Friday, December 31, 2010

50% Of Americans One Paycheck Away From Needing Government Assistance

Many Americans live precariously close to the edge of financial insolvency flirting with economic disaster daily.  If you casually browse mainstream articles and watch any amount of television you would think that the US still had a vibrant and strong middle class.  When we pull back the covers on the current financial situation we realize that many Americans are merely getting by and many would like to live in some 1984 Orwellian fantasy world where suddenly things are back to financial equilibrium.  43 million Americans are depending on government food assistance to get by.  But many more millions are merely living paycheck to paycheck hidden in the cellar of the headlines.  1 out of 3 Americans has zero in any retirement account (not one slowly eroding dollar).  Half of Americans have $2,000 or less which puts them one month away from needing government assistance.  With the volatile job market and turbulent Wall Street middle class Americans are feeling the once prided stability being slowly washed away.  Let us examine how retirement is now becoming more of a fantasy for many Americans.
standard of living
Many Americans especially young adults realize that saving large amounts of money is a key to a sustainable retirement:
saving-money
More Here..

11 comments:

  1. Yeah really. Was the part about young adults seeing the need to save for retirement supposed to be facetious? If it wasn't then this guy needs to take a walk to the stores or drive around and see what young people really behave/think like.

    Here's the social order and the corresponding perceptions as far as what Americans are aware of:

    1) Old people who lived through the Depression and WW2. They have probably sounded silly to young people, including the boomers when they described for years how bad everything had become. Now many of those youngsters aren't laughing anymore. Afterall, everyone just laughed thinking grandpa and grandma's rants were those of someone who came from a "racist" period and didn't have any colored televisions. What would they know about anything?

    2) Baby Boomers. Most of them now are realizing they aren't going to retire. They all have kids moving back in with them along with their grandchildren perhaps. Well Baby Boomers, you had fun in the 60s and 70s ruining what ma and pa built for you, so now you have to experience hard times. Time to pay the piper?

    3) 30s and 40s. More clueless than the boomers about things, but starting to get nervous since they are closer to the real world than those in their 20s are. They've been around long enough to see how difficult it is to buy stuff compared to the 80s and 90s. They see rising gas prices, food prices, a broken job market, and feel something is astray.

    4) 20 somethings. Most are absolutely clueless. They go happily about watching MTV, football, using Facebook, Myspace, and youtube. They are so preoccupied text messaging every 30 seconds or overcoming the hangover they got from a hard nights work of drinking that they don't have the energy to read. And if you told them what was happening or coming our way they'd laugh or stare blankly. Their thoughts would be something like, "Why do people think the world is getting bad? Don't they know we have cell phones and ipods?"

    The technology and worthless gadgets the last 10 years propagated had nothing to do with human progress. This crap was meant to put us into comas so they could make impotent the new generations that would be around after the storm passes (Y and Z; those younger than 30 now). The television was one thing, but it didn't go far enough. They needed to surround us on every corner with mental/emotional manipulation. My goodness how they succeeded.

    Being under 30 I certainly hope we can have a total crash that will cause all institutions to die out so that we don't end up slaves to these sickos. If we do just continue decaying like this then even millionaires will be in poverty. Forget the old 20,000; 50,000; 100,000$ income distinction. There is going to be no difference in someone who makes 250K versus one who makes 10K annually.

    When bread costs 50 bucks the only people who will afford that are the billionaires. This is why we can have faith that the stores will clear out, nobody is going to work, and nobody will be in power since cops will be laid off in large chunks since the states can't afford to pay the departments. No cops + no work + riots + no more purpose = anarchy.

    Who the hell is going to be paying prison guards at FEMA anyways? Even if, the military would split in two - Loyalists versus Patriots. That concentration camp theory is a bunch of nonsense. Last of my worries.

    My worries are based more in the fear that the economy will pick up or remain stagnant. My enemies will be able to devour the consciousness of the children today like they did to my generation, and I will live a life watching it all happen. I will be powerless to do anything as the genuine spiritual life is erased from the world. Sages will continue dwindling and hiding, fools will continue rising and gaining fame. There will be nothing I can do but be silent or die.

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  2. WAIT, If there was a collapse, Gen Y would suffer horribly. Most of them are great with tech, but complete idiots when it comes to hard skills. Gen Y is COMPLETELY spoiled and very dependant.

    Most of them see that a new home or a new car is so far out of their reach,, that they gave up before they even tried. They are so damb lazy they didn't even try.

    All Gen Y thinks they are special. Oh how wrong they are.

    I hope there is a collapse also so all the idiots in Gen Y will die off. They are all going to wake up soon and say,,, Holy Crap, I'm 35 yrs old and I don't have a pot to piss in.

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  3. near perfect setup, educate people to be dependent, then when they are they'll do what you say or suffer or starve. old writings say that they won't forever house people in camps rather kill them for not accepting the system and the man. hmmm sounds so..like it's already happened in history the same way, so merely a repeat but worse on a global scale

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  4. Notice the people in the line
    Oh yeah; somethings never CHANGE

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  5. The next generation will be known as generation Z as in zip, zero, zilth.

    Did you see that this nations largest private employer, Walmart, is going stop paying its employees the $1.00 extra per hour more that they received for Sunday work. Walmart is going to pocket the pay of their workers and there is nothing these workers can do about it.

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  6. Not to worry. All young adults and perhaps even their children will all become multi-trillionaires because of hyperinflation.

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  7. It's only a matter of time now before it all collapses like a house of cards.

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  8. It seems that every establishment publication, website, and television news media outlet has been supporting the idea that the government needs to spend money until the recession is over. But there are numerous problems with this approach, all of which will make the downturn that much more severe and long.

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  9. If one is building a modern home with pre-historic tools all of the above correct BUT we have come a long way and continue to go even much further building a better tomorrow.

    Generation Z in my view will be the “Zip Generation” by using all the fantastic new and future tools we have created to generate great prosperity. During the not so good old days we had sh**ty communication from newspapers and controlled TV. No computers, Ipods, smart phones internet ECT….

    Thanks to the America spirit and immigrants from all around the word all aspects of live are constantly improving and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. (The USSR did not have a word for innovation in their language).

    Now worldwide humans have invested in education very successfully and are continuing so…yes people have become a lot smarter……but….no wiser.

    Wiser vs. smart is like rich vs. wealthy.

    When the Hoover Dam was proposed many thought that building a Dam in the Black canyon near Las Vegas NV would rip the earth open causing volcanic eruptions and earth quakes and when the Wright brothers made there first flight many Americans would say that flying is exclusively for birds no for man…….so make you predictions folks for 2011 is your glass really half full or empty……
    Happy New Years and have a prosperous future

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  10. When has the middle class EVER NOT lived pay check to pay check ?

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  11. "The single most important thing any human being can do, anywhere in the world, right now, today - is BUY SILVER. EVEN IF ONLY ONE OUNCE, OR TWO. BUY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AFFORD. IF 100 Million human beings buy one ounce of silver - the central banker parasites are FINISHED. And, humanity can go back to living as God intended them to live - in FREEDOM.

    The Silver Bullet and the Silver Shield http://dont-tread-on.me/the-silver-bullet-and-the...

    Crash JP Morgan - Buy Silver (Episode 96, Keiser Report) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN0rcNJXFfI

    I'm a Crazy Silver-Bug...Why Aren't You?
    (or, 33 reasons to buy silver, instead of gold...) http://www.roadtoroota.com/public/597.cfm

    'LET'S GET THIS GLOBAL PARTY STARTED' - Max Keiser, 2010

    source: http://www.thelibertyunderground.net/2011/05/ron-paul-both-parties-are-controlled-by.html

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