Are You Better Off? 40 Statistics That Will Absolutely Shock You
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Are you better off today than you were four years ago? This is a question that comes up nearly every election. This year the Romney campaign has even created a Twitter hashtag for it:#AreYouBetterOff. The Democrats are making lots of speeches claiming that we are better off, and the Republicans are making lots of speeches claiming that we are not. So are most Americans actually better off than they were four years ago? Of course not. One recent poll found that only 20 percent of Americans believe that they are better off financially than they were four years ago. But the same thing was true four years ago as well. Our economy has been in decline and the middle class has been shrinking for a very long time. The Democrats want to put all of the blame on the Republicans for this, and the Republicans want to put all of the blame on the Democrats for this. A recent CNN headline defiantly declared the following: “Decline of middle class not Obama’s fault“, and this is the kind of thing we are going to hear day after day until the election in November. But obviously something has gone fundamentally wrong with our economy. So who should we blame?
Sadly, you hear very little on the mainstream news networks or the talk radio shows about the institution that has the most power over our economy. The Federal Reserve has far more power over our financial system than anyone else does, but the media and both political parties tell us that the Federal Reserve is “above politics” and that their “independence” must never be questioned.
Unfortunately, most Americans have gone along with that.
But the truth is that the debt-based financial system that the Federal Reserve is at the core of is absolutely central to our economic problems. If you do not understand this, please see this article: “10 Things That Every American Should Know About The Federal Reserve“.
The Federal Reserve has done more to mess up our economy than anyone else has.
So shouldn’t they be held accountable?
That is a very good question.
Have you ever wondered why financial markets move so dramatically whenever Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives a speech?
The same thing does not happen when Barack Obama gives a speech.
That is because the financial markets know who holds the real power in our financial system.
But during this election season the American people are told to put all of their attention on the “red team” and the “blue team”. We are told that the two major political parties are philosophical opposites and that they want to take the United States is two completely different directions.
The “true believers” on the blue team are completely and totally convinced that Barack Obama will be able to rescue the economy and save America.
The “true believers” on the red team are completely and totally convinced that Mitt Romney will be able to rescue the economy and save America.
Once upon a time I was one of those political activists. I was fully convinced that America could be turned around if we could just get enough Republicans into office.
But then I noticed that nothing really seemed to change no matter who was in power. I became disillusioned as I realized that Republicans were doing things pretty much the exact same way that Democrats were doing them when they got into power.
Yes, there are some minor differences between the two parties on taxes and regulations.
If we elect one guy over the other our economy might decline at a slightly different pace.
But in the end both political parties are taking us to the exact same place.
Down the toilet.
I wish that wasn’t true.
But we need to be honest with ourselves….
-Both parties fully support the Federal Reserve.
-Both parties supported the nomination of Ben Bernanke to a second term as the head of the Federal Reserve.
-Both parties endlessly push the job-killing “free trade” agenda of the global elite.
-Both parties see nothing wrong with running absolutely enormous trade deficits with the rest of the world.
-Both parties supported TARP.
-Both parties supported the “economic stimulus” packages.
-Both parties supported the auto industry bailouts.
-Both parties have run up massive amounts of federal debt when in power.
-Both parties have greatly expanded the size of the federal government when in power.
-Both parties are full of control freaks and both parties have added more layers of ridiculous regulations to our already overburdened society when in power.
-Neither party supports getting rid of the income tax or the IRS.
-Neither party has any intention of doing anything to prevent the coming derivatives crisis that could bring down the entire global financial system.
-Both parties are absolutely showered with cash from the big Wall Street banks.
-Both parties think that the TSA is doing a great job.
-Both parties supported the NDAA and the renewal of the Patriot Act.
-Both parties have greatly expanded the unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens by government agencies.
-Both parties are extremely soft on illegal immigration.
-Both parties have treated military veterans horribly.
-Both parties are absolutely packed with corrupt politicians that are living the high life at your expense.
-Neither party plans to balance the federal budget in 2013 if their candidate wins the election.
-Neither party has a plan that will fix our deeply broken health care system.
-Neither party has any plans to shut down the Federal Reserve. In fact, both parties see absolutely nothing wrong with our current system.
Of course this list could go on indefinitely, but hopefully you get the point.
But I can understand those that are deeply frustrated with Barack Obama and that desperately want to avoid another four years of his policies.
I also believe that Barack Obama has been the worst president in U.S. history and that he and his entire cabinet should immediately resign in disgrace.
However, the Republican party foolishly chose to nominate the Republican candidate that was most like Barack Obama to run against him.
That was an enormous mistake.
No matter what the talk radio shows are telling you, the truth is that this country will continue on pretty much the same path no matter who wins the election.
I know that statement is going to make a lot of people angry. But it is the sad reality of what we are facing.
Even if you focus on just the economy, the truth is that Mitt Romney’s “five point plan” is almost exactly the same thing that Barack Obama has been saying.
Many Americans believe that since Mitt Romney made lots of money on Wall Street conducting leveraged buyouts of vulnerable corporations that he understands how to fix our economy.
Sadly, that is not the truth.
I have listened to many Romney speeches about the economy and I keep waiting for some pearls of wisdom, but I have found that he is just as clueless about the economy as our other recent presidents have been.
Look, I know that there are a lot of people out there that have good hearts that want to have someone that they can believe in.
They want to believe that things can get better.
They want to have hope.
And I don’t blame them for that.
I just think that it is time to pull our heads out of the sand and realize that things are not going to be getting any better.
A political savior on a white horse is not going to come riding in to save the day.
So by this point in the article a whole lot of Democrats and a whole lot of Republicans are very upset with me.
But I am not against you. There is way too much hate in our society today. Even if we disagree with someone else we can still love them.
I just think that it is very important that we understand that there is not going to be a solution to our problems on the national level and that our economy is headed for collapse no matter who gets elected.
The total amount of debt in the United States has risen from less than 2 trillion dollars to nearly 55 trillion dollars over the past 40 years, and there is nothing that Barack Obama or Mitt Romney can do to prevent the “correction” that is coming.
So are Americans better off than they were four years ago?
Of course not.
But things will soon get a whole lot worse no matter how the election turns out.
The following are 40 statistics that will absolutely shock you….
#1 During the time Barack Obama has been in the White House, median household income has fallen by 7.3 percent.
#2 Back in 2007, 19.2 percent of all American families had a net worth of zero or less than zero. By 2010, that figure had soared to 32.5 percent.
#3 According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of American families dropped “from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010“.
#4 According to the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of all Americans were “middle income” back in 1971. Today, only 51 percent of all Americans are “middle income”.
#5 Back in 1970, middle income Americans brought home 62 percent of all income in the United States. In 2010, middle income Americans only brought home 45 percent of all income.
#6 The unemployment rate in the United States has been above 8 percent for 42 straight months.
#7 The percentage of working age Americans with a job has been below 59 percent for 35 months in a row.
#8 In June, the number of Americans added to the food stamp rolls wasnearly three times larger than the number of jobs added to the U.S. economy.
#9 Approximately 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed last year.
#10 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of long-term unemployed Americans has risen from 2.7 million to 5.2 million.
#11 Today, the average duration of unemployment in the United States is about three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.
#12 According to a report that has just been released by the National Employment Law Project, 58 percent of the jobs that have been created since the end of the recession have been low paying jobs.
#13 According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, only 24.6 percent of all of the jobs in the United States are “good jobs”.
#14 In 2010, the number of jobs created at new businesses in the United States was less than half of what it was back in the year 2000.
#15 The average pay for self-employed Americans fell by $3,721between 2006 and 2010.
#16 According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years. During 2010 it got even worse. That year, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States.
#17 At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.
#18 While Barack Obama has been president the velocity of money has plunged to a post-World War II low.
#19 According to one recent survey, 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is harder to maintain a middle class standard of living today compared with 10 years ago.
#20 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
#21 There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.
#22 Over the past decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages have in the United States.
#23 Health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent since Barack Obama became president.
#24 As I wrote about yesterday, back in 1980 less than 10 percent of U.S. GDP was spent on health care but now about 18 percent of U.S. GDP goes toward health care.
#25 In a previous article, I noted that 62 percent of all middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spendingover the past year.
#26 Family budgets in America are being stretched to the breaking point. Today, 77 percent of all Americans live paycheck to paycheckat least part of the time.
#27 While Barack Obama has been president, U.S. home values have fallen by another 11 percent.
#28 More than three times as many new homes were sold in the United States in 2005 as will be sold in 2012.
#29 The United States was once ranked #1 in the world in GDP per capita. Today we have slipped to #11.
#30 Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6.4 million.
#31 The number of Americans on food stamps has grown from about17 million in the year 2000 to 31.9 million when Barack Obama entered the White House to 46.7 million today.
#32 Approximately one-fourth of all U.S. children are enrolled in the food stamp program at this point.
#33 It is being projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age.
#34 It is estimated that child homelessness in the United States has risen by 33 percent since 2007.
#35 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
#36 As I wrote about the other day, it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#37 It is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.
#38 The number of Americans receiving federal housing assistance increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010.
#39 At this point, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.
#40 Amazingly, more than half of all Americans are now at least partially financially dependent on the government.
So are you better off than you used to be or worse off?
Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below….
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12:11 pm
Even with all this negative information and FACTS, there are millions of blind fools who want to re-elect obummer!
12:52 pm
I believe that the USA. has been under the control of republicans over the last fifty years and that covers all the policy you have recorded here , Obama has been president the last three and one half years ,but he has had no support or vote to change the republican policy .I think it is a bad mistake to analyze a problem and come up with a bad cause and therefore a bad solution. You can not fix a problem if you do not understand it.
Vote democrat and support OWS with actions and money , If millions of Americans show their support for this cause then a revolution can be avoided and millions of Americans will be rescued from a ruined life AND A FOREIGN TAKE OVER OF OUR SOVEREIGNTY .
12:55 pm
Somehow Obama is to blame for all of this? Give me a break. The economy was in freefall when Obama was elected. At the very least, he reversed the trends — he inherited huge monthly job losses and we've had job gains in each month of the past 3 years, the stock market has doubled, corporate profits are at record highs, etc. The president does not pass legislation, so you can't blame him if jobs programs, etc., don't get passed. The Republicans under Bush started this whole avalanche of financial problems. When you inherit the worst economy since the Depression, you can't turn it around very quickly, especially if you face an opposition party that lives up to that description. Do you really think that Romney/Ryan will improve things? I think that they'll make it all worse. I almost hope they get elected so that they can screw things up even more and then we'll have seen the last of the Republican Party.
1:08 pm
We are definitely worse off then either my parents or grandparents were! Trying to help our adult children who are under/unemployed, a 90-year old mother-in-law who cannot make ends meet, a husband who has been off of his part-time job ($7.50/hour) since May for health issues, insurance skyrocketing, gas through the roof, utilities popping higher, grocery bills escalating, transportation expenses, etc.; I've had no raise for two years and last year was 1%. I/we cannot keep up!
1:09 pm
At least the Republicans give us a chance to audit the FED. It has already passed the house. And Romney has pledged to sign it,
1:30 pm
wow…. looks like we are going down the tube… rather quickly…when a country has more people on the government dole than they have working that is what you are going to get…undwed mothers with 7 kids on social security, food stamps, section 8… this is what you are going to have more of. and then there kids follow suit because that is what they expect… this has been going on since the 60's and has destroyed our country….stop that and it might improve… but we would have riots in the streets,,, because they are used to getting taken care of… ….
1:38 pm
Let's see: 2008: Working full time, 45,000.00 Take home pay. 2012: In bankruptcy, unemployed, 300.00 / wk government check, bored as hell, still looking for work. NO, I'M NOT BETTER OFF!
1:45 pm
So your solution is???? Better management structure and transparency for the Federal Reserve, move to the gold standard and do away the the Federal Reserve, move to Australia?
1:46 pm
it wouldnt be that way if the news media would tell the truth so the federal gov't would be forced to handle the USA affairs for the people instead of for the way they are doing now. between the liberal news media and the politicians im not sure who is the biggest liars. throw them all out and start over.
1:47 pm
The bulk of your comparisons cover a 10-year (or more) period, not merely the 4 years Obama has been in office. You are blaming him for Bush's misgovernment. The hole in the economy Bush dug was deep. It may take another 10 years to crawl out of it. Romney sure as hell won't. His tax plans only promise to dig it deeper.
2:01 pm
If we go back to what got us here in the first place with Romney, then it will outsourcing and a bigger military and less money for those on socialSecurity. He was 47th in the nation for job creation and the only way he "saved Bain" was extortion of the banks by threatening to use all of the cash to pay off all of the managing rather than pay any debt owed by Bain if they didn't take 30 cents on the dollar for the debt they owed. He didn't create American jobs but lost American jobs.
It took a long time to get us in the shape Or mess we Were in when Obama took office and it will take a while longer to get us out. It doesn't help that the republicans vote no 100% of the time even on bills that would create jobs. The 1% are paying 40% less in taxes and want to keep it that way, they are paying for the campaigns and those in the republican seat are now mere puppets. None of them care about anything but trying to make Obama look bad. They won't work across the isle for the same of the American worker.
2:31 pm
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are not….
2:39 pm
It would be nice to have mentioned some steps that private citizens could take to survive the coming disaster. Pretty much gloom and doom and no hope.
2:41 pm
This is a real eye-opener! I wish every newspaper in the country would publish this so everyone could read it and digest the facts.
2:57 pm
At least when we take Romney to task for his shortcomings we wont have a bunch of liberals calling us racist.
3:01 pm
Despite the unbiased attitude taken at the onset of this article, much of the content gathered for the statistics represents an anti-Democrat perspective. Many of these 'statistic' factoids are relevant to the timing of the Federal Housing issues created by the loose lending regulations from the early 2000s. So, naturally 2005 had more home sales than projected for 2012… that was a time when banks were lending money hand over fist to unlikely candidates who weren't sufficiently capable of fulfilling the loans. I still look to those responsible for that debacle as the originators of this mess. You can call this a party struggle, but the reality is we are in this together…. and, rich or poor, we will come to our ends with a greedy hand still clinging to the riches held in this life or an open hand offering help to those who need it. I choose to live in accord with my community, not in spite of them and all 'their' troubles.
3:47 pm
Thats because Obama, and his moronic partner" Harry "THE IDIOT" Reid , will do or say anything to keep power. Reid blocks as much legislation as he claims to pass. He`s no differant the the Republicans he claims are stopping his bills. Nobody will ever be the "VICTOR" until they figure out that "it not about them and their petty arguments, Americans are hurting and their the one we should be focusing on, but sadly it not "WE THE PEOPLE OF THESE UNITED STATES", it is now "WE THE GOVERNMENT"………..no we don`t have any "REAL peoblems, just a bunch of "POWER MAD CLOWNS" pretebding to care about America.
4:29 pm
You make some very valid points. One item that needs more emphasis is that most of the misery in our country is created by less than 600 people. Those being the President, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Fed. We can get rid of most of these people in the coming election and then those folks can get rid of the biggest thief in the gang of thieves… the Fed.
4:45 pm
So what do we do? Who can fix this?
6:27 pm
I'm interested in where you are getting all of these "facts"? Who/what are your sources.
7:27 pm
We are a now a country that is dangerously ill. We have Cancer, need chemo and radiation therapy. For us to survive we will need to endure the pain of treatment which means severe prioritized cuts in government spending which will impact most entitlements. We will also need to lower taxes on a long term bases, not a temporary bases, so employers can look long term with confidence towards the future. It will require very strong leadership to weather the storm. It will require strong resolve to do what is right. We need a Civil Service Reform Act for federal workers that links their pay and entitlements to the health of the economy (I call it a "unit cost'). Members of both parties will be fiscal conservatives once you hit there paycheck. Government waste will quickly dry up. We need your prayers to put the American people back in charge!
7:27 pm
No mention of the disparirty of wealth in this country? I'm not sorry but the two worst presidents weren't O'bama – They were Reagan and Bush. Both of them lowereed the top tax rates dranmtically and ran huge deficits. The very rich have used that extra income to an advantage over everyone else. they have become wealthier and wealthier, more and more powerful and influential. A lot of the extra money goes to the stock market where large corporations use it to put independents out of business (I am president of a small corporation where this very thing happened to – I do everything better – but they waive free money from stockholders around). A lot of that money also goes into building factories abroad. Then they use their influence to get the military to protect those factories and also to enable them to pay slave wages with impunity. And we get to pay for That!. They invest a lot of this extra income in third world countries as well. the BRIC countries are creating strong middle classes just as ours is going bye bye. Why no mention of this in your pieces?????? Are you still just another right wing Republican hack? (Not that the Democrats are much better in any of this)
11:06 pm
According to two recent articles in the Baltimore Sun which discussed the controversy over the efficacy of circumcision, 2/5th of births, presumably at Johns Hopkins hospital are paid for via medicaid.
12:01 pm
It's not the Democrat s NOR the Republicans that can save this country, it's the Conservatives.
7:40 pm
Yes, I do agree that Romney is "Obama-lite" and yes, the Republicans nominated the one candidate that won't change anything in Washington; despite all that, I still hope that Romney ekes it out, or if he can't, the Republicans grab control of the Senate. My hope for the nation is that the march towards Socialism halts or slows down considerably. He does have offshore accounts; yes he did turn companies around by outsourcing; but he also kept companies in business.
The big difference between the two is that Romney doesn't insult me with populists platitudes about how success is bad or that success is manna from heaven and he as self appointed spokesman for the masses has not only the right, but also the duty to take it away.
1:09 pm
Everyone of your claims can be laid at the feet of George Bush. His Wall Street Crash in 2008, resulted in the layoff of some 6 million Americans. The jobs that have come back, while sizable in number, are low-wage jobs. Given that reality, why wouldn't income fall? The Rich, Captains of Industry, have been depressing wages for over 30 years.You know it, and I know it!
Further, it was the Predator Capitalists that sent 20 Million jobs over seas to China, India, Asia, and Mexico. This was done for one purpose only: so the Rich could pocket the wages and benefits they were having to pay here. The Republicans don't give a rat's ass, about either, the Working Stiffs, or the U.S Government.
The Republicans controlled the White House for 20; of the past 30 years. Clinton was the Guy that slowed the Republican Train Wreck Down. Then Bush – - who was a total Disaster! Need I remind you? I could write a book on this subject.
I suspect that you are getting some of your money from the Dark Money Cartels. You so-called investor types, sure like to voice your uninformed opinions; in your attempt to Troll for Stupid Americans – - which, isn't hard to do these days.
doktor
1:48 am
I’m voting for the Mormon NOT the Moron!