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Is America About To Reach A Breaking Point?
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
In America today, there are close to 50 million people living in poverty and there are more than 100 million people that get money from the federal government every month. As the middle class disintegrates, poverty is climbing to unprecedented levels. Even though the stock market has been setting record high after record high, the amount of anger and frustration boiling just under the surface in our nation grows with each passing day.
And now extended unemployment benefits have been cut off for 1.3 million unemployed Americans, and it is being projected that a total of 5 million unemployed Americans will lose their benefits by the end of 2014. In addition, as I have written about previously, 47 million Americans recently had their food stamp benefits reduced. The conditions for a "perfect storm" are certainly being created. So how much longer will it be until we see all of this anger and frustration boil over in the streets of our major cities? Is America about to reach a breaking point?
If you think that the title of this article is "alarmist", you probably have not been paying attention to what has been happening over the past few weeks. For example, a 600 person brawl broke out at at movie theater in Jacksonville, Florida just the other day...
Five teenagers were arrested when a 600-person brawl broke out in a Florida movie theater’s parking lot on Christmas night.
Described by police as a “melee,” the fight occurred around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday outside the Hollywood River City 14 movie theater in Jacksonville when a group tried to storm the theater’s doors without purchasing tickets, police said. Several had rushed an off-duty police officer working as a security guard.
The officer “administered pepper spray to disperse the group, locked the doors and called for backup, following protocol,” said Lauri-Ellen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Soon after the pepper spray was used, “upward of 600 people moving throughout a parking lot about the size of a football field began fighting, disrupting and jumping on cars,” she said.
And a "flash mob" of "400 crazed teens" was so violent that it forced a mall in Brooklyn to shut down just a few days ago...
A wild flash mob stormed and trashed a Brooklyn mall, causing so much chaos that the shopping center was forced to close during post-Christmas sales, sources said Friday.
More than 400 crazed teens — who mistakenly thought the rapper Fabolous would perform — erupted into brawls all over Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Mill Basin on Thursday at 5 p.m., sources said.
The troublemakers looted and ransacked several stores as panicked shoppers ran for the exits and clerks scrambled to pull down metal gates.
In addition, the release of new Air Jordan sneakers caused mini-riots and brawls to break out all over the country just before Christmas.
So why is all of this happening?
Of course people will come up with all sorts of theories to explain these outbreaks of violence, but what pretty much everyone should be able to agree on is that we are seeing levels of anger and frustration rise to very dangerous levels in this country.
Right now, there are approximately 6 million Americans in the 16 to 24-year-old age group that are not in school and that are not working either. What that means is that we have an alarmingly high number of very frustrated young people that do not have anything better to do than to cause trouble.
In some of our largest cities this has become a massive problem. In fact, quite a few major U.S. cities actually have more than 100,000 "idle youth" living in them…
Just look at some of the nation’s largest cities. Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Riverside, Calif., all have more than 100,000 idle youth, the Opportunity Nation report found.
But the Obama administration says that this should not be a problem. In fact, the Obama administration tells us that the unemployment rate has been steadily "declining" and that there are plenty of opportunities for everyone.
Of course that is a giant lie. Just before the last recession, about 63 percent of all working age Americans had a job. During the recession that number fell below 59 percent and it has stayed there ever since...
So the notion that we are experiencing an "employment recovery" is absolutely laughable.
But most of our politicians appear to believe this lie, and it is being used as justification to cut off extended unemployment benefits.
And the funny thing is that by cutting off these benefits, it is going to make it appear as though unemployment has gone down even more. Millions of unemployed workers that are being forced into the streets will now be counted as having "left the labor force", and it is being projected that the unemployment rate could decline by as much as half a percentage point as a result.
What a joke.
A lot of the people that are having their benefits cut off are really hurting. For instance, consider the case of 63-year-old paralegal Laura Walker...
“Not all of us have savings and a lot of us have to take care of family because of what happened in the economy,” said Walker, of Santa Clarita, who said she has applied for at least three jobs a week and shares an apartment with her unemployed son, his wife and two children. “It’s going to put my family and me out on the streets.”
So what is she going to do?
Well, at this point she appears to be down to just one option...
“I just don’t know what to do, except pray.”
And of course the unemployed are not the only ones that have had their benefits cut. As I mentioned above, all 47 million Americans that are currently on food stamps recently had their benefits reduced. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Mac Slavo...
Earlier this year government benefits for nutritional assistance were reduced after the expiration of emergency legislation that was enacted following the 2008 financial collapse. Nearly all of the 48 million people receiving food stamp distributions were affected. The move led to warnings from food pantries and recipients around the country who said that the $40 billion in cuts would leave many American families without the ability to put food on dinner tables across America. According to Feed America, the roughly $29 per family that would no longer appear on their EBT cards will amount to about 1.5 billion meals in 2014.
The fact that government dependence has soared to all-time highs even in the midst of this so-called "economic recovery" is just another sign that the middle class is dying. For years, middle class families have tried strategy after strategy in an attempt to survive, but now it has become apparent that the middle class is rapidly approaching a breaking point...
Rising income inequality is starting to hit home for many American households as they run short of places to reach for a few extra bucks.
As the gap between the rich and poor widened over the last three decades, families at the bottom found ways to deal with the squeeze on earnings. Housewives joined the workforce. Husbands took second jobs and labored longer hours. Homeowners tapped into the rising value of their properties to borrow money to spend.
Those strategies finally may have run their course as women’s participation in the labor force has peaked and the bursting of the house-price bubble has left many Americans underwater on their mortgages.
And even though the Obama administration and the mainstream media have tried to convince us over and over that the economy is "getting better", most Americans are not buying it. In fact, according to a new CNN poll, 70 percent of all Americans believe that "the economy is generally in poor shape".
As the economy continues to decline, not all Americans will respond to their desperate situations by getting violent. Many suffer quietly, hoping that things will eventually turn around for them. Unfortunately, the ranks of the suffering grow with each passing year. For example, a recent CNN article discussed the continued growth of "tent cities" all over America...
The total number of homeless people residing in tents and makeshift homes is unknown. Many of these communities are small and hidden from public view, while others claim hundreds of residents and are sprinkled through major urban areas.
Some, like those tucked under roadways, are temporary and relocate frequently. Their conditions are vile, unsanitary and fail to provide refuge from storms and winds. Then there are communities, such as Dignity Village in Portland, Oregon, that have a more sustained presence. The 13-year-old "ecovillage" set up by homeless people is hygienic and self-sufficient.
Preliminary findings by The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty show that tent cities have been documented in almost every state, and they're growing.
So how do we solve these problems?
Are there any solutions that could get us out of this mess?
Of course there are. But don't hold your breath waiting for any of them to be adopted. In fact, the American people continue to express great support for the very people that got us into this mess in the first place. For example, according to a Gallup survey that was just released, Barack Obama is the most admired man in America by a very wide margin and Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America by a very wide margin.
And the mainstream media will continue to tell all of us that "leaders" like Obama, Clinton, Reid, Boehner, McConnell and Pelosi can be trusted to get us out of this mess.
If you believe that, there is a bridge that I would like to sell you.
The American people need to stop having blind faith in the relentless propaganda that is being spewed at them through their televisions screens. The pretty faces that you see "reporting the news" do not care about you and they are not watching out for your best interests. The corporate-controlled news is highly scripted and it is pretty much the same whatever channel you turn to. If you have any doubt that "the news" is scripted, just check out this video...
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Two generations raised without two parents is my guess. More than likely 3 at the young age of pregnancy.
Still, this discussion is like looking at a mule and saying "is he going to break?" No. Mules just die. And that's how the poor are always treated. Like mules. Never to get fat and happy. You have to keep working them to the bone until they die or then they won't work anymore. It's why food stamps were cut. It's why cigarette and alcohol taxes are increased. It's why the banking industry pulls in $30-40bn in checking accounts fees annually. Eventually another politician will promise not to whip them as hard or for as long, and they'll elect that mule driver believing that he loves them.
It didn't happen when we were involved in Viet Nam and it probably won't happen now.
The Viet Nam revolution basically collapsed almost at the point when the shootings at Kent State occurred. Just a precursor of what will happen again if the powers that be feel threatened.
BINGO! And so called leaders and revolutionary wanna be's went back to class got their MBA's and BMW's and became Bankers, lawyers and politicians.
Eldridge Cleaver started his own upscale clothing line, funny
other than previously driving through parking lots doing 90mph, Grace Slick is a painter.
i still sing along to white rabbit yearning for the good ole days.
I remember "The Clever" a pair of pants that had your dick hanging out in it's own tailored cloth.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stacyherbert/4253100761/
Tax capital gains like ordinary income. Do it in a revenue neutral way.
Why revenue neutral? Don't we have deficits?
if you're part of the consumer economy (and maintaining your lifestyle on debt) you're toast. the retailers got hammered this christmas but the stock market made new highs. they don't need you anymore. the percentage of GDP to consumer spending is going down. if a company like amazon doesn't make a profit on the goods they sell why does their market capitalization go higher? Bezos overwhelmed the shipping companies this holiday season with Amazon Prime. most of the stuff being sold isn't worth the cost of shipping it. and that car you drive isn't worth what it represents in terms of user fees; gasoline, taxes, maintenance, and insurance. not to mention all the places you go where you spend money like restaurants and hotels and movies. they could give cars away with no change to the economy.
soon the movies theatres will throw open their doors, because movies are nothing but 1 1/2 hour advertisements for the american way of life. i'm not saying, repent, move to a farm, cut up your credit cards. i am saying they are going to do it for you. in the late day of an empire such as ours, our cities become crowded with rootless parasites, people who only know how to do someone elses laundry, members of the service economy. eventually some dictator forcibly removes them to the country (Pol Pot in Cambodia, or Mugambe in Zimbabe), or they end being fed Soylent Green.
and Obama is just the guy to do it, malleable, sociopathic, slightly racist, and convinced he is brimming with virtue. no candidate who outwardly advocates relocation, economic price controls, and forced labor will ever get elected, so they lie. remember Bush built a number of internment camps, which remain empty and waiting, for what?
go ahead scream your head off for more consumer goodies, (economic growth) they're not listening. there's your tipping point
riots in the street over a movie in Jacksonville? God I hate Jacksonville. BUt of little concern to those who have their own in home theaters.
riots in the streets in Birmingham? over who sits where on the bus? (while everyone is driving a car) this is all about economic equality, and that implies the lowest common denominator, basic goods and services for everyone. your government (and the potus as your defender of equal rights) is there to help. you want access to the same economic values in public that the rich have in private.
I think it's too late for Obama. The job will probably fall to Hillary
Not to shit too hard on your shit parade but Pol Pot actually took the most able, most intelligent and had them all murdered first.
Those who were most obedient and least intelligent, least physically disabled, were allowed to stay.
So in this environment that would be various serial killers, abusive police, drug lords... happy fun people.
So... I've got this handbasket...
If not, it damn well should be.
The 5 million figure is bogus.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=227116
EDIT: Ok down voting chickenshit, then tell me why it's not. He bares it out in his argument, why don't you do the same. I'd certainly take his view over the MSM spew.
I'll add a -1 to it: if there isn't enough money to pay those entitled they won't get paid and that leaves just one solution to the proposed problem. The money will run out.
Next question: why? Subsidiary question: why not?
printing can happen, lending can happen, debt-ceilings can be broken, but there's a key desire to serve fresh cash first to bankers, last to the needy.
Past activity indicates the needy get only enough to not riot & if they can apply to disability after losing unemployment it becomes a different budget item.
Apparently the government hasn't minded (hasn't stopped) this activity in the past.
Therefore...
"Is America about to reach a breaking point?" No, not quite. It will be a while longer. "Anger" and "frustration" causing hundreds of teens to assemble and brawl? Don't think so. These are a bunch of poorly raised idiots that have been well fed, clothed and housed by the "village".
"The American people need to stop having blind faith in the relentless propaganda that is being spewed at them"... this reads like a propaganda piece. America has a lot of problems, but a bunch of bored teens getting rid of some energy at the movies or mall is not at the top of the list. This isn't a mob of emaciated people hijacking a truck carrying food.
"But most of our politicians appear to believe this lie, and it is being used as justification to cut off extended unemployment benefits."
Bullshit!
One of the largest employers in our county pays it's factory workers around $10.00 an hour for 12 hour shifts, 30 minute unpaid lunch. They screen out the over qualified from the many applications they get.
They target their machines to operate at 60% efficiency with bonuses for those who can run their machines at 80%. The bonuses were the only attractive part of the job. Supervisors have been directed to and are moving people to different machines and otherwise interferring when employee's come close to the 80%. The insurance benefits were recently cut. The company, never known for it's good working conditions is overwhelmed with applications when an opening occurs.
THe companies only maintenence guy says machine jams are skyrocketing. He believes employees are sabotaging the machines.
For Christmas Office staff was treated to dinner at a high scale eatery. THe line employess got squat.
This company contributes mightly in taxes to the area and i am to believe the area politicos are unaware?
THe area is historically anti union. It also has the some of lowest wages in the right to get screwed state.
I say unionize. So let the downvotes begin because after all the line worker deserves to get fucked while those who profit from them dine in slendor.
Who is this mysterious employer and where is this area of the country you speak of?
Unionization as you are alluding to would likely kill the company and leave everyone unemployed. It isn't the solution. There isn't any easy solution to what is a really a systemic clusterfuck. Likewise, not everyone is getting out of this shit storm intact (or alive).
actually it is the solution.
When bad employers who defraud markets, including defraud employees (making their work suffer to pay them less) are punished by us all, better employers will come along.
Unions may or may not do that but removing the offending employer will.
Simple short answer = No, Amerikans are dumb. They will keep this charade going for a long time.
In fact I am begining to belive Amerikans are the new Jews....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjy8Z1hK2wY
Happy New Year!
Edit: I'm not saying I want that to happen, just that with smart phones, TV, the Media, the political lies, the education system, and the food / water here - the American people can't see the forest from the trees - I see it everyday. I belive when it comes, and it will, that MOST, not ALL Americans will board the trains for the FEMA Camps....peacefully just like the Jews did, only this time the people will have "smart" phones while boarding.....
In Fact, I think Americans will turn on fellow Americans, just like the Germans...You can already see how the Libtards, hate, I mean hate people affiliated with teh tea party and Chrsitians and they are winning the debate in that arena. I belive they will ultimately win that debate once the econmy finally dies and fellow Americans will turn on us. And even though the libs depise guns, it is my belief that they will use those very intraments against people like us, and they will use the DHS and TSA to do thier very bidding....
True. The Left won a long time ago and though they will never say it they're as reliant on violence as their opponents.
the puppeteers won. They convinced the single mass of sheep there are actually 2 fictional masses, left and right, each one thinking they are smarter / better than the other mass of sheep.
You're all puppets, muppets, falling for the show. The trick. There is no left.
There is no right.
There are merely serfs & kings and the kings know better that there is no left or right. They know what they are which means they know who everyone else is too.
Let them eat cake.
I don't know why you think there is a crisis. They already have a solution to this problem:
Immigration reform!
I print therefore I am.
Before all I Am.
You can't say my name. ..
BRNK
That is blasphemy! And I know blasphemy when I see blasphemy. BRNK claiming to be Gawd is th the blasphemy of all blasphemies.
imo
The breaking point will be 10 to 15 years after Greece hits its breaking point. Greece hasn't blow up yet.
People will take a lot of abuse before they revolt in mass.
There will be no breaking point reached by the masses until the Twinkies disappear again, the power shuts off (i.e. TeeVee and Ophones), the ebt cards run out, clean water is in short supply, and the gas lines are 10 blocks long. It will be the no TeeVee, and specifically the inability to mindlessly dither on Twitter and FB, that finally tips this fucking sham into full-blown anarchy. Until then it's all just bread and circuses!
My best to the ZH crew and all ZHers for a safe and Happy New Year ... prosperous wouldn't suck either ...
I think this would be fuckin' hilarious. Make a facebook fanpage called the Police State and actively solicit people to Like it. See how many actually do. Publish results, how many per day, how many in total click Like for it.
Fuel to feed more communism. MSNBC is supporting their agenda.
It's prime time for a tyrant or dictator in the US. A head diabolical leader, like Germany in the 20's when Hitler took over.
Plenty of egotistical, power hungry, brutal candidates. They already ripped up the constitution .
And the masses will cheer him on - just like Hitler. Tragic huh?
Just wait until the banker's heads start rolling. Everyone will cheer. Rightfully so of course. But, it won't change the course we are on. The damage has already been done.
http://hostingd.imagecross.com/image-hosting-04/2488norevolt.jpg
"The pretty faces that you see "reporting the news" do not care about you and they are not watching out for your best interests."
Bullshit. I have it on good authority that Bill O'Reilly is "looking out for the folks".
I know you memo is a parody, but I really am disgusted with that stand-for-nothing but-my-paycheck mugawump Oreilly.
Some say a black man is better than a white man for president but I don't know. Seems its just a black man's luck the way things turn out in this world.
Let them smoke weed.
Flashmob.com is going public - it's the next Twitter --- and it actually has a business model --- they get 10% of all the gear fenced from these robberies.
Fuck it - I cheer when I hear of people marauding the shops - unlike the Zero Hedge crowd who do absolutely nothing other than moan like old women - these people are taking action and hitting back at these corporate cocksuckers.
Shame shame shame on ZHers - like a bunch of little old ladies gossiping in the square - while the real men are rampaging :)
I give it another 5-6 years give or take. I don't think this lasts much longer than 2020. Historically things go in 10 and 30 years cycles. It doesn't matter what you think of technology or how information spreads now. Alot of this happens based on human psychology and generational patterns.
I think the psychology will take a dramatic shift after this decade, when people realize the Titanic is going down. Then all bets are off. You simple cannot predict what will happen, both in America and the world, when people stop believing in the American system and the dollar. Protect yourself the best you can.
but we are already over 10 years overdue for a new reserve currecney....looking back histoically....
Obwama will round up rioters and store them in his human warehouses known as "Fema Camps".
The FEMA centers will soon be excreting the "soylent green" that will feed the feral savages in Ovomit's domestic army that will keep the giant grinders and food processors of the Fema camps full of raw materials.
Grilled suburbanite patties and road-kill will soon be a delicacy worth killing for.
So example after example in the article is given, but not one mention of the common denominator. Do you see this problem frequently in Maine, Idaho or West Virginia? The elephant in the room is still a low educated, violent black culture. Pretending it is not there does no more than pretending Corzine or Angelo Mozilo committed no crimes or CNBC is journalism.
And of course we never look at things and ask ourselves. How did things get this way.
A modest proposal.
How about next time we get an American President whose father wasn't a communist and mother wasn't a BSMD porn model.
Yeah, I know it won't make much difference, but when everything is a sham anyway, appearances should count for something.
It may be impossible to go down the shitter with your dignity intact, but at least America should make the attempt.
For old times sake.
Food Free for the Picking
This morning I awoke at 6:30 am. By 9:30 am, I had checked my traps and caught three beavers and picked an armload of garden greens from the roadside garden in the video above.
I'm taking a lunch break at the moment, but in another three hours I'll have all the meat (about 20 pounds) deboned and ready for the grinder, the turnips and greeens washed and ready to blanch and freeze and all the tools cleaned.
In one day I've gathered enough meat for several weeks and enough greens for a while.
Tonight I'll listen to a few ballgames on the radio while I grind wheat and blue Hopi corn. I'll touch up my skinning knives and have a a few Torpedo IPA's.
Any man that is willing to work, can eat. Problem is, most women don't have a man and most "men" are too lazy and stupid to feed themselves.
how is beaver? I mean I thought I liked to eat beaver once in a while but... :-)
OK, seriously, any precautions or recommendations? Beaver's in my area and I don't think in particular it's protected despite it being Canada.
Happy New Year ZH! Thanks for another year of eye-opening, sleep disturbing, uncensored truth and education. See you in 2014!
Loose
My gut tells me the axe is about to fall.
Screw what the American people believe. If they keep voting for the same criminal cabal, they can not be trusted.
This is a perfect time for a coup, revolution, and violent take-over.
My gut tells me the axe is about to fall.
Screw what the American people believe. If they keep voting for the same criminal cabal, they can not be trusted.
This is a perfect time for a coup, revolution, and violent take-over.
Come on Hedgers, all this talk is embarrassing.
We'll have a revolt, and a big ol bloody decade-long, tens of millions dead, hundreds of cities burned to rubble piles revolt...... when...and only when..it is god-damn profitable, and not a moment sooner.
Conservatives have an answer to all the poverty and unemployment. Just go out and start your own business!
As opposed to the 100 year voting Democrat cities, and soon states.
Detroit, Gary, Cleveland, Brockton, Bridgeport,Newark......St. Louis, Oakland.
Rumor has it tens of states and thousands of cities want more businesses.
But hey, after 100 years of Progressives, Fair Dealers, New Dealers, NRA, Model Cities, Urban Planning,
Belgian Endive....next year is the great leap forward.
I've got a few friends who did that. Is there a problem with doing that? You seem to be implying that it was offered as "the answer". Maybe it should be looked at as "an answer". A possibility. A way forward to improve your own condition.
Back to killin' snakes
This country is reaping what it has sown. Lazy thinking and lazy reasoning produces lazy results. You've been slaves to predictability and comfort since this country's founding and sacifice results because it's easier to feel entitled to something then it is to fairly compete or work for it. The only thing this country had to do was to stick by what it wrote. Instead it rigged and cheated and destroyed the whole for the sake of the "entitled" few who felt deserving something was the same as earning it. The funny thing is the realization is starting because the entitled few can't decide who should still be entitled. Welcome to hell and welcome to payback. This whole shit is OVER. Enjoy the fucking ride. I say let the fucking games begin.
The time is coming. You reap what you sow.
We await with great anticiption. Please tell us what you have sown.
(Full disclosure; I haven't planted a garden in several years. The Satsuma tree is doing nicely. Seemingly never ending contributions to nation wide velocity of money, both voluntary and IRS induced, are ongoing for the foreseeable future)
Back to killin' snakes
Only one solution possible. Make Obama-faced money-notes & in the demonination of $23 USD equivalance and call them, by law, Patriot Dollars.
That way the big 0 can claim "if you want your patriotism, you can keep your patriotism!
JUST KIDDING
You can get PatriotBux"