Where Did My America Go?

President George Bush made the statement that the government bailout would help secure the financial industry's deposits and guarantee that these types of money woes would NEVER happen again. Nice, encouraging words, right? Well, except for the fact that those words were spoken after the bailout of 1989! That's right, THAT President Bush!

So here we are again. Another president, another bailout, another promise. Oh no, it doesn't stop there. The current candidates for the office are promising high paying and secure jobs for the rebuilt America. What a joke! Just how do they propose we get those jobs back from the hundreds of foreign lands that have practically stolen our lives away with $2 per day labor? Has the United Nations outlawed greed? Please!

Let's start with the rise of the American Nation. In the early 1900's we had a such a wave of inventive, thoughtful and ingenious products and ways of manufacturing them that it caused an economic boom of sorts and began the march towards an industrialized society. What was once only farm country and alcohol running territory suddenly became the land of opportunity and secure employment. Steel mills, brick and mortar businesses, home building, etc. The mind of the common man at work so to speak.

Then through the depression of 1930 to really about 1950, America had to re-invent itself. Times had changed. Things were bad all over. Those returning from WWII either lost their homes or were forced to give up whatever they had for a job. Women had gone to work to support their household since the men were off to war. Not many jobs were there for the soldiers. Rosie Rivet realized she liked to work 9 to 5.

The climb out of this depression must have seemed as steep as getting out of a 6 foot deep grave in a pouring rain. However, with the ingenuity of the common American, we made it.

Now what does this have to do with today's troubles, you ask? The fact that government tried to assist with the climb wasn't so much the problem. It was just that the GOVERNMENT tried to help. Hey, how can you trust a body of "leaders" that won't deal straight looking into each other's eyes every day and sneak wasteful spending into bills just before midnight arrives. They don't even see us eye to eye and expect us to trust them? What more do they try to do to us every day that we don't know about? That's the problem with today, I believe.

Listening to Mike Dillard interview Robert Kiyosaki the other night opened my eyes to a lot of things I thought I was right about. He tied up a few loose ends for me and really showed me I'm not alone. I don't like the bailout simply because it pays off loans for companies that were forced to loan money to someone they knew didn't have the means to pay it back. Then the housing market became inflated with the high price of land and existing homes, and that just about sealed the deal for banks and homebuyers alike. Big Oil, Lenders, Wall Street all had a hand in this. But so did someone else. I'll reveal them later.

SOME PROGRAMS YOU MAY RECOGNIZE
Let's look now at what the government's answers were to the last depression.

1)FDIC
(Taken from the official FDIC website)

Mission
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an independent agency created by the Congress that maintains the stability and public confidence in the nation's financial system by insuring deposits, examining and supervising financial institutions, and managing receiverships.

Vision
The FDIC is a leader in developing and implementing sound public policies, identifying and addressing new and existing risks in the nation's financial system, and effectively and efficiently carrying out its insurance, supervisory, and receivership management responsibilities.

2)FSLIC
(Taken From TeachMeFinance.com)
Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) -- a former government corporation under the direction of the former Federal Home Loan Bank Board that insured deposits at savings institutions. Congress authorized the FSLIC in the National Housing Act of 1934. Under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, FSLIC was abolished. Its deposit insurance function was assumed by a new insurance fund, the Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF), administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Sound good? Sure it does, but the bailout will undoubtedly causes inflation of the dollar which, in turn, will cause it to be worth less. That means financial institutions can't guarantee the funds will be secure. Oh, by the way, did you catch the part about the FSLIC being started in 1934, before the depression? It made things so secure that we had a collapse 5 years later. Then it had to be done away with and replaced with another program!

3)Social Security
This one has done a lot for the elderly and disabled but try to get it if you are hurt and can't work. My father had to sue to get it when he had a career ending heart attack. He paid into it all his working life but appparently had no right to draw from it without paying a lawyer! What a process! Does anyone out there still think SSI will be around in a couple of decades when I hope to retire?

4)Medicare
I love what this does for people who need medical help. The problem is there is way too much that it doesn't cover that needs to be covered and it is in just as much trouble as SSI.

5)Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) chartered by Congress with a mission to provide liquidity and stability to the U.S. housing and mortgage markets. Fannie Mae was established as a federal agency in 1938, and in 1968 we were chartered by Congress as a private shareholder-owned company. On September 6, 2008, Director James Lockhart of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) appointed FHFA as conservator of Fannie Mae. In addition, the U.S. Department of the Treasury agreed to provide up to $100 billion of capital as needed to ensure the company continues to provide liquidity to the housing and mortgage markets.

Another attempt to help people that backfired. Instead of placing someone in a home they could afford, the government forced lenders to loan money that they would have never lent in the first place. Hence, the failed mortgage industry.

6)Freddie Mac
(Taken From Freddie Mac Website)
Freddie Mac's mission is to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the housing market.

Congress defined this mission in our 1970 charter [PDF 54K], which lays the foundation of our business and the ideals that power our goals.

Our mission forms the framework for our business lines, shapes the products we bring to market and drives the services we provide to the nation's housing and mortgage industry. Everything we do comes back to making America's mortgage markets liquid and stable and increasing opportunities for homeownership and affordable rental housing across the nation.

Liquidity? Strike One.

Stability? Strike Two.

Affordability? You're Outta Here!

Looks like they need help living up to their mission statement, huh? And so steps in Big Daddy Government.

Henry Ford had the automobile. Alexander Graham Bell the phone. Nikola Tesla the first transistor that led to the radio. Thomas Edison is marked by the light bulb. All common men. Not some government hand out think tank. The only person I can think of in government that has added much to the economic landscape and development of our progression is Ben Franklin. As a scientist he was a major figure in the Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and a musical instrument. He formed both the first public lending library in America and first fire department in Pennsylvania.(wilkipedia)

As we have slowed down our dependence on one another with farmers going out of business and jobs being shipped overseas, we have developed a dependence on government issued monies that stifle our creativeness instead of showcasing it. Our banks have left us high and dry. Credit unions and credit card companies(banks), have penalized us for making our payments on time when we slip up just once because they have to make up for their losses elsewhere. They know we will just pay the raised interest rates because we are honest enough to do it. So what's an honest, hard working citizen to do?

Ever heard of Network Marketing? It is basically the business approach that entails a person or group that has a unique product, service or opportunity for making money that relies on word of mouth or in today's language, Attraction Marketing. You can mix the two with great success and make a sizeable addition to your income. Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad,Poor Dad says he believes that Network Marketing is the only way America is going to recover from the crooked, greedy ways of doing business that have hurt us all in one way or another.

So what can we do with Network Marketing to help each other and our economy? Simple, support each other and market one another's inventions, passions, and trustworthiness. As we build relationships with each other, we can build them with the entire world. This can lessen our dependence on our governments and greatly increase our independence of the trappings that come with employers and government bailouts!

There are several ways online to borrow money from individuals and groups of common people that want to help others and make a little cash flow at the same time. There are lots of amazing products and ideas on the net that could reduce our need for the day to day grind that is corporate America.

But this will only work if we get to know each other! No more having a next door neighbor for 15 years and not even knowing their name. Think back to Septmeber of 2001. Are we not the same America that flew The Flag everwhere and held doors open for people no matter how long it took them to get through it? Are we not the same America that that helped others carry groceries, went back to church for the first time in years, and cared about other's hearts and minds and not what they looked like? You know, we acted like AMERICANS!

Now we're back to Greedy vs. Needy, Republican vs. Democrat, Liberal vs. Conservative, Criminal vs. Victim, Court System vs. "Free" Citizen, Black vs. White, Employer vs. Employee...

Where does it all end?

Unless we as common every day Americans change OUR way of doing business, it well end up with the collapse of our nation!

To quote Martin Luther King Jr.: "History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of
social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the
appalling silence of the good people."

In other words, if this great country falls, it will be our fault, not somebody in Washington, D.C.

You have to actually DO SOMETHING! We can't sit on the couch and shake our heads as a little girl gets shot in a drive-by on the news. Or say "That's too bad", as a family's home and life goes up in smoke in a fire in our neighborhood. Last year, a 12 year old girl was taken out of school to be told that her two little siblings, step father and mother were burned to death in a house fire earlier that morning. One of the burliest, life-hardened men at my shop took up a collection for her and we raised a few hundred dollars. Now did that cure her problems forever? Of course not! But you know what? We did SOMETHING! That's all it takes from each person on this Earth, a little effort and friendship. Just like we all did right after 9/11.

Next Victim of Turmoil: Your Salary
by David Leonhardt
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Provided by New York Times

It is possible, for the first time in weeks, to imagine that the credit crisis may be about to ease. But one of the big lessons of the last year has been not to underestimate the severity of the economy's problems. Those problems are not just about housing or Wall Street.

What, then, will the next stage of the downturn be about? It is likely to revolve around the worst slump in worker pay since - you knew this was coming - the Great Depression. This slump won't be anywhere near as bad as the one during the Depression, but it also won't be like anything the country has experienced in a long time.

Income for the median household - the one in the dead middle of the income distribution - will probably be lower in 2010 than it was, amazingly enough, a full decade earlier. That hasn't happened since the 1930s. Already, median pay today is slightly lower than it was in 2000, and by 2010, could end up more than 5 percent lower than its old peak.

If you look back at poll results over the last few decades, you will see that nothing predicts the public mood quite like income growth.

When incomes are growing at a good clip, as they were in the mid-1980s and late '90s, Americans are upbeat. When incomes stagnate, as they did in the early '80s, early '90s and in the last several years, people get worried about the state of the country. In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 89 percent of respondents said that the country had "pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track," a record high.

So it's reasonable to expect that the great pay slump of the early 21st century is going to have a big effect on the next several years. Falling pay will weigh on living standards, consumer spending and economic growth and will help set the political atmosphere that awaits the next president.

The events of the last several weeks have removed any serious doubt that the economy is in a recession. In a recession, businesses cut back on their workers' hours, hand out raises that don't keep pace with inflation and often skip paying bonuses. These cuts in hours and pay are the main way that a downturn affects families, because only a small share of workers actually lose their jobs.

As the chart next to this column makes clear, every recent recession has brought an effective pay cut of somewhere between 3 and 7 percent for the typical family. The drop typically happens over a period of about three years, lasting longer than the recession officially does, as pay fails to keep up with inflation.

The recent turmoil - the freezing up of credit markets, the fall in stock markets, the acceleration of layoffs - has made it unlikely that the coming recession will be a particularly mild one.

"The biggest hit will be in 2009," Nariman Behravesh, the chief economist of Global Insight, a research and forecasting firm, told me, "and it probably won't be until 2011 until we see any kind of pay gains."

What will make this recession different, no matter how deep or shallow it is, is that it's following an expansion in which most families received little or no raise. The median household made $50,200 last year, slightly less than the $50,600 that the equivalent household earned in 2000, according to the Census Bureau. That's the first time on record that income failed to set a new record in an economic expansion.

Why has it happened? There is no single cause.

Medical costs have risen rapidly, which means that health insurance premiums take up a bigger chunk of workers' paychecks than they used to. Some of this money goes to good use; it pays for treatments that weren't available even a few years ago. But some of it, the part that disappears into the inefficient American health care system, is clearly wasted.

And in the last couple of years, the value of the typical worker's benefits package has stopped growing. Since 2005, benefits packages have become slightly smaller, notes Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute. So health benefits can't come close to explaining the recent pay stagnation.

The bigger factors are probably some combination of the following: new technologies, global trade, slowing gains in educational attainment, the rise of single-parent families, the continued decline in unionization and the sharp increase in inequality, which has concentrated income gains at the top of the ladder. Your political views will probably determine the relative weights that you assign to those causes. Economic research hasn't yet definitively answered the question.

Whatever the cause, though, the effects of the pay slump are going to be significant. Households have already begun to cut back their spending, and they will do so even more next year. Mr. Behravesh predicts that inflation-adjusted consumer spending in 2009 will be somewhere between flat and down 1 percent. If he's right, it would be the first year that consumer spending didn't grow since 1980, which just happens to be the last time that the country suffered through a deep recession.

The pay slump will also make it harder for people to pay off their loans. Last week, Bank of America reported that its losses on consumer credit had tripled over the last year.

In all, banks around the world have acknowledged $600 billion in losses as part of the financial crisis. The latest International Monetary Fund analysis suggests they still have another $800 billion in losses ahead of them - and a good chunk of them will occur in this country.

It's always possible, of course, that some bit of good and unexpected economic news is just around the corner. The situation also seemed pretty dire in the mid-1990s, until the Internet boom came along and incomes then started rising at their fastest pace since the 1960s.

But you would have to be a pretty zealous optimist to forecast a repeat of that story. For two decades, consumer spending has been an enormous driver of economic growth, thanks in good measure to a long bull market, a housing bubble and a boom in consumer debt.

The bull market, the housing bubble and the debt boom have all ended - and now paychecks are shrinking, too.

At some point, the next big economic engine will indeed arrive. It always does. This time, however, it's going to have some stiff head winds to overcome.

E-mail: leonhardt@nytimes.com

Scared? Me too. We all are. But the turning point in our economic lives isn't whether the stock market crashes, it's how we as Americans respond to the situation. Do we crumble under the fear or take it and turn it into motivation and prosper. The survivors who try to make it through this will drop to their knees. But the courageous, informed (notice I didn't say genius) will rise up and conquer! The only real question is: "Which one will YOU be?"

I feel we need to get back to the way this country was built. Depending on one another is the way I was brought up and it still works today. That method of support doesn't fail to succeed in business either. We can bring each other out of this mess. We didn't create it and we shouldn't suffer because of it! We must rise up and reclaim our hold on the economy. We must unite together even though we may be rivals in our own industries. We must take time to actually share ideas and get to know one another! We must share products and knowledge and only promote what works so we can weed out the inefficient rip-off scams that hurt everyone. We must build up a trust of the American people that won't waver.

As network marketers and information-sharing "gurus", our main objective should be to revitalize this world in a peaceful, caring way that benefits EVERYONE!

How do we accomplish this? It's simple, but hard.

If we make the money return to us, the government will follow. They need our taxes, you see. They can't operate without us. The big corporations get massive tax breaks and bailouts when they mess up everyone's lives through layoffs and outsourcing. Is that the American Dream? It's not mine. What about you? Do you really see a future in the stock market to decide your retirement fund? Do you feel secure in your profession? In your current job, do you feel like there are others who must have you or what you know to succeed themselves? I'm not saying quit your job. Just have a very good back up plan. With a little initial effort, you can create a nice supplement to your income.

Grass roots direct buying and selling is what our economy was founded on. It has been around since the dawn of the intellectual age of man. What started out as bartering, or trading of products, became a money based system that turned into capitalism. It's a great system but it has been corrupted by the greedy. The government doesn't help out grass roots movements because they can't shape it, control it, or manipulate it. We must police ourselves and each other. Everyone in this must demand that all participants be legal. We have to be ethical and honest. No promises of making $50,000 a month. If your business or opportunity doesn't fit someone, try to direct them to another one, even if it means you lose them as a team member. When one person fails, the whole system will lose. When one falls, we all fall a little.

There is too much leaving people behind just because they were taken advantage of by someone that only wanted to get their money. We can't treat our own people that way anymore and make it as a country. There are way too many inventions and ideas out there that Corporate America hasn't come up with for us to be dependent on those that want to use us to get rich. If we just stick together and chip in with whatever we know, we can make this country great again. We can make this a fairy tale ending instead of a horror story.

But...do we want to do the work? Do we have the resolve to not give up?

GET COMMITTED!

DON'T BE A COWARD!

COMMIT TO YOUR FAMILY!

COMMIT TO YOUR SPOUSE!

COMMIT TO YOUR HEALTH!

COMMIT TO YOUR FAITH!

COMMIT TO YOUR SUCCESS!

COMMIT TO YOUR FREEDOM!

And most importantly, as you'll see below in the video, DON'T GIVE UP, DON'T EVER GIVE UP.