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The Crises Is Real And Still The Idiots We Put In Office Are Still Playing Politics With Our Lives

National Identity Crisis

An alarming new report finds that the United States is in danger of losing its national identity. A non-profit group surveyed 2,400 Americans and found that 63 percent believe our national identity is weakening—24 percent believe we’re so divided that a common identity is not possible. The report blames our failure to teach and understand our own history: A recent survey of fifth-graders found that only seven in 100 could explain the significance of the date July 4, 1776

Who is populating our country and voting?

The other day, in a fast food restaurant I ordered a "Ceaser Salad"  and stood there dumbfounded when the order taker asked me ... "what kind of salad dressing did I want. Ceaser I replied in amazement. Is there another dressing I don't know about that goes on a Ceaser Salad? The blank expression on her face said it all. This is indicative of the level of intelligence gripping America.

FordTo Be Built In Mexico

Small, Efficient Auto Designed to Be Sold Anywhere

MEXICO CITY, May 30 -- President Felipe Calderón announced Friday that Ford will build its new fuel-efficient Fiesta "global car" in suburban Mexico City and upgrade two plants here as part of a $3 billion investment, the largest in Mexican history by a foreign manufacturer.

The decision is a major setback for the United Auto Workers union, which has pushed Ford and other manufacturers to invest in U.S. plants. But it was a coup for the Mexican economy after years of losing manufacturing jobs to China and other Asian countries.

What is the basis of a super power?

First and foremost it is the strength of its of manufacturing base and the middle class that earns a family supporting living there. As government bowing to corporate has destroyed this necessity and has done it so well as to assure the end of that concept, what will America look like in the future?

This extermination was not the original intent of our constitution. Corporations were allowed to form for a limited purpose and for a limited length of time. They were monitored and must do good for the people or there license was terminated. Our judiciary decided to change that essential premise and awarded the corporation the same if not more rights of a living human. And so the end began.

JOBS AND THE WORK PLACE

The sweat shop, with its dangerous work conditions, minimum wage not yet legislated, children exploited without compunction, is not a picture of the dark ages ... "it was only yesterday."

Those conditions were representative of city life in the early 1900’s. It was the normal environment where a predominance of new immigrants clustered. This was where they would gather their wits and aim for a better life. They quickly understood what was required and amidst a maelstrom of indoctrination hurdles, they forged ahead and their efforts paid off.

Back then, reward for effort might have appeared to be happening at a snails pace. In retrospect, as my thoughts wander back to then, I can only regard the advances made at that time to be amazingly rapid. Did this create a problem? Was this "new" strongly developing class of achievers rising too fast, getting uncomfortably close to penetrating "Power’s Towers"?

Unionism was surging ahead -- minimum wage was established -- child labor laws were enacted. Everyone, even those with minimal education, were climbing the ladder to success. "Achievement," possible for all, permeated the social climate.

America was surging ahead as never before. A courageous entrepreneurial climate was largely responsible for ongoing success. Destructive corporate practices, advanced by socially sanitized MBA’s ... was yet to come.

For the moment, corporate careers promised a good living and most important "stability." Newly developing technologies began to set agendas for the educational system. Students were pleased to graduate, armed with specialties tuned to industries’ needs. We were still a manufacturing based society. Employment opportunities were broad ranging. Our industrial base was expanding ... "not eroding."

Welfare, social security, income tax, were newly emerging concepts. Prosperity for the increasing middle class was just as new. They were the avant-guard for America’s surging success. It led to undaunted progression. Everyone was focused on bettering themselves ... and they could. The notion of creating government monitored safety nets wasn’t needed. The traditional family was not threatened. Educational tools were rewardingly accurate. The community was involved and socially entwined. Concern for others was still alive and functioning.

This "praised, energetic society" forged ahead. It advanced from crowded city cliff dwellers to suburbanite home owners. They departed from train, trolley, bus rider, to proud owners of shiny new automobiles. The sought after forty hour work week became reality. Leisure time, disposable income, continuing trust that the bubble would only expand, kept it growing bigger.

Honest effort and pride in accomplishment was a winning formula. That factor made all else possible, or so it would seem. In short order, the guidelines became insignificant. A new breed of corporate masterminds, consumed with greed and rewarded for it ... implanted their socially destructive objectives. Product, product quality, worker consideration, fell prey to daily stock market performance requirements. Paraphrasing a board room remark, "GM doesn’t sell cars; it sells stock." What was the end result of this arrogance? Japan, Germany, England, eagerly moved into the U.S. auto market. They remain embedded and prosperous until today. We are asked to accept a transformed picture of our economy ... the "nonsense" of an unrestrained global market place.

Our socially responsible formula in tatters, resentment and mistrust pervades the mass of hurting, disillusioned, workers ... destroying their social fabric. Workers that made America great, vested their future in believing, are now suffering the teachery of trashed promises. Again, I must repeat ... "It’s not the buggy-whip syndrome; it’s the greed syndrome."

Our economy has had its ups and downs before. Unemployment reached much higher levels than today’s publicized numbers. Temporary disruption of the work force is not a new phenomenon. Abrupt and extreme dislocation of the work force "is a new and frightening happening." This shift in job opportunity was formulated behind our backs. If this planned switch to a service society was forecast, approached honestly, open for national discussion, there might have been a chance it could have been designed to be successful for all. Would that have been a bad way to go?

Before society was beset with today’s chaotic, hateful downsizing and restructuring, people willingly listened to explanations. When intelligently presented with facts, accepting a glitch appeared to be reasonable. Faith and the willingness to believe in a return to normalcy was still possible.

Recessions of varying degrees came one after another, but as disruptive as they were they seemed manageable. Never did the "glitch" elevate anxieties to the point where we reached a level of combative disintegration. During all previous up and down cycles faith in the system prevailed. There was always a rosier future on the horizon ... a believable rosier future.

Life did get better. A thirty five hour work week was in the wind. Some corporations had already instituted a forty hour four day week, affording families more leisure time.

Everyone! banks, corporations, workers, appeared to be on the same wave length, convinced the future would continue to promote mutually beneficial advantages for all.

Banks, in particular, were at the forefront of displaying confidence. Credit was freely dispersed. Weren’t the banks determined to shower us with credit ... confirming the recipient’s ability to handle it? If one had any doubts about the future and the ability to repay debt, banks were instrumental in dispelling such anxieties. We were on our way to owing our lives to the company store. An accident?

Corporate promised ... workers believed. We were glad to have them. They were glad to have us. Who did more for whom?

It was a time when I witnessed computer repairmen advance to marketing executives ... trained within the company. I witnessed office personnel at Aramco being sent to the Middle East for high level training ... within the company. I witnessed many success stories, where people with intelligence, not necessarily with degrees, made it to the top ... trained within the company.

Small, entrepreneurial family businesses were sprouting up wherever you looked. Under the elevated trains in Brooklyn, a cluttered drab store, selling mops, pots, and assorted housewares eventually became a splendid store on Manhattan’s 5th. Avenue. A hard working electrician, carrying his load of tools on bus and train, converting gas to electric light, eventually had crews working throughout the city. A baker from Europe, starting with a small facility, the bakery and a four table restaurant, eventually grew to develop an extensive bread delivery business. Another newcomer to America began by nailing shingles on the roofs of Levittown homes. He grew to the extent where his real estate holdings became legendary and was written about in the Readers Digest.

While this freedom to progress appeared to be America’s solid doctrine, all too soon corporations showed signs of how they could exercise muscle. Merger mania grew, in spite of laws that were supposed to prevent the inevitable ... "too much corporate power." Mergers with suspicious motives, hostile take-overs, junk bond deception, were visible gathering storm clouds. It was obvious, "Power" -- not improvement ... was on a rampage. It wasn’t long before workers’ notions of opportunity and security, began to melt away. Every merger or takeover produced sell-offs and lay-offs. As power got fatter, we got leaner. Many of us went broke.

Middle management, a substantial segment of the middle class, had the rug pulled from under them. No longer could the emissaries of power, "our silver-tongued renegades in government" preach the glory of tomorrow. The words of Barnum, "a sucker is born every minute" had reached a climax. The sucker was waking up. The "Chip" not yet fully utilized, was beginning to emerge as the ultimate tool of power. Fighting back still appeared to be possible. Now! waiting much longer ... may insure impossibility.

The middle class society that brought America to her greatness was unconscionably altered and dismantled. The dedicated workers who created the bubble of growth -- who cooperated in every way to ensure its future ... were unceremoniously dumped. "Power" affirmed its capabilities of ultimate control. Normally expected job longevity, ensuring a worker’s future well being, was being eradicated. As a result, the "Family" was relegated to continue its slide to oblivion.

Debt, so readily showered on us, became a noose around our necks. As our death rattles grew in intensity, consumerism, the "wheels of power’s limousines" ... was going flat. That didn’t seem to matter so much. It’s easier to repair a tire than restore a life. "Power" knew that and proved that.

Today, turmoil reigns as never before. Corporations’ profits, greater than ever, stock values flying high, have been created by inexcusable downsizing ... a practice that will come back to haunt them. Those who have gotten the ax are being bombarded by government to embrace retraining. Our government, though they secretly sponsored corporate advantage, now tries to sweet-talk us into submission. If they succeed we will all wind up "Pushing Hamburger." Will the Pacific Rim economic expansion be receiving economic refugees from the USA?

As if there is not enough greed created chaos, more is being cooked up. Welfare reform, an attempt at improvement, is being engineered by sadistic minds. It is being designed to force welfare recipients into an already shrinking job base, which has displayed an inability to "keep the American family together." Crazy? Clever?

General Motors closes a plant in the U.S.. Needed downsizing and reorganization are some of the publicized explanations. Jobs gone, a community dedicated to the corporation is put in jeopardy as a new General Motors plant appears in Mexico. Is this chicanery or stratagem? Does our government intercede on our behalf? No way! Government steadfastly argues in favor of its appropriateness. They did sponsor NAFTA ... you know. Tons of our tax money went to Mexico as an outcome of the deal. Think again ... chicanery, stratagem, or both?

Even if we wanted to be patriotic and buy American goods to regrow our industrial base how can we, if most aren’t made here any more. Try a simple experiment. From the time you wake up in the morning and brush your teeth, till you’re ready to retire, write down where everything you touch or go near is made. The countries of origin will speak volumes. We, the consumers didn’t want everything to be made over there. It was our submissive government, bending to corporate will, that created corporate welfare (tax advantages) and looked the other way, dismissing our abhorrence to exploited labor competing with us.

There seems to be no end to suspicious, perplexing inconsistencies. Why, when America attained phenomenal meteoric growth and dominance in the production of goods for the world market, are we now imitating the job market of third world economies? There are those who will have lots, as the rest are relegated to limiting toil. Why, after becoming the world’s leading industrial power, are we importing so many of our daily necessities and have become the world’s biggest debtor? Why, when we proclaim to be a utopia, do we lag far behind in education, health care, crime prevention etc. ... of those we bombed into oblivion? Have the custodians we entrusted to adhere to "our rational," including the President, become one with a conspiracy? Are we entering a new age ... "domestication of the work force"?

Too cynical a thought? Think! Look back! Only a generation past -- rewarding beliefs, rewarding application of rewarding employment, usually resulted in rewarding achievement ... and a promising future. Where have those attributes gone? What kind of future are we being led to?

Simply put, we have come to disbelief, disillusionment, disconnected depression. This characterization is not portraying isolated pockets in our society, nor is it the result of isolated intentions of those in power. It couldn’t be. it’s too pervasive and therefore must be assumed to have been orchestrated through coalition, and with hidden intent.

Our President has no compunctions of appearing on television and announcing in emphatic terms, "our country has become a service society, get used to it." It didn’t just come to his attention, he must have been in collusion with "power’s agenda" for a long time.

The louder we cry out for our government to intervene -- to put the brakes on what is happening -- to curtail corporate abuse of power ... the more defensive and ridiculous become their antidotes.

A persistent ominous thought keeps surfacing. This recently acknowledged, guardedly admitted to, "New World Order" -- is it a prelude to strategies of "multi-national organizations" ... specifically designed to divide a world they will eventually own?

The more I contemplate the connections in today’s world, the more I have to believe that corporate is bent on dominating it in their own way. The more I contemplate the outcome, the more I believe an "Orwellian" era is closing in on us.

Will machine supplant the mind of the masses? Is man destined to become an organic appendage to the "Chip"?

When 350 of the world’s richest people have more wealth than 3,000,000,000 of the world’s population, anything is possible and many things are becoming probable. When 350 are equal to 3,000,000,000, could there be temptation? You bet!

How might ownership of the entire world be controlled and administered? Not to worry, it’s already under way. The tool is the chip. "Chip." A godsend for some ... a curse for most.

The Fading American Economy

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy lost 98,000 private sector jobs in March, half of which were in manufacturing. Today 13,643,000 Americans are employed in manufacturing, of which 9,849,000 are production workers.

Government employs 22,387,000 Americans, 8,744,000 more than manufacturing. Even the category leisure and hospitality employs 13,682,000 Americans, slightly more than manufacturing. There are as many waitresses and bartenders as production workers.

Wholesale and retail trade employ 21,467,000 Americans. Professional and business services employ 18,036,000 Americans of which 8,368,000 are in administrative and waste services. Education and health services employ 18,699,000 Americans.

Financial activities employ 8,228,000 Americans. The information sector employs 3,010,000. Transportation and warehousing employ 4,532,000. Construction employs 7,338,000, and natural resources, mining and logging employ 751,000. Other services such as repair, laundry, and membership associations employ 5,516,000 Americans.

This is the portrait of the US economy according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is an economy in which government is the largest employer. Manufacturing employment comprises just under 10% of total employment and about 12% of private sector employment. Everything else is services, and not particularly high level services.

Is this a portrait of a super economy?

To help answer the question, consider that US imports in 2007 were 17% of US GDP, according to the National Income and Product Account tables provided by the Bureau of Economic Affairs. In contrast, the BEA industry tables show that in 2006 (2007 data not yet available) US manufacturing comprised only 11.7% of US GDP.

If US imports actually exceed total US manufacturing output by 5% of GDP, it does not seem possible that the US can close its massive trade deficit. Even if every item manufactured in the US was exported, the US would still have a large trade deficit.

The NIPA and industry tables from which the percentages come are not calculated identically, and I do not know to what extent differences might exaggerate the differences between the percentages. However, it seems unlikely that mere calculation differences would account for US imports exceeding US manufacturing output.

If the US cannot close its trade deficit, it is unlikely that the US dollar can remain the world reserve currency. If the dollar were to lose the reserve currency role, the US government would not be able to finance its annual red ink budget by borrowing from foreigners, as the US saving rate is about zero, and the US would not be able to pay its import bill in its own currency. The rest of the world continues to hold depreciating US currency, because the dollar is the world reserve currency. The dollar is certainly not a good investment having declined dramatically against other traded currencies.

From March 2007 to March 2008 the US economy created 1.5 million new jobs (in services). Legal and illegal immigration and work visas for foreigners exceed US job creation.

During the current school year, 3.3 million high school students are expected to graduate. If we assume that half will go on to college, that leaves 1.6 million entering the work force. College enrollment in 2007 totaled 18 million. If we assume 20% graduate, that makes another 3.6 million job seekers for a total of 5.2 million. Clearly, immigration, work visas, and high school and college graduates exceed the 1.5 million jobs created by the economy. Unless retirements opened up enough jobs for graduates, the unemployment rate has to rise.

The US unemployment rate is creeping up, and according to John Williams, the official unemployment rate greatly understates the real rate of unemployment. Williams has followed the changes that government has made to the official indices over the years in order to spin a more politically palatable picture. Williams uses the original methodology prior to the decades of spin. The original way of measuring unemployment indicates the current rate of unemployment in the US to be 13%, much higher than the 5.1% official number.

Williams also calculates the CPI according to the same way it was officially calculated prior to the recent decades of spin. Williams estimates the current CPI at 12%, three times higher than the official 4% figure.

Williams reports that upward growth biases built into GDP modeling since the early 1980s "have rendered this important series nearly worthless as an indicator of economic activity." Williams estimates that US GDP growth has been in negative territory during almost all of the 21st century. The notion that the US is just now entering a recession is nonsense if we have in fact been in recession for most of the 21st century.

America's post-World War II economic dominance was based on the destruction of other economies by war and socialism. It is a different world now, and Americans have given little thought to the economic challenges of the 21st century.