Recommended reading: "The Wrecking Crew" by Thomas Frank.

I am going to try to recommend books on this blog since there are many people who can understand and explain the predicament the United States is in much better than I can.  Even if you do not want to read my stupid blog, you should really check-out the authors that I will be recommending as required reading.

I am not a professional writer, I am not a professional anything really.  I am a poor working schlub who is disheartened by the current economic decline and how the wealthy bullies of the world have stacked the cards of the game of life against us.

I wanted to start a blog because I felt that not enough people are talking about these issues and the corporate controlled media is disturbingly silent about the causes of our economic decline. 

Also I felt that there are not enough people who are looking to help working class people and/or shine a light on the devious right-wing activities that have the United States as we know it on a path to ultimate destruction.

I have found an author who is trying to do just that, it is Thomas Frank.  And the only talk show that I have seen him on is on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.  I wonder why he is not on more main stream talk and news shows.

In his book "The Wrecking Crew," Frank describes how the wealthy corrupt government with their money and then turn around and complain that the government is corrupt and must be reduced in size or come as close as possible to be eliminated altogether.  Ronald Regan and the two Bushes ran up big spending deficits, cut taxes on the wealthy and then complained that government spending was out of control and big government needed to be reigned in.   And as James Carville put it, "The rich want small government for the same reason criminals want fewer cops on the street, so they can get away with murder. [This quote I got from the Internet and is probably paraphrased]" 

Frank goes on to explain how the lobbyists of Washington DC's K Street are the ones who are truly running the United State government and through this abuse of the constitutional rights America has become a plutocracy.

He also tells of the horror story of Saipan, a small island that is a United States territory.  In the 1990's was turned into basically a corporate controlled labor camps where guest workers had no rights and extremely low wages.  And all to keep the "Made in America" label on clothing.  The factories were eventually shut down for humanitarian reasons.  I believe what happened in Saipan is what the rich have planned for all American citizens eventually.

You must read this book is order to see the horrors that right-wingers like John Boehner have planned for us.  Even if you do not care for my blog, Please read this book.   The link to purchase it from Amazon is below:

Buy a Copy of "Wrecking Crew" from amazon.com

My fast food conspiracy theory...

Burger King just released their latest product, an ice cream sundae covered with bacon bits. It consists of bacon atop vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, and delivers 510 calories, 18 grams of fat, 61 grams of sugar to the consumer.
With the recent war on transfats that has forced some states to pass legislation to ban the use of certain oils to make fast food staples like french fries, it looks like fast food restaurant chains are looking for new ways to kill us.  What could be better than a ice cream sundae topped with bacon?

Why are they trying to kill us?  One reason may be that coporation controlled fast food restaurants want to make sure Americans don't live long enough to collect Social Security or Medicare, the longer we live, the more strain we put on these social resources. 

I really think that corporate America doesn't want to see Americans living so long, not long enough to collect social security or cash in their pensions.  This will leave more money for the corporations in the long run. 

As families are forced now to have both mom and dad working, families turn to fast food as a cheap alternative to having to cook a meal every night.  Not only are famlies deprived of wholesome home coooking, but they are also exposed to a lot more salt and fat than they would normally be exposed to at home or even in a regular restaurant. 

Having the worst dining opitons be the most convenient seems to be the way corporate America likes it. 

Perhaps my theory is far-fetched, but regardless I just think this is another way that the shrinking middle class has to suffer in the face of coporations and the wealthy controlling our fate.

No place for middle class people to save their money.

With the stock market on a downward spiral, and interest rates very low there really is no safe place for working class people to save their money and get a decent return. Even the bond market is not that safe. When Wall Street had a meltdown back in September I had several bond funds that also took a big plunge. There was such a panic that people were selling off their bond funds, even when everyone knows that bond funds are usually safe havens in troubled times. It was very scary. Luckily the bond market recovered and the funds climbed up to normal levels, but it’s impossible to find a safe investment with a return over .05 percent.

A lot of the books that help you plan your retirement ask that you put away a substantial sum of money and are expecting you to have a rate of return of 5% or higher that’s just not possible without taking risks these days.

Well there is always real estate to invest in. My parents home is worth about 20 times what they originally paid for it forty years ago, but the even real estate market is not stable, and with all of the jobs disappearing, I doubt there will be many people looking for homes anytime soon.

Federal Reserve must go for broke and gradually raise interest rates to a more reasonable level. The interest rate was lowered to keep the stock market going, but that’s just one aspect of the economy. We need to adopt a new interest rate philosophy that includes the middle class American that needs to save for his or her retirement.

Obama may not increase taxes on the rich.

President-Elect Obama's administration is already planning an economic stimulus package that will give the middle class additional tax cuts and leave the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans alone through 2010.

Why do people still think that trickle-down economics theory works? If you let wealthy people hang on to their money that's exactly what they will do. They hoard it, that's what they love to do. They won't spend it, and it definitely won't trickle down to the poor and middle class.

I think the government should start taxing wealthy individuals' net worth, that's all the assets that you have after you factor in your liabilities. And how much money do you think you need to live comfortably? I think the government should start adding on taxes on individuals with a net worth of over 5 million dollars. Income tax just taxes what we make each year
While we're at it, let's make it illegal for Americans to keep money offshore. This is how rich people avoid paying taxes on interest.

Also there is controversy over raising corporate taxes in such bad economic times. I think corporations have to be given breaks only when they show that they are creating jobs for Americans and not cutting them. There should also be tax penalties for companies that have CEOs and other high-ranking employees that make an inappropriately large salary as compared to other employees of their company. Let's force corporate America to spread the wealth around within their own ranks.

Give us you poor, tired, huddled masses yearning to work for below minimum wage...

I realize that immigration has helped the United States become a great nation. And aside from the Native Americans we are all either immigrants or descendants of immigrants. My ancestors immigrated here at the turn of the century. Three sets of my great-grandparents and one grandparent came to the United States for opportunities that where not available in their own country.

But today, as more and more manufacturing jobs are sent overseas, and many service jobs are being off-shored opportunities for potential new Americans are drying up. Today the main goal of immigration ( and perhaps it was always its main goal ) is to keep labor costs down.
It all boils down to simple supply and demand. As long as there is an excess labor supply, employers can keep labor costs down because there will always be many people competing for the same position. As soon as competition drops and the demand for labor increases, employers will keep having to pay higher and higher wages. This will take more money out of the pocket of the few wealthy employers and spread it around to the many downtrodden workers.

This is why they cannot close the Mexican border. If the border is closed they will have to find Americans to do the jobs nobody wants to and ::gasp:: pay them at least minimum wage, maybe even higher where this is a real shortage of workers for less desirable jobs.

This is also why in the North American Free Trade Agreement Bill (NAFTA) there is a provision for special work VISAs, TN VISAs, for many professional jobs for people from Canada and Mexico. Professions included in this provision include just about all medical professions, scientists, university professors, architects, accountants and librarians. By making it easy for professionals from other countries to immigrate here this provision has also been helping to keep supply high and labor costs down. [Authors note: Actually for the medical profession it is beneficial to the middle class if we can import as many professionals as possible, since we seem to have not chance at getting social medicine anytime soon, and health insurance costs increase much more quickly than other living expenses. Many more doctors would mean more competition and this should drive medical costs down. Doctors won't let this happen because they count themselves among the elite upper class and it is probably why medical costs increase so quickly because they want to keep up with the wealthy Joneses.]

I have seen many articles in the past describing Japan's great concern over their shrinking and aging population. I would think that this would be regarded as a blessing to a nation that has traditionally been overpopulated. So overpopulated that in World War II they started to try to forcably aquire land from mainland China, as well as other locations in the Pacific, remember Pearl Harbor?

What the articles fail to report is that one of the main reasons they are afraid of the shrinking population is that the demand for workers will far out weigh the supply which will drive labor costs sky high, and might even require them to open their borders to foreigners.
The bottom line is immigration's main purpose appears to be to keep labor costs down, and until Americans understand this is not always a good thing, our borders will always remain opened.