Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

When you change the way you see the world, the world you see will change.
- Dr. Wayne Dyer

What Good is Freedom if No One Uses it?

Although I don’t have my own talk show on Fox News, enough people have suggested I should. My place as a political pundit is nevertheless assured. More than 78% of you have given me your ‘thumbs up’ on Yahoo News Groups and other polls. The Poor Man has retained his place in the Top 50 Best Self Reliance Sites as well…our fourth year running!

The fiscal outlook is bad, still. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2014 federal deficit rings in at $486 billion. That’s 2.8 percent of gross domestic product—the federal budget deficit’s smallest share of the economy since 2007. (It was nearly 10 percent in 2009.) Should President Obama and federal lawmakers pat themselves on the back? Megan McArdle summarizes the rest of the story:

Congressional Budget Office projections currently show the deficit beginning to grow again in 2016, just in time for the presidential election. By 2019, it’ll be above its historical average, where it will stay until the end of the forecast window – and that historical average is itself a bit high, as it includes the post-war record deficit of the Obama administration, which ran close to 10 percent for several years.

If the growth in health-care costs continues to moderate, that may help a bit, but mostly, the rising cost of health care is not the problem. The problem is the rising number of aging citizens who will require Social Security benefits, Medicare and, eventually, Medicaid to pay for their nursing homes. For the next decade or so, it is demographics, not compound cost growth, that will account for most of our budget problems. And you can’t fix the demographics by directing providers to charge 2.9 percent less for their senior citizens. […]

As the Fed tightens up on monetary policy, our borrowing costs are going to rise, not just for the new debt we take on, but also for the debt we already have. As old debt matures, we’ve been borrowing at record-low interest rates, which has helped hold down the deficit. But as the Fed tightens, that party will end, and the numbers will start moving in the other direction. [Bloomberg View, October 14]

Locked doors only keep honest people out. Prying into ALL of our private affairs demonstrates that our government is not honest.

The reason the deficit has come down slightly is not that spending has moderated. Rather, as the CBO reports, tax revenues are up 9 percent—$239 billion over last year. [“Monthly Budget Review for September 2014,” Congressional Budget Office, October 8]

Starting in 1999, the Poor Man had created a case and strategy to reform our antiquated tax system which would include a flat tax system, the elimination of taxation on the first $25,000 of income for seniors and others, the elimination of many tax breaks and more…

· Long-term reforms of US tax system required to stop 'deserters'

Spare a thought for the poor US multinational. It has had a horrible time lately and been called lots of beastly names…

It would be nice to see our president and other politicians begin practicing that archaic art of telling the truth…

Here’s what we still know about stupidity in government. The government has, in recent months, been:

conducting warrantless surveillance of law-abiding citizens and the media;
arresting law-abiding citizens guilty of nothing more than criticizing government policies;
labeling military veterans who stand strong in defense of the Constitution as potential domestic terrorists;
carrying out military drills, complete with black-ops helicopters and tanks, in small towns and cities across the country;
distributing an arsenal of military equipment and amassing hollow-point bullets for domestic use;
and authorizing local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to use drones equipped with weapons and surveillance devices.

That’s just a small sampling of the countless tyrannies being exercised against the American people right now, tyrannies that have no place in a republic such as ours.

An overwhelming majority of voters in the most competitive 2014 elections say it feels as if events in the United States are “out of control” and expressed mounting alarm about terrorism, anxiety about Ebola and harsh skepticism of both political parties only three weeks before the Nov. 4 midterms. The accumulation of disparate fears has created a sense of pessimism and frustration across the midterm landscape.

The most dangerous element freedom faces are incompetent and/or corrupt politicians who are polluting our Constitution and bankrupting our nation.

What good is freedom of speech if no one is listening?

What good is a free education if no one uses it?

What good is democracy if no one participates?

What good is our Bill of Rights if politicians and law enforcement community can ignore them?

All I know is if you’re God fearing or Godless, we’re all in this together. I care about our freedom but apparently many other citizens do not. After all, what good is freedom if no one uses it?

The "economic recovery" that we all keep hearing about is mostly just a mirage. The percentage of Americans that are employed has barely budged since the depths of the last recession, the labor force participation rate is at a 36 year low, the overall rate of homeownership is the lowest that it has been in nearly 20 years and approximately 49 percent of all Americans are financially dependent on the government at this point.

To say that the U.S. economy is in trouble would be an understatement. According to Shadow Stats economist John Williams, we may be on the very cusp of a crisis so severe that it promises to re-write the entire paradigm…many international investors [the ones who continue propping up Wall Street] are getting nervous – I am too but as usual, the majority of people and the press is asleep at the wheel.

I’m starting to get old for some of this stuff…still full of piss but not so much vinegar. By year’s end I will have either sold or transferred all of my Poor Man sites and inventory…then I’ll go play with old women and sell kids to gypsies.