SLL is not the only one who believes America has been in a humungous depression since the turn of the century. From Jim Quinn at theburningplatform.com:
The mainstream media mouthpieces for the establishment peddle false narratives, disingenuous storylines, and outright propaganda to keep the ignorant masses confused, oblivious to reality, misinformed, and passively submissive to the opinions of highly paid “experts” and captured fiscal authorities. The existing social order likes things just as they are.
They reap ill-gotten riches, wield unchecked power, and control the minds of the masses. They are the invisible government consciously manipulating the minds, habits and opinions of the multitudes in order to dominate society, control the levers of government, and accumulate obscene levels of wealth through manipulation of the currency and domination of the banking and corporate interests.
One of the false narratives being flogged by the establishment propaganda peddlers is the mass retirement of Baby Boomers causing the plunge in the employment to population rate from 64.4% in 2000 to 59.7% today. They need to peddle this drivel, because the difference between these two rates amounts to 12 million missing jobs. The employment to population ratio is currently at 1984 levels. Any critical thinking person with basic math skills realizes the government reported unemployment rate of 5% is an Orwellian farce.
Over 40% of working age Americans aren’t working, amounting to 102 million people, and the establishment touts the ludicrous lie of a 5% unemployment rate. With only 123 million Americans employed full-time and virtually all the job “growth” since 2009 in non-producing low paying service jobs in the retail, restaurant, hospitality and healthcare industries, wages and household income remain stagnant. The 12 million shortfall in jobs isn’t due to Boomers retiring, as this chart proves beyond a shadow of a doubt. Only an Ivy League educated economist or CNBC talking head could pretend to be confused.
We know for a fact 10,000 Americans have been turning 65 years old every day for the last few years and will for the next fifteen years. When the employment to population ratio peaked in 2000 at 64.4%, the ratio for senior citizens was only 12%. It had remained between 10% and 12% for over two decades. There were 35 million Americans over 65 years old in 2000, and 31 million of the them were not employed. They made up a large portion (44%) of the 70 million people not in the labor force.
Today there are 48 million Americans over 65 years old, and 39 million of them are not employed. The establishment narrative is blown to smithereens by the FACT they now only account for 41% of the 94 million people not in the labor force. There are only 14 million more employed Americans today than in the year 2000, while there are 5 million more employed Americans over the age of 65. They have accounted for 36% of all the jobs created in the last 16 years. The percentage of senior citizens working is at an all-time high of 18.9% and rising.
The narrative of retiring Baby Boomers being the cause for the plunging participation rate is entirely false. The data is not hidden. It’s easily accessible. Any CNBC pundit, Wall Street Journal reporter, or Ivy League MBA Wall Street analyst with even a smattering of math skills could discern the truth. Based on the fact they continue to flog false narratives, makes you believe their job and intent is to obscure the truth, obfuscate the facts, and paint a rosy picture for their establishment bosses. There are almost 4 million less Americans aged 16 to 55 employed today than there were in 2007. Does that happen in an economic recovery?
To continue reading: Hard Times & False Narratives
I’m 53 and am constantly amazed at the numbers of older men, notably white and disenfranchised, who are forced to work ridiculous hours away from family and friends in order to give their loved ones the support they need in an economy built upon the fantasy that off shoring your manufacturing base will somehow magically create demand and monies here that will pay for it all. As I’ve said to others… when there is no money here to buy the stuff that’s made over “there” it will finally grind to a disastrous halt. A nation that ceases to make things will simply cease to exist. We can’t all be financial analysts, nurses, or low paid “assistants”… and when there are not enough professions that have disposable income to fuel the false consumerist narrative then reality might actually rear its head