Is America becoming a Third World Country?

[crux]

...that the wealthiest 1% garner 20% of income dollars and control like perhaps 40% of total wealth...

This is neither SURPRISING, nor is it particularly DIFFICULT to understand. Take any population. Nationally, an the State level or on a local level. Cripes. There will be ONE PERSON in a hundred that WEALTHIEST. They will likely be an employer of dozens within the hundred. Likely a business owner, or an entrepreneur...

There will be 20 or so in a hundred that are POOR. They rent. Heck, in this country they have subsidized rent, and subsidized food, and subsidized electric, and on and on...

Within the 20, several will in the next 10 years rise above their circumstances and challenges and "culture"...

...several more will in the 10 to 20 years after that...

I just am not troubled by this. I do not see it as a problem, but rather the GREAT OPPORTUNITY OF A CAPITALIST AND FREE MARKET ECONOMY....

Our country continues down the road of a centralized command economy. We all will suffer for this ultimately. ENJOY...

c

Stop with the 1% controlling 99% crap. I read. I understand. Neither of us are fool enough to believe that what is to the extent, DISTURBING, in all this, is the FAULT of the GOP or the "TEA PARTY". It is the way THINGS ARE...and will be.

Take the budget debate today. PP funding is the sticking point it seems. The GOP and TP is being vilified as anti women's health care... Remember the Hyde Amendment? H. Reid's historic support... All GONE under the new paradigm of Obamacare and 500,000,000.00$ for PP.

And remember that it is some very BASIC women's health services that will be cut, and rationed by Gov't Health Care...

Just sayin'...

[coondog]

Here's a thought!

What with all of us hovering at the edge of doom over budgetary cuts, government shutdowns, etc. I propose a compromise!

We give the Tea Party Planned Parenthood. Cut their funding! Kill 'em. At the same time, we eiminate the 7.1 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Most of that money goes to fix up the Gulf Coast after some natural disaster. The Gulf Coast states are among the loudest conservative mouths when it comes to the States being able to do things better than the Federal Government. Well.....let 'em!

Then we can go after the Center for Disease Control. Another one of those government waste programs better left to the states. Not sure how much money we waste there.....but Americans should be responsible for building up their own immunity without the government having to step in. Swind flue? Monkey Pox? Get over it!

The FDA? Food poisoning is just another liberal myth!

Shut it down? Sure! Come visit beautiful downtown New Orleans

Coondog

The constitution says nothing about FEMA , the CDC or toxic food additives!

[Sam]

11 Signs That The U.S. Government Has Become An Overgrown Monstrosity That Almost Every American Is Dependent Upon For Economic Survival

Today, the number of Americans who are able to financially survive without any reliance on the U.S. government whatsoever is declining at a staggering rate. Whether it is through direct handouts, entitlement programs, student loans, government bailouts, government contracts or direct employment, the truth is that now a solid majority of the American people are at least partially dependent on the federal government for their economic survival. The sad thing is that the majority of the American people say that there is too much government in their lives when opinion polls are taken, but if you try to take the government check that they are getting away from them those same people will scream bloody murder. But the truth is that it is getting to be really, really hard to be completely independent of the U.S. government economically. That is because the U.S. government has their hands in almost everything. The ideal of a "limited federal government" has long since faded away. Very few people seem to believe in it anymore. Instead, Americans today look to the federal government as the answer to all of our problems, as the provider of all of our needs, and as the regulator of every single detail of our lives. The U.S. government has become the "Big Mother" that we all scramble to for a handout when we get into trouble.

When you sit down and really analyze it, you quickly realize that there is no way that the U.S. government can be extricated from the U.S. economy now. Instead of the free enterprise system that we once had in this country, today we have a situation where the U.S. government has become the very core of the economy. It is the hub around which everything else in the economy revolves.
You don't believe this?

The following are 11 signs that the U.S. government has become an overgrown monstrosity that almost every American is dependent upon for economic survival....

#1) The Explosion Of Government Handouts
39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps. Millions of others are completely dependent on the extended unemployment benefits that they are receiving. Millions of other Americans are able to survive financially because of the dozens of other welfare programs that the U.S. government subsidizes. More Americans are receiving some form of welfare than ever before in history, and each month the numbers continue to go up. Could there come a day when we all receive government handouts every month?

#2) The Entitlements Programs That Threaten To Destroy U.S. Government Finances
Entitlements are the single biggest U.S. government expense. These programs include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social Ponzi schemes. Tens of millions of Americans receive government assistance through these programs. In fact, nearly 51 million Americans received $672 billion in Social Security benefits in 2009. We all have friends or family members who receive these kinds of payments. But cutting so many people a check year after year is slowly but surely destroying U.S. government finances. According to an official U.S. government report, rapidly growing interest costs on the national debt together with spending on major entitlement programs will absorb approximately 92 cents of every dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019. That is before a penny is spent on anything else. This is clearly not a sustainable financial situation by any definition, but who wants to tell tens of millions of Americans that their checks are going to be reduced?

#3) The U.S. Government Is Now Even Paying Mortgages
Yes, you read that right. As part of the "stimulus" package, the U.S. government is going to send money to some of the states that were hit the hardest by the real estate crisis. So what is that money going to be used for? Well, Florida, Michigan, California and Arizona have all announced that they plan to use $1.4 billion the Obama administration is sending their way to help the unemployed and the "underwater" pay their mortgages.

#4) Without The Student Loan Program A Huge Percentage Of College Students Would Not Get An Education
The federal student loan program (which was recently entirely nationalized) helps millions of college students pay for their education. Without this assistance by the government, a lot less students would be going to college. In fact, many of you that are reading this article directly benefited from the federal student loan program.

#5) The Bailout Of AIG
One of the biggest insurance companies in the world, AIG, would not be in existence today if not for direct federal government intervention. It kind of makes you wonder what George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would think about a federal government that hands big bags of cash to a giant insurance company so that it can survive. Whether it was so they could pay off their debts to Goldman Sachs or whether it was so that they could keep paying out record-setting bonuses, the truth is that AIG would not have made it without the federal government stepping in.

#6) The "Too Big To Fail" Banks
But it wasn't just AIG that got bailed out. A number of big banks may have gone under if not for the U.S. government. The U.S. government decided that they were "too big to fail". Well, what about all the small banks that are going under? The truth is that they are "too small to bother with". We now live in a nation where the U.S. government is the one who decides which banks live and which banks die like dogs. Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

#7) The Bailout Of General Motors
But not only does the federal government bail out financial institutions - it is also now in the car business. Yes, grand old General Motors may have ended up on the scrap heap of history if not for the U.S. government stepping in. So if you work for General Motors or if you work for any company that does business with General Motors, you can thank Uncle Sam for the fact that you still have a job.

#8) The Bailouts Of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
If the U.S. government had not bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we may not have much of a mortgage industry at this point at all. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, government-related entities backed 96.5% of all home loans during the first quarter of 2010, which was up from 90% in 2009. So if you borrowed money to buy a home over the past couple of years, there is a very strong likelihood that the U.S. government was involved.

#9) The U.S. Government - The Nation's Biggest Employer
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 2 million civilians work for the federal government, excluding the Postal Service. When you add in all U.S. military personnel, that number goes much higher.
The truth is that as the government continues to expand (become more bloated), more Americans than ever are hopping aboard the gravy train. Today, the average federal worker now earns about twice as much as the average worker in the private sector. So if you want to do little work, produce little of real value and enjoy super cushy benefits, maybe you should apply for a job with the federal government too.

#10) Millions Of Americans Are Employed By Firms That Rely On Government Contracts
When considering the impact of the U.S. government on the economy, you can't forget the hundreds of companies that would go out of business if their U.S. government contracts were taken away. There are literally millions of people who work for companies that do business with the government. If the government disappeared it would cause economic chaos for those firms. The truth is that a whole lot of people make a really good living plugging into the sweetest revenue source of them all - the U.S. government.

#11) The U.S. Government Takeover Of The Health Care System
The U.S. government takeover of the health care system is going to fundamentally change the economics of the health care industry. The U.S. government will now play a major role in deciding which hospitals get built and which do not. Approximately 17% of U.S. GDP is spent on health care, and now the U.S. government has unprecedented control over where that money goes. Over a dozen new taxes have been established by the new health care reform law, and the U.S. government is going to pour an unprecedented amount of money into the system. So will this result in all of us getting better health care? We'll just have to wait and see.

The truth is that the Founding Fathers never envisioned a federal government that completely dominated that national economy. But that is what we have got. As of now, only a very small percentage of Americans are still able to say that they are completely financially independent of the U.S. government.
You see, in economic terms the U.S. government is not just the elephant in the room. It is the elephant that sat on the room and nearly suffocated everything else out of existence.

As Americans, we live in an economy that is so intertwined with the government that it is impossible to separate the two anymore.
But the really bad news is that the U.S. government is in massive financial trouble. According to one new report, the U.S. national debt will reach 100 percent of GDP by the year 2015. Many economists regard that as an incredibly dangerous threshold to cross.
If U.S. government finances collapse, it will mean the collapse of the entire U.S. economy as well. There is simply no separating the two. And considering the fact that the U.S. government has piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world, things don't look promising.
America is headed for an unprecedented economic collapse, and the U.S. government is leading the way. If you can get financially independent, now is the time to try to do that, but the reality is that we will all feel massive economic pain when this thing comes crashing down.

[Amy Probenski]

Crux, you are dumb as a post. You cannot understand Wise One's simple point. Nobody argues against

... GREAT OPPORTUNITY OF A CAPITALIST AND FREE MARKET ECONOMY....

But you have an insane idea about what the word "opportunity" means. If one guy has nearly everything, your crazed brain somehow translates this into maximum opportunity for all the rest of the hundreds of millions of abjectly poor people.

I have news for you. The holders of wealth and power will squash like a bug any serf who dares to try to seize opportunity. Opportunity will forever remain only theoretical ... if you try to seize it, Republicans will trample you. That is why the trend for the past 20 years is so very clear that wealth is being redistributed by federal policy from the poor to the rich. Only you will never see, understand, or acknowledge this reality.

Want to continue unrestricted access to the internet? No, Republicans vote with Comcast and Verizon to choke it off so that there will be no more iTunes, Googles, Facebooks, Skypes, etc.

Want to tax the weathiest 1% at the same tax rates as the lowest 99%? No, Republicans will always vote for tax preferences and rates vastly lower for the rich than for the rest of us.

Want to provide health care for all children to match that given to children of the richest among us? You must be mad. Republicans will always vote policies that doom the poor to lower survival rates, worse health, and shorter lives of misery.

[crux]

I am as dumb as a post... Point 1. This is just personal attack.

2. One guy in 100 doesn't have nearly everything. The article doesn't make this point. WO FALSELY overblew the stats AP.

3. No one born to this world has 100% maximum opportunity. Even the children of the wealthy and the wealthy themselves can reverse their fortunes... and are born with success killing deficits, in both intelligence and will.

4. The holders of wealth and privilege are not some monolithic group that will squash all those who seek to better themselves or take up the opportunities around them.

Have you succeeded in life? Did you become a successful professional? Have you ever been able to buy a new car? A house? You sound like a limousine liberal... You drive a MB, BMW or a Caddie? Was your opportunity, and success THEORETICAL?

5. The trend of the last 20 years is of GREAT WEALTH EXPANSION. Those at the top will take GREATER advantage of it, but all those below will benefit as well. AND THEY HAVE. In spite of the VICTIM MENTALITY the paternalistic disrespectful left peddles and saddles them with.

6. Cripes. There is unrestricted access to the internet. Some of the start ups you cite are HUGE corps now... Myspace fell to facebook... AOL to Yahoo... etc. I know you do not fear NN, but I do.

7. Republicans STARTED EITC, and expanded it. Bush took millions off the Fed IT rolls, and SHIFTED the tax burden UPWARDS. Half the folks in this country do not pay FIT. You are such a blind ideologue.

So what is it? Caddie, BMW or MB...

crux

[Amy Probenski]

No mule ever wore blinders that obscure quite as much as yours do.

I give up.

[crux]

No mule ever wore blinders that obscure quite as much as yours do. I give up.

...well?

[Sam]

hey Crux, you sure know how to rile these people up. They like dissent but as long as they can handle it. Just a little dissent here. Not awhole lot. You eventually have to come into their camp or leave the forum, which I believe Folks you would like.

[crux]

...T

[Sam]

People have become so dependent upon the government they expect to be taken care of from birth to the grave. Creating so much dependency gives the government more control. People don't know how to fend for themselves. Obama is spending like there is no tomorrow. Like the article my friend.

[crux]

Yes and it is Leftist IDIOTS like this that will drive us there...in their Hybrid Hippy Buss Technical...CRAP. "Getting people to start gardens in their yards I mean if people would grow some tomatoes pretty soon they would have enough to can....then maybe they could trade them for other food...(para)" Until someone enterprising enough grows enough tomatoes to open a tomato superstore and then folks, IT IS THE CAPITALISTIC DEATH SPIRAL ALL OVER AGAIN!!!

[Wise One]

Maybe this isn't the right topic to put a discussion of education policy. I chose this only because US educational performance seems stuck on a downward trend line.

One shouldn't over-interpret statistics but the results, at a minimum, indicate that things are more complicated than politicians assume when it comes to education reform. The Bush administration had good intentions in pushing through "No Child Left Behind (NCLB)" and so schools across the Nation have been testing to beat the band, rewarding and punishing based on test results, generally mobilizing enormous effort to "teach to the test" in classrooms.

Results so far? Well, although uneven I have the impression that test scores have improved a little because of NCLB efforts. This begs an important question however, one debated hotly and continuously, "Does test performance relate in a meaningful way to educational quality?"

On this, there are two disturbing data points.

• The first is confirmation of program structural flaws that enable cheating by any means that will elevate test score results, notable examples in Atlanta and elsewhere.
• The second is a strong hint that in teaching to NCLB tests, students have actually been "dumbed down" and damaged in their reasoning and creative capabilities. The evidence for this discouraging conclusion is that college SAT scores have dropped significantly for those children who went through NCLB. SATs are designed to reveal reasoning and creative skills in prospective college students,

Not wishing to over-interpret, it seems sensible nonetheless to display healthy skepticism when bureaucracies quash the individual efforts of good and inspiring teachers, diverting them to teach narrowly to standardized tests that miss the full measure of a human being.

[crux]

...with a lack of money either. If you look you will note that the US is a LEADER in $$ spent per pupil.

[Sam]

It seems to me that schools want more money when discussing this issue. I have to tell you from my limited exposure over the years I don't think that is always the answer. I have several in my family who teach and my parents were both teachers. Some how I didn't follow them as did some of their other off spring. I have a couple of kids teaching and they both have a problem with the no child left behind. They feel they are teaching for a test constantly and not subject matter. I ponder at how the young today don't seem to value education. I sure don't know what the answer is and this subject is debated in my household constantly. I think my kids think this old man doens't know much but I see the test results over the US and cringe. I see young people who come out of college and don't usually know the answers to some very simple questions. Just the observations of a man who has live a few years.

[Juggler]

[Trend Setter]

Distribution of wealth, concentrating it on the richest, is now back where it was in the sick era of pre-depression America.

America's most competitive, most affluent, healthiest economic era had a far different distribution of wealth than we see today, robber-barons having again captured the Congress to write laws that benefit only themselves.

[coondog]

The America we once knew and fondly aspire to is gone for good.

Governmental policy has been skewed toward the upper crust for decades. Altruistically, a return to fairness would be a blessing of monumental proportions, but the fact is, the words of Mitt Romney convey the ultimate truth. "Corporations are people!"

The Supreme Court, in their collective ignorance, have ruled that money is free speech and corporations are entitled to all the rights of personhood. This basically ensures that what we already know and despise is now founded in judicial legitimacy.....that money speaks and it speaks loudly to government.

Ironically, those who it speaks loudest to are inherently anti-government. A majority of the House of Representatives are already defacto corporate employees. The minority, to be fair, are at the very least slavering subcontractors....but not yet convinced that abolishment of government control in favor of a vocal minority of "people" is a good idea. The Senate is disfunctional and counts for nothing. Who occupies the executive branch can only forestall the inevitable....and, then only if a Democrat occupies the office. The Supreme Court......they're already on board!

Unless the Citizen's United ruling is overturned and some serious election standards are implimented, the third world is there to welcome us with open arms.

Coondog

Seriously? Corporations are people? I want to see their friggin' Birth Certificate!!!!!!!!!

[Neck-aint-red]

You are on point, coondog.

... socialism for tycoons and capitalism for the rest of us.

[Wise One]

Why Nations Fail

[crux]

Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-FGgoReyNE

This is hard hitting stuff.