ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS THE TRUTH

“Eyes blinded by the fog of things
cannot see truth.
Ears deafened by the din of things
cannot hear truth.
Brains bewildered by the whirl of things
cannot think truth.
Hearts deadened by the weight of things
cannot feel truth.
Throats choked by the dust of things
cannot speak truth.”
Harald Bell Wright – The Uncrowned King

I consider myself a seeker of truth. It isn’t easy finding it in todays’ world. In an alternate version of the famous scene from A Few Good Men, I picture myself telling Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner that I want the truth and his angry truthful response:

“Son, we live in a world that has Wall Street banks, and those banks have to be guarded by puppet politicians in Washington D.C. with lobbyist written laws and Madison Avenue PR maggots with media propaganda. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Representative Paul? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for the average middle class American family, and you curse the ruling oligarchs. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That the death of the American middle class, while tragic, probably saved the bonuses of thousands of Wall Street bankers. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, increases the wealth of these same bankers who destroyed the worldwide economic system in 2008. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about in the food bank line, you want me on Wall Street, you need me on Wall Street. We use words like derivative, fiscal stimulus, quantitative easing. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent syphoning off the wealth of the nation. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very debt that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up 1000 shares of Apple, and hope our high frequency trading supercomputers can ramp the market for a while longer. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.”

I find myself more amazed than ever at the ability of those in power to lie, misinform and obfuscate the truth, while millions of Americans willfully choose to be ignorant of the truth and yearn to be misled. It’s a match made in heaven. Acknowledging the truth of our society’s descent from a country of hard working, self-reliant, charitable, civic minded citizens into the abyss of entitled, dependent, greedy, materialistic consumers is unacceptable to the slave owners and the slaves. We can’t handle the truth because that would require critical thought, hard choices, sacrifice, and dealing with the reality of an unsustainable economic and societal model. It’s much easier to believe the big lies that allow us to sleep at night. The concept of lying to the masses and using propaganda techniques to manipulate and form public opinion really took hold in the 1920s and have been perfected by the powerful ruling elite that control the reins of finance, government and mass media.

Peddlers of Propaganda

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.” Aldous Huxley – Brave New World

 File:Edward Bernays.jpg   

Adolf Hitler understood the power of the big lie over the ignorant masses who want to believe:

“All this was inspired by the principle–which is quite true within itself–that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.” – Adolf Hitler – Mein Kampf

We are all liars. We lie to friends, family and co-workers. We convince ourselves they are only small lies and just protect others from being hurt. We would rather be lied to than face the blunt truth about our deficiencies, shortcomings and failures. Willfully believing mistruths allows a person to become dependent upon those promulgating the mistruths. It relieves them of their responsibility to act upon the knowledge that something is wrong and must be fixed. It is a cowardly path to ultimate servitude and destruction. The German people chose this path in the 1930s and the American people have chosen a similar and ultimately destructive path today. The United States Office of Strategic Services prepared a psychological profile report during the war describing Adolf Hitler’s method for controlling the minds of the German masses:

“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”

America’s corruptible politicians, greedy corporate chieftains, criminal banking overlords, and despicable media manipulators all learned the sordid lessons of mass propaganda from the masters. Our willingness to lie and be lied to set us up to be manipulated by those who understood the mass psychology of a nation. Goebbels and Hitler were heavily influenced by the father of propaganda – Edward Bernays. He and his disciples are professional poisoners of the public mind, exploiters of public foolishness and ignorance, and never allow truth to interfere with a good story. What master manipulators realized is that it is easier to change the attitude of millions than the attitude of one man. By analyzing and understanding the process and motives of how the group mind works, the invisible government has been able to manipulate and regulate the masses according to their will without the masses knowing they are being managed. Bernays described this elitist view of the world in 1928:

“Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.” – Edward Bernays – Propaganda

The super-rich elite believe they are more intelligent, more capable of managing the affairs of state, masters of the financial world, and chosen to decide what is best for the masses. In reality, they are egocentric, psychotic, power hungry, myopic, self-serving ravenous vultures, feasting upon the carcass of a once great nation. Truth is inconsequential and irritating to their plans for world domination and control. Therefore, no truth will be forthcoming from any organization or person that is associated with the existing political, economic, financial or social order. Every bit of information that is permitted into the public realm has been vetted, manipulated and spun for public consumption. The public does not like bad news. They do not like hard facts. They do not like to think or do math. They want to be spoon fed mindless sound bites and happy talk. The oligarchs need to keep the masses sedated and subservient while they continue to plunder and pillage, so all data is massaged to provide a happy ending.

This is where I deviate from the ideologue one-trick ponies that refuse to see both sides of the issue. The ruling oligarchs are wealthy, influential, psychotic, amoral, and few. The masses are relatively poor, easily influenced, willfully ignorant, and many. The ruling oligarchs are most certainly evil, but the masses are not the hard working, stoic, downtrodden portrayed by liberal ideologues. One just needs to walk down the street in one of our urban enclaves, saunter through a suburban mall, or click on People of Wal-Mart to witness the tattooed, pierced, butt crack showing, slovenly, obese, and ignorant, attached to their electronic iGadgets, to understand how far our society has deteriorated.  Every individual born into this world has the capability to become educated, think critically, not follow the herd, live beneath their means, and not be influenced by propaganda. Aldous Huxley understood in 1931 that those in power could use material goods to invoke passivity and egotism among the populace. He feared that truth would be obscured by an avalanche of irrelevance (500 Reality TV shows), cultural trivialities (Lady Gaga, Lindsey Lohan), distractions (Professional sports), and pharmaceutical enhanced escape (Prozac). He saw the possibility that we would grow to love our servitude as the pleasures of life provided by our controllers overwhelmed any desire to think or question authority.

“There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it.”  ― Aldous Huxley

By 1962 when Huxley wrote his last book, he was certain that his worst dystopian nightmares had been unleashed. His description of Western society fifty years ago could have been written today and accurately reflected our current economic paradigm. War, debt and consumption still make our world go round, but the end is nigh.

“Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you’d collapse. And while you people are over-consuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.”Aldous Huxley – Island

The pillars are crumbling. The $1.4 trillion wasted on two worthless wars of choice in the Middle East, the trillions wasted and liberties sacrificed for the never ending unwinnable War on Terror, the Keynesian spending frenzy that has driven the National Debt from $9 trillion to $16.3 trillion in the last five years, the looting of the American taxpayer by Wall Street and their co-conspirators at the Federal Reserve and in Congress, and the belief that ramping up the debt driven consumption that drives 71% of our GDP is our path to prosperity is absolutely freaking nuts. The pillars will not be abolished willingly. The ruling class depends upon their continued existence and expansion. There is the rub. The math doesn’t work. We’ve reached the point where continued expansion of debt and money printing no longer works. With a national debt to GDP ratio of 102% and a total credit market debt to GDP ratio of 350%, we have passed the Rogoff & Reinhart point of no return. This time is not different. A country cannot run trillion dollar deficits indefinitely and expect to not suffer the consequences. This is why those in power are increasingly resorting to propaganda, data manipulation, and outright lies to convince the masses of their omnipotence and brilliance in managing the fiscal affairs of the state.

 “One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.” Aldous Huxley – Brave New World

Through decades of mass media messaging the masses have been conditioned to believe whatever those in power want them to believe. To our invisible government rulers we are nothing but rats to be manipulated through food pellets and shock therapy. Pleasure and fear of pain are the drivers of our warped society. The ruling oligarchs truly think they know what is best for the masses and believe any means is worthwhile as long as the ends support their agenda. This is blatantly obvious to anyone with their eyes open and their brain functioning. Sadly, the government run educational system produces mostly drones that are barely able to tie their own shoes, spell Cat, or make change from a one dollar bill. Only 20% of all high school seniors score high enough on the SAT test to get a B minus in college and most of these kids come from private and parochial schools. This is exactly what those in power prefer. They want non-critical thinking, mindless consumers, who don’t understand the criminal nature of Federal Reserve created inflation or their enslavement in the chains of debt at the hands of their Wall Street slave owners. They certainly don’t want the masses to understand that real median household net worth is lower today than it was in 1969. Luckily for the oligarchs, 95% of the public couldn’t define the terms: real, median or net worth. Math is hard.

The average person is inundated on a 24/7 basis with pabulum from liberal network media talking heads, CNBC Wall Street shills regurgitating whatever their sponsors desire, Fox News blonde bimbos and neo-con war mongers programmed to spew Rupert Murdoch talking points, MSNBC tingling leg faux journalists, NYT intellectually corrupt Nobel prize winners, NAR nitwits repeating “best time to buy” on a daily basis for the last 12 years, and government agencies whose sole purpose is to manipulate data in a way that supports the agenda of those in power. The intellectually lazy and willfully ignorant masses are no match for those who control the message and the media. How else can you explain their ability to convince millions of drones to line up for hours in front of a store and stampede like crazed hyenas to grab a $5 crockpot, the Chinese produced gadget of the moment or a designer top made by slave labor in safety conscious Bangladesh factories? How else can you explain a population willing to be molested by government TSA dregs in the name of security from phantom terrorists, the passive acceptance of military exercises in US cities, unquestioning submissiveness as Presidential Executive Orders allow the government dictatorial powers based on their judgment, the monitoring of internet and voice correspondence of all citizens, and believing that FBI agents luring clueless teenage Muslim dupes into fake terrorist plots, providing the fake explosives, and then announcing with great fanfare how they saved us from another 9/11?

But, the prize for boldest, most outrageous, blatant use of propaganda and misinformation to cover-up their criminal looting of America goes to Ben Bernanke, his cronies at the Federal Reserve, and the Wall Street banks that own and control our Central Bank. Having the gall to portray themselves as the stabilizer of our economic system over the last 100 years is a putrid joke on the dying and broke middle class. Their mandate has been stable prices, full employment, and avoiding financial crisis. It is a tribute to Bernays and the rest of the public relations swine that the average American actually believes inflation is a good thing and it is under control despite the FACT that 96.2% of their purchasing power has disappeared since 1900, with the most rapid decline occurring since Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.

inflation-currency

The average American actually believes Ben Bernanke saved us from a Great Depression when in actuality he saved the owners of the Federal Reserve from accepting the losses they generated through the greatest financial fraud in history. His “solutions” have zombified our economic system, just as the Japanese Central Bank did 20 years ago. He has destroyed the concept of saving, while rewarding the indebted and profligate with his QE to Infinity money printing policies. And the ignorant masses have been convinced by the corporate media and their corrupt government lackeys that Ben did this for them. Kyle Bass knows otherwise. He knows how the Fed and their backers have preyed upon the masses through their understanding of human psychology:

“Humans are optimistic by nature. People’s lives are driven by hopes and dreams which are all second derivatives of their innate optimism. Humans also suffer from optimistic biases driven by the first inalienable right of human nature which is self-preservation. It is this reflex mechanism in our cognitive pathways that makes difficult situations hard to reflect and opine on. These biases are extended to economic choices and events. The primary difficulty with this train of thought is the bias that most investors have for the baseline facts: they tend to believe that the central bankers, politicians, and other governmental agencies are omnipotent due to their success in averting a financial meltdown in 2009.

Central banks have become the great enablers of fiscal profligacy. The overarching belief is that there will always be someone or something there to act as the safety net. The safety nets worked so well recently that investors now trust they will be underneath them ad-infinitum. Markets and economists alike now believe that quantitative easing (“QE”) will always “work” by flooding the market with relatively costless capital. Unlimited QE and the zero lower bound (“ZLB”) are likely to bankrupt pension funds whose expected returns happen to be a good 600 basis points (or more) higher than the 10?year “risk-free” rate. The ZLB has many unintended consequences that are impossible to ignore.

Our belief is that markets will eventually take these matters out of the hands of the central bankers. These events will happen with such rapidity that policy makers won’t be able to react fast enough. The fallacy of the belief that countries that print their own currency are immune to sovereign crisis will be disproven in the coming months and years. Trillions of dollars of debts will be restructured and millions of financially prudent savers will lose large percentages of their real purchasing power at exactly the wrong time in their lives. Again, the world will not end, but the social fabric of the profligate nations will be stretched and in some cases torn. Sadly, looking back through economic history, all too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation.” Kyle Bass

What’s Normal in a Profoundly Abnormal Society?

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does.” They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited

No sane person could honestly say that what has happened to our society over the last forty years, and particularly in the last five years, is normal. But somehow those in power have convinced the masses that $1.2 trillion deficits, 0% interest rates, declining real wages, the highest average gas prices in history, pre-emptive wars, policing the world and buying rubber dog shit produced in China with a credit card is normal and beneficial to our economy. It seems that I and a few million other people in this country are the abnormal ones. We choose not to be led to slaughter by our masters. The seekers of truth have turned to the alternative media and are able to connect with like-minded critical thinking individuals on websites like Zero Hedge, Jesse’s Americain Café, Of Two Minds, Mish, Financial Sense, among many other truth seeking blogs. This is dangerous to the powers that be and they are using their political clout and extreme wealth to try and lock down and control free speech on the internet. If this is accomplished all hope at disseminating truth will be lost.

Abraham Lincoln once said that he believed in the people and that if you told them the truth and gave them the cold hard facts they would meet any crisis. That may have been true in 1860, but not today. The cold hard facts are available for all to see:

  • A $16.3 trillion National Debt
  • 47 million people on food stamps
  • Over $222 trillion of unfunded Federal entitlement liabilities
  • Over $5 trillion of unfunded State entitlement liabilities
  • True unemployment above 20%.
  • True inflation above 5%.
  • A stock market at the same level as 1999, with a 10 year expected annual return of less than 4% – Stocks for the really, really long run. 10 year bond returns of 0% will be a miracle.
  • A savings rate of 3.7% and with Bernanke’s ZIRP, no incentive to save. Real hourly earnings continue to fall.

  • Baby Boomers within 10 years of retirement have saved an average of only $78,000, and more than a third of them have less than $25,000. More than half of U.S. workers have no retirement plan at all.
  • A crumbling, decaying infrastructure, with 150,000 structurally deficient bridges, bursting water mains, and an overstressed electrical grid.
  • Horrific government public education producing millions of low functioning morons.
  • Rotting social fabric, with 40% of children born out of wedlock (72% of black children) and a 50% divorce rate.
  • An energy policy based upon unicorns farting rainbows and press releases about green energy and the miracle of shale fracking, as average gas prices in 2012 and 2011 were the highest in U.S. history.

As the pitiful excuses for statesmen in Washington D.C. pander and posture about the dreaded fiscal cliff which was purposely created by the oligarchs as a show for the masses, none of the true issues above are being addressed. The dramatic compromise that will ultimately be reached between the equally corrupt parties will be hailed by the corporate media and Wall Street shysters and an HFT supercomputer engineered stock market rally will ensue. The cowardice of these politicians is revolting. As Huxley knew in 1958, politicians and propagandists prefer nonsense and storylines to truth, knowledge and honesty.

“Human beings act in a great variety of irrational ways, but all of them seem to be capable, if given a fair chance, of making a reasonable choice in the light of available evidence. Democratic institutions can be made to work only if all concerned do their best to impart knowledge and to encourage rationality. But today, in the world’s most powerful democracy, the politicians and the propagandists prefer to make nonsense of democratic procedures by appealing almost exclusively to the ignorance and irrationality of the electors.”Aldous Huxley – Brave New World Revisited

We want to be lied to because the truth is too painful. Hope and denial with a dash of delusion is the recipe the mindless masses prefer. The average person doesn’t want to understand the chart below. They want to believe the U.S. will dominate economically and lead the world for decades to come. We are still the bright shining beacon of democracy on the mountaintop. Even though the facts unequivocally reveal a declining empire, the masses desperately grasp at straws in the wind. The United States share of world GDP will be vastly lower in 2021, as the hubris of declining empires never allows them to take the necessary steps to reverse the decline (Rome, Great Britain).  

It is fitting that during this magical Christmas season of fantasy, delusion, debt fueled material over-consumption and fairy tales, we look at the biggest fairy tale of all – the great jobs recovery. I know from the two thousand Obama campaign commercials I was forced to watch in the last few months and 500 robo-calls at dinner every night that we’ve added 4 million jobs due to Obama’s wise economic policies. The magical journey from a 10.3% unemployment rate to a 7.9% rate is a humdinger. I stumbled across a myriad of charts on those truth-telling websites that I had previously mentioned.

 “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad.” Aldous Huxley

The first chart that grabbed my attention shows the historical relationship between the U3 unemployment rate reported to the masses versus the U6 truer picture of unemployment, along with the percentage of people unemployed for longer than 15 weeks. A funny thing happened shortly after the election of Barack Obama. From 1994 through 2008 the gap between the U3 and U6 rates consistently ranged between 3% and 4%. Suddenly, the gap surged to 7% and currently sits at almost 8%. The figure reported to the masses of 7.9% is so much easier to digest than the 15% to 17% that captures the truer level of unemployment. If the gap between these two figures had remained at the levels of the previous 14 years, the unemployment that should be reported to the masses would be 11%. That is unacceptable to those in power, so the data is massaged and the propaganda machine spins the storyline necessary to confuse and mislead the masses.

 

The next two charts from Mike Shedlock again reveal truths the existing social order doesn’t want you to know. Even though the working age population has grown by 10 million people since 2008, the BLS expects critical thinking people to believe the labor force has only grown by 1.3 million people. You see, the unemployment rate is calculated using the labor force. If your economic policies don’t create jobs, just adjust the labor force dramatically lower based on nothing. In desperate economic times, people do not voluntarily leave the workforce. Only a non-thinking drone would believe that 8.7 million Americans voluntarily left the workforce since 2008, when only 4 million left the workforce from 2003 through 2007. It is not a coincidence that student loan debt, which was taken over by the Obama administration in 2009 rose by $300 billion. Those in power have doled out these billions with no concern for credit risk or academic credentials in order to reduce the number of people in the labor force. Unemployed union Twinkie workers seeking a new career in lesbian studies can get a $20,000 loan from the American taxpayer to sit in their basement along with the 500,000 other University of Phoenix enrollees. The future $300 billion taxpayer bailout was worth it to keep the unemployment rate low enough to insure Obama’s re-election.      

The Obama PR machine never fails to expound upon the fact that the economy added 4.9 million jobs since January 2009. In the same timeframe, uncovered employment rose by 6.6 million. Inquiring minds might want to know what an “uncovered” job entails. Selling your accumulated Chinese crap on Ebay is an uncovered job. Calling yourself a consultant while sleeping until noon is an uncovered job. Day trading Facebook and Apple stock is an uncovered job. Trash picking is an uncovered job. The truth is that real jobs are 1.7 million lower than they were at the depths of the recession, while bullshit jobs paying virtually nothing and offering no benefits have surged by 6.6 million. These facts don’t make a great campaign commercial. The number of employed Americans is at the same level as mid-2005, even though the working age population has grown by 18 million. Since 2008 there are 3 million less full-time jobs and 3 more part-time jobs. This trend is accelerating as small businesses react rationally to the oncoming Obamacare train, resulting in aggregate work hours declining and wage growth stagnating.

Zero Hedge reveals more truth about our glorious jobs recovery with the following two charts. They obliterate the false narrative spun by liberal ideologues that the reason for the increase of those not in the labor force is due to Baby Boomers retiring. The truth is that while those in the 55-69 age brackets have gained nearly 4 million jobs under President Obama, everyone else has lost just over 2.5 million jobs. Is this a positive development or a sign of extreme desperation among older Americans who have seen their interest income vaporized by Ben Bernanke and there food, energy, and healthcare expenses skyrocket?

Those in their prime earning years of 25 to 54 still have a net cumulative loss of 2.2 million jobs since 2009. Recent college graduates, with their billions of student loan debt, have nabbed 400,000 TGI Fridays jobs, singing happy birthday to 3 year olds, with their newly minted college degrees. This is the “normal” healthy jobs market sold to the American public by the propagandists and politicians.

The final jobs chart that portrays the truth of what has been a decades’ long spiral downward paints a picture of a country that once created wealth through producing goods from the 1940s through 1970. Since 1970 we’ve degenerated into a debt creating country that consumes foreign produced goods and makes entitlement promises it can never keep. Selling houses to each other, peddling crap on Ebay, and eating out three times a week has shockingly failed to propel our economy. The jobs picture has deteriorated rapidly since 2008 and is not improving, despite the best propaganda money can buy. There is absolutely no chance of any substantive improvement over the next four years based on the policies in place and refusal to acknowledge the economic realities that we face.

The accumulation of material possessions through the use of consumer debt, peddled by bankers and reinforced through relentless corporate marketing propaganda has left the country’s citizens weary, miserable, greedy, indebted and sick. Our obsession with technology has merely provided another means of distracting ourselves from confronting the dire challenges that must be addressed. We can ignore the facts but that doesn’t mean they do not exist. The abnormality that grips this nation is breathtaking to behold, as the status quo cheer on and encourage consumers to buy more things with money they don’t have in order to support an economic recovery that is dependent upon zero interest rates for Wall Street banks, QE to infinity, and the delusional desire for a miraculous return to the good old days when getting something for nothing was possible. We can no longer deny reality. If we want to add 30 million people to Medicaid, it must be paid for. If we want to wage never ending wars and police the world, it must be paid for. If we want a Federal government to spend $3.8 trillion per year, it must be paid for. Nothing is free in this world, but more than 50% of Americans seem to believe that to be true.

“Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that happiness is buying things, and then insisting that the only way to have a viable economy is to make things for people to buy so they’ll have jobs and get enough money to buy things.” Philip Elliot Slater

We are seen by those in control as nothing more than common house flies caught in their web of lies. Your owners don’t care about you. They only care about their own wealth and power. They want to control and manipulate you. They want to keep you enslaved in debt and running on the treadmill of consumption. They want passive, non-critical thinking drones to do the menial service jobs that remain in this country, while they use their control of our financial, political, tax, and legal systems to ransack and pillage the wealth of the dwindling middle class. The truth is the continuation of our current economic system is mathematically impossible. Your owners know this. This is why the use of propaganda, misinformation, fake data, and false storylines has taken on astronomical proportions. The time for passivity and accepting the deceitfulness of our leaders is coming to an end. While you’re waiting in line this Christmas season at Wal-Mart to purchase a fabulously priced shirt that only required the deaths of 112 Bangladesh slave laborers, try to figure out how we got here. Your owners think they have you by the balls.

“They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want—they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interest. You know something, they don’t want people that are smart enough to sit around their kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. Because the owners of this country know the truth, it’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.” George Carlin

How many Americans are awake enough to handle the truth?

All I want for Christmas is the truth.

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181 Comments
Tim
Tim
December 3, 2012 10:31 am

50 trillion in state unfunded entitlement liabilities? I had no idea state liabilities were that high. Where did you get that figure from?

Christopher Harrison
Christopher Harrison
December 3, 2012 11:29 am

Oh, only $5 trillion? That makes me feel so much more comfortable….

Colma Rising
Colma Rising
December 3, 2012 11:33 am

Truth is a hard pill to swallow, especially when one faces the lies seemingly generated in their very own psyche; The greatest of these lies is that somehow there is a path of ease and that one has it all figured out.

It is the latter that is easily amplified and influenced en mass daily in the media…. which only the most daring and brave dare to stare down.

In all actuality, truth itself reveals things we don’t even want to acknowledge and without it we can never grasp even the finer of things that accompany truth…. Sound familiar?

Almost like WORK.

Another one knocked out of the park, Administrator.

Eddie
Eddie
December 3, 2012 11:47 am

Well said, admin. Very powerful and confrontational. TPTB would love to kick the truth-tellers off the internet, yourself included.

As it is. they are diluting you out anyway….but articles like this one stick in the craw of guys like Timmy G. and Bennie B. Of that I have no doubt.

I have always said I’d fight and die here, but if you and those other folks you mentioned are silenced, I’m going to be looking for the exit.

wisefool
wisefool
December 3, 2012 11:54 am

YOU AREN’T KIDDING. I am noticing the same thing. How easily everyone swallows the all the misinformation just blows my mind. Just today I’m seeing an article (nbc news) where official idiots are claiming we’ve been spoiled as a ‘low tax country’ for decades. The sad thing is, the BS is swallowed so easily, that only needed to be said once, and now everyone is going to believe we’re so fortunate to be such a ‘low tax country’. We should do our duty, and pay more taxes, while feeling good about it. It’s like the new “low cal” Snickers bar. You pay the same for less candy bar, all while feeling good about the fact Snickers is looking out for your health! The con jobs just never end.

It is truly obvious most people hate the truth, and exactly the reason that it flourishes so well. We are getting what we want (as a whole), and when the SHTF, we’re getting what we deserve.

Theophilos
Theophilos
December 3, 2012 12:10 pm

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him: “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Jesus said to him: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

There is no Christmas. There is only the Truth. Read the Bible! Get the wisdom to understand the signs of the times, your friend, your foe, your salvation, and the greatness of the things to come.

TeresaE
TeresaE
December 3, 2012 12:11 pm

We all demand the truth, unless it hurts, then we scream back to drown out the truth we thought we wanted.

Sam Harris wrote a book a couple years ago on lying. His contention – if I remember correctly – is that by allowing, and participating, in the little “white” lies, we are condoning and growing the great big ones.

It makes a lot of sense. Many business guys I know, think that since there are connected contractors that cheat, the government cheats, the CONgressmen cheat, then it is somehow morally justifiable to cheat themselves.

As do millions sucking food stamps and welfare and disability. They don’t report working family members, they under report income, they work off the books. Hey, if Tim Geithner is good enough to both cheat, get caught, and still get a government gig, what’s a $125 a month in food stamps?

A society that has evolved to bring the biggest rewards to its cheaters and liars, is an environment where not cheating and not lying will quickly result in your own demise.

The rot feeds itself.

Thanks for working on this while I managed to haul out all the symbolism of the insanity we call the “joys of the season.” I feel like scum for propagating this crap for my daughter. Hope when times are bleaker she can look back with joy, not hate and envy. But, now is not my choice, I’m just trying hard not to add (again) to the gdamn divorce rates and broken homes. It, sometimes, ain’t easy though and I wonder if darling daughter is actually better off.

Anyway, once again, phenomenal. Simply phenomenal job admin.

jj3
jj3
December 3, 2012 12:13 pm

Another great article, very well done.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird
December 3, 2012 12:14 pm

People love negative emotions. Lies create scandal and thus negative emotions. Our society is in a feeding frenzy of negative emotions and love it. Scandal is the name of the game… and all it brings.

To people who live in their sense consciousness TRUTH IS BORING. Lies make the sensuous world go round. This is truth people can believe. Am I wrong?

JIMSKI
JIMSKI
December 3, 2012 12:36 pm

What I have been having a hard time tracking for a while is the nod to the past when we speak of manipulation of the media and the growth of stupidity in the world and yet the same people who learned from the masters have suddenly forgotten how it all turns out in the end.
They are not going to get to keep their stuff.
Non of the masters of deception got out alive. Most were killed by the ignorant masses when it came crashing down. I guess like any Ponzi scheme you need to get in at the beginning. To bad so sad this is the end part.
Also going to designate Mondays as MFM from now on. I get to work in a good mood then I break for lunch and read JQ’s Blog. Now it’s just motherfuckin this and motherfuckin that………

Eddie
Eddie
December 3, 2012 12:42 pm

The Nazi analogies to our present circumstances are quite valid in, imho. I was wondering if you were familiar with the brave truth-telling of the artist John Heartfield, who did the great photmontages that showed Hitler for exactly what he was. Long before photoshop, too. If I weren’t such a computer illiterate, I’d share one of his images. If you’ve never seen them, you should check him out.

flash
flash
December 3, 2012 12:51 pm

admin …+10
Hey look everybody Jersey Shore isbeing replaced by Hill people going buckwild….great googley moogley…not having to think has never been so easy.

HILL PEOPLE: MTV replaces ‘JERSEY SHORE’ with West Virginia’s ‘BUCKWILD’…

[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrnILOP5VwqXpHCHdc2FWfEKeo0s2WQCOHqu87HzLAnpGu2ZgT[/img

Everything is going to be A-OK …just tune in and go back to sleep.

[imgcomment image[/img]

]

flash
flash
December 3, 2012 12:53 pm

once more.

[imgcomment image[/img]

sangell
sangell
December 3, 2012 1:48 pm

I mentioned the other day that comparing data from the 1960’s USA with data from the USA of today has a problem in that the two populations are different. In 1960, e.g. Los Angeles was the ‘whitest’ large city in America. Today whites are a minority in LA. Detroit in 1960 was still over 70% white. Today only 10%.

It is accurately said that a nation is nothing more than the sum of its citizens talents, skills and knowledge. If you moved the people of Switzerland to Haiti you would soon have a tropical paradise. If you move the people of Haiti to Switzerland you would soon find an Alpine hell. There is nothing magical about the soil and water of any country. A Honduran peasant moving to Los Angeles is not going to transform himself into a Hollywood screen writer or member of the engineering faculty at UCLA. People are not fungible.

This is not just about race. Culture is also very important too. A economic truism is that if you subsidize something more of it is produced. This is true not just about goods but behavior also. If you subsidize illegitimate births you will get more of them especially if you destroy the long held social conventions that guided young men and women in matter of sex. This destruction of middle class mores and removing the economic penalties for child bearing ( at least for low income people) has caused a dysgenic effect across all races. The dull and stupid breed without regard to the cost while those who must bear the full cost of raising their own children ( as well as pay taxes to raise the children of others) must put off and limit the number of children they have. Let’s face it a 20 year old high school dropout with an IQ of 88 mating with a 16 year old girl with an IQ of 88 is unlikely to produce a child who will be able to enter much less graduate from a decent university no matter how much public money is expended on trying to compensate for the circumstances of such a child’s birth and upbringing.

When you cut your society off at the knees by importing low quality people and subsidize the breeding habits of your native born underclass it is going to be difficult to stand tall as a nation no matter how good your intentions or how generous your social spending is.

Wyoming Mike
Wyoming Mike
December 3, 2012 2:13 pm

Great job putting it all togerther Jim! The numbers are only going one way – down. Meanwhile, the public education system is much worse than I feared. Teachers are struggling to grade their own papers, and apparently, most sixth graders can’t divide by 2 or multiply by ten. The federal public “education” system has achieved its goal. Embrace the doom, most won’t even see it coming.

intj
intj
December 3, 2012 2:26 pm

Another excellent article – loved the “Few Good Men” take off.

AWD
AWD
December 3, 2012 2:30 pm

Great article, especially the “you can’t handle the truth” rant. I’m convinced most people don’t care. As long as they can eat as much as they want and watch T.V., they will continue to do so (until they explode). The one’s that do care are so pissed that they are almost incapable of action, for fear of what they might do. I stand convinced that a leader will appear, who will tap into this anger and direct it where it deserves: Washington, Wall Street, state capitals, unions, the corruption and moral rot of the FSA. We need a leader willing to tell the truth, but, more importantly, take action, direct the action, and make the changes needed. The angry people know the truth when they hear it, and are now angry enough to take action, all they need is leader and to light the fuse.

That said, the only thing I keep coming back to, as a explanation of how things are so fucked up, such utter lies and bullshit, is that 47% of the population is getting money from the government. They were willing to re-elect an imbecile to keep getting that money, and I’m convinced they will do anything to keep getting free money from the government. Add in government employees, and fully half the population are parasites. Half.

And so, you have two sides: the angry people, and the freeloader POS government money grabbers. Only one side can win, and the parasites will never be victorious. But, as you so adeptly point out, the 47% are being paid for their compliance by the 1% and the criminal politicians, paid to stay in line and never question anything, and they won’t, and what’s worse, they would probably kill to keep getting free money.

The only answer is civil war, or the collapse of the economy, the only two things that will solve the present problem. I’m convinced a collapse will happen soon enough. Bernake himself admitted that the Fed “has no tools left” to deal with problems the politicians have created. It will collapse on itself, but collapse it will. Those with no skills or work ethic will loot, steal and murder to continue their never ending free money and stuff; so prepare accordingly.

When the criminals in Washington don’t like the truth, the simply lie or change and manipulate data. Another chart (from ZH, of course), the government continues to revise “normal weight” higher and higher until there will be no obesity problem. Inflation is a great tool for criminals.

Weight Inflation: A Rising Tide Of Fat Lifts All Scales
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/02/2012 15:33 -0500

Remember when after the Fukushima explosion, in order to avoid panic Japan doubled the maximum dose of “safe” daily radiation allowed, and then raised it some more? This is kinda like that, but instead of Gamma rays you have Twinkies..

[imgcomment image[/img]

AWD
AWD
December 3, 2012 2:32 pm

As long as the masses get bread and circuses, all will be well…

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AWD
AWD
December 3, 2012 2:45 pm

Apathy in America & How Politicians Exploit it

Ancient Rome had its ‘bread and circuses’ to keep its citizens at bay. America has ‘reality shows’ as its opiate for the masses.

Polls and studies indicate Americans are an apathetic lot, especially when it comes to politics. Politicians know and rely on this to push anti-citizen laws and policy agendas.

This is why we’re so easily controlled and manipulated.

Are you the next guest at ‘Camp Fed’ or some local jail cell?

The United States has more unethical laws on the books than any other country. As a result, the average person breaks more than 22 laws each week.

It’s stunning when you think about it. The “land of the free” is home to the world’s largest prison population. Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population, yet one-quarter of the entire world’s inmates are in the U.S. The ratio of the prison population to the general population is higher in than any other nation in the world. Russia is second. China is third.

We have more than 145 million laws on the books all designed to control virtually every aspect of our daily life…MOST people do not care. They’re too pre-occupied with the meaningful things such as mundane TV programs like American Idol and Survivor.

Once upon a time in the North American country known as the United States of America, there lived a nation of citizens that showed tremendous interest in the state of their country’s well-being. With incredible zeal, these citizens worked tirelessly to correct any local, national or international issue that threatened them either as individuals or collectively, showing no fear and great resolve while addressing any elected or appointed public official that didn’t accurately represent the beliefs, ethics, morals and values as expected by their constituents.

Engineered apathetic response is obviously the goal of a government seeking to disengage its constituents, and is designed to lull us citizens into a state of false security. Electronic media, the entertainment industry, professional sports, video gaming, and casino gambling are just a few diversions that serve not only to provide a means of physical and mental escape from the stressors we face as a nation, but also to create an illusion that “life is good,” “things are normal” and that “all is well”. More so now than ever before, Americans per capita are spending more of their dwindling financial resources on the aforementioned activities and in the mean time, the world around them continues to crumble at close to free-fall speed.

[imgcomment image?w=132&h=150[/img]

backwardsevolution
backwardsevolution
December 3, 2012 2:45 pm

Admin – unbelievably great job – AGAIN! – and I’ve only finished the first few paragraphs.

“Acknowledging the truth of our society’s descent from a country of hard working, self-reliant, charitable, civic minded citizens into the abyss of entitled, dependent, greedy, materialistic consumers is unacceptable to the slave owners and the slaves.”

Yes, and we really are slaves and we really are working hard. We don’t live on the slave owners’ lands and we’re not picking cotton any more. In order to have a roof over our heads, we’re borrowing from the slave owners and paying them back with interest, and we’re picking out what to buy from the slave owners’ shelves. That’s the new crop. Just a different kind of slavery.

Malcontent Elder
Malcontent Elder
December 3, 2012 3:04 pm

Outstanding article Admin! I only wish more people would wake up to the truth. Turn of Dancing with the stars, and dig into the unmanaged alternative media. Get a real education in what TPTB are doing to us!
Keep up the awesome work!

monroee
monroee
December 3, 2012 3:42 pm

Nothing goes Hidden under the Sun. Evil will continue to go more rampant it has to Fulfill its course Before Jesus comes back To Rid it once and for ALL and cast the Devil and his dominions into Hell Forever in the Burning lake of fire along with Everyone who pacticed Evil in this lifetime God bless.

Stephen
Stephen
December 3, 2012 3:44 pm

Great article. I believe what we are seeing is corruption being “legitimized.'” I believe the justice system has failed and the crooks are advising governments. The whole system needs a gigantic purging. i wrote these articles some time ago..
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2010/12/bankster-gives-thanks-satire.html
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2011/08/why-are-these-looters-still-free.html

Politics Debunked
Politics Debunked
December 3, 2012 4:04 pm

It was amazing to watch Obama lie in the State of the Union through almost every campaign speech up until the election that he planned to “pay down our debt” with savings from ending wars. Of course his actual FY2013 budget proposes increasing the national debt by over $900 billion each year for the next ten years. Yet the liberal local paper here *never* printed anything questioning his claims. See http://PoliticsDebunked.com for links to the budget table and an amusing video mashup of his lie with a cartoon, and comments on why the debt matters. If a CEO lied about his companies finances to get people to buy stock, the public would cry “fraud!” and want him thrown in jail, yet Obama was re-elected..

AWD
AWD
December 3, 2012 4:06 pm

Santa Admin took down my bread and circus picture. Boo Hoo.

[imgcomment image[/img]

AWD
AWD
December 3, 2012 4:13 pm

All I want for Christmas is the debt ceiling to be raised to infinity.

The collapse is coming; Happy Holidays!

Total US Debt Hits $16,369,548,799,604.93; Debt Ceiling Just $63 Billion Away
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/03/2012

Furthermore, once Thursday’s Bill auction adds another $26 billion in net debt, the ceiling will be a tiny $40 billion off, or just one week’s worth of net debt issuance away, which is why the Treasury just warned the debt ceiling will be breached in a few weeks. At that point, just like in August 2011, the Treasury will have no choice but to start raiding the G-fund, and other sundry government retirement funds, until such time in February or latest March, when the debt ceiling debate, and hike, can be no longer postponed.

Francesca Thomas
Francesca Thomas
December 3, 2012 4:15 pm

Your unemployment graphs seem to show a disparity – or maybe my eyesight is getting worse.

I see ages 25 to 54 and then 54 to 49?

is that supposed to be 55 to 59?

I think those age groups need to be adjusted. They could be changed to – 25 to 39, 40 to 55 and then 55 and upwards.

A good number of 40 year olds are being fired and cannot find new jobs despite their experience.

The “You cant handle the truth” rant was wonderful.

JANET
JANET
December 3, 2012 4:16 pm

Wow, thank you for taking the time to put all this info together. Just yesterday I was lamenting on the quandary we find ourselves in. You have so excellently addressed my heartache, So glad to see there are others similarly distressed. My father was a coal miner, in a day when men fought with there lives to establish better working conditions. The men I work with now, bow to the boss and stab fellow workers in the back. Trying to understand what has happened. No one seems to stand on principles anymore or have any moral backbone. Truth is no longer of any significance to many. Yet I cling to it and follow hard after it, but as you say, it is mind numbing to try to figure out what is really going on. We are being played from both sides with lots of smoke and mirrors. I believe the light will pierce the darkness eventually, and in the end, those standing on truth will still be standing.

Eddie
Eddie
December 3, 2012 4:40 pm

‘Anyone get the irony of concluding a rant about materialism and consumer delusion with a Christmas ad for Amazon?”

Ii was too busy thinking about the great lengths you willing to go to just to avoid putting up the Christmans lights. I admire a man who can invent a great excuse for not doing something he hates but knows he must do to avoid being on his wife’s shit list.

Tmothy Straus
Tmothy Straus
December 3, 2012 5:00 pm

Brilliant and extremely well written.

thank you

Fiver the Rabbit
Fiver the Rabbit
December 3, 2012 5:41 pm

Well, I think if no one lied at all, we’d believe that no one ever lied and be that much easier to fool Hitler was saying that people could believe the big lie, because they thought that people only told small ones. In other words, the big lie exceeds people’s expectations for the lengths that people are willing to go to. By being familiar with “white lies” such as “No that dress doesn’t make you look fat honey.” we are at least familiar with the idea that people are prone to deceive.

In either case, I think things are too far gone to be fixed. Crash and collapse are inevitable at this point. Resistance and raging against the machine are exercises in futility because stupidity and willful blindness have reached critical mass. The best thing to do at this point is to exploit the system, gather your resources (human and financial) and get far enough away to wait out the Zombie Apocalypse that will follow. Once all of the stupid people kill each other over the food on the shelves (witness Black Friday crowds) and starve to death when that runs out, the intelligent critical thinkers can move back in and start over again.

avalon
avalon
December 3, 2012 5:45 pm

Hmmm….so thats what this is about, getting out of Christmas light duty? I am pretty sure I did the outside lights last year because you were also inside writing an article. Starting to see a trend….. 🙂

2 b___s are made for licking
2 b___s are made for licking
December 3, 2012 6:01 pm

I normally do not comment but chose to this instance due to the entertainment value it offered me.

The Administrator is ignorant (ignorant = semi-intelligent but not having relevant information vs. stupid = not having the capacity to learn, regardless of the amount of information provided).

Here is my evidence for calling the Administrator ignorant.
1. The Administrator asks for “truth” when, except for one concept (which I’ll shortly paraphrase), there has been no consensus on what the “truth” means. Review http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth for yourself and see if you can discern what “truth” is. The one concept that everyone I have encountered in my life seems to agree on is that the “truth” is ‘That which is universally understood by all’.

2. If you agree that the truth is universally understood by all, it would need no explanation. Therefore, I ask why the Administrator is lazily asking someone else to provide this information? The Administrator should do his/her/its own work and find it for itself (it is universal and understood by all).

3. There is no requirement for anyone to tell anyone else the truth. If you feel you are owed the truth, please provide evidence showing everyone else where you determined you were owed this information – after all, it should be universal and there for everyone else to obtain.

4. The “truth” when used in the wrong moment has been known to end one’s life. People that value their life have been known not to tell the truth when their life has depended on it. Lies are a useful evolutionary survival mechanism. Liars do not like truth tellers and will quickly band together to eliminate “truth tellers”. Everyone that was genetically predisposed to always telling the truth was wiped out a long time ago… Maybe (I have yet to encounter someone that always tells the truth; including myself).

5. The Administrator includes all kinds of charts and data as if it were true. But again, if it were true, he/she/it would not need to use charts because we would all agree on it and there would not be a need to convince us of its truth. I don’t know about you, but when I look at the Administrators charts and data, it makes me feel like he/she/it is telling me lies… Am I supposed to take it at face value knowing that there are liars in the world? How can I verify the information is true (there are no sources provided)? How do you feel about the provided charts & data?

6. The Administrator does not provide his/her/its name as evidence that it is interested in the truth so that we could directly follow up with him/her/it and hides behind a title/function (a.k.a. “Administrator”). I suppose that he/she/it has learned the same lesson that most people have. If you don’t know what lesson I’m referring to, please see numbers 3 and 4 above.

I could go on but I think that is enough evidence for now.

As for the Administrators Christmas wish, I hope that the following helps fulfill your gift request and that it is universally understood by all (if not, remember – unless you have evidence to the contrary, I’m not required to tell you the truth).

Truth:

Religion has taught the faithful that they are “commanded”, “tasked”, “charged” by their creator. They have decided that they are not in control and have given themselves to something greater, through faith and believe that we are all connected through God, Allah, YHVH, Buddha, Gitche Manitou, etc.

Science shows us that matter is made of molecules that are positively, neutrally, and negatively charged. These molecules vibrate at certain frequencies depending on their molecular mass and temperature. My body has a certain mass and temperature and its molecules vibrate. When I inhale/consume/drink, I take in gases, food and fluids that sustain my body. My body then charges these molecules, raising/lowering their temperature and does its best to either accept or convert them to my current vibration/resonance. I then exhale/defecate/urinate/shed skin, releasing the molecules for some other being to inhale/consume/drink and to repeat the process all over. I am connected to you and every other being through this process and extends beyond this planet as the Earths volcanoes and human satellites eject matter into outer-space while asteroids and meteorites enter the Earth.

My hypothesis is that by changing my attitude and mind, I can change my molecular resonance which changes how I breathe, what I consume, what I drink, changes what I say and write. This also helps me avoid disease (i.e. dis-ease, out of ease/harmony/balance). Sharing my breath/food/drink/ideas/resonance allows others (when they receive them through the life process), to decide if they wish to tune themselves to my frequency or if they wish to discard or change the resonance to match their own. Either way, we are all deeply loved, there is nothing to fear, and we can do no wrong.

I hope this is universally true to all; whether through science or religion, we are all connected. Everything else is up to interpretation.

Merry early Christmas Administrator.

🙂

llpoh
llpoh
December 3, 2012 6:40 pm

2 b – you are out of your fucking mind. Go fuck yourself and keep your shit off this site. Stupid motherfucker.

Wyoming Mike
Wyoming Mike
December 3, 2012 6:40 pm

2b’s, CONGRATS, YOU WIN DUMBASS OF THE WEEK!!!! Too much garbage in there for me to break down, apparently, you can’t handle the truth anyway.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

taxSlave
taxSlave
December 3, 2012 6:57 pm

2bs – you fucked up in the head.

Outstanding article Admin.

John A
John A
December 3, 2012 6:58 pm

2 b:

You seem to have angered the locals here at TBP. I would suggest laying low for while until the dust settles.

Best regards,

John A

llpoh
llpoh
December 3, 2012 7:01 pm

Admin – nice body of work. Massive amount of work.

I believe that what you are saying is true. However, I also think it is important to point out that there are things external to the US that are having dramatic effects, and will continue to do so.

For instance, you point out the dramatic fall in the US’s percent of world GDP. The US has approx. 5% of the world’s popuation, and had over 30% of its GDP in 2001 (by the way, the GDP at that point in time is, by memory, one of the all time high percentages owing to tech boom, etc.), and now has dropped to around 20% of world GDP. There is simply no way that the US can continue to dominate the world economy as it has done for the last many decades. The collapse is happening fast, owing to the issues you discuss, but slow or fast it is going to happen.

A country with 5% of the population simply cannot continue to contribute 30% of the world’s GDP. As other nations educate themselves, and as tech becomes available world-wide, that gap will close. The poorer naions are extremely price competetive, and will draw investment away from the US, and will compete on price.

I suspect that the best the US can do in the longer term will be around 12% – 15% of world GDP, and that percentage would only be made possible because there are a lot of countries (Africa/N Korea/S America) that will be unable to catch up. Asian nations by and large will make huge strides in the coming years with respect to GDP, however. And they are going to be world-beaters with respect to tech and engineering. Combine all of the competetive advantages they currently have with the current weaknesses the US has, and it will be bleak times in the US, especially for the middle class.

As a nation, the US has a couple of advantages that will be enormous going forward. These advantages will help the country overall, but may well do little for jobs and the middle class.

The biggest advantage the US has is its ability to produce food – it is enormously endowed with arable land. food will be the next oil, in my opinion. Food will become gruesomely expensive world-wide. And the US can generate food unlike any other nation on earth.

Second, the US has, relatively speaking, a lot of resources. Coal comes to mind (fuck the greentards – when push comes to shove, the coal will be burnt). It will help keep the wolf away when times get tougher.

Forget manufacturing – those days are over. Cost pressure, and ever increasing tech will see its demise (even moreso than has already happened).

I suspect one answer will be to get the FSA working the land with hoes and shovels like in the old days – it will be necessary for them to work, and it will be one of the few productive things they will be able to do, as there will at least be a market for their produce.

Again, Admin, thanks for the huge effort.

llpoh
llpoh
December 3, 2012 7:04 pm

Admin – I know it is unlike you to so do, but would you please consider deleting that bullshit post by 2 b? It is a turd on an otherwise great thread.

llpoh
llpoh
December 3, 2012 7:07 pm

And having just read his other piece of shit post, even banning that cocksucker may be something to consider. I do not generally give a shit about idiots – they are for ass-kicking – and so provide some fun. That prick is simply here to stink up the site. Stupid fuckhead.

Eddie
Eddie
December 3, 2012 7:17 pm

(shakes head)

2b must be a doppel. I can’t believe someone would show up here with a moniker like that and proceed to make that their first comment.

Should change name from 2 b___s to 3 b___s.

Reverse Engineer
Reverse Engineer
December 3, 2012 7:24 pm

Good one Jim. I’ll cross post it sometime this week.

RE
http://doomsteaddiner.org

Barry Popik
Barry Popik
December 3, 2012 7:27 pm

>>Abraham Lincoln once said that he believed in the people and that if you told them the truth and gave them the cold hard facts they would meet any crisis. That may have been true in 1860, but not today.<<

This quote was highlighted at Zero Hedge. Abraham Lincoln never said it. It's from Douglas MacArthur in April 1944.
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/i_am_a_firm_believer_in_the_people_if_given_the_truth_they_can_meet_any_nat/

If you have any questions about quotations, just ask me!

ursel doran
ursel doran
December 3, 2012 7:34 pm

Superior dot connecting again some more, as usual. So ya wanna know the truth?
Here it is:
http://www.zcommunications.org/the-archeology-of-decline-by-steve-fraser

Stucky
Stucky
December 3, 2012 7:36 pm

“However, I provided six specific points of evidence and so far no one has refuted or contested my points by providing any evidence to the contrary” ——— 2 b___s are made for licking

Group 1: Sometimes, it makes sense to debate with an OP.

Group 2: Sometimes, it does not.

You fall in Group 2. You’re just not worth the effort. Now … run along. Troll.

Stucky
Stucky
December 3, 2012 7:40 pm

“Admin – I know it is unlike you to so do, but would you please consider deleting that bullshit post by 2 b? It is a turd on an otherwise great thread.” ——– llpoh

llpoh, we both know Admin is loathe to do this type of thing. He is Kind and Benevolent (PBUH) even towards dickfaced assholes.

Nevertheless, as a fellow Big Dog, I second your motion.

Do it, Admin. Do it!

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