90% Of Americans Are Poorer Today Than They Were 27 Years Ago

a reply to: ThirdEyeofHorus

Good point we'll see if this model will hold.. As to my knowledge there was a test in a small village . Where they gave those citizens that basic income for period of time and it seemed to work.

But then again we only know if it's actually going to take place and I'm not sure if it's really going to happen?

IF money is man made and the Governments are printing tens of billions EXTRA every month

Banks are strapped for cash


And everyone is saying money is in SHORT supply

Everyone is in DEBT

where has it all gone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! riddle me that people of ATS


WHO HAS ALL HE BUCKS $$$$$$$$$$$


IF no one admits to this money i am phoning the cops



Where did this £15 Trillion go 23 $ Trillion bucks

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - German authorities are wondering why "Miami Vice" star Don Johnson was trying to cross the Swiss border with a suitcase crammed with $8 billion worth of share certificates, bonds and credit notes.

www.freerepublic.com...

a reply to: 0bserver1

You can be far more creative and have way better mobility in all directions if your not panicking about how to feed yourself and pay rent. Minumum basics. Obviously your going to want a luxury item that's costly like a yatch or the new super hologram technology that some geek spends ten years making while megerly getting by.

originally posted by: ketsuko
It's partially the QE from the Fed. They are printing money with nothing of worth to back it. What a dollar used to represent, it now takes two or three to equal that same value today. So in reality, even the billionaires are less wealthy in a sense. They just have so much in hard wealth and assets that it doesn't matter - an oil field is an oil field no matter how many dollars in worth they say it is.

This is why my family hangs on to their bit of land with everything they have. Land is land. It won't change even if the dollars behind it do.

This is why the poster up thread is discovering the house is worth so much more than stocks.

That market is only so high because of the funny money pumped into it. It will come down, soon, and hard.

The Fed just announced last week that they are ending QE. They will stop the escalated bond buying program. Since the market here had been hit so hard already in the past month, it was barely a blip on the screen. The dollar is up globally, which works against the market. But inflation has been steady for consumer goods even since the market crash in 2008/09. Mortgage rates have been outstanding since the meltdown, but only recently have qualification requirements eased enough to see more qualified buyers. Home prices are up from the lows in 2008-2011, though, so it's a trade off for new home buyers (and yet good for existing home & land owners, I agree).

a reply to: elfie

Well I guess people who bought property the last few years at rock bottom prices may see a quicker return on investment then probably thought depending in what happens to the markets now after QE is over...

Is that what your saying?

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: elfie

Well I guess people who bought property the last few years at rock bottom prices may see a quicker return on investment then probably thought depending in what happens to the markets now after QE is over...

Is that what your saying?

Yes. But perhaps I could have delineated a bit better between the stock and housing markets. Optimists predict the stock market to rise until the end of the year. Inflation will keep real estate prices rising.

The real problem goes back to the OP, in that the rise in wages is not in keeping with corporate compensation (grotesquely disproportionate) and inflation is ever creeping up. I agree with the OP, workers deserve a living wage without having to take 2 or 3 different jobs to support themselves and their families.

a reply to: elfie

Yes stocks are about to go to the moon problem is your currency in the next few months may be flushed round the s-bend

a reply to: elfie

Shouldnt everything start decreasing in value shortly?

a reply to: onequestion

Without QE inflation will pick up the pace. Edit to add: the stock market is just coming off of an 8 - 10% correction.

a reply to: elfie

How will it? If there's less and less money in the US because it's all going overseas then the value of the dollar will increase for people in America right?

a reply to: onequestion

The dollar is strong now relative to foreign currencies. This leads to reduced foreign sales, leading to lower quarterly forecasts. Inflation here in the US will offset some of the predicted losses.

a reply to: 0bserver1

Meanwhile, through self- inflicted wounds, the Soviet Union was setting itself up to lose the Cold War. The narrative that the Soviet Union was somehow laid low by Ronald Reagan makes for a nice story, but it's largely myth. What brought the United States' erstwhile adversary to its knees was, yes, oil— or, more specifically, the way the Soviet Union fatally mishandled its vast petroleum resources. Thanks to a rich natural endowment, oil and gas were profitable for the Soviets. Given that almost everything else in their centrally planned economy operated at a loss, the petroleum industry was the Soviets' lifeline. But they neglected that lifeline by failing to reinvest enough of the profits to increase or even maintain production rates. Instead, they diverted the revenue to support minimum living standards for the public.

From The Colder War by Marin Katusa. Apparently what you are talking about was tried and sunk the USSR.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

things started to go downhill in the clinton years..

keep in mind, Perot was one of the most successful 3rd choice candidates in history, primarily because he was against NAFTA..

The sad part is..

This is just the beginning.....

a reply to: stormcell

I thought Germany and France still had a fairly stable domestic manufacturing industry...

one that was protected by their governments. but was at least able to provide jobs.

Germany and France also seem to have lessened the need for strong Labor-Unions, primarily by providing Social-Services/healthcare+welfare...

the one issue I think lies in present-day western/northern europe is idiotic immigration policies.

a reply to: mugger

that's a neoliberal for ya..

left-wing goals, with de-regulation as the tool..

a reply to: NonsensicalUserName

Did you see the chart in the OP? It was the recession. And it hit everyone.

It’s obscene. The income disparity in the US has become downright disgraceful and paints a dismal picture of the times ahead. The middle class is nearing extinction, while the fat cats are thriving and hoarding all the resources. It amazes me how easily politicians are able to manipulate the masses and convince them that voting against their own best interests is in fact in their own best interest. What’s wrong with us? We’ve elected a cut-throat Congress that makes the Gambino crime family and Cosa Nostra look like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They’ve literally dismantled a once thriving middle class in order to serve the Corporate Masters who now actually run things. And while the gorging Beast gets bigger and bigger, as we get smaller and smaller, what do we do about it? We RE-ELECT the same monsters over and over again, hoping for a different outcome next time around. Meanwhile, our standard of living is crumbling into ruin, our life savings dwindle to nothing, and our hopes and dreams shatter and dissipate like dust in the wind. And here we are now, scratching our heads and wondering how it all happened.

Believe it or not, there was a time not all that long ago when a single-income family was possible. America actually had a middle class, with a standard of living envied by most of the world. We had a first-class educational system. We did big things, had a real vision for the future, and our experiment with Democracy was a smashing success. We were admired and respected around the world, and the American Dream was alive.

I don’t know. I’m no Einstein and have no better answers than anyone else, but I can’t help feeling that maybe we have only ourselves to blame. Somewhere along the line we dropped the ball, and now it’s like we’re in free-fall with a chute that won’t open. As a society, maybe we allowed our greed and self-serving nature to take control. We adopted a mindset of Me-Me aspirations, where a few got ahead and thrived, while the rest joined ATS. Or maybe we just became complacent and took it all for granted when times were good. I don’t know. In any case, we blew it.

Considering where we came from, it’s appauling to think that now in 2014 people are working for 1970’s wages. Eventually something’s got to give; this trend is simply unsustainable. Unless there’s some significant redistribution of wealth/resources, at some point our economy, and society, will simply collapse...

What a cryin’ shame...

PS: Who knows, though? There is another way to look at it. Maybe we're just in a valley right now, but there are still hills up ahead just waiting to be climbed.

a reply to: Toadmund
Sorry, I didn't put "sarcasm off" at the end of my post. Yes, God is government. "The people" lost control a long time ago. The only way to escape the mess is for us to actually start working together on an alternate society. However, we're too busy worrying about ourselves and our own to band together. We also think the other people are crazy. We should be crazy. We've been lead down that path for ages.

a reply to: Night Star

MEXICANS from Mexico ( so you hispanics calm down) don't have any problem finding jobs. They've taken over construction in TX. I have 20 plus years and couldn't get hired. But meskins have no problem. I promise you we will be fighting them sooner than later.