As an American expat who lives in the European Union, shortly after my arrival here I started to realize that I’d be freed from the propaganda exercise of the American plutocrat owned media.
So it is that at least for the ephemeral duration of this short diary originally published at the Daily Kos, that I invite you to come along with me and to see exactly what it is that the for profit American corporatists media owned and operated by the plutocracy never want you to see.
For openers what this diary will show you is that America is the only major industrialized nation in the world that as a human right does not provide a universal medical access plan for all residents (59 million Americans are without medical insurance), and that America is the only major industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t provide job protected paid maternity leave by right of law in support of true working class family values. Unlike every country in the European Union, America does not provide paid sick leave to 60 million working class Americans. Let’s put that in perspective, that is a population the size of France. Americans receive fewer annual leave days by half of any country in the European Union, and unlike every country in the European Union, American employers are not required by law to provide any annual leave.
The chart below which the Telegraph is referring to shows America ranking last in terms of unemployment benefits.
Getting this information out of how badly the American working class is exploited by the
plutocracy seems to be mission impossible, in fact this diary and ones like it as an
effort in citizen journalism will top out at less than 2,000 views, that is a drop in the
bucket, when we consider that agitators like Glenn Beck have an audience of an estimated
33 million per day, and this even after the cancellation of his Fox news televised
broadcast.
As an American expat who holds an MBA degree in marketing, even I know that the purpose of the plutocracy’s American corporatist media is not to inform you, it is rather to sell commercial advertising space.
This diary will show you what it is that mainstream news outlets in the European Union
say about the American dream and you will definitely be shocked, should you dare to read on…. You will see a record of sorrow wherein though American workers work more days than their European counterparts, they are in a system of legalized theft prevented by the plutocracy from being able to fully participate in the very wealth that they themselves have created through their own hard labor, and that this is in fact in sharp contrast to their counterparts in every country in the European Union, whose population is larger than that of the US, whose economy is larger than that of the US, and whose currency the Euro rivals the US dollar.
The US Dollar is being engineered to lose value as its no longer backed by gold. It is backed instead by words, referred to as the full faith and credit of the US government. But let’s understand that it’s not just the American people who have started losing faith in their government, it is also the Standard & Poor’s rating agency as well as the Chinese rating agency as described in an exclusive eye opening Spiegel magazine interview quoted on this diary.
There was a recent piece that was published by the New York Times written by Prof. Noam Chomskywhich includes the following quote on the issue of America in Decline.
August 6, 2011 –
America in Decline by Noam ChomskyNot even discussed is that the deficit would be eliminated if, as economist Dean Baker has shown, the dysfunctional privatized health care system in the U.S. were replaced by one similar to other industrial societies, which have half the per capita costs and health outcomes that are comparable or better.
Indeed we can always be very grateful to Prof Chomsky as a very experienced man for his cogent telling and insightful comments. The plutocracy however, seems to be hellbent on continuing down the path of unbridled avarice no matter what the cost to the American people, as they are quite happy to bankrupt a nation if only it means continuing to enrich themselves. In doing so they have made themselves a pariah class by profiting from the dysfunctional for-profit American medical system.
Death of the American working class dream
While the American mainstream plutocrat owned media has talked about America as a country in decline and has been downgraded by the Standard and Poor’s rating agency, how many Americans have heard that the primary debt holder of the United States –China’s rating agency has also downgraded the United States credit worthiness.
In fact the head of that rating agency Mr Guan Jianzhong truthfully points out the reality that the age of Western dominance as marked by conspicuous debt based consumption is over.
Though I’m just a working stiff with an MBA degree, even I know as in evidence by the chart appended next to these comments, that no Western country is more conspicuous in their debt based consumption than is the United States.
In fact as the British Guardian newspaper pointed out earlier last year, the American
working class decades long middle class lifestyle based on debt is gone! The only question is will it ever come back? To which I suggest to you Mr and Mrs Progressive America it will not come back. So it is that 5 million Americans have left America for the expat lifestyle, with millions more considering making that exact same move. Can we ask has the American exodus begun in earnest. What is the way out for working class people, when they see that American progressive politicians are bought by the K Street lobbyists just as soon as they’re elected. How do working class Americans escape underwater mortgages and the threat of medical bankruptcy, and the crushing student loan debt for our children living in indentured servitude.
Such is the anguish of millions not knowing the way out. Where do we turn?
Let’s remember that history has taught us that a superpower once in decline can crash quickly. For anyone who doesn’t believe that, I would invite them to look at the former Soviet Union as a contemporary case study. Once things started to unravel with the Soviet Union, things progressed quickly and it was over. That’s the way empires decline. Such was the case with the Napoleonic empire and such was the case with Rome. Now the question becomes is it the turn of the American empire? Are we next? In contemplation with that coming reality, I offer the cogent quote below from the exclusive Spiegel interview with Mr Jianzhong.
The head of state-owned Chinese rating agency Dagong, Guan Jianzhong, 57, speaks to SPIEGEL about China’s economic model, why he believes the rating system used by the Big Three is a threat to the world and the twilight of Western dominance…….
SPIEGEL:Were American rating agencies unable to look at the situation from the same sober perspective?
Guan: My major criticism is that they do not evaluate and rate a countr
y according towhat actually causes risks to creditworthiness. Instead, they use ideology and values.If we keep using this rating system, the whole world will be in great danger.
SPIEGEL: Will China invest less in US bonds from now on?
Guan: I personally think it’s unsafe to invest in US bonds. It is too risky. But the Chinese government might have considerations other than just economic risk.
In terms of pure investment, however, it is not a wise decision any longer.SPIEGEL: Both the US and Europe are struggling with a massive debt crisis. Is this the
end of Western dominance?
Guan: The EU and the United States both have this model of borrowing money to boost their economic development. But they borrow money from the future, they mortgage a virtual fortune that they may — or may not — earn for their creditworthiness and their current consumption. This has been their model since World War II, but this model ended in the financial crisis of 2008. Continuously creating demand for credit to enlarge capital and cash flow has used up their creditworthiness. This means the model of economic development in developed Western capitalist countries has ended. It leads to another question: Should the government keep borrowing money to support its citizens in consuming much more and maintain high social standards? I think the answer is no.http://www.spiegel.de/internat…
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As we see a record 45 million Americans on food stamps, we see that sadly hunger in America is growing. Clearly this is a sad hallmark of a super power in decline. 
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/0…
I offer the following quote from Meteor Blades below on this issue and I would also like you to join our ‘I quote Meteor Blades’ group, which is a new group at the Daily Kos. Please feel invited to follow our group.
More Americans using food stamps than ever before: 45.8 million
the record on food stamps has been going on for well over two years now. In March 2009, that record was 31 million people. Now, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a whopping 45.8 million people are getting them. It would be a lot more, but only about 67 percent of the eligible people actually apply. It’s just one more example of the devastation wrought by the Great Recession…..
Guess who gets screwed in this GOP vision for America’s past future:
In fiscal year 2009, when the last USDA survey was done, 48 percent of all SNAP participants were children. A peer-reviewed study in 2009 (Estimating the Risk of Food Stamp Use and Impoverishment During Childhood) calculated that 49 percent of all children will receive food-stamp benefits sometime before they are 20 years old. Seniors make up 8 percent of recipients. Some 93 percent of recipients have incomes below the official poverty line……
Death of the American working class dream!
Americans have been living a middle-class lifestyle on working-class wages – and bridging the gap with credit. And it’s over.In a free-market society the real middle class is always a minority: if your street has a gate and a security camera at the end of it then you are middle class. A real middle-class kid can afford a college education, not a web-based degree. The real middle-class family does not skip meals or find its automobiles trapped in the repair shop because of unpaid bills.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm…
While we can all be proud Americans, surely we don’t have to proud of the broken American social safety net. There we can, should and must do better. To stop the exploitation of the American working class who through a legalized system of theft are being prevented from being able to fully participate in the wealth that they themselves create through their own hard work, which robs them of the working class American dream in a way that is not possible given the strong labor laws in the European Union.
If America is going to avoid becoming a third world country, it must invest in a European style social safety net for all of its people which has universal medical access as it’s centerpiece and America must invest in itself by upgrading it’s various critical infrastructures to standards seen in the European Union. This includes investing in hi-speed rail which is prevalent throughout the European Union and creates green jobs that cannot be outsourced.
Source: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/…
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(I invite you to please join or follow us at the Class Warfare group here at the Daily Kos.)
(Cross-posted by author from the Daily Kos.)
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