The Great Schlep

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Middle class is evaporating.

Everyone knows the middle class is being squeezed.  It's been all over the news for years, but what does it really mean?  It means that the middle class, the people that work hard to provide a decent way of living for themselves and their families, are going in the opposite direction from the way it historically has gone due to the depreciation in the value of their incomes.  The middle class does not make enough to overcome the rising living costs which just causes a slow decline into the “working poor” pool.

Remember the times when a head of a single income household, working an average full time job ,could afford to buy a house, have health insurance, go on vacations, pay for kids college, and still save for retirement?  What happened?  I think it can be traced to the easier access to more and more credit so that the “middle class” could live farther and farther beyond their means, resulting in too much inflation and more of their paychecks going into paying interest to the wealthy that were giving out these loans.  Essentially, a slow decline in real expendable income of the average working American and at the same time a massive transfer of assets from the middle class to the wealthy.  People need to start living off their earnings instead of off credit.  It looks like with the current economy their not really going to have much choice about it.

The gap between average folk and super wealthy is at an all time high in America, and it will continue to grow if allowed.  And this can't be at all good for America.  Of course not, how can it?

Republicans cause a skyrocketing national debt!

Take a look at this graph,

• It shows that from 1944 to 1981, the national debt stayed at around 1.8 trillion dollars.
• When Regan took office, it immediately started to go up.  In fact, it more than doubled by the time he left office to 4 trillion.
• Then Bush Sr. continued what Regan started and added another 1.3 trillion to the debt.  So between Regan and Bush senior, they almost tripled the debt in just 12 years.  A debt that had remained pretty constant for the past 40 years.
• Then Clinton came into office, and you immediately see the spending spree slow down and actually start seeing our debt declining.
• Then Bush Jr. comes along and continues the Regan/Bush Sr. debt increase.  One that will stand at around 11.5 trillion dollars before he is done.  That means in 8 years he will have increased the national debt by 6 trillion dollars on his own.  That's more than 3 times the debt we had all the way up until Regan took office.
• Between Regan, Bush Sr, and Bush Jr, the debt will have gone from under 2 trillion to 11.5 trillion in a total of 20 years they controlled the White House.  Do we want to continue this?

Keep in mind this is REAL increase.  The numbers have been adjusted for inflation so while there was really a little less than $1 Trillion, in today’s dollar that equals about $2 Billion.

In 1980, each American man, woman, and child would be liable for around $6,000 of the national debt (in today’s dollars).  But today, each of us is liable for over $32,000.  A family of four owes over $128,000 and this is on top of any personal debt.  By the time Bush “W” leaves office, that number will be $38,000 and $152,000 respectively.

The irony is, that the Republicans are the ones that say they want a smaller government, yet their spending goes up and the government services go down (i.e. healthcare, education funds, regulatory oversight).  Where does this money go if not to government provided services?  To their rich friends of course.  And where does the money come from and who pays for it?  Right.

Visit the U.S. National Debt Clock

Who’s in charge of this mess??

$700,000,000,000.00 of play money.

The same people who denied there were problems until just recently and the same ones that have recommended the past few failed attempts at halting this downward economic spiral are now asking for $700 Billion to try again.  They were initially saying there was not a problem (when it was obvious to most that there was), then that the problem was just limited to the sub-prime mortgage sector, then after they have to bail out Bear Stearns they proclaim that they will not have to use any more taxpayer money for anything else, and now they are finally saying that we had serious issues with the architecture of the whole thing and want some money to throw at they think is the problem to see if they can change it's course, this time.

By a ratio of 100 to 1, the American people do not want this bailout to take place.  But that does not matter, it’s not about what the American people want, it’s about what the other side wants.

Illiquid Assets explained - Watch the video

What does $700,000,000,000.00 look like anyways?  Lets see.

Remember when 25 Billion used to be a lot of money

Well, a few weeks ago it still was.  Until our government decided it wants the taxpayers to play Santa for all these big corporations.  Look at this, the "Big 3" automakers were looking for a 6 Billion dollar loan but since they see their rich uncle opening the wallet so much, they are now asking for 25 Billion... and getting it.  And now they want another 25 Billion next year too.  It went from asking for 6 Billion to at least 50 Billion.. almost 10x what they originally wanted.

And 1 of those companies is not even a public.  Chrysler is a private company, yet is going to get upwards of 10 Billion of taxpayer money!

Oh, and of course, unlike the 1.5 Billion dollar bailout the government gave Chrysler in 1980, then a public company, these new bailouts come with basically no conditions other than to start paying back in 5 years if we are lucky.

America has somehow become the land of billionaires in the past couple months.

$25 Billion to Help GM, Ford, and Chrysler