Pew Research has a report out on poverty in America. Some of their numbers are, to say the least, shocking. For example, “… the share of the population in the nation’s urban areas increased from 70% to 81% over that 50-year period.” [between 1960 and 2010]
To be more informed on poverty in America, please read the following article.
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We moved here to Texas for a lot of reasons. Among others was the cost of living. The only thing that can make it a more advantageous place to live is, if you can bring your job with you! But warning, if you’re a more left thinking person, you may not last here. This state (excluding the big cities) is very conservative in their thinking. I’ve seen more than one couple buy here and leave shortly after moving here.
Consider, based on the map below, that if you moved from California to Texas with the same income you would be benefiting from a 16%+ raise! Which isn’t too hard to believe since the PRC’s (People’s Republic of California) income tax alone is 13%.!! But groceries don’t cost as much here either.
Texans welcome everyone from everywhere… as long as they think, act, and work like true Americans.
Y’all come on down. This may be the only place for you to survive in our future country..?
The grand old typewriter company has grown over several decades into a huge corporation employing 100’s of thousands of people all over the world. Before the 90’s IBM was a ‘full employment’ company — you get hired, you’re there for the duration. But around 1993 that all changed…
With the hiring of Lou Gershner (aka, the hatchet man), IBM decided to trim down a bit. Having 400,000 employees world wide, one can fairly assume there was some ‘fat’ in the company. So, they dumped 150,000 people! As a result, the stock price jumped and the company looked good! Ultimately however (over several years) they hired people back into the company and they were back up to 400,000 world wide.
Ah, but wait, there’s the rest of the story. At that time IBM had 250,000 employees inside the U.S. and 150K in other countries. Until recently (this year), they had 400K again. But, the employees within the U.S. is now closer to 60,000!! Why? Because they can get Russian programmers as an example for 1/4th the cost of an American. The Indians for 1/8th. And the Chinese for even less!! Of course we don’t care about ‘quality’ any longer.?
What is stunning is the fact that IBM refuses to report their layoffs per government order. And to help hide their actions, they layoff a few at a time so as to not bring attention to themselves. And from what I hear, they are significantly reducing their ‘sales’ workforce..? I’m not sure how that works? But then I’m not a ‘gifted’ corporate executive…
What’s your point you ask? My point is simply this. If America is going to reignite this country’s GDP, we’re going to need to start ‘producing something’, a LOT of somethings. Consuming products does not make for a healthy economy. Making things does. It’ll be interesting to see where IBM ends up.??
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Everyone has heard of the FDIC insurance on their bank accounts. Consequently no one is concerned about their money being ‘lost‘ as a result of a ‘significant event‘. However what they don’t know is, how much money does the fed have to cover America’s bank accounts?
Per FDIC rules individuals’ accounts are covered up to $250,000. Joint accounts (married couples) are covered up to $500,000. Which all sounds great. But I recently got this information which is concerning.
“In the U.S., the FDIC has about $30 billion in capital. But those funds are all it has to back an estimated $9 trillion worth of deposits in the U.S. In essence, the FDIC is broke and in the event of a major bank failure or systemic failure, your money at U.S. banks could also go up in smoke.”
I find this similar to the California earthquake coverage. At one time residents of California could buy commercial insurance to cover their home in the event of earthquake. However several years ago the insurance commissioner in California changed the law. He required that any company operating within the California boards were required to offer earthquake insurance — whether they could afford it or not! Consequently all insurance companies dropped their coverage for homes in California.
In response, California created an earthquake insurance fund. The purpose was to cover anyone who chose to pay the premiums to California!! One problem, homes in California are often priced at $1M or more for a three bedroom older home! I actually read the state law and it stated that those funds would cover homes up to the balance of the earthquake fund’s balance — everyone else, you’re screwed!! Oh, by the way, their balance was about $30B!!?! How many million dollar homes will that cover??
This FDIC thing sure sounds a lot like California’s plan for residents..?! Scary stuff…
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Each day we are told how things are getting ‘so much better economically’..? Yet we watch the cost of food rising and salaries remain the same — especially if you’re retired! Well if things are so great, how come there’s so many companies closing stores? Why are companies laying off employees? How come Izod is closing its ‘outlet store’ at the Tanger market place — along with the other ‘120’ of their stores!!? If things are so bad that outlet stores can’t make it, what do you think the rest of America is doing?
Please read the following report and view the list of companies closing stores by the hundreds — e.g., Radio Shack closing 1784 stores!
You might ask yourself, “Why isn’t this national news?” Maybe because they don’t want you to know!!?
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Having worked at IBM for 20 years, I have some insight into what was going on within the company. During the early 90’s IBM had approximately 400,000 employees world wide — 250,000 of those employees were within the U.S. Around 1993 Lou Gershner took the helm and became the grand hatchet man!! Within about 1-1.5 years he shaved 150,000 employees from the rolls — we were down to ~250K total.
Now today IBM is back up to about 400K employees world wide. However, less than 100K of those jobs are in the U.S.!! What happened you ask? A LOT of American jobs went to India and China!! They started moving jobs to Russia, but found they were too expensive — ~$25K/year!! I personally talked to Indian technical people with masters degrees who were paid less than $20K/year. And when they try to get a job within the U.S, they don’t get paid any more!!? (Now you see why they have 6-10 people in one apartment here.)
Read the numbers and activity over the past several years here.
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