Shocking Poverty and New Records for the Stock Market
This year’s Thanksgiving holiday, coming more than five years after the Wall Street crash, highlights the devastating impact of mass unemployment and budget cuts on tens of millions of Americans. It underscores as well the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny elite.
Even as food banks across the country report increasing demand and dwindling supplies, the US media is obsessed with snowstorms, travel delays and Black Friday sales. There is barely a mention of the intractable unemployment, poverty, hunger and homelessness that impact millions.
Judging by the media coverage, one would never suspect that the United States is a country where, according to a July 2013 report by the Associated Press, “Four out of five US adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives.”
In cities throughout the country, people have lined up by the hundreds for Thanksgiving food distributions, recalling the bread lines of the 1930s. Food banks are reporting rising demand not only from the unemployed, but also from the growing ranks of the working poor.
The dire conditions created by years of economic slump have been compounded by cutbacks in food stamp benefits that took effect at the beginning of this month, eliminating the equivalent of two days of food every month. Extended unemployment benefits are set to expire for millions of people on December 31, throwing them even further into destitution.
Amid such shocking poverty and misery—and incessant claims that there is no money to do anything about it—the stock market is setting new records every day. Over the past week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit 16,000, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index has reached 1,800, and the NASDAQ has once again topped 4,000.
The giddy—and unsustainable—rise of stock prices, which is propelling the personal fortunes of the rich and the super-rich to ever more astronomical heights, is being deliberately engineered by the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve Board. Near-zero interest rates and $85 billion a month in cash infusions from the Fed into the financial markets are facilitating an accelerated transfer of wealth from the bottom to the very top of the social ladder.
CONTINUE . . .
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving in America
Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by poncho, Nov 28, 2013.
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padredurand Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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Wow you're just overflowing with compassion for your fellow man aren't ya?
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padredurand Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
The Thanksgiving I experienced this year in America watched more folks show up to help serve dinner at the homeless shelter than showed up to eat. The one I saw in America had neighbors inviting neighbors to share a piece of pie. This American Thanksgiving had folks taking Thanksgiving dinners to floor nurses who volunteered to work extra shifts so their co-workers could stay home with their families.
No disrespect intended, Poncho, but you seem to enjoy digging up articles that show America in the worst possible light. The 1% may have gained in material things but that does not make them rich.
The richest among us gathered in an unheated 18th Century church this morning to worship singing
Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.
They will stay away from department stores and instead cook a meal or clean a house for someone who cannot do it themselves. They will be in the fields chopping corn for the farmer who slipped on the ice and injured cannot get to it himself.
I don't know what part of America you live in Poncho but I consider myself blessed to live somewhere folks still take care of each other regardless of social standing. And where I don't have to dredge through Canadian publications to find someone badmouthing this land I love. -
Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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Well, exuuuuuuuuuse me. I love this country enough to defend it rather than consenting to it's destruction by remaining silent and insinuating that those who do speak out are either un American or anti semitic, yeah I caught that little cheap shot "pastor".
I've cared for the sick and elderly all my life, I've chopped their wood and cooked their meals, I've repaired their houses and took them to the store. I've been helping those who couldn't help themselves since I was a kid so you got no "righteousness" to hold over me "pastor".
You ain't no better or "holier" than me. -
(Padre - stop off at Exit 34 and drop in at the C-Store [OIN] ) -
padredurand Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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church mouse guy Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
I don't covet what the rich have but I think that they are mostly useless in alleviating human misery.
Here in Indiana you can see the decay in the small towns as jobs are very scarce and populations are declining and houses need obvious repairs and stores and businesses are boarded up and abandoned in once busy areas.
I don't think that the Democrats can extract much more wealth from the poor and working people for their grandiose schemes. The unemployment and poverty is now so widespread in Indiana that it seems impossible to believe that this recession can end anytime soon no matter how much money the Fed prints to prop up the Democrats. -
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InTheLight Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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“If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.” Charles Finney
Who's the head of your church, pastor?
Now that the state is the head of the church corruption can run wild without any real resistance from what was the body of Christ.
Dear reader, you can take this to the bank: the vast majority of pastors and board members of these 501(c)(3) corporations, when push comes to shove (and it always does), will demonstrate unconditional loyalty to the State. Plus, they will compromise or sacrifice any and every Bible doctrine or principle in order to preserve their tax-exempt status and stay on the smiley side of the IRC. They will also throw anyone under the old proverbial bus who might risk them falling out of favor with the IRS. (I can give painful and personal testimony to that fact!) Greb is right! Many, or most, of today’s pastors and church officers fear the federal government far more than they fear God.
Not only did colonial preachers not have to contend with putting their churches under some State-controlled corporation, they would never have allowed it to happen! Can one imagine John Leland, Jonas Clark, or John Witherspoon being told by any State official what he could or could not say, or what his church could or could not do? What a joke! These men were willing to go to prison or even the grave in order to remain faithful to their spiritual calling and to their political and moral convictions!
http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/296/State-Owned-Churches-Are-Killing-America.aspx
I'll sleep well knowing I haven't sold out Jesus for a few perks from the government. -
InTheLight Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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InTheLight Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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padredurand Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
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There's a reason you couldn't get anyone else on this board to go along with your cowardly personal attacks. They all knew it was a cowardly underhanded thing to do.