Where is the US economy headed?

Just you keep going to wallymart and maccas, buddy.

The nation relies on you.

What are you trying to say now, mate?

Just parroting the general run of this thread, buddy. It's all about retail sales, right? Just gotta keep those tills ticking over, and everything is gonna be A-okay. You'll see.

Don't you see that?

Yes, of course I do. I'm being facetious in the face of the total ignorance being displayed elsewhere in this thread.

Work, consume, die. That's what good slaves do, right?

Don't ever question the status quo.

The definition of slavery is not nearly as clear as it used to be when we could see the physical chains and whips that shackled human laborers. Therefore, it's more vital than ever to identify the abstract ways in which humanity is confined. Here are ten signs you might be a modern-day slave:

You might be a slave if...

1. You hate when your alarm clock buzzes: If you don't wake up everyday with fantastic anticipation to be alive, you might be living under someone else's command. In fact, if you have to wake up at the same time every day, you're probably someone's slave.

2. You're forced to pay for causes you vehemently oppose: If you're a peaceful person but are forced to pay for wars done in your name, you might be a slave. Likewise, if you're forced to pay for corporate welfare of failed institutions while you struggle to stay healthy, you're surely a slave.

3. You expect someone else to take care of you: If someone other than yourself takes care of you, then you're likely beholden to them in countless ways. Be careful, you might be a slave if you demand that the government give you something other than freedom.



4. You must follow laws that your Master may break: If the rule of law only applies to you and your lowly peers, while the Masters get away with murder, you're clearly a slave in an unjust system.

5. You think mob rule is better than personal freedom: If you believe that majority rule is always better for you than free will, then you're most certainly a slave.“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.” -- Mahatma Gandhi.

6. You condemn beliefs of others: If you're taught to hate the beliefs of others who have never harmed you, then your mind has been thoroughly confined by your Master's implanted beliefs.

7. You believe people should be caged for consuming a product: If you believe that it's okay to cage humans for consuming a product in private, then you probably love your enslavement.

8. You sit in traffic for more than one hour a day: If you waste over 360 hours a year (10,800 hours over a 30-year career, that's 450 days) commuting to a job you despise, your time and life belongs to someone else.

9. You're forced to wear a uniform: If you're forced into a dress code of any kind, including a suit and tie, you're a show clown with someone to impress in order to receive your daily bread.

10. You watch over 20 hours of TV per week: If you occupy your amazing mind in front of a glowing box in the room for 1,040 hours a year (43 days), then your unlimited creativity is impossibly chained to a lifetime of mindlessness.

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/10-signs-you-might-be-slave.html

Harbingers of Harder Times


Published: March 12, 2005

At $58.3 billion, the United States' trade deficit for January exceeded everyone's worst expectations. The huge mismatch reported yesterday between imports and exports just missed breaking the monthly record, set last November, and is all the more remarkable for occurring in a month when the price of oil actually declined.

The trade deficit is the single most important factor in measuring the extent to which the nation lives beyond its means. As such, it should force us to own up to the dangers of rampant deficit spending. But the White House is showing no sign of action, as if doing nothing might make the problem smaller.

In response to yesterday's trade deficit figure, the dollar weakened against the euro and the yen, and traders predicted further declines in the weeks and months ahead. That, in turn, contributed to a drop in stock and bond prices. Such gyrations are certainly not unprecedented. The dollar has been on a downward trajectory for three straight years and was going into a fresh skid even before the latest trade deficit figure was released.

That slump was largely in response to recent reports, some later denied, that Asian central bankers may begin moving their huge dollar holdings into other currencies. That would mean higher interest rates in the United States because the government would need to sweeten Treasury yields, and higher interest rates imply further declines in stock and bond prices. A declining dollar also risks higher inflation; more expensive imports give domestic producers an excuse to raise prices.

There may be more trouble to come. Next week, the government will release figures showing how much capital flowed into the United States from abroad in January. Those numbers were down by nearly one-third in December. If next week's report is disappointing, the logical response from the currency markets would be to sell dollars - again raising the threat of all the possible side effects.

Since the trade deficit is intimately connected to the federal budget deficit, the best way to reduce the trade imbalance is to reduce the budget gap. But President Bush is calling for more tax cuts, politically implausible spending cuts and costly Social Security privatization. Both parties in Congress must address the twin trade and budget deficits - or risk being forced to do so by events beyond their control.

Do you believe that the US may be approaching economic disaster? If so what can or should the administration and congress do to avert it?

The economy has always had it's ups and downs, unemployment from 5 to 11 percent, so no matter what Congress does or doesn't do, the pattern won't change.

Bullshit. They knew exactly what they were doing when they crashed the economy. Watch the facts here. The documentary is called "Inside Job" and it shows very clearly how the system was manipulated, and the crash was both forecast, and planned for. http://vimeo.com/20853241

Narrated by Matt Damon.