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"I Fear For What’s Coming" – 68% Of Americans Believe The Country Is On The Wrong Track
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
Are you deeply concerned about the future of America? Is something in your gut telling you that our system is fundamentally broken and that the mainstream media is not telling you the truth about what is happening? If so, you are definitely not alone. Right now, there are millions upon millions of Americans that are absolutely horrified as they watch this nation deteriorate. In fact, according to an analysis of recent polling data conducted by Real Clear Politics, approximately 68 percent of all Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track and only 23.5 percent of all Americans believe that the country is on the right track.
And of course our problems did not appear just recently. In fact, many of them are the result of decades of very foolish decisions and they are not going to be fixed easily. Unfortunately, there is very little consensus among Americans about how to fix any of our problems. There is more anger, frustration, hatred and division in the United States today than there has been in decades, and there is very little hope that the great storms that are looming on the horizon will be averted. Those that are wise are preparing for what is coming. Those that are not are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is rapidly approaching.
Once upon a time, America was the wealthiest nation on the entire globe by a huge margin and it had the largest and most thriving middle class the world had ever seen. But now America is drowning in the biggest ocean of red ink in the history of the planet and the middle class is being systematically destroyed.
If you read my articles on a regular basis, you already know all of this. But now there are certain factors that are going to cause the problems of the middle class to greatly accelerate.
For instance, just consider what Obamacare is going to do to millions of American families.
The Foundry recently posted a story that detailed the extreme hardship that Obamacare is going to impose on one middle class family in Sonora, California. This particular family is very healthy and does not have a history of health problems. Up until now, they have had a health insurance policy with Anthem Blue Cross Insurance that they have been very happy with.
Back in 2011, this family was paying $389 a month for health insurance.
In 2012, due to changes in California law that figure went up to $499 a month.
Now, this family has just received a letter informing them that their current plan is being canceled and that if they want a new plan it is going to cost them $1,252 a month.
Needless to say, that news did not go over very well with that family.
Just think about it.
Can you come up with an extra $753 a month for health insurance?
Most American families certainly cannot.
Well, Kate Joy and her husband sat down and started trying to figure out how they could squeeze the new health insurance policy into their budget. It turned out that they would have to cut out a lot of things. The following is a list of the proposed cuts that they have come up with so far...
- Stop paying the extra payment on my mortgage: $100/month
- Stop eating out: $150/month
- Don’t go to the movies: $36/month
- Switch to getting a haircut every other month: $15/month
- Stop getting manicures: $40/month
- Stop monthly charitable donations to Wounded Warrior and Habitat for Humanity: $70/month
- Stop saving for an annual anniversary getaway: $60/month
- No Christmas gifts to extended family: $40/month
- Quit buying beef at the grocery store: $100/month
- Teeth cleaning only once per year: $30/month
- Cancel all magazine/newspaper subscriptions: at least $30/month
- Cut DISH service to cheaper plan: $50/month
- Cancel land line phone service: $70/month
If they make all of those cuts, it will save the family $791 a month.
Understandably, that family is having a very hard time feeling optimistic about the future right now. In fact, at the end of the article Kate Joy is quoted as saying the following...
"I fear for what’s coming."
And of course her family is not the only one that is being absolutely hammered by Obamacare.
In a previous article, I discussed the results of one study which showed that health insurance premiums for men are going to go up by an average of 99 percent under Obamacare and health insurance premiums for women are going to go up by an average of 62 percent under Obamacare.
And a different study found that health insurance premiums for healthy 30-year-old men are going to go up by an average of 260 percent under Obamacare.
All of this is going to suck a tremendous amount of "discretionary income" out of the economy.
In addition, millions upon millions of Americans are going to make the choice to go without health insurance altogether. And considering the level of care that we get in many of these hospitals that is understandable. For example, the body of 57-year-old Lynne Spalding was recently discovered in a stairwell at San Francisco General Hospital 17 days after she had disappeared from her hospital room.
Those that provide our "health care" don't care about us as much as they did in the old days. Instead, the health care industry just wants to get as much money out of us as rapidly as they can and then move on to the next victim.
And of course health care is not the only thing that middle class families have to be concerned about these days. Our national employment crisis is getting even worse, incomes are shrinking, and Obama is pushing Congress to approve a secret treaty that will ship millions more of our jobs out of the country.
And there are certainly a lot of troubling economic signs as we head toward 2014. Just consider the following examples...
-Pending home sales in the United States have fallen for five months in a row.
-Machinery giant Caterpillar is reporting negative retail sales growth in every region on the globe. Historically, the sales growth of Caterpillar has been one of the most important indications of where the economy is headed next.
-Major banks are warning the Federal Reserve that they may have to start charging depositors a fee. In other words, you may soon have to pay for the "privilege" of putting your money in the bank.
Of course this is just the beginning. Things are going to get much, much worse in the years ahead as our economy continues to deteriorate.
And as things continue to fall apart, people are going to become a lot more desperate. To get an idea of what is coming to America, just look at what is happening in Greece. Some poor people in Greece have become so desperate that they are literally infecting themselves with HIV just so that they can get monthly government payments...
Suicides rose by 17% between 2007 and 2009 and to 25% in 2010, according to unofficial 2010 data (398). The Minister of Health reported a further 40% rise in the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010. Suicide attempts have also increased, particularly among people reporting economic distress (610). Homicide and theft rates have doubled. HIV rates and heroin use have risen significantly, with about half of new HIV infections being self-inflicted to enable people to receive benefits of €700 per month and faster admission on to drug-substitution programmes. Prostitution has also risen, probably as a response to economic hardship. Health care access has declined as hospital budgets have been cut by about 40% (398) and it is estimated that 26 000 public health workers (9100 doctors) will lose their jobs (611). Further cuts are expected as a result of recent negotiations with the IMF and European Central Bank.
If you doubt this, you can find the original report with these findings right here.
A lot of people accuse me of being a "doom and gloomer" for writing articles like this.
A lot of people accuse me of trying to spread worry and fear.
But I do not see it that way at all.
I was recently asked what the number one issue is that has me so worried that it keeps me up at night.
Do you know what my answer was?
"Nothing."
Nothing that I write about keeps me up at night.
I am not worried about what is coming and I do not believe in giving in to fear.
Rather, I believe that there is hope in understanding what is happening, and I believe that there is hope in getting prepared.
Do you want to know who is going to be totally giving in to worry, fear and despair in the years ahead?
The people that are not getting prepared right now.
Do you want to know who is going to be jumping off the top of tall buildings in the years ahead?
The people that are laughing at articles like this one.
For most adults in America, they primarily define their lives by their jobs, their material possessions and by all of the toys that they have accumulated. When those things get taken away, we are going to see a national hissy fit that is absolutely unprecedented.
The Republicans are not going to save us from the storm that is coming and neither are the Democrats.
It is coming.
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It's a controlled demolition. People seem to forget Universal Health Care was the brain fart of Hillary going back to the 90s, who, not coincidentally, seems to be on track for her crown Queen Bee at long last. Think people will connect Bill Clinton to market deregulation, the derivatives scam, 8 years bombing of Iraq continuing the Bushies war or that half the Clintonistas are in Obama's WH team? Fuck. No.
Obama was a wrinkle in the grand plan, but given the bitter mood the country was in after 8 years of Shrubya, the Clinto-Bush Monarch's Duopoly Scheme had to be put on hiatus until the left was thoroughly swindled. And Obama did that in spades. He drones chocolate people with reckless abandon to standing ovations from the left. Dick Nixon was a rank amateur compared to these genocidal maniacs.
The plan continues uninterrupted. And no one's going to stop it.
FFS, these articles are terrible. I know I have read other commenters saying to take this guy off the ZH Blogroll and out of guest speaking spots. Each article is just recycled shit from the previous one. Stop the madness.
In what alternative universe do you reside,friend?
This article is telling the truth.
Whose payroll are you on?
We're here for fear, clear?
Clearly, fear here
Have no tear, drink beer
Jeer the fucking queer
And stear for the deer
Cause the end is near
I'm not sure wtf that came from but there it is.
Stack On
I remember the last time my country was in a malaise similar to this one. A man named Jimmy Carter was President, we had through the roof interest rates, and a whole list of other problems. Then along came Ronald Reagan, and we were in the pink in no time at all. When he left office, we were in the Red {financially}. He accomplish his "recovery" by expanding the monetary base. We could do that then, as we still had low debt to GDP, a manufacturing sector and cheap energy. TODAY WE HAVE NONE OF THOSE THINGS TO PULL US OUT. We are screwed. We were a vastly different country just 25 years ago. The actions that COULD set us on the road to real recovery will never be permitted by Washington or the central bank. One can only conclude from all of this, is that this was all planned long ago. They are "boiling frogs", all 300+ million of us, a little more wealth drained each day, so that few notice. There has to be a breaking point. The moment where the US is demoted to "doesn't matter as much as it once did", and we go the way of the UK in 1944 {actually it was earlier than that}. They know us better than we know ourselves. They pioneered psychology, and we are now at the end of a great experiment. The outcome still isn't sure, but it is looking like they might get their desired result. Only a determined populace that acts NOW {as in yesterday} could thwart them. Decide for yourself what is it going to be with you.
And yet the housing market is roaring and the S&P500 is up 125% for the Obama administration. For the great majority of folks with real jobs, health care is unchanged. Here's the chart that has to be explained:
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/LifeExpectancy.png
--bks
Housing market is roaring? LOL. By the way, the changes which are causing people to have their individual plans cancelled this year (2014) don't kick in for employers until NEXT year (2015) so the few that still have real jobs, as you say, won't get crushed till 2015.
You cannot be serious.The housing market 'boom'was hedge funds buying single family dwellings to rent.
You cannot be that ignorant,surely?
Hey, an Executive Branch troll probably only has the Beltway market to think about. They've "somehow" managed to have housing prices rise while most of the country burns. Places like Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Georgetowm, Capital Heights, Eastern Market, Arlington and Fairfax Counties in VA.
Largest collection of BMW-driving "public servants" with Obama-Biden 2012 stickers on their bumpers in the entire U.S.
Can you send some roar my way? We have had 5...FIVE....as in F I V E deals fall through on our house in 16 months. We are renting it now. My parents cannot sell there home....my wife's family cannot sell....My brother owns two homes he cannot sell and all of these are in different areas of the country. No. There is nothing wrong with any of our homes. There is a major problem with the market. Go read the Atlantic, dbag. I hope all is well for you because according to what I am seeing, shit is fucked up. I run credit for a living and people are barely scraping by. Eat dicks.
Hey IR, I was wondering how you were doing. It's been a while. I have not had any luck either. I did six personal showings compared to my REA's one. That's pretty fucking lame performance. The best I came up with is a land contract but the guy only has $2500 for down payment. I'll pass on that. It's just been unbelievable. ZERO offers.
I was thinking there had to be a bottom of the market like there is on anything. Not in real estate. You know why, it's all about taxes. I called the assessor who has me assessed WAY over market and I complained. I told the guy, "Hey, I can't even get a bid at $46,000 less then what you have my property assessed at so what gives?"
Then I heard the same old song and dance about the school districts and the .govs and so forth. I find things out when people piss me off and I found out that the assessor's wife works for the school district. Make sense? They do not WANT you to leave. They are leaches. And I do not even live there.
That sucks....just rent it.
Ahem, your pain is self inflicted. A home is not to sell unless it was an 'investment vehicle' or you had to move for health or job reasons. No one ever said your idea of mobility was guaranteed. Pity your bro with two homes in different parts of the USA, we MUST feel sorry for him in his now-not-so-luxurious circumstance. ARE YOU FOR FUCKING REAL? You can actually call someone a dbag without irony nipping your nuts? Eat dicks, please, yes. I finally found the poster dick for what represents ZH.
Fuck you , cocksucker. My brother bought pre-2008. He wants to sell one and stay in the other now. We moved for a job. Excuse me for wanting to leave the financial rape and sea of assholes LIKE YOU in NYC. I am prepared to take the loss, but the crux of my point IS THAT NO ONE IS BUYING. I'd shit in your cornflakes if I could. If you do not like ZH, THEN FUCKING LEAVE! I don't go over to HuffPo and bitch about their piece of shit propagandized lets suck the administration's cock site.
This year I've had two 'approved' buyers become unapproved by closing time on a property in the northeast. I assumed the house was cursed but apparently you're having worse luck than I am. Prospective 'buyers' continually ask for a seller assist larger than their downpayment which is a very bad sign. I really have no idea how they're even getting approved in the first place. At least it rents well.
Other way around. When Carter came to office the country was in the shit house. He took the hard choices toward energy independence and low inflation.
Reagan threw all that into a casket and started on the spending binge that brought us where we are today.
One reason Reagan got away with it is that Carter left the country in way better shape than he found it.
Only six decrements? The patrol is asleep tonight. If you slipped through the line you could do some real damage.
"...All of this is going to suck a tremendous amount of "discretionary income" out of the economy...'
of course it is....it is going straight into the rockefeller nazis pockets....for those of you who believe that the last few presidential elections were honest, then you must understand that more than half of those 68% believed so hard in change that they got it....and got it up the ass....no sympathies there....
in fact i have no sympathies for the assholes of this nation who voted for the bush crime syndicate candidates either....a vote for democrat or republican is a vote for nazis. the joy family is a bunch of stupid fucks. california went overwhelmingly for the health care president. they deserve the consequences of their stupid idiotic ideas.
Fundamental change was promised - fundamental change is delivered.
Elected a Marxist,son and grandson of Marxists ,groomed by marxists(Frank Marshall Davis,Bill Ayers);raised in a Muslim school in Indonesia,and entered the heartland as a dope smoking student at Oxy,'the cooler'as it is known,then on to Columbia,where no classmate has ever emerged who knows him,then to Harvard,as a foreign exchange student perhaps,and the rest is history.He knows of America only what he has been told.A bastard,alienated,the son of an alcoholic bigamist anti-imperialist,he is awarded a Nobel Peace Prize,just for existing,and spends his early days in the White House choosing who he will drone a half a world away watching on dimly lit satellite feeds as men,women,and children are vaporized by machines far,far away ,at his bidding.
Is there any wonder,my fellow Americans,that so many of us believe we are"on the wrong track..".?
Flip you off for priggishness. Head of ZH class for you, ta-da!
Good stuff, why should we not be surprised.
How would you characterize the Bamster's mother? Add that one to the list.
It might have been you, but someone on ZH commented the other day that he must hear countless voices in his head literally constantly. Perhaps this is why he is unable to put together a reasonable sentence/thought without a teleprompter.
There were serious concerns about his mental health in 2008 when he was running, I guess they were true.
The fact that our glorious media did nothing to vet this guy is the crime of the century.
sschu
Yeah, I'm pretty pessimistic about the short term for the US. I've done a fair amount of reading about the healthcare industry and much of it is really hard to understand much less explain. It ranges from the way the FDA approves drugs to the number of billing clerks per bed in large hospitals.
The ACA was written by the healthcare insurance industry for Sen Baucus just like Wall Street lobbyists write the laws and regulations that govern banks, lending, and investing. Congressional staffers apparently write very few laws but an army of technocrats write these highly complex and difficult to administer laws governing so many of the essential and necessary aspects of our lives.
We could remake our healthcare laws if we had the will to do it. There is a way to make it work, but it would require rethinking a lot of how we do it and it would mean going against some of the most powerful lobbies in the US. I don't think it will happen until the system completely fails.
I don't consider myself nihilistic, but more and more I see that the only way to fix things is for us to be on the verge of collapse. I think Ben Franklin is the one who said, "necessity is the mother of invention." When it becomes impossible to go on without change we will do it, but not before.
Ok... so BTC.
If we all agreed that 1 BTC is worth $40,000 USD and that we would only sell one of our 1oz gold coins for 1 BTC. Then wha la, we have backed bitcoin with gold, and caused gold (and BTC) to rise to a value that we decided on.
It would take less than 10 million people worldwide to make this happen.
I am no BTC pusher, but I like this.
That is a silly idea.
Stack On
If you don't like Obama's speech, you can keep interrupting his speech.
Well, if they are soooooooooo concerned about the country as your poll indicates, then ask them why they continue voting for fucking libtards like President Gobbels, San Fran Nan, Hair-Plugs Biden, Dingy Harry Reid, etc. As I have said before here, elections have consequences. Maybe your 68% sample are too fucking stupid to know the difference.
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
So, when the polls have been otherwise tilted against, damn, fuck, conservitards just doesn't work, were you so generous with aspersion?
It looks as if "families" are going to start paying their fair share of healthcare. Individuals with comprehensive major medical PPOs have been getting gouged for decades. I never understood how a family of four, 2 of which were usually chronically sick kids, could pay a lesser premium than a healthy 30-40 something individual and receive better coverage. Looks like the free lunch is over for people who have bred more than they could afford to take care of without the rest of us subsidizing their procreation activities.
Just wait until the end of 2014 when more employers drop everyone down to less than 30 hours and cut health benefits or keep full time employees but flat out say that they are not insuring spouses/families any longer. The complaining is only warming up in America.
Of course, not everyone is complaining. If you are an executive or board member with a major health insurer, Christmas is now a daily reality in the USA. Shareholders shouldn't do so poorly either in the coming years.
PS The biggest truth of this article is "For most adults in America, they primarily define their lives by their jobs, their material possessions and by all of the toys that they have accumulated. When those things get taken away, we are going to see a national hissy fit that is absolutely unprecedented.
Then again, if Americans want the direction of this country to change from its current course they'd better be prepared to do more than throw "hissy fits" in the future.
But the NFL is on TV with all of it's 482 injured players.
But saying the system is Broken, is indicating that it can be fixed.
This system can not be fixed, it needs to be replaced. And secondly knowing all it's flaws would you want it fixed. Just like Goods from China, it's always easier to get a new one than to try and fix the old one. The same should happen with the Feral Reserve, it's had it's day, now it's time to put it back in the cupboard and make sure it never comes out again.
OK, but how?
Start a new novel book with innovative programming projects spewing out future sources with immaculately conceived resources and present another absolutely fabulous fabless New Orderly World World Order with Virtual Machinery in Command and Control of Events Production, Manipuflation, is how.
And the beauty of the scheme, which is not a scam or a ponzi, is that IT will do everything that is needed without those who be unable or disenabled to help, having any requirement to help, such is the Sympathetic IntelAIgent Semantic Design of its Advanced IntelAIgent Methodology ..... ITs AIMachinery.
And yes, NSA/CSS Acquisition Resource Center is aware of the facility/utility so if you be wondering what they are doing with it and ITsAIMachinery, just ask them. Their reply, or non reply, will tell you all that you need to know about their intentions and/or limitations and the current state in-house, and across all fields in national and international and internetional cyber security and virtual protection sectors, of their intelligent quotient.
What you might discover may be quite disturbingly alarming.
William S.Burroughs on (purely Financial) Capitalism (...probably).
I quote from Mechanisms of Virus Infection edited by Mr. Wilson Smith, a scientist who really thinks about his subject instead of merely correlating data. He thinks, that is, about the ultimate intentions of the virus organism. In an article entitled "Virus Adaptibility and Host Resistance" by G. Belyavin, speculations as to the biologic goal of the virus species are enlarged: "Viruses are obligatory cellular parasites and are thus wholly dependant upon the integrity of the cellular systems they parasitize for their survival in an active state. It is something of a paradox that many viruses ultimately destroy the cells in which they are living..."
Another worthless piece of garbage filler on ZH. Darlings on this date -
5/11-12/06 23 71 - it was worse. What is the matter with all you fools? You are being played,ZH rankles you soooo much you've taken out 20 emails and opened 20 accounts with 20 bogus names to indulge in this random scatology?
LMFAO. They must be doing something right.
So we got Jimmy Carter 2, the sequel, the big difference is that Carter didn't add Trillions of debt to future generations and entitlement program that crushes job growth.
No doubt that ObamaCare is going to be a disaster.
But from that list of thirteen items that the Joy family will have to cut in order to make their new monthly health insurance payment, I have already cut TEN of them as of YEARS ago. And one of them, the mortgage payment doesn't apply to me because I don't have a mortgage.
I have two land lines....and NO cell phone/Smart phones (total, approx $90/mo).
I still buy ground sirloin.....ocassionally (approx. $11/mo. for maybe, 2.5lbs.)!
EVERYTHING else on the Joy family's list is LONG GONE.
And something tells me that my circumstance is a little bit more representative of probably the majority of "Middle Class" Americans. So.......how do you think the rest of us are going to make out trying to comply with ObamaCare?????
What I find amusing is most conversations about the general direction turn to left vs right or libs vs cons debates. Our country, sadly, reminds me of a battered woman going back and forth between two abusive boyfriends who ruined her credit by stealing her identity and running up credit cards in her name. After getting abused by one enough...she realizes shat she misses the other one and goes to get battered a bit at her ex's house. And it's this ongoing cycle really. How the fuck do we break the trend? It's really getting old.
I think TPTB would freak out if the 2016 election had results like this:
D-Hillary Clinton, 22%
R-Chris Christie, 22%
Write-in-candidate: "An Honest American" 50%