Reality Check - America Not Working

Reality Check - America Not Working
By Tom Rhodes, 12/8/2014

The news last week is about Black Friday sales dropping 11% since last year, and China surpassing the USA as the world’s Number 1 economy. The question to as is: Is China doing better or the USA doing worse? And Why? Employment records tell the story. The USA is doing worse. America isn’t working anymore. To be the Number 1 economy you have to be doing stuff. We aren’t.

About 100 million American who could be working aren’t. We’re not talking about kids and old folk, but 1 in 4 Americans between the age of 25 and 54 are not working. How is it possible that 1 in 4 working aged adults is idle? That idleness translates into a declining economy.

Here’s another interesting fact. 1 in 4 kids live below the poverty level. Now the description of poverty in the USA doesn’t match the description of poverty in other parts of the world. Does the fact that 1 in for adults in their prime working age are idle matches the 1 in 4 kids living in poverty sound coincidental?

Think about what it means when 1 in 3 adults between the age of 25 and 54 are working. Remember TANSTAAFL . To feed, and provide entertainment to the 100 million non-working adults even at what the USA classifies as poverty levels isn’t cheap. Not very many of those 100 million working age adults have a wealthy inheritance, nor are very many disabled. As of Novermber 2014 there are 119 Million full time workers. And of those 119 Million, around 30 Million work for the government. Full time government employees are paid out of tax dollars, hence other workers pay their salaries, they are by definition drain’s on non-government worker salaries. Ouch, That means that to support the 100 million non-working adults, plus 30 million government employees, and the 100 million or so kids, disabled, and old folks, there are only 90 Million people working.

That pretty much answers the question of why the USA is no longer the Number 1 economy in the world. We’re not working. That answers the question on why a middle class income can no longer afford to purchase a new car. We’re not working. That answers the question of why we spent $11 Billion less on Black Friday. We’re not working. That pretty much answers the question of why 1 in 4 kids live below the poverty level. We’re not working.

How is it possible that 100 Million working age adults don’t work? Are there that many stay at home moms? I don’t think so. Are there that many millionaires who are independently wealthy and don’t have to work? I don’t think so?

What makes that possible is a simple fact, in America today one doesn’t have to work in to eat. Not only don’t you have to work to eat, but the idle in the USA have cable TV, cell phones and free health care.

I would say soon you will see those working, quit working, why bother when you can get by without working, but I can't, soon is now. We’ve crossed the tipping point, and this is what it looks like when people go Galt. Why work if you don’t have to, especially when out of your pay check the government is going to take enough take care of somebody else. Why not be the somebody else? What does it look like when working age adults, go idle – China exceeds USA as Number 1 economy and Black Friday sales take a 11% drop.

Obama noticed and even said so, but just not clearly. Being a stay at home mom taking care of her kids is a choice "we don't want" women to make. He wants, nay needs, able bodied people working, but we're not, as a nation too many of us have gon Galt.