Once again, the threat of economic collapse is a reality for the people of Greece, and things aren’t looking good. So far, we’ve seen reports in the media of limits on ATM withdrawals, banks being forced to close, warnings that basic goods won’t be available, threats to pharmaceutical supplies and fears of social unrest. If these reports are true and things continue down this current path, we’re looking at total devastation in Greece. While we sit here on our cozy computers, smartphones and tablets just watching all this happen, let’s not forget that we’re not immune to these things. Just because it’s happening in a far-away land today, doesn’t mean it won’t be at your doorstep tomorrow. In fact, there have been economists like Martin Armstrong, Max Keiser, Harry Dent, Bill Bonner and Gerald Celente have all been warning about such an event for years now. Granted, all those names are linked to interviews on Infowars, but just do your own research and you’ll see that they are not the only ones saying that. According to a report by the Telegraph, “the world is defenseless against the next financial crisis.”
Still not convinced that something like that can happen here in America? Okay then, let’s look at some recent statistics by our own government about our economy. In a recent report by the United States Census Bureau, they found that in 2012, 21.3% of Americans were on some form of government assistance. As bad as that might sound, you can only imagine how much worse it’s gotten since then. Forbes challenged that report claiming that once you include government subsidies and programs, almost everyone is on some form of government assistance. Okay, so maybe not all government assistance is a bad thing, but to have those programs you need working people, right?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, the labor participation rate stayed steady around 65.8% from January 2005 until December 2008. Since then, that number has dropped down to around 62.9% in 2015. Looking at another section of the BLS website, the unemployment rate started at 5.3% in January 2005 and ended at 7.3% in December of 2008. Since then, that number has dropped to 5.5% in 2015. What’s important to remember when looking at these numbers is how they’re configured. The BLS admits that they can’t survey everyone, so they only take samples of the population and estimate the numbers from there. Another factor that’s not considered is what type of jobs they are. Part-time employees are counted the same as full-time employees. Let’s assume the numbers are accurate though. That would mean that although unemployment is down, participation is down too, so how’s that possible? Simple, the population is constantly increasing, so in terms of employment and participation, more people are working and more people are unemployed. Hooray.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to get more into the stock market and things going on there, but do I really need to? Maybe you don’t see this as a problem, there’s always been unemployment, right? You’re right, just remember, one thing we didn’t have during the Great Depression was food stamps. Imagine what’s going to happen to all those people if we find ourselves faced with another economic collapse like that. We know things like this can happen here because they have before. In 2008 we experienced a small part of what that can look like. The government decided to bail out the banks rather than letting them fail and that’s emboldened them to take more risks this time around. If you we’re in charge of someone else’s investments and made a mistake, then they said, “don’t worry about it, we’re not going to punish you, here’s some more money” what would you do? If you knew that you can be bailed out without punishment, wouldn’t you feel more comfortable taking risks? That’s exactly what’s happening with the big banks in this country and it can’t last forever. It’s best to be prepared for the worst.
