8 Reasons the US has Become a Nation of Slaves

1) Stagnant wages
Are you partying like it’s 1999? That’s because you’re earning money like it’s 1999. Over the past 11 years, the median household income has been flat as a corpse’s pulse.

If everything gets more expensive over time but no one gets a raise, workers will afford less goods and services. This means people will either work the same amount for less stuff, or work harder for the same stuff. Either way, it’s a sh*tty deal.


2) Dual-income Nation
We’re a country of family values, right? Wrong. We’ve built an economy that requires two incomes to attain middle class status. It has even become a luxury for one spouse to stay home to raise children! (But that’s more of an existential issue …)

The graph above illustrates one of the most basic tenets of economics: if there is twice as much cash floating around the economy, the cost of things simply rises in direct proportion. In this case, adding an extra worker per household has increased household income. As a result, sellers of houses, child care, health insurance, cars, etc. have upped their prices to take more of our dollars

3) Energy and Food Inflation
Remember $4 gas? Well, we’re back to $3 (double last year’s low). Every time a car ride costs more, that’s less money left over for things other than getting from point A to point B. As oil prices continue to rise with global demand (and diminishing supply), we will spend more hours working just to get to and fro.

Food is the ultimate necessity. So, when prices rise, there’s not much to do if you don’t care for the taste of cat food. It’s harder to notice 20-30% food inflation when a $2 item jumps to $2.40. But when your average bill moves from $100 to $120, those $20 bills are no longer available for things beyond basic sustenance.

4) Skyrocketing costs for Health Care and Education
One of the biggest thieves of retirement has been the unconscionable rise of health care and education costs. With health insurance costs jumping 10-25% per year, a worker with stagnant paychecks is on the long road to bankruptcy. (See Health Insurance Companies Price Gouging the US Economy)

Got a child or two? Do you want them to go to college? Well you better get rich, fast. The College Board’s study of college pricing trends shows costs have exploded 300% since 1980. That’s especially interesting since median household wages are up only 10-15% over the same time period. Maybe home schooling is better than the poor house.

5) Mauled Retirement Accounts
Have you seen those new John Hancock commercials where the boomer couples are instant messaging each other about either moving in with their children or fearing the longevity of their retirement account? Well, that’s a good reflection of how bad retirement accounts were hit after a decade of bubbles bursting. And without money for retirement, we work until we drop dead

6) No Savings
The Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey shows that 43% of Workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Really? Then the word retirement does not apply to these people because $10,000 is surely not enough to live off when even a generous 6% annuity would be paying only $600 a year before taxes.

But the scariest stat from the survey is 54% of workers are “clueless” about saving for retirement. This stat is a direct indictment on how crappy our school systems have become — and I’m talking about colleges too.

7) Trillions in Debt
Can we dig ourselves out of a $12.7 Trillion hole? If we can, it’s going to take a backbreaking amount of labor … and that’s just to fill the hole.

This debt is directly reflective of slavery. For every dollar of our debt, we owe a creditor who lent us the money. So, before we can use all our tax dollars to add value to our domestic economy and society, we have to skim a lot off the top to pay our masters their due.

8) Jobs Exported Overseas
If we are going to deal with all the costs above, we need to earn money. However, while we were drunk on credit card debt over the past 30 years, our Congressman and once domestic corporations shipped millions of middle class jobs to whichever country would do the job cheapest.

Think only the middle market has been affected? Now some of the brightest and most ambitious minds are accepting jobs in hot markets like China and Singapore. These people aren’t dumb: if the jobs move, they realize they must too.

i dont know, maybe i wasnt aware before, but... when has anyone on ATS ever seen so many articles declaring the US to be over, done with, goose is cooked, ready to kick the can, fallen empire before ? 2010-2020 is gonna be a hell of a decade...

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[edit on 6-4-2010 by TheCoffinman]

All very valid points, concise and well written. Sadly none of our so called leaders have any answers. Well actually they are in collusion to make this a third world country. Hpe these CEOs can support their whole families.

is there a link where this came from?

reply to post by TheCoffinman


In it's current state it is unsustainable...we will ruin ourselves. There is a solution that can be done right now without government and on our own free-will. It all goes back to how business was ran at the signing of our Constitution. At that time...all businesses were partnerships. That means the majority of people all owned a business and worked in that business. We can do this again if we just had the will. What that means is local made products. No paying wages, as each partner of a business is paid through profits of that business. No payments to FICA, workers comp, or unemployment etc. because nobody in the business is an "employee."

We can do that again, right now. We can start locally in small groups making all the products that have been shipped overseas. The choice is ours really.

reply to post by double_frick

is there a link where this came from?

Wall St. Cheat Sheet

I looked it up for ya.

[edit on 4/5/10 by FortAnthem]

If the middle class stand united and walk out of their jobs for a month. Things can change real fast. No trains, no plains, no schools no hospital work etc. etc. National strike. I remember once USA had thrown out Russian Diplomats from United States. In retaliation Russians ordered its citizen not to work for Americans in Embassies and in their homes. Especially garbage. In a months time USA had to reverse its decision. But it requires sacrifice.

[edit on 5-4-2010 by charlie0]

[edit on 5-4-2010 by charlie0]

Americans seem to have become devalidated.

If you aren't a perfect electric-clone-robot there is something wrong with you,

not with the corporation pushing their prescriptive advertising on you.

Or you can try for government validation & credibility,

Steered on with poisonous attitudes.

And maybe it is the cloning on the inside of our brains that is perhaps worse than all the look-alike on the outside.

We always seem to be looking without for the design of ourselves & our lives rather than within.

You can be whatever you want to be, & if need be you can make stuff up.

Self validation is as good as any of this other nonsense,
& as long as you are not trespassing on others no one has a right to object.

It is like we are all trying to be industrialized monotony. yuck.

Be yourself. If not, why are you even alive?

If you don't know who you are, make something up & try it. If you don't like that try something else.

All these voices of 'authority' are mostly a bunch of empty losers inflicting their bizarre ignorance on innocent & gullible others.

reply to post by TheCoffinman



All of these lead back to one main problem that no wants to see because then they are part of the very problem the complain about. What is it you ask?


The two party system is to blame. It is a control system set up to make us think we are getting change when in reality they are one in the same. Think about this way we have a republican president and after a time we get sick of the policies and lies so we vote for change and get a democrat and they make us believe we are getting change when it is the same agenda just a different paint job. Rinse and repeat over and over again until nothing is left of the American dream

reply to post by Subjective Truth


Yes. I think you are right. What happens when we all decide to stop being predictable and reacting to everything someone else tells us? I think we know the answer...all those that seek to control us will have ZERO power. In fact they will become irrelevant.