Ben Stein is a Smouldering Jackass

Ben Stein, who in 2007 said there was no problem with the subprime market just months before it collapsed, and who says now we are no longer in a "recession" (really a greater depression than the Great Depression) when real unemployment is 23%, is now criticising Daddy's economic prediction of a looming economic collapse in the US. You would think someone who's been wrong so often wouldn't be so cocky.

$20 trillion in debt, more debt than GDP, 1/4 of the workforce unemployed, Tens of millions of people living on handouts, countries around the world dumping the Petrodollar, China, Russia, India, and Brazil working together to overturn the global financial order, no US manfuacturing, most tech jobs in the US going to visas, most US doctorates going to visas, government spending $3 billion per day, more money than could ever be raised from taxes, what do you think is going to happen Ben? Sunshine and roses? Does any of the above sound good to you? The American empire is collapsing, the only reason Ben is not worried is because he's so old he'll croak soon so he doesn't have to see the fallout.

Here is the truth:

Did you know that when you take the number of working age Americans that are officially unemployed (8.2 million) and add that number to the number of working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” (94.3 million), that gives us a grand total of 102.5 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now? I have written about this before, but today I want to focus just on Americans that are in their prime working years. When you look at only Americans that are from age 25 to age 54, 23.2 percent of them are unemployed right now. The following analysis and chart come from the Weekly Standard…

“There are 124.5 million Americans in their prime working years (ages 25–54). Nearly one-quarter of this group—28.9 million people, or 23.2 percent of the total—is not currently employed. They either became so discouraged that they left the labor force entirely, or they are in the labor force but unemployed.This group of non-employed individuals is more than 3.5 million larger than before the recession began in 2007,” writes the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee.

Clearly, we have never recovered from the impact of the last recession.

No, the truth is that the middle class in America is steadily eroding and poverty is absolutely exploding. Credit card debt has soared to a new record high, and 48 percent of all U.S. adults under the age of 30 believe that “the American Dream is dead”.

The issue isn’t that people don’t want to work.

The issue is that people cannot find enough work.

And even if you have a job, that does not mean that you are on easy street. According to the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all American workersmake less than $30,000 a year.

Tens of millions of Americans are now among the ranks of “the working poor”. So many families are watching their expenses soar while their paychecks go down or stagnate. If you are in this situation right now, then you probably know how exceedingly stressful it can be.