BY RUSSELL TURNER
RUNNING OUT OF GAS
I think that all of us know someone who always has to stop and put some gas in their car whenever they get ready to go somewhere. I have heard some of those individuals often say they hoped that they would not run out of gas before they got to the gas station. As for myself I like to have at least one half of a tank at all times, you never know when some emergency might happen and you would not have time to stop by the local station. It is part of my conservative beliefs to prepare for the worst, I was never a boy scout but I do appreciate their motto of always being prepared. As long as a car has one drop of gas in the tank everything appears to be just fine, but when the drop is gone the big fancy car you are driving is nothing but a pile of useless metal. As I look at the economic condition our nation is getting into I see many similarities.
Without a major change of attitude America is running on an empty tank, destined to go the way of the many great empires that came before us. Like Rome. Byzantium. France. Spain. And Great Britain. Our nation has been sacrificed on the altar of power and greed by those who swore an oath to defend her. The only reason that our economy appears to be doing fine is because Europe and Japan are in worse shape than the United States. When you look at the history of the Great Depression, 17 countries in Europe failed and Great Britain was quickly losing its superpower status, yet between 1932 and 1937, the Dow Jones Industrials exploded 387% higher, even as the U.S. economy sunk further into a depression.
Many of our politicians will get up on their stump and proclaim that everything is looking up, but when that last drop of gas is gone a nation can lose its world power status very quickly. Take a look at history; 17 years for the British Empire, 11 years for the Ottomans, 8 years for France, and 2 years for the Soviet Union. In every case ... the people ignored the writing on the wall, thinking it couldn't happen to them. In America today 94 million workers are not in the workforce; the duration of unemployment benefits has risen from 19.8 weeks in 2009 to 28.4 weeks today. According to the U. S. Census Bureau 15% of the US population are living in poverty; that equates to 46.7 million Americans. The people receiving food stamps have ballooned to 45.9 million people.
According to the ADP Research Institute the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in September. While that may sound good we need to look at some other facts. Factory employment shrank by 15,000 that was the worst drop in almost five years. Companies in the energy patch are continuing to lay off workers, Chesapeake Energy announced that it would eliminate 15% of its workforce.Caterpillar recently announced it would lay off 10,000 workers. These jobs are some of the best paying in our society. Today 39% of Americans lucky enough to have a job earn less than $20,000 a year.
Before you start drinking the Kool-Aid just ask yourself how much fuel can be left in our national tank.
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