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Originally Posted by aceventura3
In the first minute of the first video the documentry creates several false premises upon which they argue that the banking system controls our economy.
For example - "goverment tells us inflation is low while the buying power of our pay checks is declining at an alarming rate". The buying power of American consumers is at the highest point in history. We purchase and consume more goods and services than at any point in history. Americans have more leisure time than ever, better medical than ever, better food than ever, better leisure activity choices than ever, better access to education than ever, safer products than ever, etc, etc, etc. It is not all financed with debt. In fact if you measure our national net worth (Assets - debt = networth) it is higher than ever. More people are retired than ever. People start working careers later than ever. Our standard of living is the envy of the world, and better than ever.
I will listen to the next minute of the video tomorrow.
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aceventura3, do you live in the same country that I live in?
Three basic criteria.....affordable housing, the number of residents living below the poverty line, and the trend, and the numbers and percentage of people covered by private health insurance, and the trend:
In early 2003, qualifying income to purchase average priced house in the US was $40,320, and average income was $52,500 annually.
Less than 4 years later, in 2006, qualifying income to purchase average priced house was $52,512, an increase of 30.4 percent.
Annual income rose in the same period from $52,500 to $56,784, an increase of 8.16 percent.....the percentage increase of income that was required to purchase the average priced house increased nearly 4 times the amount that salary increased, in less than 4 years.
If you are a non-hispanic white American, your poverty rate as a percentage of your total number is declining. there are however, 37 million Americans living in poverty, including nearly 25 percent of blacks and 17.6 percent of all challenge. The total poverty percentage is up more than ten percent in just 5 years, from a low of 11.3 percent in 2000, to 12.6 percent in 2005.
In the area of private healthcare coverage, there are statistics that show a total of 8.3 percent of Americans not covered by an insurance plan for the entire 1997 year, By 2003, that number nearly doubled, to 15.6 percent were without health insurance for the entire year.
Your description of the economic condition of Americans seems inaccurate to the point of disconnection, in view of the numbers that I've presented, ace...
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http://www.realtor.org/Research.nsf/files/REL0611A.pdf/$FILE/REL0611A.pdf
Median Priced Monthly Payment Median Affordability Indexes
Existing Single- Mortgage P & I as a % Family Qualifying
Year Family Home Rate* Payment of Income
2003 180,200 5.74 840 19.1 52,680 40,320
2004 195,200 5.73 909 20.2 54,061 43,632
2005 219,000 5.91 1,040 22.4 55,823 49,920
2006 219,700 6.35 1,094 23.1 56,784 52,512
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http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/pover...5/pov05hi.html
HIGHLIGHTS
* The official poverty rate in 2005 was 12.6 percent, not statistically different from 2004.
* In 2005, 37.0 million people were in poverty, not statistically different from 2004.
* Poverty rates remained statistically unchanged for Blacks (24.9 percent) and Hispanics (21.8 percent) between 2004 and 2005. The poverty rate decreased for non-Hispanic Whites (8.3 percent in 2005, down from 8.7 percent in 2004).
* After 4 years of consecutive increases, the poverty rate stabilized at 12.6 percent in 2005—higher than the most recent low of 11.3 percent in 2000 and lower than the rate in 1959 (22.4 percent), the first year for which poverty estimates are available.
* The poverty rate in 2005 for children under 18 (17.6 percent) remained higher than that of 18-to-64-year-olds (11.1 percent) and that of people 65 and older (10.1 percent)—all were not statistically different from 2004.
* In 2005, the number in poverty remained statistically unchanged from 2004 for people under 18 and people 18 to 64 years old (12.9 million and 20.5 million, respectively). The number in poverty increased for seniors 65 and older—3.6 million in 2005, up from 3.5 million in 2004.
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Quote:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p70-106.pdf
.....While a majority of people have private
health insurance, employment-based or
self-purchased, and others have
government-provided free health insurance,
some remain without health insurance.
2 According to the Annual Social and
Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the
Current Population Survey (CPS), 60.4 percent
of people in 2003 had employmentbased
health insurance, 26.6 percent had
government health insurance, and
15.6 percent were without health insurance
for the entire year.3
According to the Survey of Income and
Program Participation’s (SIPP) 1996 panel,
8.3 percent of people were without health
insurance coverage for the entire 1997
calendar year.4
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