JERRY WOLKOFF BLOG-IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY SON STEVEN NATHANIEL WOLKOFF, MY FATHER SAMUEL WOLKOFF, AND ALL THE OTHER VICTIMS OF INJUSTICE, EVIL IN THIS WORLD.THEY DIMINISH YOUR RIGHTS,THEN THEY DIMINISH YOUR EXISTENCE, THEN THEY LIE ABOUT IT, SAY YOU NEVER EXISTED, AND THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE FORGET THE SUFFERING THAT LASTS FOREVER, NEVER KNOWING THE TRUTH BY WHOSE HANDS, OR HOW YOU WERE KILLED.
▀▀▀▀▀▀ is very important that ▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀by▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀.
If SOPA/PIPA are passed into law the above is what will happen to our rights to free speech, no censorship, that are all protected under the First Ammendment and our rights to protection from warrantless searches, surveillance under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.
Please sign the petitions at the links below to Tell Congress: Protect the internet as we know it. Stop the PIPA and SOPA proposed legislation NOW. For more information about PIPA and SOPA read below under the petition site links. Don't allow our freedom of using the Internet to be taken away from us by censorship and big business.
▀▀▀ will be the way you see Internet ▀▀▀▀▀▀if this law passes▀▀▀▀▀▀ Act Now!
The Internet blacklist legislation—known as PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House—invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, and hampers innovation on the Web. Urge your members of Congress to reject this Internet blacklist campaign in both its forms!
To make the most impact, we're asking YOU to do two things. Today, use our handy tool to send an email to your representatives, letting them know you oppose these bills and they should too.
Then, on January 23, when the Senate is back in session (and scheduled to vote on PIPA on January 24), call your Senator and tell him or her that it's time to stand with the Internet and against the Internet blacklists!
Big media and its allies in Congress are billing the Internet blacklist legislation as a new way to battle online infringement. But innovation and free speech advocates know that this initiative will do little to stop infringement online. What it will do is compromise Internet security, inhibit online expression, and slow growth in the technology sector.
As drafted, the legislation would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet's underlying infrastructure. The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to block users' attempts to reach certain websites' URLs. In response, third parties will woo average users to alternative servers that offer access to the entire Internet (not just the newly censored U.S. version), which will create new computer security vulnerabilities as the Internet grows increasingly balkanized.
It gets worse: the blacklist bills' provisions would give corporations and other private parties new powers to censor foreign websites with court orders that would cut off payment processors and advertisers. Broad immunity provisions (combined with a threat of litigation) would encourage service providers to overblock innocent users or even block websites voluntarily. This gives content companies every incentive to create unofficial blacklists of websites, which service providers would be under pressure to block without regard to the First Amendment.
Service providers would be forced to monitor and police their users' activities as well, threatening the DMCA safe harbors that have been vital to online innovation over the last decade. SOPA gives the government new powers to go after sites that provide information about tools that might be used to bypass the blacklists — even though these are often the same tools used by democratic activists around the world to bypass Internet censorship mechanisms implemented by authoritarian governments like Iran and China.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) have led the charge in explaining how the blacklist bills threaten the very infrastructure of the open Internet, joined by a growing, bipartisan, group of Congress members. The White House also recently stated it will not support a bill that threatens free speech, innovation, and Internet security. But every Senator and Representative should be opposing the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA and we need to hold the White House to its word. Contact your members of Congress today to speak out!
Samantha Garvey, 17 years old of Brentwood, Long Island (Suffolk County), New York has a great story of perseverance and courage to tell the world. She got lucky and someone was listening, a very rare fairy tale come true.
Garvey is one of 300 teenagers nationwide named this week as semifinalists in the prestigious Intel science competition; finalists will be announced at the end of January. If Samantha wins the Intel competition, she will win a $100,000 college scholarship.
She spent more than two years researching the effects of the Asian short crab on the mussel population in a salt marsh on Long Island, east of New York City.
"What Sam found was that, like anyone, after being attacked you develop a tough skin of shell," said her science research teacher, Rebecca Grella. "These mussels were able to increase their thickness and protect themselves against their predator."
Grella noted the link between Garvey's challenges and those of the mollusks she studied."I do believe that is an amazing metaphor," Grella said, "and I do see Sam as a strong mussel."
The Brentwood High School senior, who has applied to Yale and Brown Universities, is homeless, she was evicted along with her family from their home on New Year's Eve. Her mother, Olga, a nurse's assistant, was out of work for eight months following a car accident in February, and her father, Leo, Olga, Samantha a brother and sister had been living in a home, but were evicted when the parents fell behind on payments after Leo could not keep up with paying all the regular bills, plus the mothers medical costs on his salary as a cab driver.
Garvey and her father said that they had been homeless on and off for years; more recently, the family of five had rented a home for six or seven years prior to that, Leo Garvey said. Before, the family had also lived in homeless shelters from time to time; Leo Garvey described himself as a recovering alcoholic.
Samantha said that she had worried for several months before the eviction, knowing that her mother was ailing and money was tight.
Her story has gotten coverage nationwide. It's the type of "human interest" story that the media magically plucks out of the misery in America to focus on for a few days before they and the public with the tiniest attention span of a young toddler, quickly forget. Out of sight, out of mind.
There is almost never a realistic attempt to explore, examine, propose positive changes for the numerous kinds of critical, painful, life changing issues that affect millions of "hidden", suffering Americans on a daily basis, who are simply trying to survive each day, one at a time.
Suffolk County officials as soon as the story was picked up by the media, suddenly announced that they had found a three-bedroom home for Samantha Garvey and her family while an anonymous donor stepped up to save the Garvey's dog from being euthanized at a pound.Now,with donations coming in and the county finding them rent-subsidized housing, she'll again be able to do her homework in a home. In addition to the county housing, officials said the Marriott Corp. is donating "several thousand dollars" of furniture for the family to use. She said, "It is absolutely amazing and incredible."
"This is just the most amazing thing you could ask for, she told NBC New York, "My dad has always said, 'Pick your head up and keep on going the diminutive Garvey said at a news conference Friday, surrounded by her parents, brother, sister and a cadre of politicians and school officials.
"I ordered a senior picture and I said, "I don't know where to send it. I don't know what's going to happen. What if we move, what if we get evicted, which we did," she said. "You're out in limbo. You're like, "What's going to happen to my mail, what's going to happen to my college applications. Where are they all going to go? It's scary."
"We're all in tears here," she said after Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced that the Department of Social Services had located a nearby three-bedroom house where the family could live.The house is undergoing renovations and should be ready for the Garveys in about 10 days, Bellone said.
Samantha has been invited to watch President Obama's State of the Union address on Jan. 24 as a guest of Long Island Congressman Steve Israel.
Israel says he was moved by the aspiring marine biologist's story. He's offered Garvey a prestigious gallery ticket. Her parents would watch from Israel's office. Her father tells Newsday they'd love to go.
The Garveys will pay 30 percent of their monthly income to rent the county owned property, officials said. Gregory Blass, the county commissioner of Social Services, said the family was already known to officials because they were staying in a shelter, making them eligible to move into the house.
He insisted the Garveys received no preferential treatment because of Samantha's celebrity.
Indeed NOT!
Where were all those " cadre of Politicians" at before she made the news? A good photo op from the same ones her family sought out for help, ignoring them, before,and after becoming homeless, but the minute she makes the spotlight they are right there like it was all their doing. The unlimited depths of how low the sleazy politicians will go to get themselves to look kind, compassionate, human, never ceases to amaze even a realist like myself. It makes me want to puke.
What sticks in my gut is the sudden "discovery", real action, embracing awareness by these full of shit politicians that homelessness exists, that poverty is rampant, and being on Welfare, homeless, doesn't necessarily mean that a person is a bum, lazy, worthless, dumb, or as Newt Gingrich said "these poor kids on welfare should find jobs as janitors".
Naturally, out of the phony sleazy political/corporate world, those swarming snakes of politicians, corporate white Knights have miraculously, suddenly emerged. they discovered Samantha and see an agenda for themselves, their career image, a public relations sound byte, nothing more, nothing less would be expected from these parasites.
It's the hypocrisy of those in power that really pisses me off. Their willingness to use this young lady and her family for their own personal political publicity, with not an ounce of honesty in what they are saying,doing, and next week they will ignore all the other Americans in similar situations of needing help, as if they don't exist.
These are the very same politicians in Samantha's case who have destroyed the programs that help people in need, by wielding without a conscience their budget cuts, indifference, arrogance, apathy, removing the fragile semblance of a safety net that used to exist before all of this, all in the name of deficit reductions.
At the very same time that they dismantled social service and many other programs for their residents, the exact same process is taking place all across America where politicians manage to protect the mismanagement that they do so well with their bloated, overpaid workers, waste in spending, patronage, contracts, deals with their corporate, business, cronies, and campaign financial supporters who give them money to own them.
There are hundreds of thousands of similar heart breaking human stories out there that never get blown up like this, never get the media attention, and the public awareness, hence they never get the just as well deserved donations and help.
If the voters elect more tea-party types, GOP cut everything types except protect the rich, who all want to cut government programs at any cost, we're gonna see even more homelessness.
Other than Vt. Senator Bernie Sanders who comes to mind right now, there are too many politicians who propose legislation and/or vote along ideological lines, on both sides of the aisle. It's the same at State and local level.
The voters have to get informed and elect people who care about people and not follow some self serving, say anything bull shit ideologue spouting anti-government/anti-tax rhetoric. Oliver Wendell Holmes said it best: "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society".
The "waste" is never cut. One man's "waste" is another's "need". Yes, homelessness is a shame in this country and the fault of citizens who allow this to happen by following like dumb sheep, the politicians with their lying "snake oil" budget deficit "fixes", done on the backs of all working Americans, especially the most vulnerable, those in need, the Samantha Garvey's of all ages, types, and lives that are as deserving as her family is of compassion,help.
You can't be both free and ignorant. For all the Obama haters out there, and for all his huge failures, his heart is somewhere in the remote vicinity of being in the right place, compared to the greedy slash and burn at any cost, do nothing but destroy "ideas" coming from the opposition which has no clue, nor do they care about we the people. Of course if you have a lot of money, then they will love you.
America is not broke.There is tremendous wealth in this country and we clearly have a distribution problem. There is no reason for anyone to be homeless or for any child's life to be blighted by poverty. It's pure and simple injustice, greed and the failure of our political system to address either. We have spent well over several trillion dollars, and still counting on the last 2 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There somehow is always unlimited funds found to fund ill conceived wars, and provide foreign aid to Countries that hate us. No-one talks of "we can't afford it" when those acts of supporting mindless dictatorships are pursued.
Now suddenly, we discover that the United States has homeless people who have human faces, aspirations, and potential. The political know nothings, liars of hate, repeat the words of baloney, "but we can't afford to pay for the domestic programs to support those in need and the rest of us, not even Social Security and Medicare Entitlement programs, cut them all" We're pathetic as a nation!
Her father wrote on Newsday.com, "I want to thank all of you for your wonderful comments on this story. Many of times I have been ready to throw in the towel and give up and wallow in self pity but then I look at this girl who I used to hold in one hand when she was born at 2lbs 14ozs, who is one giant of a woman today and she gives me the reason to keep on going along with brother and sister. I live for them. Signed one very very very proud dad." And if you want to contact the Garvey family, you can reach them at leog1951@optonline.net
The true facts are always amazingly shocking when it comes to the homeless in America, all the other Samantha Garvey's and their families, just like hers, real people:
.There are over 6,000 homeless people living in shelters or placed in motels on Long Island, NY. These numbers do not include those who are homeless and living on the streets or in the woods.
My latest discovery is that there are a great many people who truly, really believe in the divine intervention of god when it comes to the outcome of sporting events.
This issue is fascinating. Like the others, they all share a common belief that god has a lot of time on his/her hands to cater to the whimsical "needs" of certain people. No one has ever been able to prove the actual existence of god yet here he/she is busy at work determining who will win and lose games of sports.
A Company by the name of Poll Position conducted a telephone survey this past week and asked people about Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback who thanks god on the field. These people were aware of his dramatic 80-yard touchdown pass in overtime last week that won the Broncos’ wild-card playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in football.
Quoting from a press release, “Seventy percent of respondents said they knew of Tim Tebow’s success and among those aware of the Tebow phenomenon, 43 percent said they believed divine intervention was at least partly responsible for his success, while 42 percent said no it wasn't, and 14 percent expressed no opinion.
The 43 percent number is surprising in that so many people think God intervenes in sports and admit believing that to somebody, even an anonymous pollster.
What's really interesting is the breakdown: belief in divine intervention on Tebow's behalf was weak among white people only 38.3 percent thought God had much to do with his success.
But among blacks, 59.5 percent thought they saw the hand of God, and among Hispanics - 81.3 percent saw the hand of God.
Republicans were also far more likely than Democrats or Independents to believe in Tebow's connection with God -54.2.
– Republicans: 54% yes, 32% no, and 14% no opinion. – Democrats: 38% yes, 48% no, 14% no opinion. – Independents: 35% yes, 49% no, 16% no opinion.
Oh, and men are less likely (40.6 to 46.8) than women (46.4 to 37.3) to think that God has a Tebow poster on his wall.
The scary thing here is that these people (the 43%) can vote, drive cars, and have children. So I guess God just gives the shaft to the Christian players on the team the Broncos are playing? Yeah…makes perfect sense to me.
If you do believe in God and you've ever wondered how he would reveal himself again should he want too, football is the highest rated live programming on American television, it would make sense for the Almighty to advertise there when it comes to product placement.
There has also been a lot of serious talk this week about Tebow throwing for 316 yards against the Steelers, and the link to John 3:16, and that Tebow's story seems almost Biblical in nature. Of course, none of this has anything remotely to do with football .
After Albert Pujols, the baseball player was erroneously linked to theMitchell Reporton the use of steroids in Major league baseball, he said, “I fear God too much” to take steroids. “If I do some stupid things to help me out, to hit .400 or .300-something or hit 30 home runs, He’s going to take that away from me.”
These are highly respected athletes, seemingly smart, articulate and professionals, all, saying things that sound sort of very weird to me. This poll suggests otherwise.
Are those guys and the 43 percent who responded to the poll crazy to think God flicks his divine finger and a ball goes sailing out of Busch Stadium? Or are 57 percent of us blind to the obvious truth?
Personally, in due respect to those of you who believe in a god,C'mon , get real, do you really think your Lord and Savior cares who won a football game. Why is Tebow thanking Him? Because he threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to win a football game?
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/13/3369683/celebrate-tebow-but-slow-down.html#storylink=cpy
Tebow's success on the field has more to do with the fact that he is a 6-foot-2, 236-pound man with superior athletic skills than it does his ability to recite Psalms 23.
Clearly, if there is a god, he has a full 3 plates and more of life breaking important things in this world to be trying to fix.
Maybe sometimes the greatest way to glorify God is to just shut up, put your big boy/girl pants on and take care of the real suffering and unfairness in our sick, totally dysfunctional, uncaring world world.
Take your pick below and get real, become compassionate, do something to raise awareness, make a difference in addressing the true things that a god would want you to get involved in to help others. Forget this football, sports bull shit intervention and face the the truth about what our priorities need to be.
We need more of those people who care about the real life crisis of fellow human beings, regardless of their religious beliefs, because it would seem god would care a lot more about that than who wins a football game.
In 2010 7.6 million children under 5 died, mainly in 3rd world and developing countries,.
. In the U.S.A. on any given night, approximately 750,000 men, women, and children are homeless in the US.*
* 56% are living in shelters and transitional housing, while 44% are unsheltered.
* 59% are single adults and 41% are persons living in families.
* 98,452 are homeless families
* 23% are chronically homeless according to HUD’s definition.
*Over the course of a year, between 2.5 and 3.5 million people will live either on the streets or in an emergency shelter.
1.5 MILLION = the number of children in America who go to sleep without a home each year
1 in 50 = an American child’s chances of experiencing homelessness in their lifetime
In January 2011, the number of unemployed Americans is still 29.6 million
• At the end of October. 2011 there were 41,204 homeless adults and children sleeping in New York City municipal shelters, an all-time record. This is the first time ever that the number of homeless people sleeping each night in the New York City shelter system has exceeded 40,000 people.
There is 1 person killed every 6 minutes by a drunk driver or a driver under the influence of other drugs , 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people dying every year of cancer, leukemia, and other horrible diseases.
If god has the will to stop evil but not the ability he/she is not omnipotent.
If he/she has the will but not the ability he/she is apathetic.
if he/she has both the will and ability then why is there evil?
if he/she has neither the ability or will then why call him/her god?
To those that believe in god, get off your ass and help with the work that has to be done if this world is to survive. Sitting only on your couch watching sports, going to Church, Synagogue, Mosque, Temple, being an Atheist, Agnostic, praying or not, it's not anywhere enough compared to getting involved in helping those in need, whatever way you can. Throwing a touch down pass or praying is not going to impress god, or change anything in this world for the better.
So where are you all? What's your excuse?
god only knows that, or not!
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/13/3369683/celebrate-tebow-but-slow-down.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/13/3369683/celebrate-tebow-but-slow-down.html#storylink=cpy
We all expect to retire someday and live comfortably. That has been the American dream for decades. Sorry, but it's reality time, and whether you want to deal with this or not, there is no way to stop the ticking clock.
Forget the phony rosy picture being painted by world leaders, and our politicians of the economy rebounding, or their magical blame it on anyone, anything solutions but continue to ignore the systemic corrupt greed, mismanagement, of those in power that created this mess over so many years.
As the US economy continues to stagnate, those who have jobs are getting used to the idea that they will have to support their children for much longer than they had hoped, and work longer in order to afford retirement.
According to a Wells Fargo survey of 1,500 middle-class Americans, 25% of those questioned believed that they'd have to work into their 80s in order to comfortably retire
Well, ummm, hmmm, uhh, we seem to have a bit of a problem. See, Americans, on average, do not live to see 80.The US life expectancy is 79.4 years. For 2011, the CIA Fact book has us living shorter lives, with a life expectancy of 78.37 years.
Many Baby Boomers Will Work As Wage Slaves Until They Drop Dead.
AND THE RICH WILL GET RICHER
As I have said in prior posts, despite false claims by some, of the Social Security System being a large part of our financial meltdown, the reality is that it was a profit making entitlement program that we all as workers paid our own hard earned money into from every pay check, while the Government "borrowed" all the Social Security money to use for general fund projects, and left worthless IO,U's in the Social Security fund that can never be paid back because the money is gone, stolen by the politicians.
The ideas of the GOP and Tea Party to cut spending on the the backs of the American people, cutting entitlement, social service programs for our citizens, while protecting the rich 1% from tax hikes, and continuing tax breaks for Corporations, it's all bull shit.
None of this will make things better and only will create more folks who have nothing left to live on. The blame lies squarely on the crooked, corrupt, mismanaged hands of all the politicians that have bled this country dry for decades, not to be deflected in lying solutions, causes that break the backs of the people in the United States of America.
The true economic policy of our Country, regardless of who is the President, or which political party is in power is: it's just too much damn trouble to deal with the long term implications of all their decisions and plan for those, too. So they and many of their citizen sheep disciples settle for the "Okay, you people are on your own, some of you will get sick or injured and die, and many of you will be far more miserable, but planning is hard work, so see ya" approach. As long as they can live like their money will never run out and the rest of the country is their garbage can, who gives a fuck about anyone else?
Wells Fargo's survey respondents also consistently underestimated the cost of healthcare. Those surveyed were thinking $60,000 for uninsured healthcare costs for a married couple 65+. The reality: $197,000 and growing.
Perhaps the most interesting tidbit, however, might be the cavalier, almost jolly, resignation it found among those most financially distraught about their future. When asked if they agreed with the statement "I plan to enjoy life now and I'm not worried about retirement/tomorrow," the majority of respondents earning less than $25,000 (57 percent to be exact), agreed. Only 26 percent of those earning $100,000 or more felt the same way.
If you want to understand the denial of most Americans' relationship with the increasingly unlikely concept of the American Dream,just look at your own family's minimum basic living needs of rising food prices, college tuition, health costs, taxes, utility bills, housing costs. How are you going to pay for it, and then vomit. ? No wonder, many people don't want to face the potential facts, it's too ugly.
Life Expectancy: Interactive Graph- Only 15 countries (the US is not one of them) have an average life expectancy over 80. The USA is still above the global average, which is just over 69 years.
So, what does this mean for the American Dream? If you're entering the workforce, what are your prospects, assuming you can find a job, for making a wage with which you can start saving for your eventual retirement?
The real horror story is even worse. Nobody except the top quartile of income earners will be able to retire at 65 anymore, so plan on working until you die. Young people trying to find jobs? You are competing to find a job because all the jobs will be taken by 80-year-old people, especially those "good" minimum wage Wal-Mart jobs.
Those who earned between $11,700 and $31,200 will need to work till age 76 to have a 50% chance of covering basic expenses in retirement. Those who earned between $31,200 and $72,500 will need to work to age 72 to have a 50% chance and those who earned more than $72,500, those in the highest income quartile, catch a break; they get stop working at age 65 to have a 50/50 chance of funding their retirement.
All over America tonight, millions of Americans are wondering if their money is going to run out before it is time for them to die. They are not homeless yet, simply people like you and me. Those that are now past retirement age are not going to be rioting in the streets, but that doesn't mean that large numbers of them are not deeply suffering. There are millions of Americans of all ages that are leading lives of "quiet desperation" as they try to get by on meager incomes. Soaring food prices have impacted many who are surviving on one meal a day, oatmeal, peanut butter, whatever other cheap food they can find in the stores, or reduced to scrounging through dumpster's for food thrown away.
There are some like myself, that will not turn on the heat in their homes until the temperature inside is colder than outside. We sit in layers of clothing, under blankets to try keeping ourselves from freezing. As health care costs soar, millions of Americans find themselves deep in debt and facing huge medical bills that they cannot possibly pay.
Right now caring for all of the Americans that have already retired is turning out to be an overwhelming challenge, and things are about to get a whole lot worse. On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers turned 65. A massive tsunami of retirees is coming, and America is not ready for it.
Clearly, even with slashing our own personal living expenses, or just ignoring it by spending money as if there will always be funds in your investments to support yourself, most Americans have not seriously prepared for retirement.
For many, the recent economic downturn absolutely devastated their retirement plans. Many were counting on the equity in their homes, but the recent housing crash crushed those dreams. Others had their 401ks shredded by the stock market.
Meanwhile, Corporate pension plans all across America are vastly underfunded. Many state and local government pension programs are absolute disasters.
The following are signs that the new reality for many of the American Dream will be to work as wage slaves until they drop dead:
1) Most states have huge pension liabilities that are woefully underfunded. For example, pension consultant Girard Miller recently told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have $325 billion in combined unfunded pension liabilities. When you break that down, it comes to $22,000 for every single working adult in the state of California.
2) Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management recently calculated the combined pension liability for all 50 U.S. states. What they found was that the 50 states are collectively facing $5.17 trillion in pension obligations, but they only have $1.94 trillion set aside in state pension funds. That is a difference of 3.2 trillion dollars. So where in the world is all of that extra money going to come from? Most of the states are already completely broke and on the verge of bankruptcy.
3) According to a shocking AARP survey of Baby Boomers that are still in the workforce, 40 percent of them plan to work "until they drop".
4) A recent survey of American workers that included all age groups found that 54 percent of them planned to keep working when they retire and 39 percent of them plan to either work past age 70, or never retire at all.
5) A poll conducted by CESI Debt Solutions found that 56 per cent of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.
If the worst happens, we are going to see a lot more once successful, taxpaying Americans seeking government help that won't be there for them, leading to more people eating out of trash cans and freezing to death in their own homes.
6) A recent study by a law professor from the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies.
7) Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.
8) Most of the bankruptcies among the elderly are caused by our deeply dysfunctional health care system.
According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.
9) The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run dry five years faster than they were projecting just last year.
10) Starting on January 1st, 2011 the Baby Boomers began to hit retirement age. From now on, every single day more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach the age of 65. That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years.
11) Over 30 percent of all U.S. investors currently in their sixties have more than 80 percent of their 401k retirement plans invested in equities. What happens if and when, the stock market crashes again?
12) All over the United States predatory lenders are coldly and cruelly foreclosing on homeowners.
The United States is facing a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude. A comfortable, happy retirement is rapidly going to become a luxury that only the wealthy will enjoy.
For most of the rest of us, our golden years are going to mean a whole lot of pain and suffering.That may not be pleasant to hear, but that is the truth.
Not your problem you say. You have it all figured out huh, a great job position held with a Company that you have been contributing into a pension and 401K for yourself. Think you are safe and not one "of them", who will be destroyed by the rich. Go ahead, dream that dream, I hope it comes true for all of us, we certainly deserve it and earned the "golden years" of retirement. While you are at it, don't forget about your parents, children and grandchildren that will inherit this catastrophic economic future.
Time for you to get off your ass and smell the slime that is becoming the new established way of doing business in America when it comes to employees. Here is a basic lesson in real new world solutions for Corporations in getting rid of you and those pesky plans that you paid your own money into for all your working life.
American Airlines deliberately filed for bankruptcy on November 29th, 2011. American was the world's largest carrier as recently as 2006. But mergers have pushed it to third in terms of miles flown by paying passengers.
However, at the time it filed for bankruptcy, it had 4 billion dollars in the Bank and could have continued paying its bills, it did not have to go belly up. Its Board of Directors decided it had been losing money for awhile and that the Company was not providing a "cost effective" means to operate, meaning it had to become smaller by reducing its costs. Instead of getting rid of its top heavy layers of incompetent management, perks of disgusting luxury, enormous waste, it naturally picked on it's employees to carry most of the weight of these cost reductions.
More important as a business strategy, declaring bankruptcy will trim its debt load, cut its operating costs and cruelly, with the utmost of evil intentions, void all it's union contracts, RETIREMENT PLANS, pensions for its workers that were signed, paid into by employee money, agreed to, and " legally guaranteed" to be paid to its employees.
What Corporations are doing like American Airlines is called stealing, rape fraud, assault with a deadly weapon, mugging, robbing a Bank and if you or I did this in our personal lives, we would go to jail. However, in the false democracy we call America, it's perfectly legal for the privileged to have their own set of rules, laws, loopholes that let them do this and more, with no fear of getting in trouble because they own our Government through the corrupt, rich politicians who are mere puppets, doing whatever is desired by their masters.
There is no stigma attached to the gross mismanagement of company's such as American Airlines, it's screwing of employees, in fact Analysts hailed it "as very smart". You try getting away doing that if you owe bills, or are behind on your mortgage payments.
The double standards here for Government, Corporate America, the affluent are deadly obvious and beyond offensive. No one cares and you are on your own, non existent to the fat cats who run this mockery of a world, get used to it.
The lives of working class families, their American dreams, decades of blood work performed by workers, retirement plans all due them by legal contracts are being destroyed, erased as if they never existed, by doing what is now common in the inhuman, greed filled Corporate World.
So you think someday you will be able to retire. Think again.
