Dave Loc: Upstate New York

Fifty years ago we passed the programs that were to reduce the number of people dependent on the government. These sweeping federal programs were identified as the War on Poverty. Since then we have seen a year to year consistent increase in the percentage (and obviously number) of people dependent on the government.

In the '70's we started the Department of Education in order to upgrade our schools. At the time we led the world in student achievement - now we are behind 3rd world countries.

We also started the Department of Energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, only to see a steady increase in the percentage of foreign oil in our national consumption.


In the process of these central government programs we succeeding in reducing individual freedoms, creating powerful non-accountable bureaucracies, and adding to our national debt.

We now have a president who, along with his "progressive" allies tells us how the federal government will take care of our health care, take over control of our children at even earlier stages of their lifes, see to our income "equality" and so much more.

They will "progressively" move us to 3rd world status in everything if we continue to not learn from experience.

Brian Devon

Can you prove these problems are directly tied to the programs that were created to solve them?

Be careful of linkages. All people who consumed milk in the 16th century are dead. Therefore milk=death?

Can you prove that the war on poverty was directly responsible for creating poverty?

The Dept. of Energy was created to address our energy dependence on foreign sources. Did it create those dependencies. Not really. You might want to google "peak oil". If you do, you will see that the problem is created by ever more earth dwellers chasing few and fewer resources. Might not the problems you mention be related to that.

Conservatives believe in the biblically based "cornucopia" delusion, that God and the planet can continually yield more and more resources to be consumed with ever increasing intensity. People who are more science based in their thinking, know that there are always resource limits on any population whether its deer, polar bears, or humans. Liberals believe we should share our limited bounty. Republicans believe that, "why should you share when there is unlimited grass upon which to graze.

Cornucopia? Exhibit A: George Bush

Limits? Exhibit A: Hillary Clinton

The next election will be "cornucopia vs. limits".

The bible vs science.

Every year there are less and less bible believers in the U.S. Every year there are more and more science believers.
Only 25% of Americans don't believe in evolution (50% of the Republicans).

I know where I will place my bet in 2017. Its not with the bible folks. Sorry to burst your bubble. The last two elections the bible folk clearly lost...and they aint making American bible believers fast enough to regain the presidency.

pana Loc: are we there yet?

A fiat system with fractional banking is a Ponzi scheme and is designed to fail. Creating money from debt(our signature on mortgages, credit cards, cars)has failed 100% of the time. With the CPI (Consumer Price Indexes) dropping 93% since its creation our currency in reality has already failed.

Viet Nam Vet 67-68

It might be too late already, read this about losing our dollar as a world currency because of Obaminations printing $85 Billion a month and our $7 Trillion New Massive debt: THE MYSTERY OF DISAPPEARING JOBS

There's simply no one better at bending statistics than the U.S. government. Take the unemployment rate, for example. Back in the 1930s, anyone without a job but not retired was considered "unemployed."

Today, however, the government calculates unemployment mainly by counting the number of people receiving unemployment benefits. So when unemployment benefits expire, people are no longer counted... and the unemployment rate actually falls! Ridiculous... I know.

And how about this...

Every month, 14 million Americans get a "disability" check from the government. In some states, like West Virginia, nearly 10% of the entire working age population is on disability.

In some rural counties, like Hale County, Alabama, 25% of the working age population gets a disability check. Of course, because these folks aren't officially in the job market, they don't count in the government's "official" unemployment numbers.

In other words, reality is, the true unemployment rate is much, much higher than what the government is reporting.

In fact, an article in Forbes in mid-2013 suggested that the true unemployment rate in America is about 14.3%, meaning 1 in 7 of all potential full-time employees are not able to earn a living wage to support themselves.



If you don't believe me, look at two job postings I read about recently...

In November of 2012, 3,000 people in Chicago stood in line for as long as four hours to apply for one of the 55 city jobs on offer.

And American Airlines recently announced it was hiring 1,500 new flight attendants – jobs that pay an average $23,000 per year. Twenty thousand applicants responded -- so many that American stopped taking resumes after eight days.

The point is, our country is not growing jobs, because the government is making it harder and harder for businesses to thrive. And with current regulations in place, our country will never experience the type of growth necessary to dig our government out of the hole they've put themselves in.

I'm sure you think I'm exaggerating, but just look at what the CEO of one of America's most important companies said recently:

Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a speech:

"I can tell you definitively that it costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip, and operate a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States."
He said that 90% of the additional costs are not from higher labor rates... but from higher taxes and regulatory charges, which other nations simply don't impose.

Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers agreed that the problem is not higher U.S. wages, but anti-business laws.

He was quoted in an interview with CNET News saying:

"The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn't want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways."
Few Americans today realize that the United States has overtaken Japan and now has THE highest corporate tax rate in the developed world.

Why would anyone want to start a business here, when they can do it for less money... and keep more of the money they make... by locating elsewhere?

It's just another good reason to avoid the U.S. dollar...

So is this...

DEBT-RIDDEN U.S. COMPANIES

Did you know that in 1979, there were 61 American companies that earned a top-level AAA credit rating from Moody's?

Today, there are only four: Automatic Data Processing, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft.

Does this sound like an economic recovery to you... when only four companies in the entire country are stable enough to earn a triple-A credit rating?

Me neither. And think about this... can you really have any AAA- rated companies in a country where the government is not AAA-rated?

I don't have the answer for that, and so far, these companies have not been downgraded along with the U.S. government.

But remember, most of their assets are in U.S. dollars, so it could soon mean big problems for these companies as well, even though they've been as conservative and responsible as possible with their finances. That's the thing you need to remember.

It doesn't matter if you personally have a good credit rating, or very little debt. When the U.S. dollar goes down as the world's reserve currency, it's going to have disastrous effects for EVERY American and for nearly every asset in America. You simply must take some simple steps to protect yourself as much as possible.

This currency crisis is going to get much, much worse. It's going to make the mortgage crisis of 2008 look like a walk in the park.

Almost every state in the country is on the verge of bankruptcy. The federal government has borrowed an impossible amount of money, which we'll never be able to pay back.

Our economy is an absolute mess. Taxes are sky high already... and now Obama in his 2nd term has already raised taxes beginning this year. I'm sure we'll see tax hike proposals in the years to come too.

Plus nearly all of the world's major financial players are preparing for an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency.

To me, it is so obvious that we are about to experience a serious currency crisis, I can't believe people can deny this reality with a straight face.

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

What an idiotic response. Let's start with I am not a bible thumper - I am an agnostic - so your enmity against those of faith reveals the shallowness of your intellect - assuming those who are conservatives are by definition religous nuts demeans you immensley.

Meanwhile - read what I wrote - if you'd like to respond directly to what I wrote and not a bunch of left winged mindless blather we can discuss.

The War on Poverty failed to achieve its objective - there was no decrease in the people dependent on the government, but an increase. Nowhere did I suggest it caused it, and only a stupid person would read that I did.

The Dept of Energy failed to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Nowhere did I suggest it caused it, and only a stupid person would read that I did.

pana Loc: are we there yet?

I think its to late VNV.
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-africa?oid=226026&sn=Detail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojASipDzVY&list=TLpf9JAwqV-tyHOV7ggSO40vhK3eQ_bc37

Viet Nam Vet 67-68

Brian deeDevil, sorry your a non believer but at deaths gate you will change your mind. As far as your rant about bible thumpers I feel sorry for you because as usual the stats prove you wrong. This last election 12 Million Christians stayed away from the polls because of Romney and let an Sunni Muslim Marxist in instead, boy were they wrong because all of us lose with the Illegal Half Breed (NOT BLACK) for your information for all the Moron Marxists Liberals and Jews because he is bring down the whole Country and we all lose to a Marxist Muslim. Our dollar is collapsing and when it does our Great Depression will look like a picnic compared to what is going to happen.

Brian Devon

I just heard your phone ring. Its the cleaners. They said your sheets and hood will be ready for your Fri. night cross-burning.

db4me

Prepare to defend yourselves! For what little you have others will want and they will kill you to take it. When the dollar goes down so does everything supported by it. We've had a good run here in the land of the free, glad I got to enjoy it. I feel sorry for the next generation, things are going to happen that make everything bad that's happened look like child's play.

Retired669

I wonder how the meeting went last night? :mrgreen:

Brian Devon

They played spin the bottle and listened to Ted Nugent CDs.

db4me

You scoff. You make jokes. You insult others because of your hatred and lackluster life. I am not KKK or Republican or Democrat or Tea Party. I see the changes in this country that have occurred over the last 50 years and it's all gone downhill. It's too bad no one sees or believes it but soon enough you will.

rumitoid

Studying history does not keep the despot from despotism; ego assures and assuages they are the exception. Besides, they want what they want when they want it and will not settle for no. This is and will be true forever of mankind. Easily we have, what? a few hundred million examples that crime does not pay, and yet everyday by the hundreds at least this activity continues. Study of the past does not and never has deterred making the same mistakes; this thinking is a direct denial of human nature and God's word.

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
You need to read Ps. Chapter 2.
But before you do, remember this, you are held accountable for every opportunity you have been given to believe.

Armageddun Loc: The show me state

Amen

:thumbup: