An important note I would like to make to my readers: This article will contain highly controversial information that will likely offend some of you. While it is not my intention to offend or place blame on any particular group of people, it is solely a personal effort of mine to inform my readers about what is truly wrong with America today and why it is something we simply cannot afford to ignore any longer. This is an issue that effects everyone. It is a problem that every American, Republicans and Democrats alike, have allowed to continue for too long. I'll begin with a simple observation I made upon viewing both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
The photo above was taken during the Democratic National Convention, which spoke primarily about preserving the quality of life for middle-class workers. While watching some of the DNC speakers, I had a brief moment of deja-vu. Less than a week prior, I was hearing a lot of the same rhetoric from Tampa. The word "middle-class" seems to be a popular buzzword for both political parties. It makes sense considering the historical implication of what it means to be "middle class." It sounds good. It sounds noble. The "middle-class" have always been perceived as the "hard-working," the "self-reliant," and the "industrious;" the embodiment of the American Dream. Speaking out in favor of the middle-class is the ultimate form of propaganda in this upcoming election. I've heard many Democrats at the DNC say that Republicans don't care about the middle-class because of all the ways they want to cut government spending and entitlement programs like Medicare, Unemployment, Disability, and Social Security. It is this statement that is the central focus of this article and is the very essence of what is really wrong with America today. How would any real, industrious, hard-working, and self-reliant middle-class American feel about this statement? How would George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, or John Adams feel about this statement? This is an issue that transcends American politics. It is not about unemployment. It's not about entitlements. It's not about the healthcare crisis. It's not about the national debt. It's not about taxes. It's not about inflation, wages, special interests, or retirement, either. These are all just symptoms of the real illness that has affected a vast majority of the American people.
So what is this illness that I speak of? Complete and utter erosion of middle-class American values; the values that involve self-reliance, self-restraint, and industriousness; an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. What used to be a self-reliant, rugged, and hard-working nation has now become a nation of self-interests, entitlements, laziness, and taking away more than what is contributed. It is a mentality that stretches across all socio-economic statuses; rich, poor, and middle-class alike. Now, I understand this is a pretty bold statement to make, especially since the bulk of my readers likely come from middle-class households, but consider the next few things I'm about to tell you and decide for yourself.
- Disability Entitlements: In the 1960s, less than 1% of the US workforce received disability benefits from the U.S. Government. Let's also consider this: Most of the truly backbreaking work of the 1960s has since been replaced by automated technology, like computers and machinery; not to mention successful treatments of labor-related injuries brought about by 50 years of medical advancement. With that said, the US should have seen a drop in disability claims (as a percentage) over the last 50 years. So, why is it that as of 2012, 5% of the total American workforce is currently collecting disability benefits and not working? I'm sure there's all kinds of speculation in the realm of political correctness regarding this issue, but allow me to explain this to you, bluntly: As of right now, millions of Americans are defrauding SSDI benefits! Why work when you can easily claim a labor-related injury, qualify for disability, and receive a monthly check from the government for rest of your life? Consider this: A man claims disability at the age of 45 and receives a monthly SSDI check of $1,100. This means by the retirement age of 65, he will have milked a total of $264,000 from the US taxpayers, but wait! It doesn't stop there. From the age of 65, his disability will end and he will qualify for Social Security benefits at the same amount until he dies at the average, male life expectancy of 79 years. That's another $184,000, but wait! I'm still not done. After his passing, his wife will now be entitled to her husband's social security benefits until her life expectancy of 81 years. Assuming the wife is the same age as her husband, she will receive a total of $26,400. This makes a grand total of $474,400 to one household courtesy of the American taxpayers and that's not including the Social Security benefits the wife would have also received in her name alone. Now, this may not seem like that much money in the grand scheme of things, especially not over the course of 36yrs, but when millions of people throughout the country decide to jump on this bandwagon, it becomes an unsustainable system; a ponzi scheme. It is a complete and utter deviation from the country our Founding Fathers intended for us. Now, I understand disability benefits may be a sensitive topic for some people and I'm aware that some people truly and honestly depend on SSDI. However, we cannot ignore the fact that millions of Americans are taking advantage of an entitlement system they don't deserve. This blatant, nationwide use of entitlement fraud has cost the American taxpayers approximately $132 billion dollars in the year 2011, which is twice that of the SSDI benefits paid in the year 2000, and is expected to double again within the next 10 years. It's just another of the many different financial leaks that has drained our economy and our sustainability within the last 40 years.With that said...moving on.
- Unemployment: Look, I understand the economy sucks and the prevalence of job opportunities are scarce, but there is no doubt in my mind that unemployment entitlements are being abused rampantly throughout the country. Before I get into the nitty-gritty details, let me tell you a personal story about my experience with people on unemployment. While working as a bank teller, I would often hear customers' "unemployment horror stories" about how difficult it was to find work. They all seemed to really hate the raw deal of joblessness that life has handed them. For the longest time I felt sorry for them and prayed their luck would change sooner rather than later. Well, as it later turned out, Obama extended the length of disability benefits in both 2011 and in 2012, allowing all current and new unemployment recipients a total of two full years to find employment. Suddenly, a lot of these poor, unemployed customers seemed to be in much brighter spirits than they ever appeared before. For most of them, their unemployment was extended at least another year, which means they get to sit on their asses for the next 364 days without any worry of seeking employment. Some of these customers weren't so happy, however. Some of them were getting dangerously close to their unemployment expiration date and were able to find a job just before Obama's extension was enacted. It took every ounce of my own willpower to hold my composure upon hearing their testimony about this. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Upon further reflection, however, I realized it does make sense. After all, why look for a new job when you can live comfortably on unemployment for two years until your benefits run out? So what happens in the next two years when these benefits finally expire? Unemployment recipients will still complain about the job situation, the economy, and (if Obama wins the election) unemployment benefits will get extended AGAIN! The whole system is just a huge incentive to keep people from seeking work and it's all being paid for at the taxpayers expense. It has become another highly abused and unsustainable system; another of the many drains on the American taxpayers. Most unemployment checks that I have cashed for bank customers totaled around $660 bi-weekly. This means most people on unemployment are receiving about $1,320 a month just to fill out a bi-weekly EDD form that simply states "Yes, I looked for a job. No I didn't find one." According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of unemployment recipients in America today totals to about 12.6 millon people. This means total annual expense in unemployment benefits amounts to approximately $200 billion dollars a year, nationwide. Several states including: California, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania have taken billions from the federal government to make up the difference. Again, I realize this massive abuse of entitlement doesn't include every unemployment beneficiary in the country, but I'd wager everyone reading this knows at least one person in their life who is abusing the unemployment entitlement system today. It is not unusual in today's times.
- Retirement: I wouldn't consider retirement as an undeserved entitlement under normal circumstances, but there are several cases throughout the country where it certainly is. This is especially true for public sector workers, which account for about 17% of the total United States workforce. Think about this: A public sector worker begins working for the city at age 25 until the age of 55. Throughout the worker's 30 year career, he receives an annual COLA (cost of living allowance), an annual raise, better promotional opportunities, better job security, exceptional medical, dental, vision, and life insurance packages, and accumulating vacation and sick time that goes uncapped throughout the duration of his 30 year career. As a civil servant, it is not unusual to retire after 30 years with a six-figure salary, which means annual retirement pensions would equate to at least $90k, but wait! That's just the tip of the iceberg. On top of receiving this pension, the retiree is also granted the same medical, dental, vision, and life insurance package benefits along with a final payout of all accumulated and unused vacation and sick time. Additionally, most public sector retirees will retire between the ages of 55 and 65 and their lifespans could continue on for up to another 30 years. This means they'll be receiving their retirement benefits for roughly the same duration of time as the life-span of their career. In 30 years, a public sector retiree walking out with a $100k annual salary will receive roughly $2 million-700k in annual retirement pensions and that's not including the hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused sick/vacation pay or the money paid by insurance benefits. So, how can local communities, cities, and municipalities afford to pay for this? They can't. The amount of money collected in taxes from private sector workers is not enough to sustain such a heavily imbalanced system. Cities around the country are going bankrupt because of this, threatening the cushy retirement packages and pensions of retired public sector workers everywhere. So, how do the retirees respond to this? They sue the cities of their employment, demand their entitlements, rage about it in the local newspaper, and expect the outside world to feel sympathy for their cause. It's another of the many entitlement complexes that has completely gone awry in this country. What's really unfortunate about all this is how little the public sector retirees understand regarding the risky and difficult retirement options of private sector workers, most of which primarily invested their retirement money in the form of 401k's. After 2008, 401k portfolios were atrocious and private sector workers across the country began to worry they may not get to retire at all. On top of that, most private sector retirees are not granted an annual pension from their company of retirement, nor are they granted medical, dental, vision, or life insurance benefits. The one thing that private sector workers will be entitled to, however, is Social Security and Medicare, but those are two additional entitlement systems that have contributed heavily to deficit spending throughout the last 40 years. Certainly those won't be available forever, either. When you look at the reality of this whole situation, it almost appears like public sector retirees are stomping their feet like spoiled children at age 55 while private sector retirees walk away from their careers at age 65 with a lot more uncertainty about how they will afford retirement. It's totally corrupt and completely backwards.
- Welfare: The US spends approximately 6% of its annual budget on direct welfare programs such as: Income Security, Food and Nutrition, Housing Assistance, and 'Other Income Security' (whatever that means). While 6% may not seem like a whole lot of money required, think of it this way... Let's imagine your total net income is $50k a year; a fairly average salary for many middle-class Americans. 6% of that annual salary equates to exactly $3,000. When broken down over the course of 12 months, this equates to $250 a month. Now ask yourself this...How many monthly bills could you pay in one month with $250? I could probably pay at least 3 of my monthly bills with that. I'd say that's a pretty significant chunk of change for that reason. While the concept of welfare was initially intended to help out families during difficult times, it has since become a primary dependence and way of life for many low-income Americans. As dependence on the Government's anti-poverty programs persists, the drive for the recipients to become self-sufficient eventually die away; leaving behind a "downtrodden population of societal victims." They pass off all sense of personal responsibility and develop an entitlement complex where they believe their livelihoods are "justly" burdened by the working taxpayers of the society that surrounds them. What welfare programs are actually doing is they are breeding entire populations of this entitlement complex whose entire perspective on life contradicts everything our Founding Fathers intended for us to have. Adversely, welfare and other, similar social programs are directly responsible for the growing level of government control over the lives of its citizens. The more dependent people become on Government, the more power the Government has. Welfare is, in every way, contradictory to the founding principles of this nation.
- Deficit Spending: This is the mother lode of everything that is wrong with America today and is by far the scariest thing happening in today's economic times. For the past 50 years, deficit spending has been the most significant contributor to America's upcoming economic downfall and we cannot ignore the reality of this very serious issue any longer. Right now, the national debt has risen to just over 16 trillion dollars. That's one thousand billion dollars times sixteen. The national debt is so high that America is well past the point of no return. Every year, the U.S. owes $340 billion in compounding interest alone, which is only paid for by accumulating even more debt. Even if all the taxpayers in the country were taxed 100% of their total income for an entire year, and the government shut down every avenue of spending for that year, the debt's principle would still stand and interest on that debt would continue to compound. What we are seeing today in America is not much different than what history has seen from other great nations, kingdoms, and empires throughout the history of human civilization. For example: The Roman Empire in 284AD, the early 13th Century Byzantine Empire, late 13th Century Wales, The French Revolution in 1789, late 16th Century Spain, 19th Century Ottoman Empire, The Russian Revolution in 1918, and Germany 1938. The three things all these major economic collapses have in common: War, debt, and hyper-inflation. As is with the United States, our debt continues to inflate as a knee-jerk reaction to stop the deflation that would have occurred as a result of the housing market crash in 2008. The United States is operating solely on free money, which is money the US Fed is, metaphorically, pulling out of thin air, printed in currency by the US Mint, and selling that debt to countries like China and Japan. Think of it like this: 43 cents of every dollar is borrowed money, accumulating interest and will need to be paid back. Currently, the majority of this debt remains in stasis by banks, but if that money is released into the US economy (and it eventually will), the US will experience hyper-inflation beyond anything that has ever been seen in the history of the world. Germany WWI, for example: Germany experienced hyper-inflation so extreme that it would have cost 80 billion German Marks just to purchase a single egg. The German Marks currency was deemed worthless and the transfer of wealth moved over to basic commodities. If history is any indication of what is truly possible, given these circumstances, the US currency will become practically worthless. Food will rapidly fly off the shelves, civil war will erupt, people will starve, and all the wealth will transfer back over to the value of commodity goods (which is usually gold). Although I'm not trying to cause mass-panic with these statements, I'm simply acknowledging an economic life-cycle and its consistency throughout human history. So, why haven't we learned from human history and made efforts to stop this coming financial apocalypse? The truth is: We have tried. What we didn't realize, however, is the longer we stave off total financial meltdown, the worse the inevitible will be when it finally happens. I'd wager most Americans don't realize just how serious this ballooning debt really means for the future of America.
So, why are all these things happening and why won't it stop? I can sum that answer up using two, very simple words: Human Nature. It is completely natural for humans to avoid pain and seek pleasure. Instead of abiding by the values set in place by our Founding Fathers, we have eventually decided, as a nation, it is easier to take more and give less. We have decided to work the political system in a way that benefits us while expensing others. We are never satisfied with what we have and we continue to demand more. We have decided that it's easier to delve further in debt than it would be to pay it down or default. We have decided it's easier to let our future generations pay the price of irresponsibility for us. It is the ultimate selfishness, moral extinction, and financial corruption in the history of this country. When all is said and done, America will survive, but it will never be what it once was. Maybe by then we can rebuild the country with the grassroots values we have long forgotten since 1776.
Thank you for reading...and God Bless.
- JSR
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