Future of America? Look towards Russia.

As strange as it may sound, there is already a working model of the American Future. Another country has already achieved the goal that our current law makers and leaders seek to create.

The answer is modern Russia. When Russia ended communism, the went immediately from nationalized business to unbridled, unregulated, and unchallenged capitalism. No rules. No limits. No ethics.

Russia’s current form of capitalism has grown since the beginning of 1992. That is only 20 years to create the complete capitalism engine to compete with the powers of global capitalism. There was no time to put in regulations. No time to put in protections for workers, or any kind of employment regulations. No time to put in any environmental controls or protections. No time to put in an regulations that make sure that the society benefits from the activities of capitalism.

The result? The complete classification of the population into two groups. 99% poor. 1% rich. Middle class does not exist. The society is the slaves of the business giants who are “too big to fail”. In Russia, these people behind the businesses are called “oligarchs” They are given preferential treatment by the government because they have bought their way into being “above the law”.

So what can we look forward to in the vision of the GOP where “corporations are people”? Lets take a look at the Russian “post communism”, unregulated capitalism statistics.

Once capitalists were given total control of the Russian society and no safeguards were put in place for the people…Estimates by the World Bank based on both macroeconomic data and surveys of household incomes and expenditures indicate that whereas 1.5% of the population was living in poverty (defined as income below the equivalent of $25 per month) in the late Soviet era, by mid-1993 between 39% and 49% of the population was living in poverty.[7] Per capita incomes fell by another 15% by 1998, according to government figures.

Public health indicators show a dramatic corresponding decline. In 1999, total population fell by about three-quarters of a million people. Meanwhile life expectancy dropped for men from sixty-four years in 1990 to fifty-seven years by 1994, while women’s dropped from seventy-four to about seventy-one. Both health factors and sharp increase in deaths of mostly young people from unnatural causes (such as murders, suicides and accidents caused by increased disregard for safety) have significantly contributed to this trend. As of 2009, life expectancy is higher than at the nadir of the crisis in 1994, yet it still remains below the 1990 level, with men living to 59, and with women decreasing to live until 70.

Alcohol-related deaths skyrocketed 60% in the 1990s. Deaths from infectious and parasitic diseases shot up 100%[citation needed], mainly because medicines were no longer affordable to the poor. There are now roughly one and half times as many deaths as births per year in Russia. By 2011, the average income has risen to more than $700 per month, emblematic of the mild recovery in recent years thanks to a large extent to high oil prices. But the growing income is not being evenly distributed. The social inequality has risen sharply during the 1990s with the Gini coefficient, for example, reaching 42% by the end of 2010. Russia’s income disparities are now nearly as large as Brazil, which has long been among the world leader in inequality, and the regional disparities in the level of poverty are still growing sharper.

The good news for the USA is that we ARE NOT A Capitalistic society. (Athough the GOP would lead you to believe we are.) America is a DEMOCRACY. We are able to make laws and VOTE to create protections. The same protections that created the unique MIDDLE CLASS of people in America. The unique society that we created and now the GOP is trying to destroy.

Where is the proof in what I am saying? Look at the 2007 statistics. This is BEFORE Obama took office. This is the data of the FULL effects of the Bush Presidency and the laws his administration created to make “business free” and to “make corporations people”. REMEMBER…THIS DATA IS BEFORE THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2008!!!!

In 2007, the last year captured by the data, 44 percent of families lived in neighborhoods the study defined as middle-income, down from 65 percent of families in 1970. At the same time, a third of American families lived in areas of either affluence or poverty, up from just 15 percent of families in 1970.

We are on a fast train towards becoming like Russia. Obama has not done a good job stopping the train, let alone turning us back towards a government that is “for the people”. Businesses are pushing our society towards poverty and making our lives miserable by less pay and worse working conditions.

The only good news in the next year is that it is very unlikely that a GOP candidate will reach the Presidency. Lets hope that Obama will do a better job with his next 4 years. We don’t have much rope left before we start hanging ourselves.

Itia (abroad)

The Myth of the American Middle Class

Most poor Americans consider themselves middle class.  America is a society in which citizens chase illusions.  This fact has made us one of the greatest countries on earth because chasing dreams, even though they may not be realistic, is the stuff that invention and progress is made.  One of the staples of this illusion chasing is the concept of the “middle class”.   The struggle for the media is the definition of middle class as well as the definition of poverty.  This problem was further aggravated by the introduction of the upper and lower middle class definitions introduced in the 1960’s.

The actual income level for middle class is not defined by the government, but the income level for “poverty” is set at $22,050 for a family of four.  Anyone who lives in America will agree that a family of four trying to survive on $22,050 a year is impossible and therefore can be defined as poverty.  This is where the logic ends.  Poverty at much higher income levels is the reality, but everyone from the government to the media is not willing to define it.  So let me help end this confusion.

The American dream is the concept of middle class or higher.  To be middle class is to house a family in a home (not an apartment), with individual transportation for each adult.  For this example of a family of four, we will assume that the kids are not of driving age.  In addition to shelter and transportation, the middle class family has the ability to save at least 10% of their take home pay, save another 10% for higher education for their kids, have full health care coverage, car insurance, cell phones for each member of the family, an Internet connection, cable television, food for everyone including at least 2 meals out at restaurants each week, the ability to take at least one week of vacation for the entire family once a year, and to have at least 20% of their income as disposable cash.  If you set the 10% of savings for higher education for your kids and 20% of disposable cash to just $10,000 you can come up with an exact amount to attain the American Dream of Middle Class.

So what is the magic income number to be a middle class family of four?  The answer is $152,000.

The annual expenses are shown on the following table.

Income	$152,000.00
Taxes	$38,000.00
Mortgage	$30,000.00
Auto Loans	$12,000.00
Auto Insurance	$2,400.00
Life Insurance	$600.00
Cell phones	$1,800.00
Cable TV	$720.00
Internet	$600.00
Dining	$5,200.00
food	$15,600.00
savings	$15,200.00
College fund	$10,000.00
Disposable cash	$20,000.00

So now that you understand that you are NOT middle class, but rather a member of the American poor, exactly how many people are there in the American Middle Class?  The truth is that less than 6% of Americans earn more than $100,000.  So much for the over hyped American middle class!  The fact is that Middle Class America is a myth.  So few Americans qualify financially for the American Dream of middle class that it is fair to say that it does not exist.

Welcome to the new 3^rd world concept of middle class.  All the McDonalds you can eat.  All the busses you can ride.  All the t-shirts and shorts you can wear.  What about the ability to build a future for your family?  Forget about it.

Help, I am ItiA