Ryeder's Weblog

Or is it just me? Maybe I am too sensitive a guy. Maybe I am too ignorant to understand the complexity of political ambition and government etiquette and S.O.P. Maybe after 40 years of listening to politicians slobber their never ending hogwash of broken promises I have become too cynical.  Maybe I expect more from our politicians than they are capable of giving.  I don’t know, but reports such as those pasted below make me wonder what the hell this country is coming to. We have a continuing proliferation of self serving cretins, not only running ( and ruining) our country, but also screwing up our legal system, our banking system, our financial system, our health care system, our retirement system, our educational system and society in general. I wonder, has anyone ever conducted a DNA analysis of our past and present incumbents to determine if inbreeding was/is taking place? I watch the future GOP and DNC presidential hopefuls and cringe at the idea that any one of these people could be our next fearless leader.

Those elected to manage our country, never seem to take the opportunity to listen to “real” people. The key word hear is “listen”, not; ignore, placate, pacify, accommodate, appease or insult.  And the crux of the matter is that these “real” people have “real” concerns and are wanting “real” answers. It also seems that the consensus of these “real” citizens is that today’s politicians can not, will not or are not capable of common sense cogitation.  Does the quote by PJ O’Rouke:  “If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. ” describe Washington DC and it’s greedy corporate whores? Yes, me thinks it does. Anyway, before I begin drooling, here are some snippets of just how well our politicians are doing.

WASHINGTON  — The percentage of Americans living in poverty last year rose to the highest level since 1993, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, fresh evidence that the disappointing economic recovery has done nothing for the country’s poorest citizens.  Another 2.6 million people slipped below the poverty line in 2010, meaning 46.2 million people now live in poverty in the United States, the highest number in the 52 years the Census Bureau has been tracking it, said Trudi Renwick, chief of the Poverty Statistic Branch at the Census Bureau. That figure represented 15.1 percent of the population, up from 14.3 percent in 2009, and 11.7 percent at the beginning of the decade in 2001. The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,113. The group of 25-to-34-year-olds experienced a 25 percent rise in living at home in the period between 2007, when the recession began, and 2011. Of that group, nearly half were living below the poverty line, when their parents’ incomes were excluded. Poverty also swallowed more children, with about 22 percent of all children living below the poverty line, up from 20.7 percent in 2009. From New York Times.

The worst economic downturn since the 1930s has left a record number of Americans in poverty and created strains on the government’s safety net not seen in decades, according to a report issued Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The U.S. poverty rate remains among the highest in the developed world. Among 34 countries tracked by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only Chile, Israel and Mexico have higher rates of poverty. Millions more households are collecting food stamps to stretch household budgets far enough to keep food on the table. Since the recession began in 2007, the number of households receiving food stamps has nearly doubled to 21.4 million.

Still, millions have fallen through the cracks of the government safety net. Tuesday’s Census report found that the poverty rate rose faster in 2007-2010 than in any three-year period since the early 1980s, when households were battered by rising energy prices, high inflation and soaring interest rates as well as high unemployment.

Buried in Tuesday’s report from the Census Bureau on the growth of the nation’s poverty rate was a tidbit that had far-reaching connotations for the housing market and the broader economy:  The kids are still at home.

The number of households “doubling up” by adding an additional adult who is not in school, a spouse or cohabitating partner rose to 21.8 million in 2010 from 19.7 million in 2007, prior to the recession. In percentage terms, doubled-up households rose to 18.3 percent in 2010 from 17 percent in 2007. Apparently, most of the increase came from young people who either never moved out of Mom and Dad’s or moved back in after college because they couldn’t find work. According to the bureau, 5.9 million people age 25 to 34 lived with their parents in the spring of 2011, vs. 4.7 million in 2007. From msnbc.com

As a record amount of U.S. citizens are struggling to get by, many of the largest corporations are experiencing record-breaking profits, and CEOs are receiving record-breaking bonuses. The Economic Elite have escalated their attack on U.S. workers over the past few years; however, this attack began to build intensity in the 1970s. In 1970, CEOs made $25 for every $1 the average worker made. Due to technological advancements, production and profit levels exploded from 1970 – 2000. With the lion’s share of increased profits going to the CEO’s, this pay ratio dramatically rose to $90 for CEOs to $1 for the average worker.

Due to this, the United States already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the average worker much harder than CEOs, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high. The economic top one percent of the population now owns over 70% of all financial assets, an all time record.By David DeGraw

I rest my case….