Poverty
“Economic forecasts for the next five years and beyond are bleak,” reads the RCMP’s assessment of the rest of the decade, even adding a quote from French President Emmanuel Macron that “the end of abundance” is nigh.
Tristin Hopper
National Post
Wed, 20 Mar 2024
© COLE BURSTON /The Canadian PressPolice move in to clear downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill of protesters after weeks of demonstrations on Feb. 19, 2022.
A secret RCMP report is warning the federal government that Canada may descend into civil unrest once citizens realize the hopelessness of their economic situation.
“The coming period of recession will … accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations,” reads the report, entitled Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada.
“For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live,” it adds.
The report, labelled secret, is intended as a piece of “special operational information” to be distributed only within the RCMP and among “decision-makers” in the federal government.
A heavily redacted version was made public as a result of an access to information request filed by Matt Malone, an assistant professor of law at British Columbia’s Thompson Rivers University, and an expert in government secrecy.
Describing itself in an introduction as a “scanning exercise,” the report is intended to highlight trends in both Canada and abroad “that could have a significant effect on the Canadian government and the RCMP.”
Right from the get-go, the report authors warn that whatever Canada’s current situation, it “will probably deteriorate further in the next five years.”
In addition to worsening living standards, the RCMP also warns of a future increasingly defined by unpredictable weather and seasonal catastrophes, such as wildfires and flooding. Most notably, report authors warn of Canada facing “increasing pressure to cede Arctic territory.”
Another major theme of the report is that Canadians are set to become increasingly disillusioned with their government, which authors mostly chalk up to “misinformation,” “conspiracy theories” and “paranoia.”
“Law enforcement should expect continuing social and political polarization fueled by misinformation campaigns and an increasing mistrust for all democratic institutions,” reads one of the report’s “overarching considerations.”
Ironically, among the report’s more heavily redacted sections is one carrying the subtitle “erosion of trust.” “The past seven years have seen marked social and political polarization in the Western world” reads a partial first sentence, with the entire rest of the section deleted by government censors.
The censor’s pen also deleted most of a section warning about “paranoid populism.” “Capitalizing on the rise of political polarization and conspiracy theories have been populists willing to tailor their messages to appeal to extremist movements,” reads the section’s one non-redacted sentence.
In terms of declining living standards and inaccessible home ownership, the RCMP’s warnings are indeed in line with available statistics.
Canadian productivity — measured in terms of GDP per capita — has been trending downwards since at least the 1980s. But this has accelerated dramatically in recent years — even as per-worker productivity rises in many of our peer countries.
An analysis last year by University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe found that if Canada had merely kept pace with U.S. productivity growth for the last five years, Canadian per-capita earnings would be $5,500 higher than they are now.
Meanwhile, housing affordability has reached “worst-ever” levels in most of Canada’s major markets, according to a December analysis by RBC. On average, even condos are now so unaffordable that only 44.5 per cent of Canadian households had sufficient income to buy one at current prices. As for single-family homes, only the richest 25 per cent of Canadian households had any hope of obtaining one.
“Economic forecasts for the next five years and beyond are bleak,” reads the RCMP’s assessment of the rest of the decade, even adding a quote from French President Emmanuel Macron that “the end of abundance” is nigh.
Lame dumbass should be deported back to her country:
This is what we have to put up with:
‘Shock therapy’ reforms have propelled prices for basic goods higher and led to a sharp drop in purchasing power, a new study shows
https://www.rt.com/business/592676-argentina-poverty-record-high
Feb 20, 2024
© Getty Images / Andrzej Rostek
Poverty levels in Argentina hit a multiple-year high in January following the drastic economic reforms carried out by newly installed President Javier Milei, the Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) said in its latest report released this past weekend.
According to the data, the share of people in poverty in the country surged to 57.4% last month, the highest since 2004, and up from 44.7% in the third quarter of 2023, prior to Milei taking office.
In what he called ‘shock therapy’ reforms, the new Argentinian leader has introduced a slew of measures aimed at stabilizing Argentina’s struggling economy, including devaluing the peso by 50% against the US dollar and hiking the key interest rate to 133%. The measures have led to a surge in consumer prices. According to official data released earlier this month, annual inflation in Argentina hit a three-decade high of 254% in January. This, in turn, caused household incomes to collapse and greatly diminished consumer purchasing power, exacerbating poverty levels.
The report noted that the greatest increase in poverty levels was observed among middle-class households that were not beneficiaries of social programs, as well as among low-skilled workers. According to the data, the percentage of Argentinians considered “destitute” surged to 15% in January, up from 9.6% in the third quarter of last year.
The head of the UCA’s Social Debt Observatory, Agustin Salvia, told La Nacion news outlet that he doesn’t expect poverty levels to grow much further, but warned that the situation will likely get worse before it gets better.
READ MORE: Inflation in Argentina catapults past 250%
“In February and March the situation will tend to worsen, but poverty will find a ceiling of around 60%. There is an expectation that it will tend to improve in two or three months,” he predicted.
Milei reacted to the UCA report in a social media post on Saturday, pledging that more reforms would ease the crisis in the country.
“The true inheritance of the caste model: 6 out of every 10 Argentines are poor. The destruction of the last hundred years is unparalleled in Western history. Politicians have to understand that people voted for change and that we are going to give our lives to bring it about,” he wrote.
“This is the ongoing reality of the unhoused community,” she wrote on Facebook, referring to Langille’s amputations and the Jan. 7 death of Evan McArthur, 44, following a fire at a homeless encampment in the north end.
“We can’t waste any more time. Nobody should lose their limb or their life in order to have the basic necessity of a home.”
‘How much more suffering do we have to witness?’ advocate asks
Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon · CBC News · Posted: Jan 26, 2024
Less than three weeks after a homeless Saint John man lost his life in a tent fire, another is in hospital after losing his left leg below the knee and half of his right foot to severe frostbite.
Jamie Langille, 43, who has lived in a tent in a wooded area uptown for about three years, said he fell asleep one night with wet feet.
“I usually light a fire at nighttime,” he said, explaining he burns candles and hand sanitizer in a bucket to get warm. “And I thaw my whole body out. But that night, I fell asleep.”
His feet froze, Langille said, and he developed gangrene, the death of body tissue.
A CAT scan confirmed the extent of the damage and doctors broke the news that he needed immediate amputations.
“I don’t know how to deal with it right now,” Langille, who underwent the surgeries on Jan. 19, said from his hospital bed.
“It’s weird going from being able to walk and run around and do whatever with your two legs, and then now, I only have one leg and half of a foot. And I just don’t know what lies ahead.
“I’m already homeless. I don’t have a clue what to do.
“My mind’s racing everywheres and I just … It’s a difficult time.”
Infuriated, Catherine Driscoll, a volunteer with Street Team SJ, which provides food and supplies to the homeless, got Langille’s permission to post graphic before and after in-hospital photos.
‘We can’t waste any more time’
The photos showed Langille’s blackened, cold-ravaged feet and the white-bandaged stumps left behind.
“This is the ongoing reality of the unhoused community,” she wrote on Facebook, referring to Langille’s amputations and the Jan. 7 death of Evan McArthur, 44, following a fire at a homeless encampment in the north end.
“We can’t waste any more time. Nobody should lose their limb or their life in order to have the basic necessity of a home.”
Driscoll, who has checked on Langille weekly for the past year and used to check on McArthur, also sent a longer email to Premier Blaine Higgs, Saint John MP Wayne Long, local MLAs Arlene Dunn, Trevor Holder and Dorothy Shephard, Mayor Donna Reardon and city councillors. She thanked those who have been actively working toward a solution and urged them to continue to push forward.
“Time is not on our side,” she wrote.
“And since money talks (especially to Premier Higgs ..) how much do you think this hospital stay will cost from admission to discharge.”
Langille is now wheelchair-dependent, she said.
“That money could have been funnelled into a solution. We need to start focusing on an upstream-thinking approach. This should not be happening.”
Higgs’s office did not respond to a request Thursday for comments.
“The fact that there has been nothing from him, I think speaks volumes about his priorities,” Driscoll told CBC News, noting Higgs lives in Quispamsis, just outside Saint John, where “this is all happening.”
“I really hope that he can take a look at the human side of things and realize that there is more to running the province than whatever he’s doing; that you really have to bring it down to the humans that are part of this province and that he’s supposed to be caring for.”
The Department of Social Development declined to comment on Langille’s case Friday. “Due to strict legal obligations, the Department of Social Development cannot speak about specific cases,” spokesperson Rebecca Howland said in an email.
“Outreach workers, like the team from Fresh Start and other service providers, constantly work to ensure unhoused people are offered the right services that meet their needs, including any housing programs they may be eligible for through Housing NB,” she added.
‘We can’t just keep talking about it’
After McArthur’s death “rocked” the community and prompted talks with politicians, Driscoll felt cautiously optimistic that changes were coming.
“It just felt like the ball was rolling finally. And then this happened.”
Driscoll decided to post and email about Langille, not to exploit his situation, but to “keep building on that momentum” and to raise awareness.
How much more suffering do we have to witness and see them experience before change will actually happen?- Catherine Driscoll, Street Team SJ volunteer
“Action actually has to take place. We can’t just keep talking about it,” she said. “We really need to get solutions and get something up and running sooner rather than later.
“Like, how much more suffering do we have to witness and see them experience before change will actually happen?”
She included the photos, she said, because “something needs to wake somebody up in order to take this seriously.”
“I think thinking ‘frostbite’ is one thing. Seeing the pictures and seeing the reality is a whole other.”
Frostbite is not uncommon among the homeless, she said, but Langille’s is the worst case she has ever seen.
“It’s incredibly sad and frustrating.”
‘It should never have come to this’
“It should never have come to this,” she said, noting Langille has been on the wait list for housing for a long time and started having problems with his left foot last winter, when he had to have some frostbitten toes amputated.
This December, he was admitted to hospital with more problems with his left foot, given antibiotics and discharged.
The next time Driscoll and another volunteer stopped by his tent, Langille declined to come out and said he didn’t need anything. “I thought, ‘That’s not like him.’ I said, ‘Are you OK?’ And he said, ‘No, I’m in a lot of pain. I can’t walk.'”
Half of his left foot was black and the skin on his right foot seemed “mushy.”
They did some first aid, wrapped his feet in clean bandages and gave him some dry socks, foot warmers and a pair of boots a size too big so his bandaged feet would fit in them. But within a week or two, the damage progressed so quickly and was so extensive, amputation was the only option, she said.
A call for empathy
Langille said he faces up to a month of recovery and rehab in hospital, including learning to use a wheelchair, and hopefully being fitted for prosthetics.
He’s speaking out, he said, because he doesn’t want anyone else to have to go through what he’s going through, or to die, like his friend McArthur.
He thinks governments need to put more money into housing and services for the homeless, such as daytime warming centres, where they can go while shelters are closed between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and programs “to help them better themselves.”
“I don’t think they take it serious enough,” he said.
“I think they think it’s just a big drug epidemic and people are just on drugs and stuff, but people are homeless without being on drugs.”
“A lot of people are just down on their luck.”
Driscoll agrees. “Everybody has a story,” she said, urging people to be kind and empathetic.
‘Very next’ on housing list
Langille worked as a journeyman scaffolder from around 2006-07 until 2019, when he retired, he said. His pension was “very low,” so he lived with his mother, but then she got cancer and died in July 2021. His grandmother died a few months later and the rest of his family seemed to go their separate ways, he said.
He got on the By Names List, which matches people who experience chronic homelessness with available housing, but “it takes forever to get placed, I guess.”
According to Driscoll, single men are considered lower priority.
“Now my [social] worker tells me that I’m the very next person on the list,” Langille said.
If he has to go back to his tent, he doesn’t know what he’ll do, he said. “I hope that’s not the case.”
For now he’s trying to just “take it day by day,” and focusing on his recovery.
The next ignoramus that states the US is a compassionate Christian nation gets a pie in the face for being so naive. Lou
Homelessness shot up by more than 12% this year, reaching 653,104 people. The numbers represent the sharpest increase and largest unhoused population since the federal government began tallying totals in 2007, the U.S. Department of Urban Planning and Development said Friday. Last year, federal data showed 582,462 people experienced homelessness.
This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog under the title: The Biggest Spike In Homelessness Ever Recorded Is A Sign That The U.S. Economy Is Plunging Into An Abyss Of Pain And Suffering
At least things are still good for those at the very top of the food chain. But for everyone else, economic conditions have already become very painful. Today, the vast majority of Americans have less money than they did prior to the pandemic, and thanks to raging inflation our standard of living is steadily going down.
We are in the early stages of “the greatest real estate correction” in our history, and 1 out of every five children in the United States does not have enough food to eat. With each passing day, more members of the middle class join the ranks of the poor, and more poor people find themselves getting kicked out into the streets. According to the Wall Street Journal, new numbers show that the number of homeless people in the United States has reached a brand new record high…
The U.S. count of homeless people surged to the highest level on record, reaching more than 653,000 people early this year as Covid-19 pandemic-aid spending faded, new federal data show.
The increase reflects a collision of factors: rising housing costs; limited affordable housing units; the opioid epidemic; and the expired pandemic-era aid that had helped keep people in their homes, federal officials said Friday.
In addition to having more homeless people in this country than ever before, additional people are becoming homeless at the fastest pace on record…
Homelessness shot up by more than 12% this year, reaching 653,104 people. The numbers represent the sharpest increase and largest unhoused population since the federal government began tallying totals in 2007, the U.S. Department of Urban Planning and Development said Friday. Last year, federal data showed 582,462 people experienced homelessness.
We have literally never seen a spike in homelessness like this before.
It is being reported that prior to these new numbers “the previous largest increase was a spike of 2.7 percent recorded in 2019”.
Just think about that for a moment.
At no point during the “Great Recession” did we see an increase in homelessness like this.
Essentially the floodgates have opened up and an absolutely massive tsunami of homelessness has begun.
Sadly, some groups are being hit much harder than others…
- Black people made up 13% of the U.S. population in 2023, but they made up 21% of the U.S. population living in poverty, 37% of all people experiencing homelessness, and 50% of homeless people in families with children.
- Asian and Asian American people had the largest percentage increase in homelessness, up 40% from 2022, to a total of 11,574.
- Hispanic and Latino people saw the largest numerical increase, up 28% from 2022 to 179,336 in 2023.
And please keep in mind that these are the ones that they can actually count.
How many more homeless Americans are out there that can’t be found or that don’t want to be found?
Of course, many of you don’t need me to tell you that we have a homelessness crisis in America.
All you have to do to see it is to step outside your front door.
In San Francisco, residents have to do “the Poopie Dance” as they go to work because so many homeless people use the streets as a toilet…
They call it ‘The Poopie Dance’ and San Franciscans are having to learn it – and quickly.
It involves constantly looking straight ahead to find a clean line between where you are on the street and where you want to go.
Sadly, it’s the reality in parts of the Bay City as the growing homeless population have taken to using the famed streets of San Francisco as one giant open-air toilet.
So why is this happening?
Well, the truth is that there are a lot of factors that are contributing to this crisis, but one of the biggest is the fact that housing in the U.S. is now more unaffordable than it has ever been before…
High housing costs continue to be a financial stressor for the poorest Americans. In recent years, more people in the U.S. are rent-burdened, according to HUD, meaning they spend more than 30% or even over 50% of their income on rent.
Of course, just about everything is less affordable these days.
For example, just check out what a new Ford F-150 will cost you these days…
For the 2024 F-150 XLT, in the two-door rear-wheel-drive base-everything configuration, the MSRP before “destination and delivery charges” is $47,620 per Ford’s website today. The “destination and delivery charges” of $1,995 give the truck a total MSRP of $49,615.
The average transaction price for all new vehicles sold is about $46,000, according to J.D. Power. A fully decked-out high-end F-series 4×4 Crew Cab can be well over $100,000.
Ouch!
A new truck is out of reach for most Americans at this point.
And actually “a middle-class lifestyle” is out of reach for most Americans at this point.
The numbers that the government gives us say that we aren’t officially in a recession at this moment, but to most of us it certainly feels like a recession has already begun…
That’s according to a recent survey conducted by Bankrate, which found 59% of U.S. adults feel like the economy is in a recession, defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Regardless of income, households said they are feeling the pressure at about the same amount. Sixty percent of respondents in the lowest-income households, making under $50,000 a year, said the economy feels like it is in a recession. Of those in higher-income households making more than $100,000 annually, 61% agreed.
I wish that I could tell you that economic conditions will improve in 2024 and beyond.
But I can’t do that, because the truth is that they are going to get worse.
The U.S. economy really is plunging into an abyss, and so much pain and suffering is ahead.
So if you have a warm home to sleep in tonight, be thankful, because there are countless others that do not.
“Without significant and sustained federal investments to make housing affordable for people with the lowest incomes, the affordable housing and homelessness crises in this country will only continue to worsen,” warned one campaigner.
On a single night in January 2023, “roughly 653,100 people—or about 20 of every 10,000 people in the United States—were experiencing homelessness,” with about 60% in shelters and the remaining 40% unsheltered, according to HUD. That’s a 12% increase from 2022 and the highest number of unhoused people since reporting began in 2007.
…HUD found that roughly 186,100 people who reported experiencing homelessness, or over a quarter, were part of a family with children, a 16% increase from last year. Additionally, more than 1 in 5 people were age 55 or older, 35,574 were veterans, and 31% “reported having experienced chronic patterns of homelessness.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/homelessness-data
The number of people in shelters, temporary housing, and unsheltered settings across the United States set a new record this year, “largely due to a sharp rise in the number of people who became homeless for the first time.”
That’s a key takeaway from an annual report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
On a single night in January 2023, “roughly 653,100 people—or about 20 of every 10,000 people in the United States—were experiencing homelessness,” with about 60% in shelters and the remaining 40% unsheltered, according to HUD. That’s a 12% increase from 2022 and the highest number of unhoused people since reporting began in 2007.
“We must address the main driver of homelessness and housing instability—the gap between low incomes and rent costs.”
Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness—the federal agency behind President Joe Biden’s plan from last year to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025—the Associated Press that extra assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic “held off the rise in homelessness that we are now seeing.”
Research and advocacy groups responded to the HUD report by also highlighting the positive impacts of federal pandemic-era relief including emergency rental aid, a national moratorium on evictions for nonpayment, and the expanded child tax credit.
“The historic resources and protections provided during the pandemic kept millions of renters stably housed, and the success of these resources is shown by the decrease in homelessness over that same period,” said National Low-Income Housing Coalition president and CEO Diane Yentel. “Just as these emergency resources were depleted and pandemic-era renter protections expired, however, renters reentered a brutal housing market, with skyrocketing rents and high inflation.”
“Eviction filing rates have now reached or surpassed pre-pandemic averages in many communities, resulting in increased homelessness,” she noted. “Without significant and sustained federal investments to make housing affordable for people with the lowest incomes, the affordable housing and homelessness crises in this country will only continue to worsen.”
Olivet said that “while numerous factors drive homelessness, the most significant causes are the shortage of affordable homes and the high cost of housing that have left many Americans living paycheck to paycheck and one crisis away from homelessness.”
National Alliance to End Homelessness CEO Ann Oliva called for funding “urgent and overdue investments in affordable housing and rental assistance to keep people housed, as well as in proven housing and supportive service models that rapidly reconnect people experiencing homelessness with permanent housing.”
Peggy Bailey, vice president for housing and income security at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, also stressed the need for a funding boost, saying that “we have the tools to ensure everyone has a safe, stable place to live, but we’ve failed to invest in them.”
“Homelessness is unacceptable,” Bailey declared. “We must address the main driver of homelessness and housing instability—the gap between low incomes and rent costs. That means expanding rental assistance for all people with the lowest incomes.”
HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge similarly said Friday that “homelessness is solvable and should not exist in the United States.”
“From day one, this administration has put forth a comprehensive plan to tackle homelessness and we’ve acted aggressively and in conjunction with our federal, state, and local partners to address this challenge,” she continued. “We’ve made positive strides, but there is still more work to be done. This data underscores the urgent need for support for proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place.”
Academics and advocates have long criticized the department’s approach, which relies on reporting from a single night each January. Samuel Carlson, manager of research and outreach at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, told The Washington Post last year that “the HUD data is just catching a fraction of the people.”
For that night in January, HUD found that roughly 186,100 people who reported experiencing homelessness, or over a quarter, were part of a family with children, a 16% increase from last year. Additionally, more than 1 in 5 people were age 55 or older, 35,574 were veterans, and 31% “reported having experienced chronic patterns of homelessness.”
“People who identify as Black, African American, or African, as well as Indigenous people (including Native Americans and Pacific Islanders), continue to be overrepresented among the population experiencing homelessness,” the report notes. “People who identify as Asian or Asian American experienced the greatest percentage increase among all people experiencing homelessness,” while the largest numerical increase “was among people who identify as Hispanic or Latin(a)(o)(x).”
The report adds that over half “were in four states: California (28% of all people experiencing homelessness in the U.S, or 181,399 people); New York (16% or 103,200 people); Florida (5% or 30,756 people); and Washington (4% or 28,036 people).”
While progressive lawmakers have introduced federal legislation to help tackle the issue—from Congresswoman Cori Bush’s (D-Mo.) Unhoused Bill of Rights to the Housing is a Human Right Act led by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Grace Meng (D-N.Y.)—such measures are unlikely to advance with a GOP-controlled House and divided Senate.
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
Homelessness has risen sharply in the United States, with a report from House and Urban Development (HUD) indicating that around 653,000 people were homeless, the highest number on record.
Inflation combined with the end of pandemic-era protections against eviction were the key culprits identified in the HUD report, released on Dec. 15. Another major factor noted in the report was the housing supply crunch.
HUD’s annual 2023 Point-in-Time Count, which measured homelessness on a single night in January 2023, showed a 12 percent rise in homelessness (or by 70,650 individuals) compared to a year earlier. This sent the total to 653,104 homeless people, the highest since the agency launched the point-in-time gauge in 2007.
“For those on the frontlines of this crisis, it’s not surprising. People across the country are struggling to pay skyrocketing rents,” Ann Olivia, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in a statement.
The sharpest rise in homelessness was among people in families with children—this measure rose by 15.5 percent. Next was homelessness among unaccompanied youths, which increased by 15.3 percent.
Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who is running for the U.S. Senate, blamed President Joe Biden’s policies for fueling homelessness.
The USA is a pathetic and hypocritical nation that would rather waste all its money on wars than feed its children. Pure evil.
Households will be forced to cut spending on presents to afford essentials, according to the UK’s National Debtline
Data shows that around 6.5 million people will struggle to heat their homes sufficiently during the holiday season, while 2.7 million will have to choose between buying food or presents.
https://www.rt.com/business/588754-uk-households-cost-of-living-struggle/
Dec 11, 2023
© Getty Images / ArtMarie
The worsening cost-of-living crisis will force UK families to tighten their belts this Christmas, cutting back on presents or food, The Guardian reported last week, citing new research by National Debtline.
Data shows that around 6.5 million people will struggle to heat their homes sufficiently during the holiday season, while 2.7 million will have to choose between buying food or presents.
According to the report, over 14 million consumers are planning to limit the number of presents they intend to buy this year, while 6 million have said they can only afford to buy gifts for children.
“This Christmas, the cost-of-living crisis is set to be felt more than ever with millions of people struggling to heat their homes and many experiencing money worries,” said David Cheadle, the acting chief executive of the Money Advice Trust, which runs National Debtline.
The study showed that more than 24 million UK adults plan to use credit to pay for Christmas presents this year. Of those, 12 million intend to use credit cards, while 4.7 million will use a ‘buy now, pay later’ loan to pay for purchases over time.
“We remain deeply concerned about the long-term impact that rising arrears will have on household finances going into 2024 and beyond,” Cheadle said, as quoted by The Guardian. “After missing the opportunity to help people in debt in the autumn statement, we are continuing to press the government to introduce a ‘help to repay’ scheme for energy arrears, and extend the household support fund which is providing crucial local support,” he added.
READ MORE: British household debt to balloon – report
Household debt in the UK is projected to balloon from the current level of £73 billion ($92 billion) to £151 billion ($190 billion) in 2026. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), British households are suffering the biggest five-year drop in living standards to have hit the country since it started compiling records in the 1950s. Real household disposable income per head is estimated to be 3.5% lower than its pre-pandemic level.
Our society is absolutely teeming with predators, crime rates are soaring all over the nation, millions of Americans are afraid to leave their own homes, and hordes of drug addicts are literally pooping in the middle of our streets whenever they feel like it.
Michael Snyder
Dec 4, 2023
Unlike so many people around the world, those of us who live in the United States were fortunate enough to grow up in a relatively civilized society. Unfortunately, we have turned our backs on the values that our forefathers handed down to us, and so now we are starting to find out what is beneath the thin veneer of civilization that we have all been taking for granted all these years. Our society is absolutely teeming with predators, crime rates are soaring all over the nation, millions of Americans are afraid to leave their own homes, and hordes of drug addicts are literally pooping in the middle of our streets whenever they feel like it.
In some of our largest cities, highly organized groups of criminals are constantly invading homes. Of course, when these thieves encounter a homeowner that is actually armed it can result in a deadly confrontation…
A homeowner shot and killed a home invasion suspect in Los Angeles early Saturday morning while a grandmother and toddler were in the house in the fifth such crime reported in the area in the space of 10 days.
Officers were called to a home in the Granada Hills section of the San Fernando Valley, north of Beverly Hills, around 5am on Saturday after someone reported a ‘hot prowl’ – a burglary where the homeowner is present.
‘The officers’ preliminary investigation determined that approximately three to four armed males in their 20s entered the home with the intent to burglarize the location,’ according to LAPD officials.
Once upon a time, Los Angeles was such a beautiful city.
But now it is covered from one end to the other in filth, trash and drug paraphernalia.
Of course, much of this degradation is being fueled by drug addiction.
We are in the midst of the worst drug crisis in the entire history of our country, and many addicts have made theft a lifestyle in order to fund their addictions.
In addition to robbing homes, these addicts are constantly smashing into vehicles, and they are one of the biggest reasons why retail theft has soared to unprecedented heights…
New York City has led the US with the sharpest increase in the number of reported shoplifting incidents since before the pandemic, according to a study.
The Big Apple saw a 64% increase in reported incidents of retail theft during the four-year period between mid-2019 and June of this year, while Los Angeles experienced a 61% surge in the same metric, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
This is not what a civilized society looks like.
In Bellevue, Washington, so many vehicles are being stolen that the police are literally giving away steering wheel locks in a desperate attempt to bring auto theft down…
The Bellevue Police Department is giving away steering wheel locks Sunday, December 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bellevue Crossroads Substation.
“The effort comes as auto thefts have been on the rise in Bellevue and across the region,” said BPD.
BPD said Bellevue has had a 29% increase in car thefts in 2023 through October.
BPD has seen a 762% and 730% increase in theft of Kias and Hyundais.
I honestly do not understand why people still want to live in these big cities.
According to one recent survey, 40 percent of Americans are now “afraid to walk alone at night near their home”.
Millions of Americans live in a constant state of fear because our nation is absolutely teeming with predators and drug addicts.
During his recent debate with Gavin Newsom, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pulled out the infamous “poop map” that shows reports of human feces on the streets of San Francisco…
During Thursday night’s debate between Gavin Newsom (D) and Ron DeSantis (R), the Florida governor busted out the San Francisco ‘poop map’ created by OpenTheBooks.
The map, created in 2019, plotted nearly 120,000 case reports of human feces on the streets of San Francisco between 2011 and 2019 using the city’s open records portal and 311 call information posted by city officials.
Well, now that map has been updated, and despite everything officials have tried reports of human feces in the streets have been coming in faster than ever…
It’s been updated…
According to Adam Andrzejwski of OpenTheBooks, here it is in all it’s brown glory – only now it’s got an additional 125,506 cases in just three years – more than double the amount reported in the initial eight-year period.
This is our country now.
We live in a country where hordes of mindless drug addicts pull down their pants and defecate in the streets whenever they feel like it.
And thanks to the open border policies of our leaders in Washington, more drug dealers and more drug addicts are pouring across our borders with each passing day.
It is being reported that the foreign-born population in the U.S. has now reached a whopping 49.5 million people…
The nation’s foreign-born population has hit an unprecedented 49.5 million, the largest ever recorded in American history, under President Joe Biden.
Analysis by Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) revealed that in October the foreign-born population reached almost 50 million, increasing by 4.5 million foreign-born residents since Biden took office in January 2021.
How do you think the drug cartels in Mexico make so much money?
They make millions upon millions of dollars by selling drugs to us.
And our leaders refuse to secure our borders year after year.
It is infuriating.
We are literally committing national suicide, and the stage is set for an epic eruption of societal unrest in our major cities which will be so bad that it shock the entire planet.
Decades of incredibly bad decisions have brought us to this point, but even at this late hour, our leaders continue to make some of the stupidest decisions imaginable.
The organization ranked Britain 37th out of 39 nations in the OECD and EU
Yo, dumbass minion Britain, how are those sanctions working out for you?
https://www.rt.com/news/588734-unicef-uk-child-poverty-rating/
Dec 8, 2023
FILE PHOTO. Glasgow, Scotland. © Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
The UN has ranked Britain as one of the worst-performing countries in terms of child poverty rates among 39 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the EU.
In a report published on Wednesday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated that nearly 70 million children in high- and upper-middle-income countries live in poverty. The Innocenti Report Card 18 is based on the latest available statistics on child poverty, as well as each nation’s progress in tackling the problem from 2012 to 2021.
The UK was placed toward the bottom of the rating, occupying 37th place, ahead of only Türkiye and Colombia. While Central and Eastern European nations such as Poland, Slovenia, Latvia, and Lithuania have reduced child poverty significantly over the past decade, Britain has suffered a 20% increase, according to the report.
UNICEF warned that growing up in an impoverished environment can have life-long adverse effects, and called on governments to address the issue more actively.
READ MORE: Economic cutbacks making British kids shorter – study
Commenting on the report, UNICEF UK chief executive Jon Sparkes said that “while some countries in this group have taken steps to increase support, in the UK we have seen a reduction in spending on child and family benefits and more children growing up in poverty as a result.”
A spokesperson for Britain’s Work and Pensions Department responded by claiming that the government had increased benefits by over 10% this year. The official added that “there are 400,000 fewer children and 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty when compared to 2010.”
The UK’s Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) reported in October that more than 1 million children in the country had endured the most extreme form of poverty in 2022. It also estimated that the number of Britons experiencing ‘destitution’ had surged 61% between 2019 and 2022, with 3.8 million people enduring this level of poverty. The number of ‘destitute’ children had nearly tripled since 2017, marking a dramatic 186% uptick, the group stated.
Many respondents to the JRF survey told researchers that they often had to make do with just one meal a day to ensure their children could also eat. More than half (51%) of destitute adults reported regularly having to go without hygiene and cleaning products, such as shampoo and toothpaste.
The pontiff also told the COP28 summit that ‘the destruction of the environment is an offense against God’
“I am relaunching a proposal,” Francis’ statement continued, “with the money used on weapons and other military expenditure, we will set up a global fund to finally eliminate hunger.” It added that the “sustainable development of the poorest countries” must be actively promoted if these states are to have a solid foundation from which to fight climate change.
https://www.rt.com/news/588395-cop28-pope-francis-climate-change/
Dec 3, 2023
Pope Francis greets Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg, right, during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 17, 2019 © Getty Images / Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Pope has called on world leaders to divert money being used to support conflicts across the globe into a fund to help eliminate world hunger, and also sounded the alarm about the impact of climate change, in an address to the COP28 summit in Dubai.
Pope Francis’ comments, delivered by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, cast a dire long-term outlook on the effects of climate change. In the wide-ranging statement, he called for an end to the fossil fuel industry and for debt forgiveness to be introduced for poorer nations struggling to adapt to the impacts of a deteriorating environment.
As well as the proposed global fund to fight world hunger, the statement by the head of the Catholic Church, made in absentia as the 86-year-old is unwell, also signaled that the COP28 summit must be a turning point for major political change and a shift towards renewable energy.
“How much energy is humanity wasting in the many ongoing wars, such as in Israel and Palestine, in Ukraine and in many regions in the world: conflicts that will not solve the problems, but increase them,” the Pope asked the leaders through Cardinal Parolin.
Humanity experiencing climate collapse – UN
“I am relaunching a proposal,” Francis’ statement continued, “with the money used on weapons and other military expenditure, we will set up a global fund to finally eliminate hunger.” It added that the “sustainable development of the poorest countries” must be actively promoted if these states are to have a solid foundation from which to fight climate change.
According to global data firm Statista, the United States was – by a wide margin – the biggest military spender in 2022 at about $877 billion, followed by China ($292 billion) and Russia ($86.4 billion).
Despite being unable to attend in person at the Dubai conference, the Pope stressed in his speech that “I am with you because now, more than ever, the future of us all depends on the present that we now choose. I am with you because the destruction of the environment is an offense against God.”
He added that the largest carbon-emitting countries are “responsible for a deeply troubling ecological debt.”
Pope Francis, a long-standing advocate of climate issues, has made the environment a central topic of his decade-long papacy. He has published two major papers on the subject, including one in October in which he argued that humanity has played a major role in worsening climate problems.
The COP28 summit continues until December 12.
A 30% increase in cost of living in the span of three years is a disaster; it’s not surprising that Biden and the establishment media would seek to hide it.
“…government officials and the media have a well-established habit of misrepresenting economic data as a means to convince the public that the system is healthier than it is, and Biden is no exception. People know when their wallets are hurting, gaslighting them is not going to be effective.“
SATURDAY, DEC 02, 2023
The Biden Administration has been complaining about the American public’s negative views on the economy, arguing that people are operating on “false perceptions influenced by right-wing media.”
But is this really the case?
Is the economy really booming under Bidenomics and the majority of the US populace is simply ignoring their good fortune?
Never has there been a point in US history when financial conditions were good and everyone preferred they be bad.
In fact, government officials and the media have a well-established habit of misrepresenting economic data as a means to convince the public that the system is healthier than it is, and Biden is no exception. People know when their wallets are hurting, gaslighting them is not going to be effective.
Yet another data point released this week supports the position of the public that the nation is not as prosperous the government would like us to believe.
Consumer financial services company Bankrate has released a survey showing that the American jobs market is cooling, indicating that high-interest rates are starting to puncture the inflationary consumer spending bonanza along with the explosion in retail hiring triggered by over $8 trillion in covid stimulus. The effects of the helicopter money are fading.
More important, however, was the survey’s data on wages.
Over 60% of Americans reported that their wages were lagging well behind inflation.
Among workers who did get a raise or better-paying job, more than half (53 percent) say their earnings lost ground to inflation, up from 50 percent in 2022. In other words, inflation is still eroding worker gains despite the much hyped decline in CPI the past few months.
This information contradicts the claims made by Biden and Democrats that wages are accelerating and beating back inflation.
The situation is actually getting worse by the year. While CPI might show a narrow window in time for inflation, it is diluted by hundreds of consumer categories and services instead of focusing on necessities, where the real price explosion has been. Furthermore, CPI is not an indicator of accumulated inflation over the past few years, which amounts to 25%-30% on average.
A 30% increase in cost of living in the span of three years is a disaster; it’s not surprising that Biden and the establishment media would seek to hide it.
Nov 27, 2023
This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.
If you are wondering why so many Americans are stressed about their finances these days, just look at the numbers. The Social Security Administration just released national wage statistics for 2022, and the figures that they have given us do not paint a pretty picture at all.
In particular, we should all be deeply alarmed that the median wage earner brought home just $40,847.18 last year. That breaks down to about $3,400 a month, and that is before taxes. Needless to say, you cannot live a middle-class lifestyle in America today on just $3,400 a month before taxes. So in most households, more than one person must work, and in many cases, more than one person is working multiple jobs.
During our current inflation crisis, the cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and this is squeezing American families like never before.
Right now, the national median price of renting a home is $1,978 a month, and so after paying rent on a home, the average worker wouldn’t have much left over for anything else.
Meanwhile, actually owning a home is the most unaffordable that it has been since 1984…
Buying and paying for a house costs Americans more now than at any point in almost four decades. Thanks to strong demand and a limited supply of new homes – even as mortgage rates have more than doubled in the past year – it now takes nearly 41% of the median household’s monthly income to afford the payments on a median-priced home, according to research from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). The last time housing payments cost that much was in 1984.
Of course, it isn’t just the cost of housing that has gone crazy.
Just about everything has soared in price over the past few years, and those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest…
But when compared with January 2021, shortly before the inflation crisis began, prices remain up a stunning 17.62%.
Inflation has created severe financial pressures for most U.S. households, which are forced to pay more for everyday necessities like food and rent. The burden is disproportionately borne by low-income Americans, whose already-stretched paychecks are heavily impacted by price fluctuations.
If things are hard for you and your family right now, please understand that you are not alone.
Most of the country is in the exact same boat.
In a desperate attempt to maintain their middle-class lifestyles, millions upon millions of Americans have been taking on debt like never before, and as a result, we are now facing an unprecedented consumer debt bubble…
Inflation has also impacted spending on major purchases. Balances on non-housing loans have more than doubled since 2003, totaling roughly $4.8 trillion, according to data from the New York Federal Reserve. More than $500 billion of that debt accumulated just in the past two years – a bigger jump than any other two-year period since 2003, the earliest year available.
Some of that debt comes from skyrocketing car prices, but credit card balances are growing the fastest of all – roughly 34% from the fall of 2021.
Unfortunately, the consumer debt party is coming to an end because financial institutions are starting to become significantly tighter with their money.
A credit crunch has begun, and it is only going to intensify in the months ahead.
Of course, that is more bad news for our rapidly shrinking middle class.
More formerly middle-class Americans are falling into poverty with each passing day, and this is causing an alarming surge in demand at food banks from coast to coast…
As families across the nation prepare for the holiday season, some food banks across the United States dedicated to fighting hunger say they are experiencing an increase in demand following the end of pandemic-era SNAP benefits, an increase in inflation, and other regional factors.
Caroline De La Fuente helps care for her 16 grandchildren while their parents work to make ends meet and is one of the thousands of people who, according to data, depend on food banks. She told ABC News that without the San Antonio Food Bank, her family and others in the community wouldn’t eat.
“A lot of people would go hungry,” she said. “Kids would go hungry at night. People would not be able to celebrate Thanksgiving.”
The number of homeless Americans is spiking as well.
In fact, the Wall Street Journal has reported that homelessness in the United States has been increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded in 2023….
The U.S. has seen a record increase in homeless people this year as the Covid-19 pandemic fades, according to a Wall Street Journal review of data from around the country.
Yes, this is really happening.
The middle class really is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes.
And this is one of the reasons why so many people have such short fuses these days.
Even the smallest things can turn some people into raving lunatics at this point. For example, one woman actually drove her SUV into a Popeyes restaurant because an order of biscuits was missing…
A woman drove her SUV into a Georgia Popeyes building after the manager said she became angry over a missing order of biscuits Saturday, according to an incident report filed by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
The manager said that prior to the crash, restaurant staff gave 50-year-old Belinda Miller biscuits to rectify the error, but she was still not happy and “…would drive her vehicle into the building.”
According to the incident report, a witness who allegedly waited in line with Miller told them to hurry and get their order “because she was coming back.”
Miller did return, according to the incident report, and allegedly drove her SUV into the chicken restaurant, narrowly missing an 18-year-old employee.
I wish that I could say that this was an isolated incident, but it isn’t.
There are so many crazy people running around out there, and you never know who will be the next one to totally lose it.
If things are this bad now, what is going to happen once the economy totally falls apart and our society descends into complete and utter chaos?
Economic conditions have deteriorated substantially in 2023, and I am entirely convinced that 2024 will be even worse…