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Foodstamps Soar By Most In 16 Months: Over 1 Million Americans Enter Poverty In Last Two Months
And we thought last month's delayed foodstamp data was bad. The just reported foodstamp number for September was a doozy, with 607,544 new Americans becoming eligible for foodstamps, as a record 47.7 million Americans are now living in poverty at least according to the USDA. The monthly increase was the highest since May 2011, and with August's 421K new impoverished America, over 1 million Americans made the EBT card their new best friend. It is unclear just which atmospheric phenomenon will get the blame for this unprecedented surge in poverty, which comes at a time when the pre-election economic data euphoria was adamant that the US economy was on an escape velocity to utopia. Instead what we do know is that in August and September, over three times as many foodstamp recipients were add to the economy as jobs (324,000). We also know that with the imminent impact of Sandy, which will send foodstamp recipients soaring, it is now looking quite possible that the US may end 2012 with just over a mindboggling 50 million Americans living in absolute poverty and collecting the $134.29 average monthly benefit per person, instead of working. Welcome to the recovery indeed.
Individual Americans on foodstamps:
Foodstamps at the household level rose to a record 24 million:
Aggregating foodstamp, disability and nonfarm payrolls data shows that since the start of the Depression in December 2007, 21.8 million Americans have shifted more or less permanently to the entitlement line, even as the US still has to generate 4.4 million jobs just to break even.
And the same shown on a monthly basis:
Source: SNAP
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What? Ayn Rand was lying? We are actually dependent on each other?
Doh. There goes your whole conservative thesis.
I have been reading the MSM stories about GE and Apple repatriating factory jobs to the US. The most recent being in Forbes.
What is most interesting is the apparent revelation that in many respects it makes no sense to manufacture many products in China.
The China manufacturing meme was apparently a fad accelerated by the short term share value enhancement sought by Wall Street and C Suite management with comp tied to short term share performance.
As a matter of long term strategic thinking, moving jobs to China en masse turns out to have been yet another example of economic strip mining by the powers that be.
Now, ask yourselves, what the fuck is an unemployed middle aged factory worker supposed to do? What business is he or she supposed to start? A hardware store, a dry goods shop, a newspaper stand?
Who designed the economy that converted millions of productive people to realtors, mortgage brokers and Walmart guards?
Certainly not the people who are forced to suffer the humiliation of being modern paupers because they find themselves unemployed.
Now the people who did design our broken factory are complaining the loudest about the safety net.
Let them dismantle the net and see what happens next. Something the Chinese worry about all the time.
Let's look at the real reason jobs might be repatriated/ Lack of demand comes to mind. Getting fingered Eg;( intellectual property theft) by the Chinese comes to mind/
Energy costs have trended upwards. Is that a surprise.
It makes more sense to have design and marketing teams in close proximity to production teams, all speaking the same language.
Time to point of sale is shortened from 4 weeks to thirty minutes.
IP management.
Upward trending Chinese labor cost.
And you say you aren't a trader? Passive?
There is much more to trading than fundamentals, as we now know.
You never cease to amaze me Mr. William Banzai-7. Technically speaking/ that is exactly what I'm trading in these thin markets.
Volatility is your friend, if you do your homework :-)
If I were trading on volatility, would I have time to do artwork?
A brillant artist you are. The "Vatican" should commission you... You are that good/ You have the ability to insert ideas in-to visual art in ways that remind me of some other very special proletarians/
Now if I could only find a way to remote taze Bernanke, Geithner and Blankfein everytime someone looks at one of my pictures.
Never mess with an Artist/
Better to inspire others on to their own tazing adventures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY8GGLI4Sdg
"It makes more sense to have design and marketing teams in close proximity to production teams, all speaking the same language."
You forgot research and engineering.
China is producing ten times as many scientists and engineers as the US. The US undoubtedly beats China in lawyers and social workers, though.
Globalization and bringing women in the workforce both did their effect. They can bring the jobs back here now since they already widen the wage gap between worker to executives over the last 40 years.
As long as they push healthcare onto the people and not a worker benefit for labor level jobs they will bring them back.
First of all they aren't going to bring any meaningful jobs back. Sure they will bring a few thousand back for public relations to make it look like they are taking meaningful action, but I will bet you dimes for dollars ( not silver dimes) that for every one job they create here, they will create ten in another third world country.
It doesn't make sense to bring every job back of course.
But the rubric became send all jobs to China.
Perhaps the next iteration will be why aren't you in Mombasa?
No it doesn't make sense to bring them all back, but when I here GE is going to bring 5,000 back over so many years it makes sick that people buy into that crap when you consider the fact that GE buys up companies to offset the jobs they are shipping overseas. This keeps their number of domestic employees look stable when in actuality they moving jobs overseas as fast as they evere were.
Yes, GE is one big net job exporting juggernaut. And now the MSM has been paid to publicize the job importing phenomena.
Nevertheless, I am sure that corporate America went way overboard on job exporting, simply because the idea of operating in China became such a Wall Street sponsored fad.
How much do you think it costs to manage quality in the China supply chain? It certainly is supporting the karaoke entertainment industry in Shenzen.
ISO-what?!
You can get that in the foot massage parlors.
They're massaging feet to ISO standards? That's news to me.
*edit: not defending ISO
ISO oorrrrnnnnyyyyy
Thank Bejesus somebody got it.
and a lot of these fags don't know what ISO even is...
The math for the long term financial viability of the US in a lets-outsource-all-wealth-production-to-slave-wage-labor-markets meme has never stood up to unbiased scrutiny. As fond the gov is with a massive and technologically advanced military and the ever-loosening export control of its development, it takes a strong broader manufacturing based economy to simply sustain it. Aside from the simple fact that no one can point to a 'service based' economic model employed by some nation that ever thrived over the long term in all of history.
Dr Engali,
I agree. Wall St owns Washington. It is a matter of crowd control, keep the sheeple in a quiet state.
The USA will only save itself when people who live in the USA buy local, even if it costs more to employ an American.
The Republic is an expensive virtue.
Sin is a cheap hell, as experienced by dollar workers sleeping on factory floors in most of the world.
The Republic can make good things at prices neighbors can afford if we stay close to home. After all, the USA is a huge market that can make, buy and sell here.
There is still more genuine community spirit and safety and prosperity in the USA than most places in the world. But the clock is ticking. Time is a fierce task master. We must stay close to home.
I agree it's people are going to have to support the local community , but I don't think that will happen until there has been a big reset. Since 2008 I decided that I was going to support the local businesses and shun the big box stores .The problem is thath they can't compete on pricing. Now I am blessed where I can afford to pay a bit more so I do, but not everybody has the same capabilities so the big box stores can crush the local merchant. Until there is a reset we will unfortunately continue down this path.
Evidently, food stamps and "entitlements" are embedded in the box store business model.
+1 Willam. The EBT buttons on the credit card machines, and this ZH article from 2010:
Stunning admission by none other than the CEO of Walmart on what modern day bread lines look like.
Talk about shopping only for necessities. The mid-night trip for baby formula says it all.
And we all know that Jamie Boy's crew charge and skim off the cards each month making billions...
This doesn't happen anymore... In reponse to complaints by retailers of the first of the month hordes, the SNAP (et al) benefits have been rolled out over the course of the month, often times based upon last name. In other words, at one point in time, everyone could go witness the modern bread lines even in an EBT world. However, this too has been obfuscated. I suspect though, like virtually all other measures, the law of diminishing returns will make another appearance and we'll be back at square one.
Dr Engali,
One step at a time. I do as you do: buy local. You and I are fortunate. By this way, local people are employed and they can buy local eventually.
I love my land, my people, my Republic, no matter what it costs. I am happy to be home.
There is currently a great need for carpenters in NYC.
unfortunately, you either have to pledge your first-born child to the Carpenters Union or be an skilled but undocumented immigrant willing to work for peanuts in order to get any work.
"that for every one job they create here, they will create ten in another third world country."
No they are simply building automated factories. They want to cut out the labor as much as possible. In the past it was cheaper to off-shore to cheap Chinese labor with workers making 10 to 20 cents an hour. Because of Inflation in China, wages are rising. and this makes domestic automated factories cheaper than Chinese labor.
I could show you some articles about the mad rush to send Chinese students to American universities and how the American science degree means much more in China.
They're going to be part of the new wave, along with Amazon (look to which company Amazon bought, and wonder at deals being made for production, and with whom). Since Foxconn is switching to using them, the same model will work in America, without the messy unpredictable bother of dealing with non-compliant workers raised on McDonalds and Fox News in their trailers.
What am I talking about?
iRobots.
There was a period when you were automatically considered a fool for thinking you could manage labor in the US. The MSM blindly perpetuated this meme.
Meanwhile the Japanese and German auto makers seemed to have been able to do it. What do they teach the Japanese and Germans about factory management that they don't teach the Harvard-Soviets?
In two words, cooperation and respect.
WB7, REQUEST. Can you please do up some artwork showing the EBT card like an ad for a credit card, maybe a "black card" version a la Amex? Obama edition?
Thanks, I love your satire, always Gives me a smile!
EBT Card...do they give frequent pauper miles?
frequent pauper miles / I just fried my keyboard! I think, I just lost a lung on that one!
I got junked by Thomas Friedman's dog Flatso.
No junks from me! never ever/ Iceland comes to mind?
Bill #7 if you have a trading terminal, I'm giving you some inside info. Short risk in 2-3 hours/ you will get pumped(stop hunters). Add to your posistion and be really quiet. You are welcome/``Don't set S/L, trailing stops are ok
"I have been reading the MSM stories about GE and Apple repatriating factory jobs to the US. "
These factories will be nearly completely automated. They will hire very few workers, and the majority of workers they hire will be skilled engineers to design and operate the machines. At best there will be a few unskilled workers to load the machines with raw materials and to ship out the finished products.
"The China manufacturing meme was apparently a fad accelerated by the short term share value enhancement sought by Wall Street"
This is happening because of rising wages in overseas and worker revolts. And they aren't bring back the majority of manufacturing, just the small portion that can be fully automated.
Read about the GE boiler plant. It's interesting.
If you have 10 jobs managing robots, better have them in the US.
Bang on.
As I said to my local MP, 'you got what you the socialist corptocracy wanted and suddenly realised you have run out of tax payers and consumers. It took you 30 years to break and it'll take 30 years to fix. So what do you think this unemployed mob is going to do in the meantime?'
Don't forget the burger robot
http://www.geekologie.com/2012/12/burger-robot-can-crank-out-360-bph-bur...
FORWARD !
So, who's the next slave-labor camp? Vietnam?
all good points, however, is the answer to get americans back to working for those very same corporations who shipped those jobs out in the first place? (those very same jobs will be for lower wages than they were before they were shipped off due to wage arbitrage.) is the answer to reindustralize America under the very same debt-based ponzi system (gone global) that existed before all for the sake of creating "Jobs"?
sorry, but i smell a long con.
No that is definitely not the right answer. But people need to understand that this has been a very long drawn out application of vampire capitalism and the vampires anre now busy trying to steal the narrative with the physical cliff.
Meanwhile they are trying to brainwash the masses with the hopium pipedrwam that some sort of recovery is underway. Shit we've been hearing it for almost four years now.
The simple answer is that it won't be Americans working (apart from for the glossy PR walk-a-bouts & brochures).
Johnny Cash - Sixteen Tons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfp2O9ADwGk (2:44)
I just lost mine, fuckers found out I work. I have vices..., doritoes, ginger ale, rising crust pizza's and slabs of meat. What the fuck am I going to do now?
Lots of Sandy RATS looking for a new home /
NEXT..........Ration Stamps
Manhattan Rat souffle... BYOB ( Bring your own bankster)... ;-}
I'm mental/ Quentin Tarantino flix keep popping into my mind/ go figure
The Bernank's gotcha covered...
Go buy a flat screen and a pack of menthols. KFC has a good deal going on also.
The money that they spend on your food stamps is peanuts compared to the money they spend on the corporate food stamps.
Especially given that the entire food stamp program is a JPMorgan subsidy.
JPM... the company that profited off WWI before anyone knew what modern day war profiteering was.
I was contemplating who was going to pay for all this when I unfortunately noticed my reflection in the window. Oh what a good time to be a wage slave.
Miffed:-)
That's 1 million more people contributing to the economy again!
The sad thing is that even though the system is designed to hide the soup lines they are still starting to form because people are running out of food stamps. I can't believe some of the lines I'm seeing at the help shelters lately. It's really pretty disturbing.
Nice of you to volunteer. Interesting reading your comment. Thank you.
I live in a city of about 35,000 people so chances are pretty good that if your semi involved in the community you are going to run into somebody you know. I bring this up because I see people I would never have expected to see in the food lines waiting for whatever assistance they can get.
Yes. Weird that anyone would junk his/her comment...unless they were a government PR, unhappy that truth leaks out.
'davossherman's comments are usually rational ZH. I guess it's upsetting for PRs to see s/he has a heart.
Thanks NewEngland. It's the ilene bullshit. Probably that fucking skank, Orly, LadyEconomist or some other clueless troll that I had to clue in on the fact that economicially they were clueless fucking morons.
Dr. Engali,
We see that too here in my part of the world, and I'm reminded of my mother's advice: charity begins at home. Genuine community gives time. There is never enough money.
Wall St owns Washington: they both take most and give least...because they are 'worth it' in their minds, with their celebrity freak pals.
There are record numbers of people turning up at pantries here because no government assistance programme can feed their family sufficiently after so very long unemployed or working fewer paid hours due to the ongoing depression which the elites and their media deny exists.
And I live in a place with one of the lowest official unemployment rates in the USA.
been noticing and thinking the same. probably not a good sign eh?
Impending Stock Market Crash: Time Is Short, Too Many Problems To Solve. The Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Are Failing. If US Can’t Avert Fiscal Cliff, Everything Will Collapse!
http://investmentwatchblog.com/impending-stock-market-crash-time-is-short-too-many-problems-to-solve-the-fiscal-cliff-negotiations-are-failing-if-us-cant-avert-fiscal-cliff-everything-will-collapse/
The "fiscal cliff" means shit. A Moron Bernanke coined POS term.
They won't do shit, Bernanke will continue to print, these fucking dickless assholes will continue to spend more than they take in with revenues.
The states is where your eyes should be. They can't print, they have to balance, revenues will dip and they'll tax you up the ass.
We have our own 1930s style soup lines. But now it is all done electronically. Just swipe the card and off you go. Absurd.
So the fucking dickless asshole bankster morons like JPM Chase can profit off the disaster they made and you and I paid for.
Sipe the JPM Chase issued Obummer ebt card and Jamie Dickless Asshole profits.
Who is your White House Chief of Staff???
Could you imagine the optics if they didn't have the EBT card? No way in hell would Obama have been re-elected.
"Chow,chow...chow......
Love my wiskis.
The Government will give you a fish before it will allow you catch one, has anyone been paying attention to the new fish and game regulations. Fucking government does not want you to be self sufficient. They promote dependency.
...but the more you have to deliver, the more broken promises there will be.
We ain't seen nothin yet...
Just wait to the "dawler" goes.
This shit is totally fucked, that is all there is to it.
Part II: A fucking dawler crises of BIBLICAL proportions!
Want to end up like Job and suffer, read ilene verse redux http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-12-07/hidden-dangers-gold#comm...
Unemployment is 22.8 percent.
From Jim Quinn's the Burning Platform:
No matter how the BLS spins the data, the truth is that the youth unemployment rate in the United States of America is 54%.
Some more facts:
38 million earn less than $10,000 per year
50 million earn less that $15,000
61 million earn less than $20,000 annually
Simply put: 100 million wage earners, or 2/3 the entire workforce, earn less
than $40,000 per year.
There are roughly 127 million people dependent on government transfers: 61
million recipients of Social Security and Medicare
Medicaid for the 11 million people drawing lifetime SSI Social Security
disability
66 million people receiving welfare (SNAP food stamps, housing credits,
Medicaid, etc.)
The $ amount only makes U.S. citizens poor if the cost of living is much greater. What is that cost of living crushing many families? It is the cost of food, fuel, 'health' insurance, car insurance, tax and government. It is the cost of government paid most by biggest banks, Wall St, insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical industry - all the construct of the shadow world government Trilateral Commission.
Fake prosperity lured people into the debt maker's trap. They are global marauders, and every country will suffer. This too shall pass.
Stay close to home. Defend the person stood next to you.
'Do You Hear What I Hear?' A Christmas carol.
It's housing. The increase in fuel-prices is rough, but food and insurances haven't changed enough.
What happened is the RE bubble drove housing costs in the stratosphere, and now that wages have started correcting and the Feds can't permit housing to correct, everyone's pretty much fucked under impossible rents/mortgages.
Loadsamoney for the issuer of food stamps: JP Morgue.
No wonder Obama puts a dog on his 'holiday card'.
'Here, boy. C'mon. There's a good boy, Obama. Mush.'
Endless holiday for the debt issuers. The House slave is no different than the field slave, except the modern House slave gets paid more to betray his wife's kith and kin.
Meanwhile the WSJ has a headline tonight that consumer spending is weakening. These two stories are not coincidental!
But wasn't it Nazi Pelosi that assured us that more welfare was a great way to create jobs?
Tsk. Pelosi. The broad fraud from a bankrupt state of fools and chancers. The whore of Wall St.
It's my turn to upvote you/ That was a really good post!
And it is always my turn to admire 'yen cross' and his family :-) I know that you will come home to us, one day. Keep safe, meanwhile. Happy trading.
I'm home. I like my neighbors, and I'm looking forward to the New Year/
Good :-)
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
Henry Ford
He was wise. It's controversial but his publications of the international ... are worth the read.
Ford also warned that if people understood modern money manipulators, then there would be a revolution by morning. The shadow world government of the Trilateral Commission are new to the USA.
They are hateful money lovers and warmongers. They are Talmudists, fake jews, and old monarchists.
Ford warned that money revealed the nature of the person wielding it, whether they be 'selfish, arrogant, greedy.' Or not. “The Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.”Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.”“Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.”“Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them. If a man is naturally selfish or arrogant or greedy, the money brings that out, that's all.”
F has some smart financial people, and some luck going for it/ Ford had secured financing just before the 2007 meltdown.
Ford was never bailed out, and had [auto•nomy] with it's share holders/ Ford could do better/
Read a book review on AMZN yesterday on Ford's collected essays. The reviewer had an original & went to the library to view their copy. Not only was she escorted, observed and ask why she wanted to read it, upon a stare & compare the book had been edited. Wonder why?
Goldi-
Tennessee Ernie Ford version much better...No disrespect to JC.
Tennessee Ernie Ford Sings 16 Tons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joo90ZWrUkU (3:04)
Thanks for using the "D" word...much more fitting.
"We do what we have to do. Others bury their heads between the swollen teats of indulgence and gratification, piglets squirming beneath a sow for shelter... But there is no shelter... And the future is bearing down like an express train."
~Rorschach, pg. 26 (Chapter/Issue 2)
Summed up by Alan Moore.
You are not crazy chump666
Watch the DAX melt down this week/ ASX200 will get toasted also/ metals will spike/ $ will spike/
The hedgefund [ROACH] Motel will turn on the " vacancy light"...
I agree, but...we will need Asia to slam hard, it's overbought as is Europe, ASX200 is a nice short. I need the DXY to show a bullish move, so far 50/50. The market tried to correct in Nov, but was underwritten by HFTs which kept a check on volatility. But hey this is market chatter between dirty traders...
America going down the toilet is tragic, f*cking tragic...
DXY did a head fake on Friday. The overall trend is long. That daily candle was puzzling, shooting starish. The trend is up/
Look at the weekly spinning top?
Happy Holliday Season on $134.29. Maybe we can invite the extended family. No need to bring gifts our Goverment has already provided.
In other news, JPM is reporting record profits on surging EBT card issuance and servicing. /sarc
If you forced 48 "meal-ion" amerikwans to wear around a bird beak to show their solidarity at being fed by their govt masters...
how many more would like to join their ranks?
I'm thinking this nightmare is more of a dream for the kamikaze's steering this american experiment.
The Ministry of Plenty is poised to cradle their children in the bosom of ____________________________ (insert favorite)
I pity the rest of the world. The USA is a big enough country to make everything it needs. The only thing it needs now is for Wall St gangster banksters and federal government to die by their own hands. That is likely.
Ahh, good ol' MiniPlenty! Hey, they just increased the chocolate rations to 28 grams! Praise Big Brother!
Wonder how many in this crowd carry an EBT or maybe a black Amex card?
http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/12/08/columbus-apartment-applic...
The winning comment (on that article):
"The cops didn't need to use pepper spay. All they had to do was threaten to find jobs for the people in line and they would have stopped chimping out immediately."
Ok I'm going to go to work finally. Enough people are now participating in the take down the banksters by eating into their profits and it looks like catastrophe is near enough now that I'm ready to go out and make more money than I can get from the NWO. Not that I haven't been working on my own and that includes about 40 miles average jogging per week. Oh I hate money.
Problem is, once on food stamps, when will they ever come off?
It is a vicious circle isn't it? Earlier on in this blog it was stated that for 315 million Americans only 115 are employed by the private sector and these are the Americans who are shouldering the bill payments aside from the loans and the printing press.
Doesn't look good for freedom or democracy or capitalism. We know what happened to the USSR, Germany, China before they allowed free markets and competition and so on.
Why our leaders are continuing on this path is mysterious to me, unless they are so foolish to believe they can achieve this thing called elitism, which is really a pedestal made from fragile glass.
It was Putin who asked why the US was going in the direction that Russia had just come from.
Putin who puts pop girls into horrible jails, just for singing against him and his?
It is my sad task to say that the Trilateral Commission rules the West...for now.
That fragile pedastal will be shattered by their own hands, soon. What is unsustainable will not be sustained. It will end, by their own hateful hands, turning upon each other, as that is their venal nature.
Happy Christmas.
Is it really a mystery? I can tell you why they are doing this. It's because for years they have been buying their way into office through offering a little bit more than what the system was previously offering. They offered welfare to the corporations and to those who had little so they wouldn't cause trouble. After 50 years of taking advantage of being the worlds reserve currency status they know we are at the end game , so they will do whatever it takes to slow down the final day of reckoning. Just as those who are in tune are getting their preps in place so are the elites. There is a show down coming , I hope it gets directed at the right people.
It's late in "fly over country"... A man with your skills?
"It is a vicious circle isn't it? Earlier on in this blog it was stated that for 315 million Americans only 115 are employed by the private sector and these are the Americans who are shouldering the bill payments aside from the loans and the printing press."
I suspect as usual that the BLS data on Private Sector jobs is misleading. I suspect they only count Federal Gov't and state gov't employees, and don't include gov't contrator jobs, such as Military contractors, business that sell good and services only the Federal and state gov'ts. The current estimate is that gov't spending (Federal, State & Local) accounts for at least 1/3 of the economy, and I seen recent articles stating it may be as high as 46%. Its likely that at least 1/3 of the workforce has a job either directly or indirectly working for the gov't. So out of the 144M workers, only about 95M are private sector jobs.
I also wonder if the BLS is double counting workers, since a large number of workers now have more than one job because they can only get part time hours and work two or more jobs to get enough hours to meet ends. Federal taxes reciepts are still down +20% from 2008. I seriously doubt there are now 144M employed workers, or they are making considerable less money.
If you go to the IRS stats, at the peak in 2007, only 120M filers reported Wages and Income (out of 142M returns). That would include Federal, State & local Gov't workers. Unfortunately the IRS has not updated there data for 2011 yet. I think its fair to say the BLS data is pure fiction.
bySocialSecurityNumber = 0;
jobCount = 0;
while (notDone == TRUE)
{
if (FICA_TaxGenerated( bySocialSecurityNumber ) > 0)
jobCount++;
if (bySocialSecurityNumber >= 999999999)
notDone = FALSE;
else
bySocialSecurityNumber++;
}
jobCount -= redundantTaxPayers();
// Just WHO needs the BLS again?
If incomes and employment continue to fall the government will be forced to tax wealth. As with income tax the wealthy will of some bracket will be selected to pillage. As they quickly discover its not enough they wll start moving that bracket down. It will be suprising that in the middle of a depression that we would find ourselves with so many rich. The wealth tax will ultimately just be a federal property tax...on everything. Real estate, personal property and investments. What they haven't been able to steal from us through the banks and inflation they will let the taxman take care of. Our ability to provide for ourselves outside of government wiol be gone. Renters and moocher, one and all.
Liquid wealth is already taxed via inflation -- based on gold pricing, the tax is likely between 9 and 17% per year, with just a few asset classes escaping this tax by growing at/faster than the real inflation rates.
At its very core, all of these problems (housing crisis, unemployment, foodstamps, etc) are due to an economic depression, which in turn has been caused by taxation and deficit spending far in excess of what can be supported.
When all the taxes that already exist are combined, we're well to the right on the Laffer curve, and things simply get worse. I don't think they'll successfully enact a true wealth tax, for several reasons. One, by the time this is needed, they likely won't have enough time on the clock to both pass the tax and collected it; two, money goes where it is treated best, and a wealth tax would absolutely kill any investment in the US (indeed, any wealth tax would have to be paired with capital controls -- likely controls enacted well before the tax, as one whiff of such a tax will drive capital outside the US instantly), and three, and most importantly, there is nothing a wealth tax can do that inflation or outright custodial seizure of bank accounts can't do. Wealth tax rates generally have to be pretty low to have any hope of collection -- that bastion of economic sanity known as Argentina has a wealth tax, and that rate is 0.5% to 1.25% per year -- laughably below the inflation rate.
Given our position that the Laffer curve, the core problem is simply there's nowhere near enough money left that's untaxed to support the spending that's been promised/planned. Foodstamps are chump change compared to everything else going on, and as disgusting as the FSA is, I won't begrudge a fairly small program that keeps the legitimately unfotunate from starving; we can cover its costs easily with current revenues.The problem lays with all the other FSA entitlements.
There is no tax level or system on earth, from a totally free market to pure communism, that can deliver on the promises made by the US to its citizens with respect to retirement, medical care, and maintenance of quality of life. The excitement starts when the truth dawns on even the slowest among us that we've been lied to.
Speaking of "whiff's". Back in the good ole 80's, there was talk of taxing savings accounts in congress. 22 armored trucks full of cash to fund the withdraws from the banks came rolling down Hwy. 5 to San Diego. That talk went away real fast, when that sort of thing started happening all over the country.
The depresssion was caused by banksters gaming our debt based monetary system, not spending.
And the Laugher Curve is a joke, despite what Glenn Beck tells you. Evenright wing economists have discredited it:
http://marketmonetarist.com/2012/08/06/arthur-laffer-youre-embarrassing-...
When it comes down to it all economic theories Are a joke, as they attempt to use metrics to predict the future, but there are just too many variables. We can predict most of the big things using the seat of the pants intuition. The problem is specifics of date and magnitude. Many have suggested that we have already collapsed yet most in the world would deny it. Predictive science only works until it doesn't. We each thing we can predict either on history or the belief that we know what the PLAN is. The obvious thing is that the developed world spends more than it produces, and those costs will be realized to the loss of some if not all. The game always has been how to end up on top. Sometimes it pays to be smart but it seems mostly its best to be lucky. Given my luck, I fully expect to be somewhere near the bottom when TSHTF.
Unfortunately, luck is more about having the right connections these days. Cronies win, those that play by the rules lose. And I agree about economic theories, and especially their wonkish models. They, and those who design them, are enablers for the elite agenda. But what do I know, I'm a lowly beancounter who holds no allegiance to any economic theory. Maybe if I had taken some advanced economics classes I would have stars (or $) in my eyes.
I have spent some time considering the possibilities of The Chicago Plan, but find it is a taboo subject on both "conservative" and "liberal" blogs. Both sides are entrenched in their dogma and refuse to think outside the box. Problem is, when the ponzi implodes, there will be no backup plan because anything that wipes out the banksters must not be spoken of.
One blogger, connected loosely to MTM blog Mike Norman Economics, dared to discuss it, but he could only use his initials, perhaps because speaking of taboo subjects could destroy a career. It seems the banksters decide which theories are allowed to be discussed. Shocking, really, that The Chicago Plan, Revisited came from a working paper out of the IMF, albeit with little or no fanfare.
http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2012/12/jkh-banking-in-abstract-...
They will, in the not far future, take all 401(k)s.
Lord of the Flies Bitchez
jb
All is going according to plan, no need to worry comrades.You re-elect a devout communist along with a Senate to match, what do you expect? This has been in the works since Jeckyl Island. And there is still a ways to go, but it shouldn't take too much longer.
How much canned food do you have saved-up in your cave? How much ammo for your shotgun? Do you generate electricity in your cave or do you use candles? What provisions have you made for medical care? Where is your cave located? I'm so glad some prople on this blog really have their shit together.
Its been fun BITCHEZ/ Let's trade
Wow I just realized that the Federal Government is standing in the way of multi-national corporate profits and that a lot more wealth could be generated by allowing each state to act as its own country. That is big because the technology of today makes it a very easy transition. Since it is both a natural and profitable transition into the future I assume that that is what we will soon see take place. The elimination of the Federal Government.
Hmmm.... divide and conquer tactics using secession to play each state off against the other....it could just work.
My mate in china govt says he'll give most favored trading nation status to any state that sends his mother in law some gold slippers.
I'm poor.
I'm stupid.
And I'm ugly.
I'm also worried about losing my job.
But I don't care anymore.
Strange, huh.
Drink some warm milk and go to bed. U well be ok.
Everbody is really quick to put down the gov. I HAVE A SOLUTION. START ANOTHER WAR! That well get the economy moving again. $1000.00 cash to the first person that says on this blog who said this. "When all else fails, America then does the right thing." Hope the reward in US dollars is okay! I can also pay in Euros, Yen, or BitCoins. I prefer paying in BitCoins since that crypto hash is going up in value more that any fiat I know about.................................
"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities."
Mr Churchill.
Keep the cash, if you still reside in america you need all the help you can get.
Wake up/ Whitesnake - Still of the Night - YouTube
I wanna talk to Yen Cross.
I'm here Dave. Just waiting for my entry pointe.
Earth to Dave? is there any intelligent life out there?
Spanish Covered Bonds are Junk
Spain is in default
Italy is in default
Eurozone is a farce
Whole Italian Banks are fraudulent
Vatican City Bank is in like Banco Ambrosiano II
And Israel is a devil state that owns America... watch the Israeli General's Son expose it - forward this to EVERYONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TOaxAckFCuQ
Foodstamps are cool.
I've never been on them.
But who knows the future.
Better than starving.
Peace.
SELL SPAIN,
SELL FRANCE
SELL ITALY
SELL FINLAND
Don't sell anything/ be patient/ Relax
Obummer is jealous of Kenyan poverty rates and dreams of delivering America the same living standards as his father
Almost half of SNAP recipients with children are working families. Food stamps support elderly, disabled and the working poor as well as unemployed. It works out real well for Walmart, whose employees earn less than a living wage. Their impoverished employees are eligible for food stamps, which they spend at Walmart! A double bonus!
"We also know that with the imminent impact of Sandy, which will send foodstamp recipients soaring, it is now looking quite possible that the US may end 2012 with just over a mindboggling 50 million Americans living in absolute poverty and collecting the $134.29 average monthly benefit per person, instead of working."
do not sell anything/
FX risk is pinging the 200hour bar/ we are almost there.
LOng "Komodo Dragons"...
Now I'm averaging in. the 200 crossover needs to confirm/ This is just a small Trade/
FORWARD- to the CLIFF
Forward, Soviet!
I was in Wal-Mart early morning Friday in the check out lane.
In front of me was a young couple paying for their order. She used her SNAP card then needed $159.00 to complete order. She counted out $150,00 and didn’t have the balance.
He reached into his wallet and gave the clerk 2 $100.00 bills. The clerk returned the change to the young man, I have worked at a job for 46 years and all I had in my wallet was $10,00.
Sounds like easy propaganda to me. Even if it isn't a lie, you know nothing about the couple other than what you assume.
ORLY? That 5 point (Gartly Thing a ma jig)
Still there Dave> NOW is the time to short FX risk. The 200 hourly bar was crossed. GET ER DONE
London options are done/ Short risk! I already made 50 pips/ aud/usd is riding the 200 hour bar /
Nap time I did my business/ 50 pips
But China's exports are back in growth mode!
In spite of the fact that the EU, Japan and the US are all fucked.
Pray tell which countries are driving this miraculous China recovery?
the planet-x lizards