America’s Descent into Poverty

[hvactec]

By Paul Craig Roberts on August 28, 2012 at 5:57pm
The United States has collapsed economically, socially, politically, legally, constitutionally, and environmentally. The country that exists today is not even a shell of the country into which I was born. In this article I will deal with America’s economic collapse. In subsequent articles, i will deal with other aspects of American collapse.

Economically, America has descended into poverty. As Peter Edelman says, “Low-wage work is pandemic.” Today in “freedom and democracy” America, “the world’s only superpower,” one fourth of the work force is employed in jobs that pay less than $22,000, the poverty line for a family of four. Some of these lowly-paid persons are young college graduates, burdened by education loans, who share housing with three or four others in the same desperate situation. Other of these persons are single parents only one medical problem or lost job away from homelessness.

Others might be Ph.D.s teaching at universities as adjunct professors for $10,000 per year or less. Education is still touted as the way out of poverty, but increasingly is a path into poverty or into enlistments into the military services.

Edelman, who studies these issues, reports that 20.5 million Americans have incomes less than $9,500 per year, which is half of the poverty definition for a family of three.

read more America

 

[uscitizen]

The inevitable outcome of globalization and "free" trade.

 

[Nova78]

Yea ,and Obama wants 4 more years to finish his wrath of terror......

 

[uscitizen]

Either way we get 4 more years of continued Bush policies.

 

[whitehall]

Roberts was once a pretty level headed guy who worked in the Reagan administration. Somewhere along the line he developed a crazy hatred hatred for President George W. Bush that may have caused him to crack up. Now he blames Jews for all the problems in the world and recently he claimed that a neoconservative conspiracy was trying to force the US into a nuclear war with modern Russia. The guy is off his rocker.

 

[Rshermr]

Yea ,and Obama wants 4 more years to finish his wrath of terror......


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Ah, you mean to undo the great republican recession of 2008. How short your memory is, when all you want to do is post conservative dogma. Eh, Nova78. Must be easy when you need not have any knowledge, except how to post dogma from right wing web sites.

 

[Rshermr]

Roberts was once a pretty level headed guy who worked in the Reagan administration. Somewhere along the line he developed a crazy hatred hatred for President George W. Bush that may have caused him to crack up. Now he blames Jews for all the problems in the world and recently he claimed that a neoconservative conspiracy was trying to force the US into a nuclear war with modern Russia. The guy is off his rocker.

He no longer supports the repub party blindly, as he once did. He has a lot of very rational opinions, but repub con tools are not going to like him. Because he thinks for himself.

 

[Nova78]

Yea ,and Obama wants 4 more years to finish his wrath of terror......


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Ah, you mean to undo the great republican recession of 2008. How short your memory is, when all you want to do is post conservative dogma. Eh, Nova78. Must be easy when you need not have any knowledge, except how to post dogma from right wing web sites.

Womb to tomb entitlements is no way to balance the books.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

The inevitable outcome of globalization and "free" trade.

well then we should make trade illegal so everyone has to make everything themselves??

A liberal will be way to slow to understand that more with whom you trade the richer you get!!


Free trade has not worked so well for America lately because rather than become competitive Americans have turned to liberal welfare entitlements.

 

[waltky]

The rich gettin' richer...

World's 100 richest people got $241 billion richer in 2012
January 3, 2013, Their aggregate net worth climbs to $1.9 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world's 100 wealthiest individuals.

The richest people on the planet got even richer in 2012, adding $241 billion to their collective net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world's 100 wealthiest individuals. The aggregate net worth of the world's top 100 stood at $1.9 trillion at the market close Dec. 31, according to the index. Of the people who appeared on the final ranking of 2012, only 16 registered a net loss for the 12-month period. "Last year was a great one for the world's billionaires," said John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of Red Apple Group Inc., in an email written poolside on his BlackBerry in the Bahamas. "In 2013, they will continue looking for investments around the world — and not necessarily in U.S. — that will give them an advantage."

Amancio Ortega, the Spaniard who founded retailer Inditex, was the year's biggest gainer. The 76-year-old tycoon's fortune increased to $57.5 billion, a gain of $22.2 billion, according to the index, as shares of the retailer that operates the Zara clothing chain rose 66.7%. "It's an amazing company that has done great, and the gains are quite justified given its performance," said Christodoulos Chaviaras, an analyst at Barclays in London who's had an "equalweight" rating on Inditex for about a year. "Can they repeat that? It will be harder. A lot of the positive news is already reflected in the share price."

Global stocks soared in 2012. The MSCI World Index gained 13.2% during the year to close at 1338.50 on Dec. 31. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.4% to close at 1426.19. European stocks surged in the second half of the year. The Stoxx Europe 600 index is up 19.6% since June 4, advancing as the European Central Bank introduced bond-buying programs, S&P upgraded Greece's debt and German business confidence rose more than forecast. The benchmark gauge's 14.4% advance for the year was the best annual return since 2009.

Carlos Slim, the telecommunications magnate who controls Mexico's America Movil, maintained his title as the richest person on Earth for the entire year. The 72-year-old's net worth rose $13.4 billion, or 21.6%, through Dec. 31, making him the second-biggest gainer by dollars. Gains by Slim's industrial conglomerate, Grupo Carso, and Grupo Financiero Inbursa, his banking and insurance operation, more than offset the decline posted by America Movil, his biggest holding. The largest mobile phone operator in the Americas by subscribers fell 5.8% to close at 14.9 pesos at the end of the year.

MORE

 

[william the wie]

By Paul Craig Roberts on August 28, 2012 at 5:57pm
The United States has collapsed economically, socially, politically, legally, constitutionally, and environmentally. The country that exists today is not even a shell of the country into which I was born. In this article I will deal with America’s economic collapse. In subsequent articles, i will deal with other aspects of American collapse.

Economically, America has descended into poverty. As Peter Edelman says, “Low-wage work is pandemic.” Today in “freedom and democracy” America, “the world’s only superpower,” one fourth of the work force is employed in jobs that pay less than $22,000, the poverty line for a family of four. Some of these lowly-paid persons are young college graduates, burdened by education loans, who share housing with three or four others in the same desperate situation. Other of these persons are single parents only one medical problem or lost job away from homelessness.

Others might be Ph.D.s teaching at universities as adjunct professors for $10,000 per year or less. Education is still touted as the way out of poverty, but increasingly is a path into poverty or into enlistments into the military services.

Edelman, who studies these issues, reports that 20.5 million Americans have incomes less than $9,500 per year, which is half of the poverty definition for a family of three.

read more America

There's a lot he isn't saying that is relevant:

1) The Fed, the administration and the congress all believe in global economic equilibrium. The very possibility of that existing was disproven by Edward Lorenz in 1961 when he demonstrated how chaos works in meterology. Economic data are way too imprecise at +\- 5% at best for economic management to work.
2) All establishment economists deny the possibility of increasing marginal returns which means consumers do not see computer memory/$ double every 24 months or the optronics in cameras and monitors doubling/$ every 18 months.
3) If you want to increase employment then drop the corporate income tax down to 10% and add a price graduated VAT to make up the slack.
4) Get rid of the Fed except during time of war and let the market be the market.

 

[Freemason9]

There's a lot he isn't saying that is relevant:

1) The Fed, the administration and the congress all believe in global economic equilibrium. The very possibility of that existing was disproven by Edward Lorenz in 1961 when he demonstrated how chaos works in meterology. Economic data are way too imprecise at +\- 5% at best for economic management to work.
2) All establishment economists deny the possibility of increasing marginal returns which means consumers do not see computer memory/$ double every 24 months or the optronics in cameras and monitors doubling/$ every 18 months.
3) If you want to increase employment then drop the corporate income tax down to 10% and add a price graduated VAT to make up the slack.
4) Get rid of the Fed except during time of war and let the market be the market.

Interesting comments, W the W. I would like to add these comments, however:

(1) Although you say that "the administration and the congress all believe in global economic equilibrium," that is a supposition. There is no evidence that this is, indeed, the case. You probably base this upon economic policy that seems to cater to third world development--but that could actually be catering to corporate lobbies seeking cheap labor.

(2) These are microeconomic examples that you put forward in a macroeconomic argument, no?

(3) Even if you are correct regarding unemployment, this strategy will effectively lower real wages for the labor force and increase after-tax income for the non-working "investor" class. This might be a powerful disincentive for the workforce (after all, aren't taxes said to be a powerful disincentive for investors? You know, the goose and the gander and whatnot).

(4) I don't see how the Fed is relevent. The U.S. keeps it in place because it lubricates the capitalist economic system.

Poverty in America exists in its present extreme condition because of the extreme nature of our wealth concentrations. That concentrated wealth will ultimately destroy our nation.

 

[Rshermr]

By Paul Craig Roberts on August 28, 2012 at 5:57pm
The United States has collapsed economically, socially, politically, legally, constitutionally, and environmentally. The country that exists today is not even a shell of the country into which I was born. In this article I will deal with America’s economic collapse. In subsequent articles, i will deal with other aspects of American collapse.

Economically, America has descended into poverty. As Peter Edelman says, “Low-wage work is pandemic.” Today in “freedom and democracy” America, “the world’s only superpower,” one fourth of the work force is employed in jobs that pay less than $22,000, the poverty line for a family of four. Some of these lowly-paid persons are young college graduates, burdened by education loans, who share housing with three or four others in the same desperate situation. Other of these persons are single parents only one medical problem or lost job away from homelessness.

Others might be Ph.D.s teaching at universities as adjunct professors for $10,000 per year or less. Education is still touted as the way out of poverty, but increasingly is a path into poverty or into enlistments into the military services.

Edelman, who studies these issues, reports that 20.5 million Americans have incomes less than $9,500 per year, which is half of the poverty definition for a family of three.

read more America

Wow. Vdare. Could you find a more bat shit crazy con web site, dipshit.

Sorry. I just really dislike people who waste my time.

Kind of like me posting something from moveon.org for you to read. But then I would not. I chose to maintain integrity. You know. Integrity. Look it up.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Wow. Vdare. Could you find a more bat shit crazy con web site, dipshit.

so then please tell us where the not bat shit crazy sites are so we can learn the truth!!! Where do we see the evidence that taxing an economy helps it grow???

I feel fortunate to have finally met the man who knows where the evidence is!!! At long last!!! Thank you!! I should have know to expect no less from a college professor.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Economically, America has descended into poverty.

Wow hyperbole much? The poverty of two cars, central air conditioning, smart phones, iPads, and eating out.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Economically, America has descended into poverty.

Wow hyperbole much? The poverty of two cars, central air conditioning, smart phones, iPads, and eating out.

yes it was only a $692 billion Christmas this year!!!Recently, Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, testified before the House Budget Committee on the growth of the 10-largest “means tested” federal programs that serve people who qualify by various definitions of poverty.


Here’s what Haskins reported: From 1980 to 2011, annual spending on these programs grew from $126 billion to $626 billion (all figures in inflation-adjusted “2011 dollars”); dividing this by the number of people below the government poverty line, spending went from $4,300 per poor person in 1980 to $13,000 in 2011. In 1962, spending per person in poverty was $516.

 

[Rshermr]

As the rest of the population sees their income stagnate, and the middle class shrinks while those who are below the middle class grow in numbers, the upper 1% of income earners got 93% of income growth.

The earnings gap between rich and poor Americans was the widest in more than four decades in 2011, Census data show, surpassing income inequality previously reported in Uganda and Kazakhstan. The notion that each generation does better than the last -- one aspect of the American Dream -- has been challenged by evidence that average family incomes fell last decade for the first time since World War II.

Top 1% Got 93% of Income Growth as Rich-Poor Gap Widened - Bloomberg

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Top 1% Got 93% of Income Growth as Rich-Poor Gap Widened - Bloomberg[/url]

typical liberal lie!!

1) top 1% pay 40% of all income tax, 2 times more than in 1980 and higher % than in any other country

2) poor are richer than ever as government benefits are 6 times want they were in 1980, none of it is counted as income, and libturds encourage more and more to sign up!


See why we are positive a liberal will be slow, so very very slow!!