2011 By the Economic Numbers

[XLFD]

How deep rooted is the economic problem here in America?  

 

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe....

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that "wanted jobs" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006.  Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job.  In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages.  According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.

#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant.  That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980.  Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse.  According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America's biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.

#33 Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever.  The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.

#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America.  According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.  Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.  Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars.  That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars.  When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

 

{Figures provided by The Economic Collapse Blog}

 

Statistics can be deceiving and can be contrived to facilitate almost any point of view, so consider any such statistics critically.  Most all of these statistics come from studies and data received by reputable organizations with solid numbers.  Can we reverse some of these mostly disturbing trends by re-electing orthodox Republicans and Democrats into the legislature who equate more government spending and power as ways to combat them-- if they even think the numbers are a problem?  Can we expect the re-election of Barack Obama or election of a big government Republican in 2012 will provide the proper leadership to counter the numbers?   Educate yourself; then make a decision to either change these numbers or prepare for the consequences of them. 

[AQUAMAN]

Truth or Consequences indeed is what needs our attention. But, this aint gonna happen, cause the public at large is just too busy to see and pay attention, until it's too late, then what? Call 911 and see if they can help? When the entire system busts and breaks into a million pieces, and we are all broke. Interesting and informative thread X, too bad it falls on deaf ears, or does it? When certain people like Paul and Cain describe this same scenario, they just get ridiculed and told to sit down and shut up, afterall, we have great leaders like Romney to save us, right? The same Romney that ridiculed Reagan some time back, and now wants to pretend it didn't happen, yeah, right.

[Willy]

I don't by these numbers. The poverty level is a phony issue. It was made up so the liberals could institute more Government spending and create more agencies. If you understand who the people are you can understand what is happening. Most of the poverty people are unwed single women and their illegitimate children. A cure for this would be to stop reproducing until one is financially able to support a family. The jobless and employment as well as the earning  numbers are because of the recession. Energy is higher because of Government intrusion. Who is paying for all that expensive electricity produced by those inefficient windmills. All our utilities have added costs in order to subsidies Government grants and programs. Look at your utility bills. I'll add more comments when I have completely digested this topic. All these numbers are B.S. and can be traced back to Governmental intrusion into our lives.

[XLFD]

I look forward to those future comments, Willy.  These statistics can easily be co-opted by Keynesian idealogues and progressives to promote their agendas that, if followed, will only make the numbers worse. 

But they can also be latched onto by deficit hawks, Tea Partiers, and conservatives by showing that more government spending and 'progressive' policies are instrumental in the 'bad' numbers we see. 

[Willy]

Regarding the housing numbers, most of that was caused by us, the consumers, who would not control our spending money on inflated housing prices. When I lived out west I watched how ridiculous housing prices rose. Small 3 bedroom ranch houses with no basements were going for $500,000. It was getting insane. Instead of people holding back they went in over their heads in debt. Even though the Feds were responsible for making loans easier to obtain it was the consumer that latched onto houses they could not afford. Credit cards showed us just how stupid we are regarding self control or lack of it regarding our spending habits. Trade deficit, same thing. We caused it by buying foreign made products over U.S. made goods. The National debt also rests on our shoulders. There was no real outcry until Obama and the Democrats began spending out of control and we kept taking the pork barrel money dished out by Congress.  Now we are saying, no more. Guess what, to late? The next financial crisis is going to be a collapse of the  student loan systems and the trillions of dollars owed by us to the  Government who borrowed most of the the money form China. The other forthcoming collapse will be the credit card industry. This one is going to be a real nightmare. The Government has muddled things up pretty good but we let them and we are all accomplices in this financial fiasco. The funny thing is that most folks don't blame themselves. They want to play the part of the victim. Just like the foolish Wall st. occupiers who are trying to blame their problems on people who have made money in the free enterprise system, the same people who start businesses, hire employees and invest money in the stock market which is  reinvested in our economy. What are the Wall streeters thinking? What exactly do they expect to change? It's their type of foolishness and our lack of oversight and complacency that has caused this mess. The only way out of it is going to be painful and I hope our system doesn't collapse before we can figure out which direction we should be heading.

[Marty Redman]

I loved the link to #20.  $6000 is the median price of a home in Detroit.  Thats less than a years rent for low rent housing. 

The numbers are pretty crazy but statistics don't tell you how to fix themselves.

[Willy]

Marty

I doubt that $6000 is a correct figure. It simply makes no sense. I read the article that figure was contained in and I have come to the conclusion that Detroit has not been taken over by the State because of the threat of racial accusations by Detroit officials, who are mainly black, toward State leaders who are mainly white. It's a hot issue but unless Detroit's mayor starts dealing with Union bosses to lower wages, benefits and pensions, the City will be forever on the verge of bankruptcy and collapse. My beef will come if and when the State starts pouring our tax money into Detroit without changing how the City is run.

 

[Lisa O'Brien]

I don't know $6000. might be an accurate #. I have a house outside of Detroit and I know of 2 houses that have sold in that city (Garden City) for about $15,000. And the area is a lot nicer than Detroit.

[XLFD]

As Lisa says, the figure could be accurate.  We are talking median here, not average, so that if the median is $6000 that would mean, for example, that if 1000 houses/lots were sold, 500 of them would have sold for over $6000, while 500 would have sold for under $6000. 

[Willy]

I guess it's hard to know what to believe on the internet.

http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Detroit-Michigan/market-trends/

[XLFD]

Your link seems more accurate, but I might also believe that the first stat may have included those properties that are transferred for a small figure (like $1) to relatives/friends and transactions that did not include real estate brokerage.  If you're going to rely on stats, read the fine print.  If there is no fine print get some stats that do.

 

[Willy]

There may be an entire book on how these numbers are compiled but I saw no stats backing up claims made under #20.