So, we're fucked, right?

[Earnie Shavers]

It is cheap. Very cheap.

 

[mama cass]

yeah, compared to this side of the pond at least...

 

[Irvine511]

it's also 4x more than it was 10 years ago. i understand that it's cheaper over here, but it ain't like it used to be.

and that's a good thing. far fewer SUVs clogging up the roads these days.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

it's also 4x more than it was 10 years ago. i understand that it's cheaper over here, but it ain't like it used to be.

and that's a good thing. far fewer SUVs clogging up the roads these days.

this (i want to say it hovered around $1 in 2001, at least it did in memphis)

and this.

 

[yolland]

Associated Press, Dec. 15

Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans—nearly 1 in 2—have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

Many middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold—roughly $45,000 for a family of four—because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to half of a family's income.

States in the South and West had the highest shares of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, which have scaled back or eliminated aid programs for the needy. By raw numbers, such families were most numerous in California and Texas, each with more than 1 million.

About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199% of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48% of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure. The new measure of poverty takes into account medical, commuting and other living costs. Doing that helped push the number of people below 200% of the poverty level up from 104 million, or 1 in 3 Americans, that was officially reported in September.

Broken down by age, children were most likely to be poor or low-income — about 57%—followed by seniors over 65. By race and ethnicity, Hispanics topped the list at 73%, followed by blacks, Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

The majority of low-income families—62%—spent more than one-third of their earnings on housing, surpassing a common guideline for what is considered affordable. By some census surveys, child-care costs consume close to another one-fifth.

Paychecks for low-income families are shrinking. The inflation-adjusted average earnings for the bottom 20% of families have fallen from $16,788 in 1979 to just under $15,000, and earnings for the next 20% have remained flat at $37,000. In contrast, higher-income brackets had significant wage growth since 1979, with earnings for the top 5% of families climbing 64% to more than $313,000.

 

[sue4u2]

So this is Christmas and here's what I've done.
I was laid off October of 2010. I went through my savings (quickly) then my 401k went next. I took a lower paying job in April which gave me $62.00 more a month than I was drawing in unemployment.
That was a quota based job and as soon as I didn't make quota I was let go. (I was a job recruiter for an employment agency and had to find 10 positions a week to list in their jobs directory for other people to apply for - after paying a fee.) The manager really liked me and said she would just say it was a temp. position to help me use it as a reference. (she had no choice - corp said get rid of me. and one other person)
Back on unemployment. After weeks of fucked up problems with the unemployment office - they just couldn't believe I wasn't working no matter how much I tried to explain or show proof.
Time goes on - getting further and further behind. Went to work for a company that handles cell phone customer service. They started letting people go before training was even over. If you didn't work there before you were kicked to the curb.
Took out a title loan on my car to pay rent and pay off 2 payday loans. Still paying interest on that and haven't paid down but a few dollars of the actual loan.
Friends have family members living back with them now. One of my sister's had her house burn down and had to scale back, also. Two other sisters living out of town and have their own worries. My son lives with me and works part time and he's selling his furniture (that's in storage) to make rent this month. He's trying to get his degree in engineering but may have to give it up this semester if we loose our place. I just sold my dining room table/chairs and bakers rack, coffee & end tables.
Trying to decide if I should take a prescription (that wasn't prescribed to me, but I've taken before) because I don't have insurance and I hurt all over from RA.
I'm no longer young and I've worked all my life since I was 15. I don't have a college degree and I'm going up against people who haven't been out of work as long as I have, are younger and have degrees and will work for wages I made in 2007.
There you have it.
I've never had to sell my furniture and kitchen appliances to make rent.
I'm not alone.
There are millions of us out there and yeah, I'd say we're fucked.

 

[financeguy]

50 Economic Numbers About The US That Are "Almost Too Crazy To Believe"

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.


#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.


#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.


#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.


#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.


#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.


#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.



#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.


#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.



#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.



#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.



#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.



#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.



#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.



#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.



#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.



#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.



#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.



#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.



#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.



#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.



#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.



#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.



#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.



#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.



#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.



#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.



#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.



#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.



#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.



#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.



#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.



#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.



#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.



#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.



#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.



#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.



#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.



#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.



#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.



#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.



#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.



#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.



#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.



#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.



#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.



#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.



#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.



#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.



#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

50 Economic Numbers About The US That Are "Almost Too Crazy To Believe" | ZeroHedge

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/...crazy-to-believe/comment-page-1#comment-91369

You know what's funny about this from an Irish perspective? I live near the American embassy here, and every time I pass it there are at least two or three people outside waiting to (I assume) hand in Visa applications.

 

[mama cass]

very scary!

 

[Pearl]

I'm sorry sue4u2

 

[Liesje]

I've glanced over the first 25 or so and honestly am not surprised, but MI has been struggling with high unemployment (around 15% in some parts of the state depending on the local industries) and a terrible housing market, which was nice for us as first time home buyers, but I truly felt sorry for the family we bought our house from.

 

[corianderstem]

Geez. I'm so sorry.

 

[INDY500]

Some of those I've heard and some I haven't.

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.


#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

Liberals, explain to me again how we need MORE government spending to stimulate the economy.

 

[BoMac]

In my opinion, it's not necessarily how much you spend, but where you spend it. My guess is a large part of that spending goes to the military and the debt was only exacerbated by fighting two wars at once.

I love how the national debt was "just" $10.6 trillion at the beginning of Obama's term.

 

[Pearl]

No offense, FG, but shouldn't this be in the "We're Fucked" thread?

Because by reading this list, we certainly are.

 

[financeguy]

I had forgotten about that thread, but certainly I have no problem if they are merged.

 

[yolland]

I just want to know which industries have the growth potential to reverse a trend towards inequality on that scale, in a country the size of ours.

 

[financeguy]

I just want to know which industries have the growth potential to reverse a trend towards inequality on that scale, in a country the size of ours.

There are no immediate solutions to the problems created by the aftermath of two successive massive credit bubbles. America will continue to gravitate towards socialism.

 

[INDY500]

I just want to know which industries have the growth potential to reverse a trend towards inequality on that scale, in a country the size of ours.

Energy.

Look what North Dakota and western Pennsylvania are doing in this "jobless" recovery. Dangerous but good paying jobs in coal, refineries, pipelines, natural gas and offshore drilling. Not to mention trucking, building and servicing equipment and local jobs created in a boom. And the middle class benefits from lower energy costs.

President Solyndra sees things differently however.

 

[maycocksean]

I'm both #13 and #30 on that list, unfortunately.

 

[Pearl]

I'm lucky to have my parents as my landlords, but that luck can't last forever.

 

[sue4u2]

I'm sorry sue4u2

Energy.

Look what North Dakota and western Pennsylvania are doing in this "jobless" recovery. Dangerous but good paying jobs in coal, refineries, pipelines, natural gas and offshore drilling. Not to mention trucking, building and servicing equipment and local jobs created in a boom. And the middle class benefits from lower energy costs.

President Solyndra sees things differently however.

Yeah, like Solyndra is the first government funded company/bank/wall street firm, oil & or gas company - do I need to go on? - etc. to go under.
Oh my goddess!! impeach the President.

No doubt we have to depend on oil and coal for a bit longer, but if we don't start investing in substainable alternatives we are screwed. Europe is building total substainable buildings (solar, wind & thermal w/ hydrogen storage) and Germany is leading the way in alternative fuels, also.
Investment in Education in this country is going to have make a drastic reform in order to teach the new world technology needed to implement these changes. If we don't stop squabbling over party politics and stupid stubborn ideologies, that both sides are guilty of, then forget the future.
Our childrens, childern, (if that long) will be living as slaves to whoever perfects it first.

(PS: I didn't get evicted this month, at least. The corporation that owns these apts cut me some slack. I had till 5pm today. I got the last $50 at 6 after, but the office stayed open for me. Still good people out there. There's still hope.

 

[Scarletwine]

Energy.

Look what North Dakota and western Pennsylvania are doing in this "jobless" recovery. Dangerous but good paying jobs in coal, refineries, pipelines, natural gas and offshore drilling. Not to mention trucking, building and servicing equipment and local jobs created in a boom. And the middle class benefits from lower energy costs.

President Solyndra sees things differently however.

And polluting all the groundwater at the same time.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

and we continue to get...

e-mail I got from the WH

"$40 is big money for us"

Yesterday, we asked you to tell us what losing $40 per paycheck would mean to you and your family if the House doesn’t pass the bipartisan payroll tax cut compromise by the end of this year.

The response was truly overwhelming. Thousands of Americans have responded and we wanted to make sure you saw some of the responses that have poured in from across the country.

If you haven't already, tell us what $40 means for you and your family, and see what it means for other Americans.


Stories submitted on WhiteHouse.gov

I can buy lunch from the cafeteria for almost a whole month for my twins, I can buy food, or pay for gas. I can save it for my daughter’s prescriptions deductibles. To some people $40 is nothing, but $40 is big money for us.
L.A., Hamden, Connecticut

$40.00 a paycheck will allow me to continue to pay co-pays to doctors for necessary medical treatments needed to control debilitating disease.
J.R., Arlington, Texas

Our cable internet bill is $49 per month. If we lose this payroll tax cut then we will have to give up either or internet access or possibly our 'Friday Family Pizza' night. Either way, we will lose something that brings us together as a family.
K.Z., Frederick, Maryland

After everything that comes out, including my mortgage my take home pay is $150.00 every two weeks. So minus forty would be $110.00. I can barely get by now, that forty bucks is my gas for my car to get to work. Taking forty away from my pay would, just about put me under.
R.T., Charleston, West Virginia

$40 less a paycheck means I will have to pick between my insulin and the water bill. It means never being able to see my doctor - even though I have insurance.
B.T., Roswell, New Mexico

90 days of prescription drugs
P.B., Milledgeville, Georgia

$40 a paycheck for my family helps pay for insulin, syringes, and blood sugar testing strips for my daughter, who was diagnosed with type I diabetes 5 years ago.
N.F., Midwest City, Oklahoma

The $40 I would lose is money I send to help my brother. He has had a myriad of health problems over the past two years and has only been able to work intermittently. He was recently diagnosed with inoperable cancer and has no health insurance. Without what some say isn't a lot of money, my brother wouldn't have food in his refrigerator.
S.K., Somerville, Massachusetts

Normally any extra money I have. I give to the needy. Salvation Army is my favorite charity. So I won’t be giving to charities or buying anything for anyone.
P.C., Lakeville, Minnesota

More here

What #40dollars Means to Americans | The White House

 

[financeguy]

^ But surely these lazy good for nothings could easily set up a business, say, for example, a hedge fund or an investment bank, and cream millions off the taxpayer in the best entrepreneurial American way?

I don't know what these freeloading ne'er do wells are complaining about, quite frankly.

If they hate the American system so much that they have to take to the internet with their whining little complaints, why don't they emigrate to North Korea?

 

[maycocksean]

I have to admit I'm a little stressed about losing that $40 per paycheck as well.

 

[yolland]

Interesting, if depressing, stat from the Atlantic:

It's also not just a burden on young people. The New York Fed's study found that only about a third of all student debt belongs to Americans under 30. Another third belongs to adults between the ages of 30 and 39. And according to one recent study, adults between the ages 35 and 49 are the fastest growing category of borrowers. Part of the reason may be that the tough job market has forced older workers back to school in order to learn new skills. But it's not clear that investment is paying off.

Americans, young and old, are turning to education in an economy that values technical skills, and has little use for a high school degree. And now they're stumbling under the weight of the debt they've incurred. It would be easy to chalk this up to the bad economy--and clearly that's playing a role--but there may be a deeper, harder-to-remedy problem at play. Simply put: Too many students don't graduate...less than 60% of US undergraduates seeking a bachelor's degree graduate within six years. Just 30% of those seeking an associate's degree finish within three years. It's an abysmal record, and it may go a long way to explaining the trouble borrowers are having paying back their loans. A few months back, the Wall Street Journal profiled a hedge fund that specializes in packaging student loans into securities for investors. The firm had found that whether a student graduated was one of the two most important predictors of if they would eventually pay back their loans. The second? Whether they graduated on time.

The low graduation rate is presumably also relevant to another stat I saw recently, which was that students at for-profit colleges, though only about 9% of all college students, account for 44% of all student loan defaults. For-profit colleges, like community colleges, disproportionately enroll poor students seeking associate's degrees, most of whom never finish.

 

[PhilsFan]

For-profit colleges are basically massive scams: they sign people up who almost uniformly don't graduate, and their degrees are not respected in many fields of employment anyway.

 

[yolland]

The American Association of Community Colleges just released a report surveying the unenviable state of community college students (at 44% of all US college students, a much larger group than their 4-year public, private, or for-profit counterparts):

Fewer than half (46%) of students who enter community colleges with the goal of earning a degree or certificate have attained that goal, transferred to a baccalaureate institution, or are still enrolled 6 years later. The rates, unfortunately, are lower for Hispanic, Black, Native American, and low-income students.

Almost a third (30%) of entering students do not attend orientation; most avoid online orientation; about 90% indicate that academic planning and advising is important to them, yet less than a third of entering students report that a college advisor helped them set academic goals and create a plan for achieving them; and although a large majority of entering students are underprepared for college-level work, 76% never use tutoring services. Well into the first term, many students have almost no idea of how well or poorly they are doing academically and report a general sense of bewilderment with registration processes.

Developmental (remedial) education is all too often a burial ground for student aspirations. Getting up to speed in math and reading for some students can take 3 or more years...Among high school graduates, only 24% of those intending to go to college meet all four ACT benchmarks of college readiness in English, mathematics, reading, and science.

Too many senior college and university leaders, faculty, department chairs, and deans are ambivalent about community colleges, understanding them not as having different missions but as somehow inferior because of their open-door admissions. Community college transfer students often have to fight to have their credits recognized at baccalaureate institutions, and universities often are reluctant to share data about transfer students and their performance. This ambivalence complicates the effort to improve articulation between the two sectors and lends credence to calls for more comprehensive policy solutions at the state level.

tudents’ plans prior to college entry indicate very little understanding of employment possibilities in high-demand, high-wage fields. The disparities in employment plans versus employment demand are striking:

The report lays out seven steps to improvement, with emphases on expanded student advising/mentoring and coordination between colleges and high schools to increase college readiness.

When the Obama Administration announced plans to overhaul and expand the community college system a couple years back, I said here at the time that while I was in principle strongly supportive, there absolutely had to be thorough study undertaken first of why these schools' graduation rates are so low, so that we're not just throwing money at a problem whose dimensions we don't understand. The finding of serious systemic weaknesses in advising and in secondary-tertiary coordination fits closely what I've observed in our transfer students (and indeed in many of our students, period). While the picture this report paints is pretty bleak, it's at least encouraging to see solid groundwork being done.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

i'd be very interested to know why community college students don't finish their degree. i've never attended one but i do know the biggest one in memphis looks nice enough, but you can't even get federal funding for it because too many students defaulted on their loans. that alone could make or break it for a lot of students. it can't be that expensive to attend (as compared to a university, i mean - even a public one) but if you've got to foot the bill yourself or rely on private loans which you might not qualify for, one semester you could be fine. the next? you could lose your job or circumstances could change and suddenly you can't attend school anymore.

 

[Canadiens1131]

Some of those figures are not surprising, considering many community colleges in the US are High School 2.0 / holding tanks for people who have no business going to college and should have been presented many vocational training options in high school.