immigrant group as it has been, and continues to be, to Hispanics. Just consider all the philohispanic children’s television programs such as “Dora the Explorer” or “Handy Manny.” No former group—not German, Irish, Jewish,Italian, or any other immigrants—has received such a welcome.
Professor Hanson is looking for poverty in the wrong places. Go to the factory towns in China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, etc. where all the accoutrements (clothes, TVs, cell phones, etc.) of modern life he describes are actually made and see real, grinding poverty. The reason it has not touched the US or California yet is that the Federal Govt. and State of California are pumping money into the economy as fast as they can. Most of this money is borrowed, a lot of it ultimately from the people who are working so hard in those factories, when this spigot is turned off, as it inevitably will be, the affluent stiffs he describes will be forced to work or starve. Many of them will starve.
As for the vehicles he describes them driving, many will be purchased from shady car lots where one payment on a car loan gets you into a vehicle for many months free. Also the Federal Govt. is subsidising US automakers to keep putting vehicles into the marketplace at less than real cost. All this has to stop and when it does, watch out.
Ballpark figures: 10% unemployment, 50% dependent on local, state, federal employment, contracts, or entitlements including pensions which leaves 40% to produce goods and services that keep them employed and also allow for taxation, redistribution and regulation to keep the other 60% afloat.
A ship will sink when water enters the hull faster than it can be bailed out.
tvb, that story you linked to is basically one long sob story of how the two profiled families lived beyond their means for a decade and now that the game of musical chairs has ended, and they now cannot get any more credit, they are telling anyone who will listen woe is me.
The key item is the story, and what gives it away, is when he says he bought his house years ago for $55k, but now somehow owes 3 times that much on his note. How does that happen, you ask? The guy was pulling out the increased value of his house as cash by refinancing, and spending the difference between his old loan and the money from the new loan. He treated his appreciated house as an ATM, and now is having a tough time making the payments on his new note, whereas if he had stayed with his original loan of $55k , he wouldn’t be having a problem.
You see the same thing in Europe.
In the Netherlands some flunky in social services decided that having high speed internet and a large screen (45″+) plasma television are human rights and that therefore those should be provided for free to those on social security.
Another one decided that a 3 week vacation to Morocco for unemployed Moroccans is essential to their “wellbeing” and that the state should provide for that.
As a result of such decisions we’re now in a position where the eternally unemployed and others on long term social security often have a more affluent lifestyle than those on even an average income.
At the same time, the political left is redefining “rich” (thus, their target for eternal damnation and ever more crippling taxes) as being anyone who earns (before taxes) more than social security.
What we see now therefore is unemployed and illegals shopping at brand stores and walking around in designer clothes, carting high end electronics and other goods to their brand new cars for installation in their subsidised homes that get free maintenance whenever needed, while at the same time hardworking citizens with decent incomes have trouble to make ends meet, are forced to shop at thrift shops and drive in 10 year old cars (or more frequently sell their cars and drive a bike or public transport).
This is getting to be like the movie “Rosemary’s Baby” except we’re not dealing with the devil so much as his agents,- the parasites. The parasites at the top who work the political system to their advantage (and pay nothing in taxes), and their mystical cult of ‘the absolution complex’ whereby they indoctrinate the others at the far end of that spectrum, the so-called “poor” to become the same kind of parasites from the bottom. And the productive, formerly prosperous folks in the middle get squeezed from both sides. Terrific.
If you want it done fast, dirty and nasty, call the PRO’s- Pelosi, Reid, Obama, don’t worry about it being illegal, we got accountants and lawyers to get you out from under the tax wheel, and join the special, the elite!
GDI,
It may not have been an issue for YOU, but it was for plenty of the rest of us who saw this time coming. An already severe situation made far worse by wretchedly bad policies. They are not a sideshow or ‘wag the dog,’ they’re real issues that more people are forced to acknowledge now that some crooks were allowed to break the system. Or rather, break it sooner and more deeply than it would have been in a more rational circumstance.
It is telling what was removed from the long form census after 1970… questions on indoor plumbing, having a landline telephone, having a tv (soon to be do you have a color tv? and if so, how many?), having a washer and drier (soon to be replaced with having a dishwasher)… by the measure of pre-1970 poverty, America is no longer ‘poor’. The things that came on after that are astounding: cell phones, microwave ovens, VCR, DVRs, walkmen, CD players, DVD players, personal computers, then laptops, personal music devices (themselves tiny computer systems), more than one car per person. The poor are no longer about the absence of need, as pointed out above, but the over-presence of want for luxuries above the old poverty level.
In what other Nation at any point in history on this planet has ever had ‘obesity’ as a problem of the ‘poor’. Being poor means not having enough to eat, going hungry, perennial starvation at low levels and then higher ones as you become destitute. Being poor in America means being well fed, having a roof over your head, indoor plumbing, 1 – 2 cars, washer, drier, dishwasher, VCR or DVR, microwave oven, cell phone… being homeless is a function of having taken up a loan you shouldn’t have ever taken in the first place, when it is not a function of mental disability or as a ‘lifestyle choice’ by someone who is actually better off in life and can afford such a ‘lifestyle choice’. When even the destitute are fed and can afford used electronics to keep in contact with all of their friends and family then you no longer have any definition of ‘poverty’.
Politicians hijacked mere wants to turn them into ‘needs’, and then taxed for those and made them more expensive by trying to control prices. Mind you that works on no place on this planet outside totalitarian regimes where you can go to work camps to be worked to death if you put forward the proposition that what you make is YOURS and not the wealth of the STATE. We fought a during 1772-1783 over that so as to put forward that you are to keep the fruits of your labor as liberty is that enactment of what you do to sustain yourself with the greatest right being that of NOT having government take your wealth from you. I do not mind paying taxes: everyone, even the poor, should pay into our common cause and our common protection and not be exempted from that burden that benefits all citizens. When liberty has no cost to it, then you devalue it until what is priceless becomes valueless, and then you lose it as you no longer cherish it. That is on the path we are on being so ‘kind’ as to exempt our fellow citizens from having to do their duty to help themselves and pay into our common government. No good shall ever come of that.
Rm -Your attitude is less than amusing.
They are illegal, and they do not qualify for unemployment insurance or retirement benefits – how would you expect it to operate?
The criteria begins with living within the law of the land. Let’s start there. This is hardly a small criteria. It’s the very foundation of a society that has proven to be very successful, prosperous, and extraordinarily generous throughout its entire history.
Consider that your cynicism might be the first thing to give up, such that those productive and hard working individuals who are contributing economically, socially and morally can have some possibility of gaining citizenship through the proper channel.
The fact is that those channels are broken, and mired in an all out Washington siht fight. Tough break – get in line, or get Congress to behave in a useful manner. How do you like them apples now!!
No free passes – the entire country is subjected to this, and individuals who believe they can bypass this situation, and then plead for entitlements… well, let’s keep it polite and respectful, and just agree that there is a notable lack of rapport with those who express your attitude. There really isn’t a solution nor a short term answer (unless you know how to get politicians to work together), and the more whining and complaining about what illegals can’t get, the more resentment there will be, and the more likely it is that they will not only be pushed to the back of the line, but maybe stricken from the application process entirely.
The latter is what they deserve. There are plenty waiting in line as instructed, attempting to respectfully navigate the process. Those that jump the queue and then have the audacity to complain about being treated unfairly deserve to be shipped out of this country via a very large boot in the ass to kingdom come.
This is why it we can’t compare downturns in the past with the present. This was before the current drop but it does an effective job of showing how rich we are (were).
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/131-us-states-renamed-for-countries-with-similar-gdps/
These 20 somethings and soon 30 somethings hanging out at home with no work are merely extracting the accumulated wealth of their parents. Soros said that would happen according to his plan, he also recommended staying close to the farm to survive this imposed and well planed yet to be named depression of his and who knows who else’s design. So what is being described in the article is a mid stream view, we have yet to get to and experience the waterfall of our economy wrecking pack of thieves in DC.
Glad to see vdh write about this because all the propaganda about poverty is just that, propaganda.
Wealth isn’t about dollars, it’s about lifestyle, and as vdh points out, lifestyles have improved in very substantial ways in the last 50 years. In some ways, you can’t even measure it. How do you compare people who had one fixed line telephone in their home (which they paid the equivalent of over $100 per month in 2010 dollars, to people who are surfing the internet in the palm of their hand for the same amount of dollas. The quality and safey of cars is another example. And consider the amount of income today spent on faood and the choices of food compared to the 50′s and before. I’ve done some back of the napkin calculation, and believe my personal lifestyle is 4x what my parents’ lifestyle was. They weren’t poor and I’m not rich either.
The most glaring example is probably health care. Probably 80-90% of the cost of healthcare today is paid for services that simply didn’t exist 50 years ago. And we are told to bankrupt the country to give health services that were inconceivable a few decades ago to people who don’t even want them today? It’s lunatic.
The reason the country seems to be weathering 20-25% unemployment is that everybody can slice 50% or more out of their lifestyles and still live better than people lived up to 1970 or 1980. Take a basic cell-phone plan, cut your cable channels, don’t use A/C except on the hottest days, have relatives live together, share vehicles, don’t eat out, don’t buy new clothes every month, shop at Walmart, watch movies on TV, go to the doctor when you are sick instead of his regularly scheduled mercedes payment appointment, cancel the gym membership……and on and on. If you had to, you could probably live on 25% of what you spend today. And if you are unemployed, you pay 0 fica, 0 taxes. You know it’s true because their aren’t long lines of men lined up on street corners looking for jobs.
Now, none of this is praise the criminal in the White House. If he gets his way, their will be men lined up on street corners. That way, he has even more power over thier lives.
Speaking of weird, I’m continually posed with this puzzler- policy of these state and national regimes, in California and D.C. respectively and particularly, adhere to and follow the strictures and dictates of the great prophet jeremiah Wright himself. In other words, the “poor” in california are bought off and become the children, wards in fact, of the state poverty pimps, with a crib, and food stamps from the taxpayer in an extortion racket dreamed up by the liberation theologist.
But it all resembles an analogy to the Johnstown flood with one particular twist- in that the dam is built with and for the express purpose of bursting, so as to wipe out the very host of the parasites, of course, whitey.
So if the government dreams up and implements one bribery scheme after another, in order to visit a ‘streetcar named desire’ on the guilt ridden, and exhausted whitey, for the express purpose of turning this country into one big primitive “plantation without borders”, with white enslaved and toiling on farms with hoards of bureaucrats as his slavemaster, just like it used to be, again, with the weird twist, you got to ask and answer for yourself just where this “liberation theology” itself originated, and the answer is of course, Moscow, and it well precedes the acolyte Wright and was conceived and implemeted before the future race bating, race hustler Wright was yet born.
But the fact is that also, Wright is every bit the muslim 0bama is or else why destroy the goose that laid the golden egg? And the answer is that you cannot have Gog without Magog, and what may seem to originate in Moscow, is in fact is the demonic offspring of the two.
The whole thing becomes clearer when one looks at the two things that have arisen most recently- the mosque at the cite of the world trade center attacks, and the way the ‘same sex’ ruling by a judge in California has set up the subsequent consequence of polygamy, child brides, and honor killings to be ruled as a “right” by this “court” precedent, sharia law in fact, born of chaos theory and Wright’s taqqiyah.
Only way to explain the building of a dam that has it’s own future destruction sewn right into the blueprints.
After the whole “poverty pimping” thing collapses the funding mechanism entirely, and the subsidy disappears, the next consequence, most planned, is the anarchy that will follow, in a fitting ironic twist/tribute to the greatness of man, or WOman as the measure of all things.
But by then, the goose with the nearly broken back will have had just about enough of the ward heelers and his/her taqqiyah, and all the cries of “racism” and blame from the taqiyah set will fall on deaf ears.
This article saddens me. The title, content and delivery.
This is the perfect description of a society (author) that has become all too consumed with consumption & status. Not a about the true economic & mental depressions of today. Wealth, illegals or the failures of statistics… are not the root nor the peripheral cause or effect. Productivity drives economies… you can’t sell ideas with out some way of producing them and that game has changed dramatically for America for the past half-century.
What is wealth to many isn’t the same currency for others. Can people not have a “wealth of knowledge” or “wealth of experience” maybe a “wealth of generosity”? Suppose one could have a wealth of outdated trinkets… what would be the use other than providing trinket makers with earned income?
Societies need purpose to drive economic prosperity and America is pretty schizo about what it’s role and purpose is lately. It’s not a bad society. We’re too busy taking short cuts and fighting with ourselves and everyone around us to stop and find a more productive direction. The “competitiveness” of scare resources is not making it any easier to step off the merry-go-round and think this matter out. Nor is the mentality of he who dies with the most trinkets helping. The questions are simple… what do we want for our children of this society? How do we build and provide to leave a better society?
The answer is not immigrants, counting SUV’s, outdated mobile technology or the price of a bicycle.
Nice article its very unique it is my first time to read like this.
How Main Street has Destroyed Wall Street.
Now that the Wall Street Manhattan Project is nearly complete I guess now would be a good time to shoot the greedy homeowners.
It’s all crystal clear. From the very beginning the homeowners have gamed the system.
The started by tricking the property appraiser (“Lender’s” Agent) into submitting an outcome based appraisal.
Then, millions of homeowners shrewdly conned the “lenders” into dismissing all agency and fiduciary responsibility in the underwriting process…going so far as to force the “lenders” into forging documents.
Then, the greedy homeowners forced the “lenders” into synthetically securitizing the loan in such a fashion as to bifurcate the mortgage from the note.
On top of that, the homeowners secretly cooked up the concept of “Credit Default Swaps” and forced the lenders to insure the collateral at the full (outcome based value) 30X over.
Having successfully pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes – these irresponsible homeowners showered themselves with well-deserved bonuses.
Realizing they were too big too fail, these irresponsible, reckless homeowners lined the pockets of legislators and received enormous sums of tax payer bailouts.
The result of these cunning maneuvers by the fraudulent homeowner scheme has them sitting fat and happy in the cat bird’s seat.
Savings drained – check, 401ks all gone – check. Kicked out of their homes – check. “Lenders” made whole many times over via Credit Default Swaps – check. Homeowners foreclosed and “lenders” buy back the properties for pennies on the dollar – check.
Follow the money and you’ll find the culprit. It’s about time we hold these homeowners accountable.
I was an IT worker for over thirty years, displaced by a combination of age discrimination and outsourcing, despite having gone to the trouble of obtaining updated certifications. Now I’m working part time for minimum wage as a cashier at a store that sells computer supplies. The reason I’m working part time is that companies generally can’t afford the risk of hiring full-time workers these days, what with the requirements for Obamacare and so forth. Maybe if I can prove myself sufficiently, in the future I can get a management position there with full-time wages and benefits. Admittedly, it’s a long shot, but I figure it’s worth a try, assuming my health holds out.
Despite making every reasonable effort to take care of myself, I have a considerable number of health issues due to hereditary problems completely beyond my control, but I still keep plugging along. We have cut our living expenses to the bone, but there is no possible way that I could afford health insurance at my age. And no, I don’t have any big-screen television or any other luxuries. This goes to show that, if you do everything strictly on the up-and-up, try as hard as you can to do the right thing, and never cheat anybody to get benefits you aren’t entitled to, you can indeed be poor in America in this day and age. Sad, but true.
It may be that way in Central California, but when you enter LA, things change. Side jobs are only available for 1/100 people, and many people struggle to live on minimum wage while supporting children (single mothers, many of them). The statistics are based more so in urban areas like LA, than rural Fresno. The article does point out some flaws in the system though, good on you for that. But ultimately, these problems are nothing in the big picture. While we may lose 50 Billion a year (made up figure) to people on welfare programs who shouldn’t be; meanwhile corporations are dodging some 2 trillion a year in taxes, and not hiring people… don’t hate the player, hate the game.