|
by Michael Snyder
May 20, 2024
from
MichaelSnyder Website
Italian version
Have you ever felt like you can never seem to get ahead no matter
how hard you try?
If so, you are definitely not alone.
The gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of
us has never been greater, and more wealth is being transferred to
the top of the pyramid with each passing day.
Unfortunately, our economy has evolved into a
highly centralized system that is designed to drain wealth from
those that do not own wealth-producing assets and transfer it to
those that do own wealth-producing assets.
Sadly, even most of our homes and most of our
vehicles have been turned into wealth-producing assets by the elite.
Every month when you make your mortgage payment
and your vehicle payment, you are making the wealthy even wealthier.
The entire system is designed to get you
deep into debt and keep you paying
on that debt until you die.
As we have seen in recent years, those that
manage the system will do whatever it takes to protect the wealth of
the elite.
The Federal Reserve pumped trillions of
dollars into the system to prop up the value of financial
assets, and it worked.
Right now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
is hovering around 40,000 and those that own stocks are living
the high life.
But who owns most of the stocks?
According
to Federal Reserve data, the wealthiest 10 percent of all
Americans own a record high 93 percent of all the stocks...
The wealthiest
Americans have never owned so much of the stock market, with the
top 10% now holding a record 93% of US equities, according to
Federal Reserve data.
On the flip side, the poorest 50 percent of all
Americans own
just 1 percent of all the stocks...
Still, stock
ownership is skewed toward the top: by comparison, the bottom
50% of Americans owned just 1% of all stocks and mutual fund
shares in the third quarter, central bank data shows.
Of course stocks are just one form of wealth.
But when you add in all other forms of wealth,
the bottom 50 percent of the U.S. population still only owns just
2.6 percent of all the wealth.
Tens of millions of Americans have lost faith in
the system and are becoming increasingly restless, and our
politicians have been trying to keep them pacified with handouts.
At this point, a whopping 42 million Americans
receive food stamp benefits each month, and much of that money
is spent on junk food...
An alarming
study has spotlighted how 42 million food stamp recipients spend
their welfare handouts on ultra-processed junk food.
Coca-Cola,
Sprite and other soft drinks are the most commonly-bought items
via the $135 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP), a
new study says.
Candy, potato
chips, frozen pizza, ice cream, cookies, and other
ultra-processed food dominates the top 20 items, says a report
from the Economic Policy Innovation Center
(EPIC).
A lot of those that are receiving government
assistance are actually employed.
But the cost of living has become so oppressive
that even people working for some of the biggest companies in
America
can't afford the basics...
Five years
after Amazon.com Inc. raised wages to $15 an hour, half of
warehouse workers surveyed by researchers say they struggle to
afford enough food or a place to live.
The national
study, published Wednesday by the University of Illinois
Chicago's Center for Urban Economic Development, asked US
employees about their economic wellbeing, including whether
they'd skipped meals, went hungry, or were worried about being
able to make rent or mortgage payments.
Fifty-three
percent of respondents reported that they'd experienced one or
more forms of food insecurity in the prior three months, and 48%
experienced one or more forms of housing insecurity.
Workers who
said they took unpaid time off after getting hurt on the job
were more likely to report trouble paying their bills, the
researchers found.
Today, approximately 40 percent of the entire
U.S. population is either living in poverty or is considered to be
among the ranks of "the working poor".
In order to maintain the same standard of living
as it did in January 2021, it now costs the average American family
$12,000 more per year.
If your income has not increased by $12,000 a
year since January 2021, you are falling behind.
And now that economic conditions are starting to
deteriorate
at a frightening pace, Americans are becoming increasingly
pessimistic
about where the economy is heading next...
After a spurt
of optimism, Americans are feeling a little more glum about the
economy - again.
Consumer
sentiment, a gauge of Americans' economic perceptions, is at a
six-month low, according to a closely watched index by the
University of Michigan.
The measure
notched its biggest drop since 2021, reflecting the persistent
tug of inflation on household budgets and fueling fears that
rising prices, unemployment and interest rates could all worsen
in the coming months.
That pessimism
is altering consumers' spending habits.
McDonald's,
Home Depot,
Under Armour and
Starbucks all recently
reported disappointing earnings, as people cut back on fast
food, kitchen renovations, sneakers and afternoon lattes.
Frustration with the economy is going to be a
major theme during the next few years here in the United States.
Of course the entire world is grappling with a
system that is leaving way too many people behind.
According
to Oxfam, most of the global population has gotten poorer since
the turn of the decade...
Oxfam's new
report, Inequality Inc., explores the disparity between the uber-wealthy
and the rest of society.
Since 2020, five billion people have
become poorer, while the world's five richest men have more than
doubled their fortunes - at a rate of $14 million per hour.
Just like in the United States, the gap between
the wealthy and the poor globally has reached a level we have never
seen before.
Since 2020, Oxfam says that billionaires have
gotten
"$3.3 trillion richer"...
Hundreds of
millions of people are struggling to keep up with the cost of
living; meanwhile, billionaires are $3.3 trillion richer than
they were in 2020.
This is not a
coincidence.
When we analyzed the world's largest corporations,
we found that a billionaire is running or the principal
shareholder of 7 out of 10 of them.
Such a system is not sustainable.
If most of the global population is steadily
getting poorer and a tiny sliver of the global population is
becoming fabulously wealthy,
it is only a matter of time before the
entire system comes crashing down...
Hundreds of millions of people are becoming
deeply angry and deeply frustrated, and civil unrest will erupt in
major cities all over the planet
during the period
of great chaos that we are entering.
Today, the world is dominated by,
The little guy is being absolutely crushed, but
it won't be too long before the deeply corrupt system that the
ultra-wealthy have created suddenly implodes right in front of their
eyes...
|
