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

The American Political Class - "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" Today: The Bad, Part 1

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 yesterday 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 probably tomorrow, 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:

1) According to a recent survey by Pew Research:

• The opinion that the United States is No. 1 in the world has dropped significantly in just the last three years.
• Pew found that only 28% believe that the U.S. “stands above all other countries in the world.” 
• 58% say it is “one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others.” 
• 12% said that there are other countries “that are better.”
• Just three years ago, well within the current Presidential administration and current members of Congress, 38% said the U.S. was No. 1 compared to only 28% today, a whopping 26% decrease.
• 52% of Republicans said America stood above the others but that feeling has decreased has dropped to only 37%, a decrease of 28% in just three years.
• In 2011, 33% of Democrats said America “stands above” others while today only 25% believe that, a decrease of about 24%.
• And most depressing for the future of this country, Americans ages 18-29, are at the bottom of those who view the nation as standing alone in greatness with only 15% of those under 30 express that view today, down from 27% three years ago, a whopping decrease of 44%.
• Even senior citizens, the most optimistic about America, have seen a 20% decline in three years in their attitudes, shrinking their optimism about the country to 40%, down from 50% in 2011.

Thus, we seem to be a nation suffering a crisis of confidence, and nothing that I have seen from the current set of American politicians give me any indication or hope that these negatively trending attitudes and emotions will get reversed any time soon. 

2) Maybe one reason we are feeling so bad about our current environment is that a recent opinion poll from Gallup found that from a freedom perspective, we see ourselves as no better than 33rd in the world vs. other countries. Yes, we are no longer number one, we are number 33! This is out of 135 countries that were polled.

Other findings from this poll include:

• Only 79% of Americans say they’re satisfied with their freedom to choose what to do with their lives, down from 87% in 2008. 
• The top five nations where people feel most satisfied with their freedoms are New Zealand, Australia, Cambodia, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates. 
• At No. 33, the United States is shamefully stuck between Bahrain and Cameroon, from a perception of freedom perspective.
• And not only are we an embarrassing number 33, stuck between two countries that most Americans could not find on a map, we are trending lower over time, of the 100 countries where Gallup measured changes in freedom during the past five years, 75 of those coountries registered an improvement in freedom, 21 registered a decline in freedom, and four stayed the same. 
• Besides the United States, consider some of the other nations within the group of 21 who also suffered declines in freedom, just like us: Syria and Afghanistan are in the midst of wide spread armed conflicts, Tajikistan and Thailand are suffering through major political turmoil, and Luxembourg, the most prosperous of the decliners, has become a target of U.S. and European authorities going after tax evaders with foreign accounts. Nice company to be with.

The historic feeling and pride of living in “the land of the free” seems to have taken a beating relative to most of the rest of the world, a world that seems to be gaining freedom while we continue to lose ours.

But this should not be a surprise since the Washington political class, and especially this Presidential administration, has crushed freedom in so many ways including:

• Assassinating American citizens without due process of laws and trials.
• We have a Presidential administration that views the IRS as a political tool and oppressor rather than a tax collection agency.
• Spying on just about every American’s private electronic communications under the false premise of “national security.”
• Passing such onerous laws including the Patriot Act and the NDAA legislation that allows our government to hold citizens without trial or due process in jail or prison for an indefinite amount of time.
• Piling on so many tax burdens that freedom of choice is significantly curtailed when we have to spend about half of working lives just to pay for all of the taxes at every level of government in this country.

I am not surprised that we think our freedom is declining when we look at what the political class is doing to our Constitutionally guaranteed freedom, our lives, and our wealth.

3) But bad things are not just happening to our freedoms and confidence. Consider some bad economic trends that are probably also hammering at and causing our declining attitudes:

• Median household wealth is still substantially lower than it was before the Great Recession. 
• While there has been recent small improvements in the jobs data, many of the new jobs for American workers come with pay that is lower than it used to be, assuming they can find a job at all. 
• Lower pay impacts economic freedom which has probably leaked into the feeling of declining political freedom that Gallup measured above. A loss of economic freedom impacts our realm and spectrum of life choices in other areas of our lives.
• A recent article by USA Today found that the American Dream, loosely defined, costs a typical family of four roughly $130,000 per year. 
• Given that the median US household income is only about $50,000, and declining, at least 50% of American households are probably making less than half of the income needed to live the “American Dream,” according to USA Today. 
• Living the “American Dream” used to be attainable by just about anyone in the country with the will to work hard to attain it. Maybe not so much any more. 
• The supposed economic recovery that followed the Great Recession and began in 2009 has been the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression years of the 1930s and history tells us how depressing and bad those economic times were.

4) A recent article in the Against Crony Capitalism website, written by Nick Sorrentino reported on recent government data that found the weak and badly limping economy has resulted in only 47.7% of adult Americans working full time. Mr. Sorrentino put forth the following opinions and data:

• Loads of Americans people are just barely getting by economically.
• Americans are going into debt to buy food with more than 46 million Americans relying on government food assistance or ripping off the program. 
• With such a bad job situation, many Americans have tried to make a living off of government disability programs, with those programs seeing record applications.
• Workers’ overall wages have been declining in a serious way since 2008 when they are adjusted for inflation. 
• The average American household brings in 7% less in real terms than it did 6 years ago. 
• Many recent college graduates still can’t find jobs and those who do find jobs are often underemployed from either the number of working hours or working in jobs that do not require their college education.

As the number of people working at jobs they like and at wages they can live comfortably with continue to decline, at what point does the economy and society collapse? Since we have already crossed over the 50% threshold, i.e. there are more people not working than who are working, we may be closer to that default and collapse than we think. 

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? 

More "Bad" tomorrow followed by two days of "Ugly" so hold on.

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

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

Late last year we did a post that was structured off of the title of a classic Clint Eastwood movie, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." Since then, I have had other political situations pile up that reflect the Good of the American political class (few and far between), the Bad (plenty of examples, and the Ugly (far too many examples.) I will review them today, beginning with The Good and doing The Bad and The Ugly over the next two days.

The American Political Class: The Good, Early 2010

1) An article in the Briefing column of The Week magazine's April 30, 2010 issue caught my eye since it covered a politician that apparently is making some good moves and a positive difference in his city. The politician is Mayor Cory Booker and the city is Newark, New Jersey. At one time, Newark was a bustling and successful manufacturing center for a variety of industries. Unfortunately,

• The population, which was once about 450,000, has shrunk to 280,000 as the city's middle class and industries moved to the suburbs, much of which was driven by the 1967 riots.
• In 1975, Harper's magazine called Newark America's "worst city."
• When Mayor Booker took office in 2007, the city had one supermarket and one movie theater to serve the 280,000 residents.
• The previous mayor had been convicted of corruption and was sent to jail.
• The new sports arena that opened in Newark and which is the home of the NHL's Devils and the temporary home of the NBA's Nets, has failed to generate the economic development and urban revitalization that had been expected around the arena.

Given this backdrop, what has the Mayor accomplished in three years? According to the article:

• He's raised more than $100 million from private entities including music and Hollywood stars to fund city programs.
• He received money from the Gates Foundation to fund charter schools.
• He has raised millions in private donations to expand 20 city parks.
• He has struck deals with area businesses to hire more Newark workers.
• He has fired dozens of city employees that were in non-productive patronage jobs.
• He has reduced the homicide rate by 28%, the number of shootings by 46%, and the overall crime rate by 21%. In March, Newark got through its first month without a murder since 1966.
• A new high rise luxury apartment building is being constructed, the first in almost 50 years.
• Marriott is planning the first new city hotel in 38 years.
• Professionals are moving back into the city because of the low real estate rates and convenience to NYC.

My goodness, can any other politician in the country claim such a success rate in under three years on the job? Can any politician claim to have been successful with so little to work with (i.e. dwindling population, dwindling tax base, dwindling business community, etc.)? I doubt it. We've seen and blogged about how Washington politicians worry about the sound volume of television commericals, whether or not erectile dysfunction products should be advertised on TV, whether or not the package and pricing policies of a tiny airline are fair, etc. Good luck to Mayor Booker, thank you for restoring a little faith that a politician is capable of making a positive difference in people's lives without taxing them to death or insulting them with trivial priorities.

2) The second example of The Good comes from an article in the March 7, 2010 issue of Parade magazine. The article was titled "Compassion Counts More Than Ever" and was written by Michael Berland. The article reported on the results of a poll of Americans, Americans that are living through one of the greatest economic and employment downturns of all times, and found the following results:

• 67% bought charity raffle tickets to support a cause.
• 58% purchased something unnecessary to support a cause.
• 34% sent a check to a charity after hearing or seeing a touching news story.
• 87% supported a cause financially.
• in 2009, survey respondents gave more than $400 on average to the single cause they care about most.
• 98% of respondents have been involved in at least one charitable activity to make a difference and 91% have done it in the past 18 months including 37% who delivered food to the hungry, 30% who helped organize a fund raising event, 32% who participated at a cleanup of a public area, 24% who volunteered at a soup kitchen, 21% who participated in an athletic event to raise funds, and 19% who mentored a student.

All of this was accomplished when most Americans were confronting some sort of financial crisis over the past few years. This type of behavior reinforces my view that America is still a great country with great people that are ill served by bad politicians running an ineffective and inefficient government. How much more could Americans do if they were allowed to keep a greater portion of their wealth through reduced taxes? How much more could Americans do if the political class and various government entities (see previous post on SEC employees enjoying porn on the job while the economy crashed) had not been asleep at the switch and allowed the economy to crash and the unemployment rate to skyrocket? This type of behavior, both the good of individual Americans and the incompetence of most of the political class, was the partial inspiration for my book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government."

3) The last part of The Good will be mentioned briefly here and then after some research, I will come back with a more detailed post. It has come to my attention that the citizens of Colorado Springs, Colorado are embarking on a grand experiment of government downsizing. rather than continually raise the tax burden on citizens and continually expand government payrolls and functions (which many times are not done well or not done at all), the citizens and the local government are looking for innovative ways to reduce the size of government, return tax dollars to the citizens, and make up the difference by deploying volunteer programs, generating funding through creative advertising opportunities, and other such novel approaches. Some examples include:

• Taxi drivers are recruited to be an extra set of eyes for the police.
• Residents can adopt a street light for a $100 a year.
• Volunteers now empty garbage cans at the city's 128 parks.
• Four city community centers will now be run by a church.
• A dunk tank helped raise funds for city needs.
• Negotiations are underway with big box stores that would offer a discount on a rider mower if the buyer volunteered to cut grass on city property.

As I said above, I will do some more research into this fascinating effort at restoring freedom in Colorado Springs to see how it is doing. It certainly merits attention, as does any effort to reduce the size of ineffective and inefficient government and allow people to keep more of their wealth without seriously degrading their lives.

Unfortunately, these types of behavior, an effective city politician (or any kind of effective politician), a benevolent citizenry which helps out fellow citizens, and forward thinking, freedom loving Americans seem to be in short supply in recent times. This comes particularly clear in the next two posts where we post the many instances of The Bad and The Ugly.

Our new 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.