Dr.LUKE'S iDLE UTTERANCE

自由と平等の国、アメリカンドリームの現実。

・No Jobs, No Hope, No Future: 27 Signs That America’s Poverty Class Is Rapidly Becoming Larger Than America’s Middle Class

#1 Only 47 percent of working-age Americans have a full-time job at this point.

#2 One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line.

#3 In America today, 8.9 million people are working part-time jobs for "economic reasons".

#4 During the last school year, almost half of all school children in the state of Illinois came from families that were considered to be "low-income".

#5 In 2010, more Americans than ever before were living below the official federal poverty line.
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#6 The number of net jobs gained by the U.S. economy during this past decade was smaller than during any other decade since World War 2.

#7 The Bureau of Labor Statistics originally predicted that the U.S. economy would create approximately 22 million jobs during the decade of the 2000s, but it turns out that the U.S. economy only produced about 7 million jobs during that time period.

#8 108.6 million Americans are either unemployed, underemployed or considered to be "not in the labor force".

#9 The United States now has 10 percent fewer "middle class jobs" than it did just ten years ago.

#10 The number of Americans that have become so discouraged that they have given up searching for work completely now stands at an all-time high.

#11 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.

#12 According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, visits to soup kitchens are up 24 percent over the past year.

#13 Approximately 5 million U.S. homeowners are now at least two months behind on their mortgage payments.

#14 The number of Americans filing for bankruptcy rose another 9 percent in 2010.

#15 In 2009, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States.

#16 According to a survey released very close to the end of 2010, 55 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.

#17 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#18 The number of Americans on food stamps set a new all-time record every single month during 2010, and now well over 43 million Americans are enrolled in the program.

#19 Even in our nation's capital stunningly large numbers of Americans are suffering in desperate poverty. Today, 21.5 percent of the population of Washington D.C. is on food stamps.

#20 It now takes the average unemployed American over 33 weeks to find a job.

#21 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#22 The number of American families that were booted out of their homes and into the streets set a new all-time record in 2010.

#23 Some formerly great industrial cities are rapidly turning into ghost towns. For example, in Dayton, Ohio today 18.9 percent of all houses are now standing empty.

#24 Ten years ago, the "employment rate" in the United States was about 64%. Since then it has been constantly declining and now the "employment rate" in the United States is only about 58%. So where did all of those jobs go?

#25 A recent study by a law professor from the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States. Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies. It is getting really, really hard to live on a fixed income in the United States.

#26 In the United States today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.

#27 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

こちらのビデオからは経済崩壊後を想像することができる。まさにエドワード・ノートンとブラッド・ピッドの映画『ファイトクラブ』そのもの。もっともこの映画はもっと深いが・・・。

・Is This What The Whole Country Is Going To Look Like After The Economy Collapses?: 4 Restaurant Brawl Videos That Are So Wild You Won't Believe They Happened In America

要するに「万民による万民のための闘争」だ。そこで現実に食料をストックする動きも出ている。

・Food Storage 101, What to Store

国家や政治、社会・経済システムなどは、究極的には人間の生存のための資源をいかに配分するかをその使命としている。この点で見れば、自由主義も社会主義も目的は同じ。それが維持し得るのは万民がそれを信頼し、それに自己の生存を委託しているからだ。この"信仰"が崩壊すれば、後は実力行使しかないわけ。究極的にはリバータリアニズム的に、自分で国家機能を果たしていかなくてはならない。

その意味では日本の縄文時代は理想的社会だったかもしれない。10,000年以上も続き、しかも闘争の痕がほとんど見らないのだ。年に1度2,3ヶ月木の実を収拾し、それで必要カロリーのほとんどが満たされ、時に山の動物や海産物を食していたわけで、彼らのレシピを見るとかなり豪華な食生活を享受していたのだ。それゆえにあれだけの無駄の多い、芸術的な縄文土器ができたわけだ。これからはどうも、山に篭り、自給自食生活がイイのかもしれない。要はGDP成長信仰を捨ててパラダイムシフトすればよい。私的にはとても心惹かれる次第。

追記：教会もその建物を抵当に取られるケースが増加中。そもそも教会堂などはローンを組んで建てるものではない。幕屋のごとく、いつでもたたんで動けるように、パウロのように自分の金で借りればよいのだ。あのクリスタルカセードラルも破産したようであるし、いずれニッポンキリスト教でも起きてくる。アホな牧師たちの野心は打ち倒される。

・Churches Find End Is Nigh　- The Number of Religious Facilities Unable to Pay Their Mortgage Is Surging