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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

How Americans Gave Away Their Freedom & Became Poor



Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
For Independent Minded People!
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1.      How Americans gave away their freedom & became poor
2.      Free Consumer Resource Guides, Cut Commute Costs
3.      Self Watering Containers, Save a Life Simulator
4.      I’d rather shop than exercise my freedom

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
- William James
How Did Americans Become Poor?

"If you can understand why a bathtub empties when the drain is opened, you can understand why Americans are now as poor as church mice."

Not long ago, we Americans were rich; now we are poor. How did that happen?
Actually, Americans are worse than "poor" – Americans are staggeringly indebted, in debt beyond anything that can ever be repaid (other than with worthless, hyperinflated dollars) and thus with a negative per-capita real net worth. Yet we are still borrowing trillions of dollars every year; by itself, the projected federal deficit for next year is over $1 trillion, for the fifth year in a row (Bush's last year and all four of Obama's). And the federal government's off-the-books debt (mostly, unfunded liabilities for Medicare and other programs) is $60 trillion to $202 trillion, depending on how you count and whose numbers you believe.

How did the linked disasters of mass poverty, staggering and rapidly growing debt, and imposition of a police state befall the wealthy, can-do population of the strongest, wealthiest, and most visibly free nation the world has ever known?

The answers – as explained in the short document below, provided by an anonymous source – are simple. Indeed, if those in the corporatist media were talking honestly about the reasons for our downfall, nearly everyone would understand the situation. This isn't brain surgery: If you can understand why a bathtub empties when the drain is opened, you can understand why Americans are now as poor as church mice and why tyranny has replaced freedom in this country.

Of course, our wealth hasn't entirely disappeared; most has simply been transferred from the people who created the wealth to a smaller group that benefits financially, in one way or another, from the use of government coercion against the rest of us.

First, arrange to take trillions of dollars away from those who create the nation's wealth, and to do so year after year. Only a government can do this, so that's the tool you have to work with. In our example for this lesson – the United States – the federal government was used to create the two major elements of the plan; both were put in place, ready to drain the wealth from an unsuspecting public, in 1913.
The first item was a nationwide income tax. The U.S. Constitution forbade such a thing, so a constitutional amendment was called for. The Sixteenth Amendment was ratified February 3, 1913. You'll want an income tax at a minimum, so plan accordingly.
Next…Read the rest here:


Stick with regular soap…anti-bacterial soap costs three times as much and studies have shown it to be no more effective in killing germs.

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

Consumer Resource Guides
Learn more with Nolo Press’ free guide to common consumer problems including eBay disputes, product warranties, product recalls and more at:

At USA.gov you can search through the Index of State and local consumer agencies to find which offices are dedicated to protecting your rights.

Find free legal help (for folks with low to moderate incomes) at: LawHelp.org

Cut Commuting Costs
Find other drivers going your way with this site:
Save a Life Simulator
You never know when you may need to do this ...
then send it on to others!

Self Watering Containers-Grow those vegetables
No garden?  No problem.  Each of these containers holds from 1.5 to 2.5 cubic feet of soil above an integrated reservoir system that lets the plants take in moisture by the roots.  The containers are big enough to grow lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and more.  Check your local Home Depot or these sites:

Also…check Tom Fox’s site for useful information at: www.Farmeresq.com
If you need a FREE kindle reader for your computer, cell phone, iPad or Android tablet click the link below. It's like getting a kindle for FREE!
Here is the link for the free reader:

Frugal fertilizer.  Douse your plants monthly with a mixture of one tablespoon of Epsom Salts and a gallon of water.
The Nanny State Updates…

"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." – Tacitus

It’s apparent the government doesn’t trust its people.  Why else would we see the invasion of our financial privacy, monitoring of communications, spy drones, militarization of police, etc.?

In October 2011, the police-related shooting death of unarmed man, Michael Nida, 31, raised serious questions about the state of policing in the city of Downey, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Why did it raise questions? The father of four who worked in construction wasn't shot with a handgun by one of the Downey Police Department's officers. He was shot with an MP5 submachine gun, the same gun used by the Navy Seals.
"Why would he have a machine gun?" asks Jean Thaxton, one of Nida's guardians since birth. "We're not in a war zone, I didn't think. I didn't think this was a war zone."

Even more Police State’ examples in California

Sharing a bed improves sleep according to research from the Univ of Pittsburgh - all of us flower children knew that already!

The Parting Thought- Let’s go shopping

Most Americans opt to go shopping rather than exercise what’s left of their freedoms…

"The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes."
-Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter

When it comes to politics (i.e. issues that have real consequences upon their lives), Americans are by and large, bored. They'd rather go shopping.

Most Europeans believe Americans are just plain stupid, though there is no scientific evidence to support this.  It’s often wondered among the elite, why we vote the same people into office over and over again and then wonder we get the same dismal results.

It’s no secret that Americans  are more enmeshed inside a consumer/celebrity/sports culture that diverts attention away from social-economic issues which effect the lives of working people along with the 24/7 propaganda message from the owner class of society that convinces normal everyday working Americans to vote against their own best interests.

This is why you see wild swings in polls. Americans seldom pay attention to real issues and politicians happily provide the poison they need to the citizenry.
Economic stagnation is a reality. The people suffering from that economic stagnation are also a reality. And when people suffer, they will do anything to alleviate the pain.

Anything.

Especially if the cause of the pain is a chronic and relentless condition with no end in sight.

As a country, we've done just that. We've been willing to give our freedoms away... one law, one Supreme Court ruling, one agency, and one "czar" at a time... if someone will just make everything all right. We've demanded government provide for us what we could do better ourselves. We've demanded "fairness," "safety," "acceptance," and "equal outcomes"... and never felt the chains tightening around us, never felt the noose slip over our necks.

Want to keep your guns? Tough. Mayor Bloomberg will threaten you with a police strike if you don't concede to gun control. Don't want to pay for abortion or birth control? Too bad. Obama isn't interested in your crisis of conscience. Don't like being strip searched and fondled when you go into an airport? That's what happens when you're willing to give up personal freedom for a little bit of safety... just keep returning the same freedom-bashing policians to office who passed the laws that allowed it.

As my late mother used to say “Americans have the power, they’re just too stupid to exercise it.”

“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man
Help us promote the Gospel according to the Poor Man at Self Reliance Expos this Fall

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1 comment:

escapeartist said...

How damned interesting...no wonder I feel like a pauper and a slave!