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Guest Post: The Great Reset
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
The Great Reset
Since the Status Quo is unsustainable, there will be a Great Reset. The timing and nature of that Reset is up to us.
Yesterday I laid out why the Status Quo is financially unsustainable in The Promises That Cannot Be Kept. The unavoidable consequence of that is the the nation will experience a Great Reset in which the promises of the Savior State are relinquished, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
As I discussed in July 4, 2011: The Cycle of Dependency and the Atrophy of Self-Reliance, our reliance on the Savior State has sapped our will and confidence, and hollowed out communities that have become dependent on the Savior State and its quasi-private partners, the corporate cartels of banking, defense, healthcare and so on.
The Great Reset will thus be a great shock to everyone who has grown dependent on Big Government and global Corporate America.
An unprecedented array of interconnected trends are converging that will force a Reset not just in the economy but in the American society and culture.
1. Peak Government and Moral Hazard. When the Savior State promises to "fix" any and all problems in the nation, such as banks making bad bets and becoming insolvent, it introduces a pervasive moral hazard into the culture. The defining characteristic of moral hazard is that it insulates a person from risk. That person will behave much differently than someone who is not insulated from risk.
In the case of finance, the person insulated from the consequences of his gambles will have an insatiable appetite for risky bets that would be viewed as insanely foolhardy by a person exposed to the full, real risk.
In broad brush, the financial crisis was caused by the Savior State backstopping all "too big to fail" banks and Wall Street bets. These financial institutions are essentially free to make stupendously risky bets and keep the gains, if any, while passing the losses back to the Savior State's taxpayers. Imagine being given a stake at the roulette table where you get to keep your winnings but Uncle Sam makes good your losses.
Closer to home, the Savior State's promises to fund our retirement and healthcare via modest payroll deductions has introduced a moral hazard that is reflected in the nation's anemic savings rate: there is no need to save, because the heavy lifting of our retirement and healthcare will be done by the Savior State.
The numbers are something like this: the average Medicare recipient pays in $10,000 and extracts $250,000 in benefits. This kind of system is only sustainable if there are 25 workers for every retiree. Right now, there are roughly 2.5 workers for every retiree in the U.S., and if you consider only private-sector workers, it's more like 2 to 1.
We are at Peak Government and Peak Promises.
2. Demographics. "Pay as you go" systems like Social Security and Medicare only function sustainably if the retirees drawing benefits remain about 1/10th of the number of workers paying the taxes. Alternatively, the population must pyramid up every generation to maintain that 10-to-1 ratio.
The Baby Boom is roughly 76 million people, or about 25% of the population. There are about 139 million workers and about 310 million residents. The Baby Boom has started retiring en masse; all of my relatives and friends who work for state or local government are already retired well before the age of 60, and the first Boomers qualify for Medicare this year.
Once the Boomers are in the system, the worker-retiree ratio will be less than 2-to-1. This is completely unsustainable in a "pay as you go" system. Here are the charts:
I have addressed these issues many times:
End of Work, End of Affluence I: Cascading Job Losses (December 8, 2008)
End of Work, End of Affluence III: The Rise of Informal Businesses (December 10, 2008)
Endgame 3: The End of (Paying) Work (January 21, 2009)
The "End of Work" and the Coming Revolution in Education (June 7, 2011)
4. Peak Health. We're past Peak Health and well into a level of chronic lifestyle and diet diseases that is unprecedented in our history.
I have covered sickcare and the decline of health many times, for example, The American Diet: Manufacturing Ill Health (April 25, 2007)
As expected, developing nations like Egypt and Asian nations with low-fat, low protein cuisines like Japan have few obese adults. The surprise is that European nations with high-fat diets rich in chocolate and cheeses like France are relatively low. (Switzerland, though not shown, was just above Japan despite a very high per capita intake of chocolate.)
This suggests that fat alone (or sweets alone) cannot be singled out as the "cause" of obesity.
Now please don't take this entry personally if you are overweight. By the NIH standards of what constitutes "normal weight," some 2/3 of American adults are overweight or obese. Since this wasn't the case 40 years ago, we have to ask what's different now.
What's different? Lifestyle and diet. Boiled down, here is the situation: unprocessed foods are healthy and unprofitable, processed foods are unhealthy and immensely profitable.
Here is a long-term study which supports the connection between lowering salt intake and lowering the risk of heart disease:
Scientists prove that salty diet costs lives; "Eating less salt reduces the chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke, the first long-term study of salt’s impact on health confirms today."The usual image of a high-salt diet is someone shaking loads of salt on their steak or veggies. Too bad it's not this simple. A careful study of standard American manufactured foods has led me to conclude that even if you don't add a single grain of salt to a single morsel of food, you are eating far more salt than is healthy.
And by manufactured foods I don't mean just frozen dinners; I mean canned beans, prepared salads, packaged noodles, sausage, snacks, etc. Everything which isn't fresh produce, bread. dairy/soy or fresh meat/fish, i.e. foods which require some preparation.
The "recommended salt intake per day" is about 2300 mg (milligrams), which in terms of limiting your risk of dying prematurely should be viewed as a maximum best avoided--about half that would be a better target. So let's "eat healthy"--low fat and low sugar--and see how we do:
Breakfast: Wheat Chex: 420 mg of salt and a low-fat Aidells sausage: 300 mg
Lunch: Trader Joe's mushroom rice noodle soup bowl: 700 mg
one bag of low-fat chips: 600 mg
dinner: organic garbanzo beans, 390 mg, salad with blue-cheese dressing with bacon bits (500 mg), frozen low-fat enchiladas (750 mg.)Total salt content of "low calorie, restricted fat" diet: 3660 mg. What can we say about this level of salt intake? It raises the risk of stroke and heart disease. Put simply: it will very likely take years off your life.
So next time you're in a fast food outlet or a supermarket, try to find something you can eat that won't kill you. It will be a challenge, I guarantee you.
Here's a short list of what I no longer eat:
- chips: out, too much salt
- fries: out, too much salt
- sausage: out, too much salt
- fast food in general: out, too much salt
- salted nuts: out, too much salt
- canned goods: out, too much salt
- most cereals: out, too much salt
- bottled salad dressings: out, too much salt
- sports drinks: out, too much salt
- pre-packaged salads: out, too much salt in the dressing
- frozen meals: out, too much salt
- packaged snacks: out, too much salt
- packaged noodles: out, too much salt
In other words, literally everything in the supermarket except the fresh produce and the meat counter (with rare exceptions like frozen blueberries, which are essentially produce anyway).
If you want to locate the cause of American obesity and poor health, look no further than the label on virtually every item in the American supermarket.
Demographically, the Savior State programs of healthcare are unsustainable, even as the costs of treating chronic lifestyle diseases with expensive medications is skyrocketing along with the population at risk of these chronic lifestyle diseases.
5. Peak Cheap Oil. Cheerleaders assure us the world has 40 years of oil, no problem, but these cheerleaders inevitably avoid the consequences of EROEI. It now takes more capital to extract a barrel of oil or process shale into liquid oil, a dynamic measured by EROEI, energy returned on energy invested (or EROI, energy returned on investment, which to the degree that money is a measure of energy is the same thing).
In the good old days, oil gushed out of the ground and the total recovery cost was $1 per barrel, or perhaps $5 if the well was deep. So what happens as the recovery cost rises to $50 per barrel? That is the cost for deep offshore wells, tar sands, shale oil and all the other so-called "unconventional" sources of oil.
We should recall here that relatively modest (in the long view) increases in the cost of energy in the 1970s sent the U.S. economy into a decade-long stagflation. Cheerleaders reassure us that energy is a much smaller part of the economy now, but that reassurance is hollow, for oil leverages everything from air travel to plastics to fertilizer to the cheap frozen foods in the supermarket.
The Great Reset won't just transform government, it will transform the economy and culture. Although it will be marketed as a great tragedy by those losing power and profits, the end of Savior State moral hazard will not be a tragedy, it will simply be a return to reality. Those exposed to risk behave differently than those insulated from risk. That is neither "good" nor "bad," it is an observation any of us can make.
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The writer is wise to include Peak Health and rampant obesity, which is rarely mentioned in these types of discussions.
What say our Surgeon General? Has anyone heard from her...ever?
Nice to meet you ma'am. Have you seen Eric Holder?
Peak civilization.
The abolition of work!
http://deoxy.org/endwork.htm
Warren Pollock wants his essay title back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74a8JgB0FIE
I am Chumbawamba.
Chumba,
Is that you mooning Warren in the window? :)
CD, your comment is a perfect example of the intellectual bankruptcy on display here at ZH. Tyler presents a one-sided case, taylor-made for apocalypse yearning, responsiblity dodging, armchair blowhards - whose policy recommendations [anti-tax, anti-social safety net, pro-privatization] eerily match those of the corporate criminals they claim to abhor. And then people like CD, Chumba, Trav, and all their little brownshirt friends joke around while the mess called human civilization gets worse.
I'm sure after I leave all the scamps will get their panties in a bunch and return to their tiresome "If A then B" regarding my comment - claiming that I'm on the left, a socialist, a commie, [or...gasp! I have a jewish grandparent] etc etc - when, in fact, my dubious little friends, a critique of one approach does not necessarily mean sympathy for another. Of course, it's easier to react than formulate your own ideas, is it not? That's why you're called reactionaries.
I suggest you unplug and make yourself useful as I am doing right....now.
Would enjoy hearing how you are making yourself 'useful' right now. I rarely meet one who knows beyond a shadow of doubt that their actions and thoughts are supreme to all other's here. You are a lucky man, or cursed. Depends..
p.s. I've noticed that your tactic is to never draw your platform nor explain what you believe in, only to lob snarky rhetoric at those who do. Grow a pair and share your utopian, socialist ideas on where we go moving forward, Copernicus.
An ad hominem attack is the lowest form of rhetoric. CD is like Jerry Garcia and C. Wright Mills rolled into one, while your comment leads me to believe that you think that The New Republic offers "fresh insights on the problems of today."
I don't read the New Republic.
If you are suggesting my point does not have any empirical merit, I invite you to track my comments. You will easily discover many instances of the problems I have just detailed.
I'm familiar with The Power Elite and the idea that CD somehow has the depth Mills had in '56 is a joke. That, and most of Garcia's music was noodily and wanky. My guess is that a majority of Dead fans delude themselves into thinking that their music was somehow insightful and interesting, when in reality they're just nostalgic and listening to stoned, lazily constructed and executed compositions.
So you slag off the article and other commenters with a high-handed contempt for their not offering any constructive ideas on our present situation... without offering any constructive ideas on our present situation yourself. Then, when this laughable piece of hypocrisy is pointed out, you 'invite' people to track your comments.
Well, I suggest you 'track' their comments yourself, fuckwit. You'll see they've all expressed their opinions at great length in the past.
Contempt, yes. Calling it high-handed is merely your way of being dismissive.
Perhaps you should reread what I have posted and/or read my older comments. I have, in fact, offered many constructive opinions in the past, but have become fed up with the intellectual cesspool ZH has become; thus, my [continual] point is to address the inherent hypocrisy of ZH's claim "to get the word out to the people" about corporate corruption while tolerating hateful commentary [not to mention ironic policy leanings -see above].
It is fairly obvious that you care little for "constructive comments" anyway. Why? because you are using the obvious mirroring ploy used by many individuals here. What is mirroring? It is when one reflexively blames a critic for exactly that which they are critiquing. It's the rhetorical equivalent of honking at the person you just cut off on the road. Your comment only demonstrates your lack of sophistication and capacity to carry on a debate. You might want to work on that.
I think this is a Chas. Smith blog post, but overall I agree with the gist of your comment, Maniac Researcher.
The blog poster obviously has great difficulty with relatively simple arithmetical concepts, and therefore does not comprehend that there is NO American economy, it HAS been dismantled over the past 35 years, yielding all those debt-financed billionaires, which is why the GDP is 74% or greater fantasy finance; we are witnessing the Oligarchic Financial System made whole, and the end of predatory capitalism (better known as their Ponzi-Tontine scam) -- expect full demise in 2012.
Around one hundred years ago, Wilson preemptively arrested activists and jailed them, including Eugene V. Debs, of whom he used the Espionage Act against.
In 2011, Obama once again (although it began with the Bush clown) has preemptively arrested activists, and gone after more whistleblowers than all previous US presidents combined, and he has used the Espionage Act at least 5 times which we are aware of.
Little has really changed, or else THEY follow a One-Hundred Year Plan.
So you're saying that we're not going to hell -- this IS hell.
Essentially....yes!
It is rare to see Debs brought up on ZH. I doubt any of the wannabe brown shirts and Beck/Limbaugh fans have ever heard of him.
He is a figure well worth discussing more within the context of today's political scene in the US. Hell, there might even be some gems of wisdom worth unearthing that could be useful.
Individuals like Chumba, CD, Trav, and all the other regulars claim to be looking for answers, but it's mostly a bitterness and bigotry jerk off. Thus, a discussion about Eugene Debs' history, his various campaigns, strategies, successes and failures would likely have little impact here.
First of all, get your shit straight. If the article is "intellectually bankrupt" then why should you get your panties in a wad if I'm joking about it? Would you rather I take a brainless piece of shit article and attempt to respond to it eruditiously to not downgrade the sanctimony of the topic?
Second, I wasn't joking: Warren Pollock is all over The Great Reset like white on rice, a Jew on a penny, and a sensationalistic story on ZH.
Third, where were you 2 years ago when I actually still cared? Why weren't you there with me working with me to try to get some motion going in the rebellion department? You're just a Johnny-Come-Lately here, junior. I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the adjudications. I've blown that wad and am taking a necessary respite in preparation for round 2, coming soon.
I suggest you make yourself relevant by following your own damn advice! Give us some ideas to work with. If all you're going to do is harangue other people over petty foibles then I suggest you go make HuffPost or some other oasis of degeneracy your home for a while. This is an intermission. Act 2 is just around the corner. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
I am Chumbawamba.
And a happy ZH birthday to you, Chumba. 2 years of eating some of the crap here is a landmark.
SilverFuturist, u rock!
I'm glad you're finally asking questions instead of just spouting off, Chumba.
First, I was here two years ago. I remember Marla actually attempting to moderate the recklessly foolish comments from individuals such as yourself. I tend to listen be for I talk, thanks.
Second, I have no interest in the type of rebellion you believe you would like to engage in. Any system proposed by individual who does not seriously take into account any and all historical contingencies is doomed to fail. I have expanded on such contingencies on numerous occasions here in the past.
Third, the only point I wish to make now is that it has become obvious that ZHers would revel in their own ignorance rather than address all options for social, political, cultural, and economic change. Sorry, but I'm not going to put much energy into discussing these details.
Why? Again, I will repeat ad nauseum: There is no credibility to be had amongst a group of people that allow vile ignorant hate in their midst. If there was actually *any* sort of effort being made to curb this activity, then that would be a different story. But the opposite is true, and you know it - whether you admit it or not.
I am not Chumbawumba
..nor do I have the need to make a pretentious declaration at the end of all my comments.
Why? Again, I will repeat ad nauseum: There is no credibility to be had amongst a group of people that allow vile ignorant hate in their midst. If there was actually *any* sort of effort being made to curb this activity, then that would be a different story.
I see all sorts of comments here at ZH. Sometimes the bigotry is called out, sometimes it isn't. We're not paid internet PC policemen any more than you are, you pompous fuck. If you don't like the comments, reply to them yourself, you lazy bastard.
Your reply belies your attitude regarding my comments:
A) I am calling bigotry out, so your first sentence is a moot point. Feel free to track my comments for clarification [including those on this very thread].
B) the use of the term "PC" clues me in that you do not care to call out bigotry yourself. Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with history of the term "politically correct." It is rhetorical device that was created by individuals who were complaining about being called out on their racism, misogyny, and other various discriminatory attitudes in the first place. You seem like one of them to me.
C) In the light of A and B, you labeling me a "lazy bastard" more accurately applies to you. Thank you, "big jim" for helping display more ironic and hypocritical attitudes available here on ZH.
It looks like she may have eaten Eric Holder.
Everyone of this eating orientation and a healthy sense of humor should see this. Brilliant piece of work.
Rush Limbaugh Eats Everything.
http://e-sheep.sansara.net.ua/www.e-sheep.com/rusheats/
Check out Patrick Farley's work in general. Pure genius.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/a-year-and-a-day-later/
Looks like she ate him.
can't blame her, he had that Chiquita sticker on him
i think she'd rather have had the weiner!
Yeah, the last time I saw Eric he had his head up his ass.
yeah she's seen him.
and then i think she ate him.
i was too late to see bastiat thinks so too.
Too busy stuffing twinkies in her piehole by the looks of it.
Bring on the fucking reset , theres no alternative and id sooner get on with the Brave New World whilst im younger and not a bled out , bitter taxpayer too old to get down with it.
Pick a side bitchez.
Twinkies are low class junk food for the masses. This person obviously stuffs her mouth with French Bonbons.
Excuse me, but those would be Freedom Bonbons.
I am Chumbawamba.
The Office of Surgeon General has become a job filled by someone that provided the government a service.
Maybe she's working up a plan for botox bailouts? Something like
http://www.reveal.com/xres/images/Reveal%20Botox%20Bailout.html
I'm worried about our Surgeon General. She looks like she could keel over from heart attack or stroke any day.
I'm sure Michelle Obama's ass is bigger but she can keep pushing that healthy living. Has there ever been a first lady as overweight? She's gotta be pushing 200# by now.
flag as junk (1)
"Has there ever been a first lady as overweight"
Barbara Bush comes to mind.
My buddy had dinner with her not too long ago, coincidentally.
...and? Chainsmoking unfiltered cigarettes while eating ipads?
And his impressions?
she's black...that's all you need to know
That's "nigger" to you, boy.
I am Chumbawamba.
be careful, Trav is black too
News to me. I thought he was yellow with a white finger up his nose.
He is in fact white but sometimes he has a little black* in him.
I am Chumbawamba.
* his name is Leroy.
My how boring your stupidity has become. The more shrill you get, the more convinced we all are that you are nothing but a whining loser who desperately craves recognition.
Oprah is our Surgeon General?
Clearly she is included in the +30 BMI
Looks like she's thinking about eating more corn syrup.
CORN SUGAR!!!!!!!!!
How do I flag the picture of the surgein general as JUNK...in the trunk?
Just shoot me now.
People consider me thin and athletic, yet my BMI is 27.0 Overweight. Maybe those folks are all Lard Hogs?
Yep. If you have significant muscle mass, your bmi is going to be skewed... You could have 7% bf, but still be overweight according to bmi... whatever.
Virtually everyone is overweight if they don't have to do much work...
It's all about selling you pharmaceuticals. The real bitch is when you pass the "healthy" BMI number and are found to be underweight. Hey, there are drugs for that, too! How convenient.
Doesn't anyone notice that the side-effects to these modern drugs are most times worse than the condition for which you are prescribed them?
"Side effects may include slight headache, dizziness, bloating, unchecked farting, bouts of explosive diarrhea, intestinal inflamation, severe gout, projectile vomitting, various forms of incurable cancer, warts on your scrotum, and regular use my induce heart failure, liver failure, kidney disease, Type II diabetes, dementia, early onset of Alzheimers, penile dysfunction, vaginal dryness, water retention, blocked digestive tract, uncontrolled itching, and hair thinning."
And of course, there's a convenient drug to "cure" all of the above symptoms, available at your local pharmacy, all replete with their own set of side effects (which can be cured by additional pharmaceuticals, also available at your local pharmacy or toxic waste dump).
I am Chumbawamba.
DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN BALL..............
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gzDC-2ZO8I
Chumba
Many moons ago I was given a drug with a listed side effect of 'death'. Yup, between stomach cramps and head aches was 'death'.
Odd because I would have thought that 'death' was an end result, not a side effect. My doctor assured me the labeling was correct, but that particular side effect was rare. I asked him if you could recover from that side effect. For some reason he didn't answer and just gave me a dirty look.
I didn't take the drug nor go back to that doctor.
that was the funniest thing you've ever posted.
it is called 'CDS', a Cognitive Dissonance Superjoke.
My work softball team was the 'tarry black stools'. We took the name from a drug side effect.
It is always in the details. You cannot trust anything in this environment. I don't remember the exact number, but I know it was over 50% of Doctors are said that they would not follow their own advice.
I found it quite unnerving to find myself possibly fitting the minor population that would feel these side effects when I reviewed my treatment over a decade ago. I have long since made other arrangements.
I feel sorry for anybody who has to receive medical, health, food, education or whatever through their government. Trust is predictablity and accountability.
Keep in mind that 50% of Doctors finished in the bottom half of their graduating class.
And of the upper 50% many enter politics, and so perhaps, inadvertently, save lives; probably their greatest contribution to society
Charles Hugh Smith knows nothing about salt:
http://lewrockwell.com/spl3/cutting-back-on-salt.html
Eat it.
Please don't tell anyone who actually owns the majority of those pharmaceutical companies.
Ameritards are never supposed to know who actually owns anything, or that those who create the health problems are the same parties who then profit from offering the treatment for those health problems.
Nobody is supposed to know who owns the banks, the oil companies, the "defense" companies, the pharmaceutical companies, etc.
Keep it secret.....
"If sudden death occurs while taking this medication, discontinue use immediately and contact your Physician"
Sorry, finger trouble
So nice to see there is one person here with a good sense of fun....good one, made me laugh
"If Sudden Debt occurs while taking this mediation, double up immediately and contact your nearest travel agent".
ORI
Long suicide.
means you short life.
the final arbitrage?
Use leveraged ETF: DED, just beware the time decay..
give me one more margin call before I go, just one, the last.
the choices are: decentralisation & selfsufficient systems or slavery in a corporate state.
choose or someone makes it for you.
Not necessarily total decentralization though. Some central coordination and infrastructure can be efficient - but the bloated size of it nowadays, and the top-down command-hierachy and dependency-chain, just isn't necessary.
The problem is that the central coordination is limited in the beginning, but has a tendency to grow as time progresses... even with mandated limits, I propose this growth is inevitable... it's one of the major hurdles of human capacity and, thus, civilization.
While i in principle agree, i also think that all the checks and "limits" in most current democracies are a joke - and yes, including the USA - right from the beginning. They all try to kinda "forbid" and "compensate" something already existing..... yet, if you want to limit power, and guarantee certain entities certain powers, then why not just make it exactly so?
Where for example is the ability for citizens to via direct vote veto any policy, if the majority of the public disagrees? I mean, come on! This is the LEAST one could do.... allow people to say no when crap is already in the critical phase, hmm? But no, not even that exists. Just some stupid votes for politicians (rather than policies) and a bunch of parties which are supposed to never ever conspire to form a cartel, in a matter of hundreds of years...... riight.
Bottom line: Spend less time on trying to "protect" people from already existing possibilities.... and instead equip them to resist themselves. Don't try to reach a certain outcome indirectly, via a complicated model.... just make the model the same as the desired outcome.
because we have a republic and not a democracy... although the latter tends to usurp the former...
And would the centralizers be granted power to force me into their system?
If so, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
http://libertyroundtable.org/idoi.html
The Great Reset begins today no doubt
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/16-reasons-to-feel-really-depr...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvnAE8olUxU&feature=pyv 0:31
The Federal Government is Guilty of Treason.
The Intelligence Agencies are Guilty of Treason.
The Lobby is Guilty of Treason.
Most AAA Rated Corporations are Guilty of Treason.
Today in America if You Mention the Constitution of the United States of America it will be used against YOU! as probable cause to search you! You will be considered a Home Grown Extremist! Dont mention the Bible (just the end) and dont mention Gold or Silver!! and please! dont be prepared for a flood / storm / tornado of any kind.. because you are a hoarder!
This is what "The Land of the Free" and the "Home of the Brave" has become!
A Police State! None of us want to admit our Country is well on its way to a 3rd World Police State (with a service economy to drive GDP, courtesy of the Lobby and Lobby Whores!)
America has been Gutted by the above, 50,000 jobs a month have been shipped to China alone and.. AND!! the Lobby successfully negotiated Tax Breaks for those Companies moving jobs off shore!!
***** “Over the last ten years, China has mounted the biggest challenge to the U.S. manufacturing sector ever seen, threatening producers of steel, chemicals, glass, paper, drugs and any number of other items with prices they cannot match. Not coincidentally, the United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs every month during the same period.” *****
http://blogs.forbes.com/beltway/2011/02/14/intelligence-community-fears-u-s-manufacturing-decline/
"We the People" paid AAA Corporations to gut our manufacturing sectors!
"We the People" paid AAA Corporations to gut our Tax Base!
Corporations dont pay Taxes in America!
Top 10 corporations which paid no taxes
Here is Sen. Sanders’ list of the 10 worst corporate incometax avoiders:
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil’s 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)
3) General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States over the past five years and, thanks to clever use of loopholes, paid no taxes.(Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of negative $19 million.)
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)
6) Valero Energy, the 25thlargest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year, received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company’s 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.(Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company’s 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here.)
10) Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits over the past five years, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times here.)
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2011/04/30/top-10-corporations-who-paid-no-taxes/
How about Subsidies??
Top 10% of America's farms collect 75% of federal farm subsidies http://www.ewg.org/farmsubsidies
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2011/06/29/anderson-cooper-again-hits-bachmann-over-farm-subsidies-lead-segment-cnn
For the second night in a row, Anderson Cooper opened his regular news cast Tuesday touting a story about Michele Bachmann's hypocrisy in benefitting from federal agriculture subsidies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvf_vXrLZGs
Rockefeller Gets Farm Subsidies From Taxpayers
I always look forward to your cheery observations, JW!
Two solutions ARE obvious:
1) no more corporate welfare
2) cut government spending, yes we CAN get there with spending cuts alone
How about just abandoning an evil system?
Why would we ever think that one group of people controlling everyone else would turn out well? It's lunacy.
I have every sympathy for the Republican position: Starve the Beast.
However, a hard stance will destroy them. They have backed themselves into a tax corner that restricts their ability to even appear to be compromising. Obama could go for the throat on that but he can't. He's trapped by his inability to get big donors if he does.
My wish: Obama would give up hope for a 2nd term, do what he promised in his campaign, focus on the tax code rather than the minutiae of the tax breaks. He's nibbling around the edges and that won't get him elected either.
Bottom line: We'll get more of the same old crap that we've always gotten.
Not without slashing population by a significant amount, you won't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr9MAWAXZAY
Do you want to be free but dont know where to begin?
Oh sure, JW, pick on those poor Rockefellers.
But their stooge, from the IMF, MIT and their Peterson Institute, Simon Johnson (the faux economist), claims the Rockefellers are good people who gave away ALL their money to the masses through all those foundations they covertly own (I've counted at least 35, but there are prob many more).
Sure, if you track back to around 1904, you'll find that the Rockefellers owned AT&T, and later a chunk of GE, but supposedly they don't really still own JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, AT&T, ExxonMobil, part of BP, GE, over half the pharmaceutical corporations, and a chunk of other corporations via all those foundations, trusts, offshore finance centers, etc., ad infinitum.
Don't look too closely, now...
In 1913, the power elite established the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Income Tax, the Oil Depletion Allowance, and tax breaks for foundations.
The Rockefellers, Morgans, Mellons, et al., quashed the Walsh Commission, which had some seriously strong recommendations against the existence of foundations, which the super-rich used, and still use, to hide their ownership and wealth, while receiving tax breaks for doing so.
Later, in the '70s, the Rockefeller family pressured the politicians to appoint Peter G. Peterson to head the Commission on Foundations, a complete whitewash on foundations if there ever was one.
And the only thing Peterson found, 'natch, was that only tired old white guys were in charge at those foundations, they needed more diversity! Business as usual....
Later, Peter G. Peterson, through his mentor David Rockefeller, would be appointed chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and chair of the NY Federal Reserve, and Davy would fund his private equity firm/leveraged buyout funds (i.e., private bankster) known as the Blackstone Group.
And Peterson's wifey would seek to dumb down future generations with her "Obey Authority" series for the children, known as Sesame Street.
Can't wait to see what they have planned for us in 2013?
Why all the salt hate?
It is the wheat, not the salt.
It's this, not that...it's white, not red...it's starch, not fat...it's veggie, not fruit....GO JUMP IN A LAKE!
I was tortured in my youth by a mother who was a Barry Farber fan. Every other month, there was a new diet we needed to follow. That bastard turned my ITALIAN mother into a lousy cook!
She drove us all crazy, my father died from a stoke at 72 anyway, I've never had anything that looks like a low BMI...my metabolism sucks. I had to leave the Air Force over 35-11 regs.
And the answer was forever in front of us - Grandma and Grnadpa lived to 99 and 96. They ate whatever they wanted and there was always wine, beer, Hershey's, pork, etc and so on in their house. And Grandma loved to get herself a slice of pizza now and then. They just didn't eat 2500 calories everyday and they walked everywhere...never owned a car. They also had a much more relaxed view of life than my typical middle-class parents (who also made a big mistake by not drinking enough red wine).
Humans are omnivores - we CAN eat anything in moderation. It's not just one thing or another that we eat. It's about a realistic energy balance and not sitting in front of the TV all day. It's also about getting ourselves a government that doesn't keep us in a constant state of nervous fear so they can keep the nanny state running.
Okay....I vented....I'm done.
Nice story. Don't worry, we'll have to walk everywhere soon enough
cpn,
I agree, everything in moderation is fine.
But BOTH of you are correct.Genetics plays a huge role in longevity, as well as lifestyle, a poor diet over a long period is a killer.
However, after several stints on the Atkins low carb diet(all the salt I wanted), all the fat I wanted, and I mean like a pound of bacon at a pop, and 4-5 eggs,every other day,all the red meats,etc,etc.
I lost 50#'s, over a 6 mo period, and my cholesterol, total went down from 250 / to 172,with the good HDL Way up, and the bad, LDL way down.
This was w/little to almost ZERO exercise.
Wheat, as you know is,like most grains full off starch, and carbs.
Eaten, it turns into sugar, the BAD kind.
So you have high carbs, and high sugar.
Caloric intake means NOTHING,it's what form the calories are in.( like I said, I have done this diet 4-5 times, and the results have been the same.YoYo dieting is bad for you, thus the push to force yourself to moderate when you reach your goals.
It's tough to maintain this diet, but if you watch yourself you can easily.
My Internist,and Nurse, could not believe how I dropped over 80pts off the cholesterol and the good even went up, bad went way down.
Never felt better since I was mid /late 20's.
My gall bladder can't handle most of the fake sweeteners nor a lot of sugar. I have become a fan of STEVIA. Interesting stuff
Of Course there is the Mcdougall plan which is complex carbs low fat and protein.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/
Yep, I'm with you on that. Cut out all sugar and yeast-based products (bread, beer, pasta, crackers, etc.) and lost 12 pounds in one week. Look up Candida Diet or go to:
http://www.yeastinfectionadvisor.com/candidadiet.html
I've told 30 people about the wonderful health effects of this diet - the weight loss for me was an afterthought - and nobody has tried it. My reasons were to eliminated yeast fungii on my hand and calf: Gone in 2 weeks, but pretty much eliminated after 3 days. I have more energy, feel better and don't drink coffee any more. Feel so good, I want to punch some fat-ass eating pizza.
Actually it is the ubiquitous inclusion of high fructose corn sweetner in every processed food sold in Amerika. It's not the wheat or the salt, it's the corn lobby.
Another example of main stream misunderstanding of biological science.
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/saturated-fat/tips-tricks-for-startin...
Perhaps. Like most things, there is no clear scientific consensus on the issue. Just today I read a new review on the subject:
"Link between salt consumption and heart disease challenged."
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110706/full/news.2011.401.html
It is also due to a huge misundersanding of the difference between prospective studies and clinical studies.
Too many health recommendations have been based on prospective studies, which only determine correlation and not causation. This has lead to an abundance of incorrect health recommendations.
dirtnap is coming.
When the SHTF, we will have a limited time window to 'reboot' the Republic.
Unfortunately, I do not believe today's populace has the stomach for an American Revolution 2.0.
There's a tireless and irate minority that does. When it is time to grab rifles, I know many folks with the stomach and gear.
I would be more than happy to provide a Guillotine and the operation of it free of charge. I will happily donate my machine and time to perform this much needed service.
Baby Blythe:
The sheeple are all for American Revolution 2.0
As long as it's on X-box, PS3, Wii
There should be No! Rush!!
There should be all of those 24 hour Cable News Crews there.
It should happen on the White House Lawn with the New President throwing the lever on each and every Prosecution!
and if it takes more than one day, one week or one month.. so be it.. every night, dinner time prime time.. (copies on YouTube for later viewing pleasure) there should be a reading of who the person is, what they did and how it effected the Country..
If the new President does NOT have the wherewithal to throw the lever then he should NOT be President!
Those Lobby Whores.. for every $1 dollar "We the People" pay them.. they collect $4 dollars from the Lobby.. That is the Average across Congress and the Senate (opensecrets.org). The Lobby Whores are Paid 4 X's more money from the Lobby than "We the People" pay them! 4 X's!!!
50,000 Jobs a Month for a Decade!!!
The Tax Breaks for moving the 50,000 jobs a Month offshore!! were paid for by "We the People"!!!!!
The banks have robbed us Blind! all of the whistle Blowers are in Jail!!! and all the Bankers are FREE!! In America if you blow the whistle on Tax Dodgers! YOU GO TO JAIL!! while the Tax Dodgers get amnesty!
Talk about the Constitution in America? well you are a home grown terrorist! we follow procedural law! higher law is for the Ratings Agencies when they rate banks AAA that go bankrupt the next day! then its free speech.. but as for "We the People"? we don get free speech! we get free searches!!
Fuck Talking! Lets Hang some fucking Treaonous! Scum!!
From an interview of SF&Fantasy author, Ray Bradbury, by George Zebrowski, published in 2004:
"I mean Fahrenheit 451 is a perfect example of wrong things I wrote about that have come to pass, and we're living through them right now.
Trying to make do with lousy TV. Dreadful TV news. The news on every station in America today, local TV news, is an abomination.
You mustn't look at it, you mustn't listen to it. It's all lies. It's all building up things that shouldn't be built up.
There's no real news. It's all fifteen-second sound bites. It's all violence, it's all murder, it's all rape. There is no news."
...and the know how thanks to us fighting the empire's endless wars!
+1
As do I. Excelsior!
Funny that you mention stomach..When supply lines get cut and people are hungry, you can throw everything out the window because it will be on..Complete chaos however and a very dangerous period of time to weather..
Stack your ammunition as deeply as your food.
when JPig corners the sugar market and prices shoot thru the roof, you'd better stay clear of them diabetics low on sugar!
Sadly, I too have come to that conclusion. As a country, we could not punch our way out of a wet Klennix. The people have simply quit-on everything important. Even the effort to think has vanished. Milestones
This is evident everywhere I look, especially here at the office.
who cares, just buy stocks and all will be well.
Well, if we do go to Peru, at least everything will be cheap there...
DoChen,
Could you explain the basic steps to getting into Peru, and how does the set up work?.
Visa(good for ltd amt of time).
Residency, naturalization times,etc OR, point us in the direction of someone we can TRUST,for the real scoop.
America as we know( so I have been informed) is the easiest country to gain citizenship, and the fastest.
Unless you have $300-$400k lying around for Dominica.
DosZap, I do not have current information, but I am just about to go down there (July 9 - 15). I will try to get some info.
A bunch of years ago (10 - 15 years), back when Peru was flat on their ass, you could get a Peruvian passport for just a real $50,000 investment there. I strongly suspect it is not that easy still.
Also, I would wait until we see how a possible BIG PROBLEM new president Ollanta Humala tries his first couple of years, maybe he is a Chavez clone (our fear) or maybe not. Also, Peru (Lima anyway) has had a HUGE property bubble. Waiting two years (and doing due diligence and visiting the place, practicing your Spanish...) would probably be smart.
If you are seriously ready to "exfiltrate" the USA (even just a 10% probability), we should explore this by email. You just gave me a GREAT blog article (so thanks!). Drop me an email if you want "in" our little Peru / Gold Informal Discussion Group (5 of us now), we send each other this kind of info you seek. One of our members is looking REAL HARD at Costa Rica, but you need more $$$ than you used to... Panama and Uruguay also are candidates to look at.
Sounds like some good fodder for the blog!
Got a tingle going up my leg in anticipation (with apologies to Chris Matthews).
PS, DosZap,
To go visit, all you need is a US passport. At the airport, they will give you 30 - 90 days (depending on their whims, really!). You cannot work there as a tourist.
---
I have been telling our Group that anyone considering moving elsewhere needs to spend AT LEAST 8 weeks or so per candidate country... You need TIME to see if you like it, and you should be productive during those 8 weeks (like visiting lawyers and learning the language), although, yes of course you should take some time to see the Machu Picchus (or other equivalent).
Do chen.... do you travel back and forth from Peru? I'm planning a trip to Ecuador in August...contemplating staying there for awhile, I have familiy and property there and fluent in Spanish. I wouldn't mine hookng up with your online group and getting more info about a possible visit to Peru as well.
paz, yes, I go to Peru about twice / year. We have a business there!
Send me a gmail at my name. I will also send you a link to my blog and we can email each other news of interest. My blog is in my own name, so I do not post the link here.
DoChen,
Thanks.Will do................
Personally I would already be in the process, except for my kids/with kids.IF they would be willing to uproot, it would be easier.
My wife is a flat no because of them, but she is totally not in touch w/reality.
She hears me, she believes me,(because of my predictions made 3-5yrs ago, coming to pass 100%,that she thought I was nuts then making) but her world is here(as mine is).
She, when she hears just an iota of what they are doing, have done, she is in total disbelief(THEY can't do that!),I tell her ,well they did, and are.
I tell her get ready for a lot you never dreamed of as an American,in America.But, she is living in denial, and not the river.
If I were 15-20yrs younger, I would have an entirely different outlook on my plans.
Luckily, I do have a fresh Passport,an RFID one, but at least I did not have to produce DNA from my 4th Gen removed dead grandfather.
For those that have not renewed one, nor ever applied, you will be astonished at the new R& R's of what you must furnish, most will never be able to do it.
The stock market is going up, that's the only thing that matters.
S&P doubles since the march on Washington. Now no one really cares about the economy other than those without jobs.
SAD
"Pay as you go" systems like Social Security and Medicare only function sustainably if the retirees drawing benefits remain about 1/10th of the number of workers paying the taxes. Alternatively, the population must pyramid up every generation to maintain that 10-to-1 ratio."
excellent description of a ponzi scheme
dexter,
If the SS Trust Fund, was never opened up to Congress and used as the General Fund, we would not have any shortfalls.We would have billion, maybe a trillion plus surplus.
But, the road to perdition is full of potholes, and hindsight is 20/20.
The Fed, IMF, EU, ECB, Treasury, SEC and any other agency have sold there soles to the devil and will never let the markets fall again.
can't fight the world. Buy Stocks there is no risk.
There is no Japan Nuck problem
Greece is solved
portugal solved
Ireland solved
Debt limit a joke
US budget doesn't matter
state budgets don't matter
unemployed are better off with extended benefits, no house payments, free medical, and food stamps (equivalent to making over $75k per year)
I don't know why I go to work.
I could not agree more with this piece..We will have a reset across the board global style, were all tied together..But dont underestimate how long these fuckers can keep the scam going..Desperate people will do desperate things..
At some point the system as a whole will collapse under its own weight..The moral structure that has been taught over the past couple of decades will be the biggest battle to overcome..
Actually, a fair, knowledgeable Saviour State is our last, best hope.
Cato led misdirection is all too prevalent, and elections fail.
"Actually, a fair, knowledgeable Saviour State is our last, best hope."
----------------------------------------
When, in the entire history of man, has that ever occured?
Its funny that BMI was mentioned, recently I went from BMI of 28 to 20, been on a good diet (its easy, just eating smaller meals but more meals, ie eatting like 1500 cal a day in 200 - 300 cal intervals... you drop body fat by the ton.
I think everything is restricting, wouldn't be surprised if people stopped eating, being unemployed atm, prompted me to work out and diet, (save money on food and not become a lazy blob) haha
the secret is just to eat until you're no longer hungry, rather than 'till you're full
Fat people are hungry because their food addicted brain tells them they are hungry; In much the same way people hooked on prescription drugs suffer a lot of migrains or body pains.
The brain wants what it wants and will trick you to get it.
Fat people are fat for many reasons.
Some genetic,medical.
Also, as I stated above,caloric intake is not really relevant to weight gain.
It's WHAT did you eat to get that unused fat,and calories.
Try a diet without a tone of carbs, and grains.
You will find a 2500 calorie a day diet, will make you sick trying to find enough foods to make the 2500,it's like your eating constanly.
Wow. You really buy that?
It's as simple as energy in > energy out = FAT.
The mind can even trick you into believing it's genetic, medical or many other reasons (aka excuses).
http://i.imgur.com/mYAUY.png
Was I mistaken or did this article not cover Casey Anthony at all?
She'd make a good Fed Chairman. Practical.
http://i.imgur.com/mYAUY.png
Was I mistaken or did this article not cover Casey Anthony at all?
When is Walmarts Great Reset Sale?
The Revolution Will Be Sponsored
Gee, I'm sure this poster is correct because, after all, Obama's director of BS, Jeffrey Immelt, claimed a Great Reset was imminent (and I believe he's going to help it along).
we have an economy that operates almost exclusively via fraud and corruption. to them, facts are of little consequence.
nothing will change.
The only Reset now in progress, is : S&P to 2,000.
My BTFD Goog did a nice reset. $480 - $540 in five days.