MNeagle
12th April 2013, 11:23 AM
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The
Economic Collapse blog (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-tunnel-people-that-live-under-the-streets-of-america),
Did you know that there are thousands upon thousands of homeless people that
are living underground beneath the streets of major U.S. cities? It is
happening in Las Vegas, it is happening in New York City and it is even
happening in Kansas City. As the economy crumbles, poverty in the
United States is absolutely
exploding (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-statistics-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-everyone-should-know) and so is homelessness.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/04/tunnel.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/04/tunnel.jpg)
In addition to the thousands of "tunnel people" living under the streets of
America, there are also thousands that are living in tent cities, there are tens
of thousands that are living in their vehicles and there are more than a
million public school children (http://www.nlchp.org/view_release.cfm?PRID=148) that do not have a home to go back to at
night. The federal government tells us that the recession "is over" and that
"things are getting better", and yet poverty and homelessness in this country
continue to rise with no end in sight. So what in the world are things going to
look like when the next economic crisis hits?
When I heard that there were homeless people living in a network of
underground tunnels beneath the streets of Kansas City, I was absolutely
stunned. I have relatives that live in that area. I never thought of Kansas
City as one of the more troubled cities in the United States.
But according to the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2306113/Kansas-City-homeless-city-Group-living-underground-crude-camps.html?ICO=most_read_module), police recently discovered a network of
tunnels under the city that people had been living in...
Below the streets of Kansas City, there are deep underground tunnels
where a group of vagrant homeless people lived in camps.
These so-called homeless camps have now been uncovered by the Kansas
City Police, who then evicted the residents because of the unsafe
environment.
Authorities said these people were living in squalor, with piles of
garbage and dirty diapers left around wooded areas.
The saddest part is the fact that authorities found dirty diapers in the
areas near these tunnels. That must mean that babies were being raised in that
kind of an environment.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing is happening all over the nation. In
recent years, the tunnel people of Las Vegas have received quite a bit of
publicity all over the world. It has been estimated that more than 1,000 people (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326187/Las-Vegas-tunnel-people-How-1-000-people-live-shimmering-strip.html) live in the massive network of flood
tunnels under the city...
Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth
inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron
bar.
But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to
1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly.
Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home
with considerable care - their 400sq ft 'bungalow' boasts a double bed, a
wardrobe and even a bookshelf.
Could you imagine living like that? Sadly, for an increasing number of
Americans a "normal lifestyle" is no longer an option. Either they have to go
to the homeless shelters or they have to try to eke out an existence on their
own any way that they can.
In New York City, authorities are constantly trying to root out the people
that live in the tunnels under the city and yet they never seem to be able to
find them all. The following is from a New York Post article (http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/item_cBpY2m15R9J0ysIm58QK1M) about the "Mole People" that live
underneath New York City...
The homeless people who live down here are called Mole People. They do not,
as many believe, exist in a separate, organized underground society. It's more
of a solitary existence and loose-knit community of secretive, hard-luck
individuals.
The New York Post followed one homeless man known as "John Travolta" on a
tour through the underground world. What they discovered was a world that is
very much different from what most New Yorkers experience...
In the tunnels, their world is one of malt liquor, tight spaces,
schizophrenic neighbors, hunger and spells of heat and cold. Travolta and the
others eat fairly well, living on a regimented schedule of restaurant leftovers,
dumped each night at different times around the neighborhood above his
foreboding home.
Even as the Dow hits record high after record high, poverty in New York City
continues to rise at a very frightening pace. Incredibly, the number of
homeless people sleeping in the homeless shelters of New York City has increased
by a whopping 19 percent (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324539404578340731809639210.html?m od=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_second) over the past year.
In many of our major cities, the homeless shelters are already at maximum
capacity and are absolutely packed night after night. Large numbers of homeless
people are often left to fend for themselves.
That is one reason why we have seen the rise of so many tent cities.
Yes, the tent cities are still there, they just aren't getting as much
attention these days because they do not fit in with the "economic recovery"
narrative that the mainstream media is currently pushing.
In fact, many of the tent cities are larger than ever. For example, you can
check out a Reuters video about a growing tent city in New Jersey that was
posted on YouTube at the end of March right
here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhTUWbpEACA). A lot of these tent cities have now become permanent fixtures, and
unfortunately they will probably become much larger when the next major economic
crisis strikes.
But perhaps the saddest part of all of this is the massive number of children
that are suffering night after night.
For the first time ever, more than a
million (http://www.nlchp.org/view_release.cfm?PRID=148) public school children in the United States are homeless. That
number has risen by 57
percent (http://www.nlchp.org/view_release.cfm?PRID=148) since the 2006-2007 school year.
So if things are really "getting better", then why in the world do we have
more than a million public school children without homes?
These days a lot of families that have lost their homes have ended up living
in their vehicles. The following is an excerpt from a 60 Minutes interview (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57330802/hard-times-generation-families-living-in-cars/) with one family that is living in their
truck...
This is the home of the Metzger family. Arielle,15. Her brother Austin, 13.
Their mother died when they were very young. Their dad, Tom, is a carpenter.
And, he's been looking for work ever since Florida's construction industry
collapsed. When foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck on Craigslist
with his last thousand dollars. Tom's a little camera shy - thought we ought to
talk to the kids - and it didn't take long to see why.
Pelley: How long have you been living in this truck?
Arielle Metzger: About five months.
Pelley: What's that like?
Arielle Metzger: It's an adventure.
Austin Metzger: That's how we see it.
Pelley: When kids at school ask you where you live, what do you tell 'em?
Austin Metzger: When they see the truck they ask me if I live in it, and when
I hesitate they kinda realize. And they say they won't tell anybody.
Arielle Metzger: Yeah it's not really that much an embarrassment. I mean,
it's only life. You do what you need to do, right?
But after watching a news report or reading something on the Internet about
these people we rapidly forget about them because they are not a part of "our
world".
Another place where a lot of poor people end up is in prison. In a previous
article (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/private-prisons-the-more-americans-they-put-behind-bars-the-more-money-they-make), I detailed how the prison population in the United States has been
booming in recent years. If you can believe it, the United States now has
approximately 25 percent of the entire global prison population even though it
only has about 5 percent of the total global population.
And these days it is not just violent criminals that get thrown into prison.
If you lose your job and get behind on your bills, you could be thrown into
prison as well. The following is from a recent CBS News article (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57577994/as-economy-flails-debtors-prisons-thrive/)...
Roughly a third of U.S. states today jail people for not paying off their
debts, from court-related fines and fees to credit card and car loans, according
to the American Civil Liberties Union. Such practices contravene a 1983 United
States Supreme Court ruling that they violate the Constitutions's Equal
Protection Clause.
Some states apply "poverty penalties," such as late fees, payment plan fees
and interest, when people are unable to pay all their debts at once. Alabama
charges a 30 percent collection fee, for instance, while Florida allows private
debt collectors to add a 40 percent surcharge on the original debt. Some Florida
counties also use so-called collection courts, where debtors can be jailed but
have no right to a public defender. In North Carolina, people are charged for
using a public defender, so poor defendants who can't afford such costs may be
forced to forgo legal counsel.
The high rates of unemployment and government fiscal shortfalls that followed
the housing crash have increased the use of debtors' prisons, as states look for
ways to replenish their coffers. Said Chettiar, "It's like drawing blood from a
stone. States are trying to increase their revenue on the backs of the
poor."
If you are poor, the United States can be an incredibly cold and cruel
place. Mercy and compassion are in very short supply.
The middle
class (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/tag/middle-class) continues to shrink and poverty continues to grow with each passing
year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately one out of every six (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302997/U-S-sees-highest-poverty-spike-1960s-leaving-50-million-Americans-poor-government-cuts-billions-spending.html) Americans is now living in poverty. And
if you throw in those that are considered to be "near poverty", that number
becomes much larger. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/census-shows-1-in-2-peopl_1_n_1150128.html) are either "poor" or "low
income".
For many more facts about the rapid increase of poverty in this country,
please see my previous article entitled "21
Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should
Know (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-statistics-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-everyone-should-know)".
But even as poverty grows, it seems like the hearts of those that still do
have money are getting colder. Just check out what happened recently at a
grocery store that was in the process of closing down in Augusta, Georgia (http://www.globalresearch.ca/american-dream-food-loaded-into-dumpsters-while-hundreds-of-hungry-americans-restrained-by-police/5329966)...
Residents filled the parking lot with bags and baskets hoping to get some of
the baby food, canned goods, noodles and other non-perishables. But a local
church never came to pick up the food, as the storeowner prior to the eviction
said they had arranged. By the time the people showed up for the food, what was
left inside the premises—as with any eviction—came into the ownership of the
property holder, SunTrust Bank.
The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a
landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained
by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard
Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely
high.”
Can you imagine watching that happen?
But of course handouts and charity are only temporary solutions. What the
poor in this country really need are jobs, and unfortunately there
has not been a jobs recovery in the United States (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/more-than-101-million-working-age-americans-do-not-have-a-job) since the recession
ended.
In fact, the employment crisis looks like it is starting to take another turn
for the worse. The number of layoffs in the month of March was 30
percent (http://www.cnbc.com/id/100615660) higher than the same time a year ago.
Meanwhile, small businesses are indicating that hiring is about to slow down
significantly. According to a recent survey by the National Federation of
Independent Businesses, small businesses in the United States are extremely
pessimistic right now. The following is what Goldman Sachs had to say (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-09/small-businesses-planning-hire-0) about this survey...
Components of the survey were consistent with the decline in headline
optimism, as the net percent of respondents planning to hire fell to 0% (from
+4%), those expecting higher sales fell to -4% (from +1%), and those reporting
that it is a good time to expand ticked down to +4% (from +5%). The net percent
of respondents expecting the economy to improve was unchanged at -28%, a
very depressed level. However, on the positive side, +25% of respondents
plan increased capital spending [ZH: With Alcoa CapEx spending at a 2 year
low]. Small business owners continue to place poor sales, taxes, and red
tape at the top of their list of business problems, as they have for the past
several years.
So why aren't our politicians doing anything to fix this?
For example, why in the world don't they stop millions of our jobs from being
sent out of the country?
Well, the truth is that they don't think we have a problem. In fact, U.S.
Senator Ron Johnson recently said (http://economyincrisis.org/content/senator-ron-johnson-says-that-record-u-s-trade-deficits-dont-matter) that U.S. trade deficits "don't matter".
He apparently does not seem alarmed that more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities (http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/nov/07/betty-sutton/betty-sutton-says-average-15-us-factories-close-ea/) have been shut down
in the United States since 2001.
And since the last election, the White House has seemed to have gone into
permanent party mode.
On Tuesday (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/another-exclusive-party-wh-taxpayer-expense_716159.html), another extravagant party will be held at the White
House. It is being called "In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul",
and it is going to include some of the biggest names in the music
industry...
As the White House has previously announced (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-memphis-soul-concert-feature-justin-timberlake-al-green-queen-latifah-and-others_714466.html), Justin Timberlake (who will be making
his White House debut), Al Green, Ben Harper, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper,
Joshua Ledet, Sam Moore, Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples, and others will be
performing at the exclusive event.
And so who will be paying for all of this?
You and I will be. Even as the Obamas cry about all of the other "spending
cuts" that are happening, they continue to blow millions of taxpayer dollars on
wildly extravagant parties and vacations.
Overall, U.S. taxpayers will spend well over a billion
dollars on the Obamas this year.
I wonder what the tunnel people that live under the streets of America think
about that.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Living-Underground-Photo-by-Patrick-Cashin-425x282.jpg (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-tunnel-people-that-live-under-the-streets-of-america/living-underground-photo-by-patrick-cashin)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-12/guest-post-tunnel-people-live-under-streets-america
Economic Collapse blog (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-tunnel-people-that-live-under-the-streets-of-america),
Did you know that there are thousands upon thousands of homeless people that
are living underground beneath the streets of major U.S. cities? It is
happening in Las Vegas, it is happening in New York City and it is even
happening in Kansas City. As the economy crumbles, poverty in the
United States is absolutely
exploding (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-statistics-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-everyone-should-know) and so is homelessness.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/04/tunnel.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/04/tunnel.jpg)
In addition to the thousands of "tunnel people" living under the streets of
America, there are also thousands that are living in tent cities, there are tens
of thousands that are living in their vehicles and there are more than a
million public school children (http://www.nlchp.org/view_release.cfm?PRID=148) that do not have a home to go back to at
night. The federal government tells us that the recession "is over" and that
"things are getting better", and yet poverty and homelessness in this country
continue to rise with no end in sight. So what in the world are things going to
look like when the next economic crisis hits?
When I heard that there were homeless people living in a network of
underground tunnels beneath the streets of Kansas City, I was absolutely
stunned. I have relatives that live in that area. I never thought of Kansas
City as one of the more troubled cities in the United States.
But according to the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2306113/Kansas-City-homeless-city-Group-living-underground-crude-camps.html?ICO=most_read_module), police recently discovered a network of
tunnels under the city that people had been living in...
Below the streets of Kansas City, there are deep underground tunnels
where a group of vagrant homeless people lived in camps.
These so-called homeless camps have now been uncovered by the Kansas
City Police, who then evicted the residents because of the unsafe
environment.
Authorities said these people were living in squalor, with piles of
garbage and dirty diapers left around wooded areas.
The saddest part is the fact that authorities found dirty diapers in the
areas near these tunnels. That must mean that babies were being raised in that
kind of an environment.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing is happening all over the nation. In
recent years, the tunnel people of Las Vegas have received quite a bit of
publicity all over the world. It has been estimated that more than 1,000 people (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326187/Las-Vegas-tunnel-people-How-1-000-people-live-shimmering-strip.html) live in the massive network of flood
tunnels under the city...
Deep beneath Vegas’s glittering lights lies a sinister labyrinth
inhabited by poisonous spiders and a man nicknamed The Troll who wields an iron
bar.
But astonishingly, the 200 miles of flood tunnels are also home to
1,000 people who eke out a living in the strip’s dark underbelly.
Some, like Steven and his girlfriend Kathryn, have furnished their home
with considerable care - their 400sq ft 'bungalow' boasts a double bed, a
wardrobe and even a bookshelf.
Could you imagine living like that? Sadly, for an increasing number of
Americans a "normal lifestyle" is no longer an option. Either they have to go
to the homeless shelters or they have to try to eke out an existence on their
own any way that they can.
In New York City, authorities are constantly trying to root out the people
that live in the tunnels under the city and yet they never seem to be able to
find them all. The following is from a New York Post article (http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/item_cBpY2m15R9J0ysIm58QK1M) about the "Mole People" that live
underneath New York City...
The homeless people who live down here are called Mole People. They do not,
as many believe, exist in a separate, organized underground society. It's more
of a solitary existence and loose-knit community of secretive, hard-luck
individuals.
The New York Post followed one homeless man known as "John Travolta" on a
tour through the underground world. What they discovered was a world that is
very much different from what most New Yorkers experience...
In the tunnels, their world is one of malt liquor, tight spaces,
schizophrenic neighbors, hunger and spells of heat and cold. Travolta and the
others eat fairly well, living on a regimented schedule of restaurant leftovers,
dumped each night at different times around the neighborhood above his
foreboding home.
Even as the Dow hits record high after record high, poverty in New York City
continues to rise at a very frightening pace. Incredibly, the number of
homeless people sleeping in the homeless shelters of New York City has increased
by a whopping 19 percent (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324539404578340731809639210.html?m od=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_second) over the past year.
In many of our major cities, the homeless shelters are already at maximum
capacity and are absolutely packed night after night. Large numbers of homeless
people are often left to fend for themselves.
That is one reason why we have seen the rise of so many tent cities.
Yes, the tent cities are still there, they just aren't getting as much
attention these days because they do not fit in with the "economic recovery"
narrative that the mainstream media is currently pushing.
In fact, many of the tent cities are larger than ever. For example, you can
check out a Reuters video about a growing tent city in New Jersey that was
posted on YouTube at the end of March right
here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhTUWbpEACA). A lot of these tent cities have now become permanent fixtures, and
unfortunately they will probably become much larger when the next major economic
crisis strikes.
But perhaps the saddest part of all of this is the massive number of children
that are suffering night after night.
For the first time ever, more than a
million (http://www.nlchp.org/view_release.cfm?PRID=148) public school children in the United States are homeless. That
number has risen by 57
percent (http://www.nlchp.org/view_release.cfm?PRID=148) since the 2006-2007 school year.
So if things are really "getting better", then why in the world do we have
more than a million public school children without homes?
These days a lot of families that have lost their homes have ended up living
in their vehicles. The following is an excerpt from a 60 Minutes interview (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57330802/hard-times-generation-families-living-in-cars/) with one family that is living in their
truck...
This is the home of the Metzger family. Arielle,15. Her brother Austin, 13.
Their mother died when they were very young. Their dad, Tom, is a carpenter.
And, he's been looking for work ever since Florida's construction industry
collapsed. When foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck on Craigslist
with his last thousand dollars. Tom's a little camera shy - thought we ought to
talk to the kids - and it didn't take long to see why.
Pelley: How long have you been living in this truck?
Arielle Metzger: About five months.
Pelley: What's that like?
Arielle Metzger: It's an adventure.
Austin Metzger: That's how we see it.
Pelley: When kids at school ask you where you live, what do you tell 'em?
Austin Metzger: When they see the truck they ask me if I live in it, and when
I hesitate they kinda realize. And they say they won't tell anybody.
Arielle Metzger: Yeah it's not really that much an embarrassment. I mean,
it's only life. You do what you need to do, right?
But after watching a news report or reading something on the Internet about
these people we rapidly forget about them because they are not a part of "our
world".
Another place where a lot of poor people end up is in prison. In a previous
article (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/private-prisons-the-more-americans-they-put-behind-bars-the-more-money-they-make), I detailed how the prison population in the United States has been
booming in recent years. If you can believe it, the United States now has
approximately 25 percent of the entire global prison population even though it
only has about 5 percent of the total global population.
And these days it is not just violent criminals that get thrown into prison.
If you lose your job and get behind on your bills, you could be thrown into
prison as well. The following is from a recent CBS News article (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57577994/as-economy-flails-debtors-prisons-thrive/)...
Roughly a third of U.S. states today jail people for not paying off their
debts, from court-related fines and fees to credit card and car loans, according
to the American Civil Liberties Union. Such practices contravene a 1983 United
States Supreme Court ruling that they violate the Constitutions's Equal
Protection Clause.
Some states apply "poverty penalties," such as late fees, payment plan fees
and interest, when people are unable to pay all their debts at once. Alabama
charges a 30 percent collection fee, for instance, while Florida allows private
debt collectors to add a 40 percent surcharge on the original debt. Some Florida
counties also use so-called collection courts, where debtors can be jailed but
have no right to a public defender. In North Carolina, people are charged for
using a public defender, so poor defendants who can't afford such costs may be
forced to forgo legal counsel.
The high rates of unemployment and government fiscal shortfalls that followed
the housing crash have increased the use of debtors' prisons, as states look for
ways to replenish their coffers. Said Chettiar, "It's like drawing blood from a
stone. States are trying to increase their revenue on the backs of the
poor."
If you are poor, the United States can be an incredibly cold and cruel
place. Mercy and compassion are in very short supply.
The middle
class (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/tag/middle-class) continues to shrink and poverty continues to grow with each passing
year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately one out of every six (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302997/U-S-sees-highest-poverty-spike-1960s-leaving-50-million-Americans-poor-government-cuts-billions-spending.html) Americans is now living in poverty. And
if you throw in those that are considered to be "near poverty", that number
becomes much larger. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/census-shows-1-in-2-peopl_1_n_1150128.html) are either "poor" or "low
income".
For many more facts about the rapid increase of poverty in this country,
please see my previous article entitled "21
Statistics About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America That Everyone Should
Know (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-statistics-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-everyone-should-know)".
But even as poverty grows, it seems like the hearts of those that still do
have money are getting colder. Just check out what happened recently at a
grocery store that was in the process of closing down in Augusta, Georgia (http://www.globalresearch.ca/american-dream-food-loaded-into-dumpsters-while-hundreds-of-hungry-americans-restrained-by-police/5329966)...
Residents filled the parking lot with bags and baskets hoping to get some of
the baby food, canned goods, noodles and other non-perishables. But a local
church never came to pick up the food, as the storeowner prior to the eviction
said they had arranged. By the time the people showed up for the food, what was
left inside the premises—as with any eviction—came into the ownership of the
property holder, SunTrust Bank.
The bank ordered the food to be loaded into dumpsters and hauled to a
landfill instead of distributed. The people that gathered had to be restrained
by police as they saw perfectly good food destroyed. Local Sheriff Richard
Roundtree told the news “a potential for a riot was extremely
high.”
Can you imagine watching that happen?
But of course handouts and charity are only temporary solutions. What the
poor in this country really need are jobs, and unfortunately there
has not been a jobs recovery in the United States (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/more-than-101-million-working-age-americans-do-not-have-a-job) since the recession
ended.
In fact, the employment crisis looks like it is starting to take another turn
for the worse. The number of layoffs in the month of March was 30
percent (http://www.cnbc.com/id/100615660) higher than the same time a year ago.
Meanwhile, small businesses are indicating that hiring is about to slow down
significantly. According to a recent survey by the National Federation of
Independent Businesses, small businesses in the United States are extremely
pessimistic right now. The following is what Goldman Sachs had to say (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-09/small-businesses-planning-hire-0) about this survey...
Components of the survey were consistent with the decline in headline
optimism, as the net percent of respondents planning to hire fell to 0% (from
+4%), those expecting higher sales fell to -4% (from +1%), and those reporting
that it is a good time to expand ticked down to +4% (from +5%). The net percent
of respondents expecting the economy to improve was unchanged at -28%, a
very depressed level. However, on the positive side, +25% of respondents
plan increased capital spending [ZH: With Alcoa CapEx spending at a 2 year
low]. Small business owners continue to place poor sales, taxes, and red
tape at the top of their list of business problems, as they have for the past
several years.
So why aren't our politicians doing anything to fix this?
For example, why in the world don't they stop millions of our jobs from being
sent out of the country?
Well, the truth is that they don't think we have a problem. In fact, U.S.
Senator Ron Johnson recently said (http://economyincrisis.org/content/senator-ron-johnson-says-that-record-u-s-trade-deficits-dont-matter) that U.S. trade deficits "don't matter".
He apparently does not seem alarmed that more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities (http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2011/nov/07/betty-sutton/betty-sutton-says-average-15-us-factories-close-ea/) have been shut down
in the United States since 2001.
And since the last election, the White House has seemed to have gone into
permanent party mode.
On Tuesday (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/another-exclusive-party-wh-taxpayer-expense_716159.html), another extravagant party will be held at the White
House. It is being called "In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul",
and it is going to include some of the biggest names in the music
industry...
As the White House has previously announced (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-memphis-soul-concert-feature-justin-timberlake-al-green-queen-latifah-and-others_714466.html), Justin Timberlake (who will be making
his White House debut), Al Green, Ben Harper, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper,
Joshua Ledet, Sam Moore, Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples, and others will be
performing at the exclusive event.
And so who will be paying for all of this?
You and I will be. Even as the Obamas cry about all of the other "spending
cuts" that are happening, they continue to blow millions of taxpayer dollars on
wildly extravagant parties and vacations.
Overall, U.S. taxpayers will spend well over a billion
dollars on the Obamas this year.
I wonder what the tunnel people that live under the streets of America think
about that.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Living-Underground-Photo-by-Patrick-Cashin-425x282.jpg (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-tunnel-people-that-live-under-the-streets-of-america/living-underground-photo-by-patrick-cashin)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-12/guest-post-tunnel-people-live-under-streets-america