The American Political Class - "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:" The Bad, Part 2

This week we are going through a number of posts under the theme of “The Good, The Bad, and The ugly,” stealing a title from an old Clint Eastwood movie. Yesterday, we looked at some of the good things going on in the country. When you write a blog like this, it can get kind of depressing as we watch our political class operate government in such a way that incompetence is rampant and rewarded, taxpayer wealth is abused and wasted, and the politicians in office have neither the will or the ability to truly resolve the major issues facing Americans. They are more intent on personal self-enrichment and staying in office.

Thus, it was good two days ago to get away from the disaster that is the American political class and talk about some good things going on in the country (“The Good“), all being executed and put forth for the betterment of Americans by private citizens doing the right thing. This is opposed to waiting for the politicians to do the wrong thing or do nothing but costing us a lot for their non-productive efforts.

However, today and yesterday we have to dive into the “The Bad” part of our theme. “The Bad” items discussed below are mostly concerned on how Americans feel about the state of the country, the state of their lives, and their attitudes towards the people causing most of the problems in this country, namely the current set of politicians. Never has a set of politicians been so ineffective or so demoralizing to the citizens of Americas, as we review “The Bad” conditions and feelings prevalent in America today, Part 2 ("The Bad," Part 1 can be accessed at; http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-american-political-class-good-bad.html)

5) Despite Washington being dominated by Democrats in charge of the Senate and in control of the White House for the past six years or more, and the constant Democratic rant that non-Democrats are “waging a war on women,” how does a Democrat explain the fact that according to recent analyses by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of women 16 and older not in the labor force climbed to a record high of 55,299,000 in June? 

• This translates into a whopping 55,299,000 women aged 16 and older who not only did not have a job, they did not actively seek one in the last four weeks. That is up 282,000 from the 55,017,000 women who were not in the labor force in May.
• According to BLS, the labor force participation rate for women was 56.8 percent, the lowest it has been this year.
• It has not been this bad for women in about 26 years, not since October, 1988.

Thus, given how much political control the Democrats have had since Obama took office, it appears that they are the ones waging war on women, at least from providing an economic environment that helps American women……and American men, and American minorities, and American kids to have a chance at a decent economic opportunity and a decent economic life.

6) Speaking of young Americans, consider some more bad research results from Pew:

• 51% of the millennial generation believe they will not receive any Social Security benefits at all when they reach retirement. 
• Just 6% of millennials think they will get benefits at the level enjoyed by current retirees.
• 39% believe they will receive benefits but at reduced levels. 
• They are even more pessimistic today than they were when Pew conducted a similar poll in 2011 when Pew found that 42% of millennials said they expected to receive no Social Security payments and 72% said benefits would not be the primary source of their own retirement income. 

These bad and depressingly low numbers and attitudes are not surprising, given how badly the Washington political class has managed the Social Security program in the face of the following realities:

• Within 15 years, the number of Americans reaching retirement age will increase 70% while the number of working Americans will rise by just 6%. 
• When Social Security started in 1935, there were 17 workers for each retiree but by 2035, there will likely be only two workers per retiree. 
• Social Security already accounts for 23% of the Federal budget and the overall program is currently cash flow negative despite the accounting trick that shows the Social Security Trust Fund will not run out until 2042. 
• In 1940, life expectancy after age 65 was about 12 years but today it is 19 years, a driving force behind the coming bankruptcy of the program.

Thus, how depressing do you think it will be for our kids and grandkids, given they have already realized that they are paying their hard earned wealth into a decaying government system, for the benefits of others, that they will receive little, reduced, or absolutely no benefit from? This is another example where taxation has morphed into repression in this country, courtesy of the American political class.

7) One last set of "Bad" data for today, getting too depressing to dive into more than that. The following chart comes from the Against Crony Capitalism website and it puts into a table the increase in the price of products we use everyday, courtesy of David Stockman, a gentleman who used to be Reagan's main budget resource. Of course, an increase in prices means a decrease in buying power for all of us and a hit to our economic freedom:

A very depressing chart, as we see that we have lost substantial buying power across a whole range of things we need for life, from food to transportation to health care to postage stamps. Although not included in the chart, I am positive that if the chart had a line labeled "Wages" that the growth in wages would be far less than most, if not all, of these household items.

And consider something even more depressing, courtesy of the potlicial class. The government and the politicians that operate it want us to think that the cost of living since 2014 has only gone up either 39.09% or 31.65% depending on what measure of CPI or inflation is bieng used. 

Given that food, health care, and transportation costs have gone up far greater than these two "official" inflation numbers, do the politicians really think we are that stupid not to realize they are "cooking the books" when it comes to calculating inflation? Try to name a major household expense that rose less than 30% in the past 14 years and try to see if that expense could overcome a 176% increase in gas, a 106% increase in eggs, a 59% increase in electricity, etc. 

There are not any major categoies of household purchases that could pull down the overall inflation number to what the politicians say it is. Thus, not only does the American political class not know how to facilitate a growing, low inflation  economy, they then cover up the truth with inflation numbers that do not reflect reality and expect us to believe them.

That will do it for "The Bad" part of this week's blog theme. Nasty, depressing stuff we have discussed over the past two days:

• The number of women not in the American work force is at an all time high and trending upwards.
• Younger Americans are beginning to realize that the personal wealth they are paying into the Social Security System for the benefit of others are benefits and wealth they are increasingly not likely to see returned back to them when they retire.
• The cost of products has grown considerabley over the past 14 years, reducing the buying power and economic freedom of most Americans, courtesy of a political class that is as economic ignorant as they come.
• Americans are suffering through a deteriorating crisis in confidence regarding America's greatness and our levels of freedom and liberty.
• The tepid economic recovery from the Greaty Recession has left millions and millions of Americans cash strapped or unemployed or under employed, further contributing to the state of depression hovering over the country.

Things are bad and getting worse so ask yourself: do you really think that the fools in Washington, the very same people that got us into this fix with faulty economic policies and economic ignorance, have any chance of somehow miraculously getting smart and wise in our lifetimes?

Nick Sorrentino, writing for the Against Crony Capitalism website, sums up our situation and depression quite succintly with the following quote: 

This is a trend which began in earnest under Mr. Bush and which then began to snowball under Mr. Obama. And most people don’t even know anything about the NDAA (which Obama signed which allows him to jail US citizens without trial, attorney, or even notification of abduction). They just feel it. They know that the NSA lurks online, somewhere and everywhere. They stand with hands up in the radiation machines at the airport. They witness the increased police checkpoints. They see the president disregard the rule of law to pursue naked political ends. They feel the loss of dignity. People feel the loss of freedom and of their liberty.

This is just the beginning I am afraid. I don’t see Americans feeling more free or that their government is any less corrupt anytime soon.

Still, each and every one one of us has an obligation to reverse this trend. 

Sad but true. And tomorrow it gets worse before it gets better. Tomorrow we go after the "The Ugly" part of the American political class, which is probably even worst than "The Bad" part we have disucssed over the past two days. 

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w