Monday, March 13, 2006

The sorry state of the united states we're in

Listening to: Ministry, Psalm 69

Please - make it stop!

With the worthless CNN jabbering mindlessly in the background, I managed to catch some blown-dried boob chirp cheerfully "The economy is booming!"

Aside from the obvious question - what universe is this idiot inhabiting? - the question must be asked, "What makes CNN think I'm giving an ounce of credence to some ninny paid six figures to look pretty and parrot Administration talking points?" Here I am trying to support a family on a little over 20-grand a year and some pinhead making well over a hundred-grand a year thinks her declaration that things are terrific mean squat to me? It's rather like someone visiting a terminal cancer patient and saying, "You know, since I've been visiting the gym three times a week, I feel GREAT!"

Despite such empty proclamations by CNN punditards, the facts contradict the fairy tale. Case in point, Mort Zuckerman said:
The Republicans have squandered the huge budget surplus they inherited by spending not just on guns and butter but on guns, butter, and tax cuts. Because of government obfuscation, most Americans don't realize the deep fiscal hole we're in---and the fact that we're still busy digging. As David Walker, the head of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, pointed out, "The federal government's obligations, current liabilities, and unfunded fiscal commitments are over $43 trillion and rising. . . . Yes, that's trillions with 12 zeros rather than billions with nine zeros."

The estimated net worth of American families is slightly over $47 trillion, and nearly all of it---90 per-cent---would be needed to cover government's current obligations. And don't think we can grow our way out of this hole. According to the GAO, it would take real double-digit growth over the next 75 years to pay off our current debt--an impossible task, considering that the growth rate during the 1990s boom years averaged just 3.2 percent.

And that was written a year ago - think things have gotten better? Guess again:
Meet the typical American family.

It has about $3,800 in the bank. No one has a retirement account, and the neighbors who do only have about $35,000 in theirs. Mutual funds? Stocks? Bonds? Nope. The house is worth $160,000, but the family owes $95,000 on it to the bank. The breadwinners make more than $43,000 a year but can't manage to pay off a $2,200 credit card balance.

That is the portrait of the median American household as painted by the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances.

More here - it's very telling - and a cold slap of reality in comparison to the chreeful drivel of some CNN bobblehead.

If someone sees a silver lining here, please point it out to me.

2 comments:

trusty getto said...

Oh, sorry, Jim, but I missed the report. I was busy watching Jessica Coen defend the Gawker Stalker feature on her website, which tracks the actual locations of celebrities in real time.

I've only got about $3800 in the bank, but I was thinking of spending about half of it upgrading my online connection so that I could better track the locations of celebs in say, Manhattan, you know, just for entertainmnent purposes.

Whadya think?

landismom said...

I guess you can't blame the Bush boys for thinking the economy's okay. It's not like there are real people around them to contradict the fairyland they live in.