Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

America's False-Front, Movie-Set Economy
American Thinker ^ | 03/15/2015 | Jack Curtis

Posted on 03/14/2015 10:26:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

America’s economy resembles the propped-up false fronts of an old Western movie set; it seems unlikely to support a middle class anymore.  The existential issue is simple, though insufficiently discussed: technology, demographics, and government policy are collaborating to impose economic decline.  The evaporating middle class is taking the erstwhile American worker and his employer with it as it fades.  Folk whose worry ends with the deficits hollowing out Social Security and health care are worried about poor passenger service in a falling airplane.

First, consider the U.S. workforce.  Contrary to some folk, the government isn’t going to support everybody; the government has only the money it takes from citizens.  Unemployed and minimum-wage Americans offer little to take, and the Labor Force Participation Rate is declining.  Those growing numbers of non-working people have to be housed, fed, and watered by those still working.  Government SNAP (food stamps), disability, and/or other benefits are presently paid to 49% of Americans.  That is a wobbly crutch resting upon deficits from a government burdened with debt.  Most of the money is taken from workers whose incomes have just halted a six-year decline.  Our grandparents spoke of “trying to get blood from a turnip.”  

That should illuminate the hollowness of the “recovery” claims, and there is more.  While the work participation is going down, the population is going up.  And those newbies need support, too.  A significant number of them need support until they are 25 years old, per the unemployment tables.  However, the young are becoming fewer; the U.S. fertility rate is declining for whites, blacks, and Hispanics, with the latter two declining less.  When these babies reach 25 and more of them find work, they represent a long decline

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; unemplyment

1 posted on 03/14/2015 10:26:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

It’s even worse when one considers people seeking start and/or to support family...


2 posted on 03/14/2015 10:28:28 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

A veritable house of cards, sitting on top of a swamp of debt.


3 posted on 03/14/2015 10:35:27 AM PDT by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Its older name is “Potemkin Village”

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/potemkin%20village

4 posted on 03/14/2015 10:41:15 AM PDT by Polynikes (What would Walt Kowalski do. In the meantime "GET OFF MY LAWN")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Obviously the only solution is to import millions of uneducated poor Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatamalens, Salvadorans, Syrians, Somalis, move them in to your neighborhood and put them on welfare. I’ve been told that the noble illegal is a billionaire job creator that just needs instant citizenship and voting rights to unleash their business skills.


5 posted on 03/14/2015 11:25:23 AM PDT by Organic Panic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Well, you can only rack up so many massive trade deficits for so long before it starts to have an effect.


6 posted on 03/14/2015 11:31:50 AM PDT by BlackAdderess ("Give me a but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth". --Archimedes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

7 posted on 03/14/2015 12:02:13 PM PDT by Rodamala
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Styrofoam Facade Obamaconomy.

8 posted on 03/14/2015 12:08:12 PM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TADSLOS

Satan’s seat economy...pergamon


9 posted on 03/14/2015 12:18:43 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Organic Panic

Because we know that European Union nations importing people from the Middle East and East Europe is working out like a charm (/sarc).


10 posted on 03/14/2015 12:26:53 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
enough people are working for govt...schools..cops...firemen...military..secretaries...etc getting superior wages and benefits to keep the economy going for some time...and enough others are getting food stamps, SS disability, etc to also help...

its only the people that actually work in the private sector that are getting screwed...

11 posted on 03/14/2015 12:28:50 PM PDT by cherry
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Potemkin economy.


12 posted on 03/14/2015 12:37:09 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Not deniable = Not falsifiable = Not science = Not even wrong.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

There is no political solution at this point. Bring on the collapse so we can get to the reset.


13 posted on 03/14/2015 12:52:15 PM PDT by VTenigma (The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

We are Italy.


14 posted on 03/14/2015 2:19:57 PM PDT by Neidermeyer ("Our courts should not be collection agencies for crooks." — John Waihee, Governor of Hawaii, 1986-)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BlackAdderess

To say nothing about a debt to GDP ratio of 110%


15 posted on 03/15/2015 1:59:10 AM PDT by albertabound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

America as a nation is similar to a person with rabies in the last hours. No obvious symptoms and seemingly recovered, but they are still dying, no matter how normal they seem.


16 posted on 03/15/2015 3:08:26 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: albertabound

Well the recession has done one thing for us, we’re down to 101% debt to GDP, but that still means we owe more than we’re worth to the rest of the world. Our trade deficits have fallen $15-20 Billion per month since the crash. I guess if you’re buying vintage you aren’t buying from China!


17 posted on 03/15/2015 4:59:56 AM PDT by BlackAdderess ("Give me a but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth". --Archimedes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Neidermeyer
We are Italy.

Without the perfect weather and cool marble ruins.

18 posted on 03/15/2015 5:04:55 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson