Investment WatchblogIs this the end of the American dream? How families are choosing city living over suburbs for the first time in 100 years
New book, The End of the Suburbs, explains how changing economic trends are making a suburban lifestyle less desirable
Rising energy costs are making commutes unaffordable
For the first time in a century, it seems people in the U.S. are leaving the suburbs for cities.
Since the invention of the automobile in 1888, the rate of suburban population growth has consistently outpaced that of urban centers. But in 2011 – for the first time in a hundred years – the trend reversed.
Demographics, environmental concerns and rising energy costs all play roles, according to
The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream is Moving, a new book that charts the rise and fall of American suburbia….
Taxes: President Offers Republicans The Store, They Demand More… and “No Help for We, The People” – 40% of Americans Now Make Less than the 1968 Minimum Wage!
40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage
You may have seen the charts showing how working people’s wages stopped going up along with productivity gains:
40% Of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage
Read what Baker wrote again. The minimum wage would be $16.50 an hour — $33,000 a year — if it had kept up with the growth of productivity since 1968. To put the effect of this a different way, 40% of Americans now make less than the 1968 minimum wage, had the minimum wage kept pace with productivity gains.
To put this even another way, the average American’s living standard would be much, much higher today if wages had not decoupled from productivity gains – with the gains all going to the 1% instead of being shared by We, the People. If wages had kept pace we wouldn’t feel the terrible squeeze that everyone in the middle class is feeling. (Never mind what has happened to those below the middle class.
This is one more way to understand the effect of income and wealth inequality on each of us. The 1%/99% thing is real. When you hear that the 6 Walmart heirs have more wealth than 1/3 (or more) of all Americans combined, it is real. When you hear that the people on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined, it is real.
http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130219/40-of-americans-now-under-former-minimum-wage
job growth is slowing, economic growth is slowing, and income growth is stagnant.
“The more stocks go up, the more analysts, strategists, the financial media – and inevitably investors – firmly believe that the US economy has to be on the verge of rapid growth.” TrimTabs’ CEO Charles Biderman is back and blasting the ”mass psychosis” that has overtaken the markets – driven by endless liquidity from a consequence-blind central bank – as the real economy struggles to keep its head above water. Growth must be coming sometime soon, “or else the market would not be going up,” right? The “belief in the growth fairy,” is not new. Since 2010, economists and sell-side strategists have been betting it all (and encouraging investors) on this faith that growth will arrive any day now. In fact, as Biderman lays out in unarguable facts, that this is simply not true – job growth is slowing, economic growth is slowing, and income growth is stagnant.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-02/biderman-blasts-bernankes-biggest-bubble-all-time
The Collapse of The American Dream Explained in Animation
Vicious beyond imagination – US endless wars, debt, lies
This fraud costs Americans increasing work for less pay (if they can get work), increasing debt, inflation, deprivation of public services, & a transfer of wealth to a criminal-colluding 1% that hide ~$20 to $30 trillion in protected tax havens.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/08/vicious-beyond-imagination-us-endless-wars-debt-lies.html
“Berlin Type Wall” Being Built In LA? Are They Preparing For Riots, Civil Unrest & Martial Law?
Modern version of “The Grapes of Wrath” times 10; only the outcome won’t be as promising.