underXposed

That giant sucking sound you hear is the Republicon vacuum cleaner at work. “It takes a bit of pushing, but it works fine,” they gloat. One of their biggest mentors, Milton Friedman, must be dancing ecstatic in his grave about now.

Pop quiz. What’s the average salary for the 500 members of Congress who do little or nothing for the taxpayers who foot the bill? Answer: A comfy $150,000. And how much does that come to, you ask? $75 million, while the rest of us continue to lose our homes and wallow in sleepless anxiety about how to pay for food, car fuel, medical costs, and insurance.

Congressional pay rates: Here are the actual numbers. Which don’t include benefits and annual pay raises.

But Congressional salaries are peanuts. How about them federal lobbyists who pulled in $2.9 billion in fees last year? That’s double what lobbyists made 10 years ago, according to the Center for American Progress. And that only includes what they declared on their tax sheets. It doesn’t include the endless perks they receive, the dinners, the tickets, the trips.

But wait. There’s more.

America’s Shadow Economy

America has two economies, and one is flourishing at the expense of the other. First, there’s the legitimate economy, in which craftsmen are licensed and employers and employees pay taxes. Then there’s the fast-growing underground economy, where millions of nannies, construction workers and others are paid off-the-books, their incomes largely untaxed. The best guess as to the size of the output of this shadow economy is about $970 billion, or nearly 9% that of the real economy. It should soon pass $1 trillion.

What is largely fueling the underground economy, experts say, is the nation’s swelling ranks of low-wage illegal immigrants. The government puts this population at 8.5 million, but that may represent a serious undercount. Read the rest>>

But wait. There’s more.

Predatory Payday Lenders

As Americans learn that it’s now a privilege, not a right, to eat, pay rent, and have medical care, a new kind of cockroach is thriving. Take Ohio. Predatory payday lenders there now outnumber all the Burger Kings, Wendys and McDonalds put together. If you’ve been hit by the housing crisis and the economic downturn and are forced to borrow against your paycheck (they call it a “cash advance”) to pay your bills, these predatory payday lenders can charge you 400 to 800 percent interest. The average person who borrows $325 ends up owing these micro vacuum cleaners $1,000. Basically, these payday lenders profit from exploiting people’s financial hardship by targeting the young and the poor, particularly those near military bases and in low-income communities.

U.S. a Sinking Ship, and Here’s Proof

A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries by Jane’s Information Services recently ranked America 24th out of the top 50 in prosperity and stability.

Here is the partial list: (Here is the full list)

1 Vatican
2 Sweden
3 Luxembourg
4 Monaco
5 Gibraltar
6 San Marino
7 Liechtenstein
8 UK
9 Netherlands
10 Ireland
…
23 Canada
24 USA

For all of those Americans who have constantly bragged about how we have the best health care system in the world etc., the truth is out and has been out for a long time. They are full of it. The Western European nations have wealthy economies, free health care, even if a person loses their job, etc. The people of the United States have been lied to and are continuing to be lied to. I told a buddy of mine some twenty years ago that the the day will come when Americans pay for gasoline what Europeans do, and still will not get health care, even after losing their jobs. That day is just about here. Gas runs 5 bucks in some places in the U.S. now. Will the greed and graft of the politicians and corporations ever come to an end in the U.S.? Stay tuned.

Bobby, Long Beach, U.S.A.

Our Prosperity and Stability Have Tanked, and So Has Our Security

You’re not even you any more. I’m talking identity theft, another underreported and apparently booming boon to those who get off on that sort of crime. For example, someone recently stole a laptop from the National Institute of Health. The laptop contained the medial records of 2,500 patients who participated in a government study. In violation of government policy, the information wasn’t even encrypted and the institute sat on the theft for quite awhile. It alerted neither the government nor the patients. Who cares? Certainly not those bloated with power who care only for their own well-being.

Other notable laptop thefts include:

• Approximately 16,000 living veterans and approximately 2,000 deceased veterans, who received care either at the Pittsburgh VA medical center
• 43,000 Bank Rhode Island customers
• 200,000 Hewlett-Packard employees
• 40,000 Chicago public school teachers
• 50,000 GE employees

There are dozens, if not hundreds of similar cases, and many go unreported. The Constitution used to limit the powers of government to snoop and used to ensure our right to privacy. But the more the bushbots push us to “trust” them, the greater the risk that the information won’t be protected.

Giant vacuum cleaner indeed. Watch it suck out everything we once took for granted, including our precious “inalienable” rights.