Screw The Poor! More War!
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The False U.S. Economy Floats On Foreign Debt and Cheap LaborAs the rich get richer, the middle class, and poor in the U.S. get poorer.
We in the middle class might as well bend over and start whistling while the rich, and upper middle class take their pleasures - because we are screwed.
By electing George W. Bush and his Cronies in Congress this is what has resulted. The country has moved from peace and prosperity to non stop war, and economic recession. The nation has moved from a budget surplus to the greatest deficit it has ever seen.
Economic growth during Bush's years in office has been built upon bad loans financed by foreign debt. And now as the false economy of the Bush years unravels we must reap what we have sown - High Oil Prices, Foreclosures, Unemployment, Increasing Debt, and Recession.
U.S. Bush War Economy UnravelingThis from CNN:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) --
Poor and middle-class families are entering the recession in a precarious situation due in part to declining or stagnant income growth, a study released Wednesday has found.
Incomes, on average, have declined by 2.5% among the bottom fifth of families since the late 1990s, while inching up by just 1.3% for those in the middle fifth of households, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, two liberal think tanks.
The wealthiest slice of Americans, however, saw their incomes rise by 9%.
The average income of the bottom fifth of families was $18,116; the middle fifth, $50,434; and the wealthiest fifth, $132,131.
Unlike what happened during the economic boom of the 1990s, lower- and middle-class families did not share in the prosperity of recent years, the report found. In fact, the United States has had its longest jobless recovery and slowest rate of payroll growth during this decade.
"We're worried about the impact of the downturn on the families whose incomes haven't recovered from the last recession," said Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Institute senior economist and co-author of the report.
Wages have not kept up with inflation, families have loaded up on debt and homeowners have seen the value of their largest asset decline, he said. The situation will only get worse during the economic downturn.
"Families are uniquely economically exposed to the costs of recession," he continued. "As we head into a recession, their incomes will take a further hit."
The income gap between the rich and the rest of the population is widening. In 22 states, the top fifth of families made more than seven times what the poorest fifth took home, according to the report. In the late 1980s, only one state - Louisiana - had such a spread. Meanwhile, in more than two-thirds of the country, the wealthiest saw their income grow more than twice as fast as the middle-class over the past two decades.
State governments, however, can step in and help mitigate this growing inequality and insecurity, said Elizabeth McNichol, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the report's co-author. For instance, they can extend the amount of time workers receive benefits during an economic downturn. Also, they can offer or improve support services, such as child care, health insurance and transportation services.
Governments can also put resources into public services and infrastructure projects, which will help create jobs and stimulate the economy, said James Galbraith, professor at the University of Texas at Austin and income gap specialist. The federal government may also have to funnel more money to the states so they can maintain services at a time when tax revenues may decline.
The study is based on U.S. Census Bureau income data that have been adjusted for inflation, the impact of federal taxes and cash value of government subsidies. It does not factor in capital gains or losses. It compares data from 2004 to 2006 with that of 1987 to 1989 and 1998 to 2000. 
"American Idiot"
-Green Day-
Don't want to be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new mania
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.
Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.
Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.
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This large region borders the much more seismically active New Madrid seismic zone on the seismic zone's north and west. The Illinois basin - Ozark dome region covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis. Moderately frequent earthquakes occur at irregular intervals throughout the region. The largest historical earthquake in the region (magnitude 5.4) damaged southern Illinois in 1968. Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the region each decade or two, and smaller earthquakes are felt about once or twice a year. In addition, geologists have found evidence of eight or more prehistoric earthquakes over the last 25,000 years that were much larger than any observed historically in the region. 
