Another 81 million Americans one step from poverty

What does it mean to be poor? If it means living at or below the poverty line, then 15 percent of Americans — some 46 million people — qualify. But if it means living with hardly any savings — so that one piece of bad luck, one major financial blow, could land you in serious, […]

American statistics heading into 2012

50 million Americans live below the official poverty line, while another 100 million live in “near-poverty,” struggling to support themselves on incomes so low that they are one misfortune away from destitution. According to a study by the McKinsey consulting firm, it took six months for the US economy to return to pre-recession job levels […]

Retirement for most Americans a delusion

With average life expectancy in the U.S. peaking at 78.1, it means that the typical American will have to work for an additional 2 years after death to pay for not having any retirement savings! Excerpts from a Bloomberg article: “Eighty is the new 65,” Joseph Ready, executive vice president of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement […]

The US Government Spying on Americans

Two American senators with access to top-secret intelligence raised the alarm in May, suggesting that the invasion of law-abiding Americans’ privacy was being carried out clandestinely – and that people would be shocked if they knew the extent. “I want to deliver a warning this afternoon,” Senator Ron Wyden said on May 26 during a […]

Record Number of Americans Targeted by National Security Letters

The latest report to Congress on the Justice Department’s use of foreign intelligence surveillance powers has just been released, and it shows a truly stunning increase in the number of Americans whose sensitive phone, Internet, and banking records were obtained by the FBI — without judicial oversight — pursuant to National Security Letters. In 2009, […]

Fewer than 46 per cent of Americans have jobs

The percentage of Americans who have jobs has fallen to the lowest point in three decades and now hovers just above 45 percent of the total population, according to an analysis of labor data published by USA Today. The report, based on figures provided by the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed only […]

What Class War in America Looks Like

The wealthiest 5% of Americans control 72% of America’s financial wealth. The bottom 80% control only 7% of the nation’s financial wealth. The richest 400 Americans have more combined wealth than the poorer HALF of all Americans. That means 400 people have more wealth than 150,000,000 people combined. Nearly 80% of all economic gains made […]

Julian Assange the Scarlet Pimpernel of Cyberspace

Our modern version of the famed fictional Pimpernel, Sir Percy Blakeney, Julian Assange, has outraged the United States and given its citizens a chance to see its government at work abroad – and it’s not a pretty sight. Bureaucrats the world over hate like crazy to see their blunders, double-dealing and incompetence exposed to public […]

Jon Stewart on American tolerance and turning our backs on hate

Assisted by a colorful cast of characters, Comedy Central funnymen Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held a raucous rally on the National Mall. Amidst all the hilarity, the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” carried a message about Americans turning their backs on hate and working together to make the world a better place. “The […]

Americans are too indoctrinated to see the illusion clearly

Poll after poll indicates that voters have lost faith in both the Democratic and Republican Parties, whose respective approval ratings have fallen to historical lows. Why would any working class person, Democrat or Republican, support the charlatan Republicans and Democrats running for office? It is irrational, if not delusional, for working class people to support […]