Easing the Middle Class Squeeze -

Your choice for urban survival resources!

America has been compromised, some would say

hoodwinked by Washington. Does anyone care?

Many feel the American Dream has been shattered and voting is a waste of time.

After all, neither party has lived up to its campaign promises for the past

35 years and instead, they've bankrupted our country.

As a result of free trade policies initiated by Pres. George W. Bush, our country has lost millions of jobs to outsourcing. At the same time, US immigration policy has fostered open borders allowing US multinational firms to export high paying jobs to foreign nations, essentially, gutting middle class jobs and benefits.

At the same time, an underclass of illegal immigrants flowed into the US to compete for jobs at lower benefits and pay - the loser has been the middle class. So-called free trade agreements have been used to railroad American workers producing a real decline in income.

The federal government will spend more time harrassing the state of Arizona and its immigration bill than it spends on enforcing existing laws.

Meanwhile, without a tax base to support the federal, state and local governments, the feds have bankrupted our nation both financially and morally...it only took them 30 years!

"I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States

isn't someone hiding in a cave, but our own fiscal irresponsibility."

--David M Walker, former Comptroller General of the US

Ten years ago, America was at its economic peak.

Since then – we’ve seen the bust of the dot.com bubble, countless financial scandals, and another major market crash last year that wiped out many people’s life savings.

We've come close to losing our democracy through rigged elections, a rigged electoral process and the domination of politics by Wall Street and other special interests. We've also seen a decline in participation from ordinary people and an assault on the Bill of Rights and the Constitution mostly through...

...the implementation of The PATRIOT Act (which was actually written before 9/11!) whose draconian measures have diminished our civil rights and undermined our freedoms. No one who supposed to protect the country against these transgressions -the Supreme Court, Congress-, did a damned thing about living up to their oath of office.

Politicians, bankers, and big corporations have been…and continue to…feeding like pigs at the public trough – having the public pay for the messes they have made…resulting in “the little guy” never being able to get ahead and remaining stuck in the financial quagmire those gluttons created. Our freedoms, our environment, our natural resources have been squandered by greed from the Washington-Wall Street Cartel.

And if that isn’t bad enough…

Decreasing personal and financial privacy coupled with a lack of financial education for today’s youth and young adults…AND the diminished (now almost non-existent) faith in big business and politicians is leading the country further into chaos.

The Washington-Wall Street Cartel has decimated working class Americans with their ruthless anti-citizen policies.

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Two years ago today, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States . Are you better off today than you were two years ago? Numbers don't lie, and here are the data on the impact he has had on the lives of Americans:

January 2009

TODAY

% chg

^Source

Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S.

$1.83

$3.104

69.6%

¹

Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)

$43.48

$99.02

127.7%

²

Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)

$38.74

$91.38

135.9%

²

Gold: London (per troy oz.)

$853.25

$1,369.50

60.5%

²

Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL

$3.56

$6.33

78.1%

²

Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL

$9.66

$13.75

42.3%

²

Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob

$13.37

$35.39

164.7%

²

Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall

7.6%

9.4%

23.7%

³

Unemployment rate, blacks

12.6%

15.8%

25.4%

³

Number of unemployed

11,616,000

14,485,000

24.7%

³

Number of fed. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim)

2,779,000

2,840,000

2.2%

³

Real median household income (2008 v 2009)

$50,112

$49,777

-0.7%

⁴

Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10)

31,983,716

43,200,878

35.1%

⁵

Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10)

7,526,598

9,193,838

22.2%

⁶

Number of long-term unemployed

2,600,000

6,400,000

146.2%

³

Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009)

13.2%

14.3%

8.3%

⁴

People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009)

39,800,000

43,600,000

9.5%

⁴

U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings

5

9

n/a

¹⁰

Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10)

29.9

23.5

-21.4%

¹¹

Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date)

140

164

17.1%

¹²

U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate

89.76

82.03

-8.6%

²

U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)

1,575.1

1,865.7

18.4%

¹³

U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)

8,310.9

8,852.3

6.5%

¹³

National debt, in trillions

$10.627

$14.052

32.2%

¹⁴

(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration; (2) Wall Street Journal; (3) Bureau of Labor Statistics; (4) Census Bureau; (5) USDA; (6) U.S. Dept. of Labor; (7) FHFA; (8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller; (9) RealtyTrac; (10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ; (11) The Conference Board; (12) FDIC; (13) Federal Reserve; (14) U.S. Treasury

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Off-the-Grid Economics

There are dozens of ‘survivalist’ sites available to you on the internet. Most of them and related print magazines are devoted to finding a place in the country to ‘homestead.’ While this is a terrific goal, one that I had achieved in the late 90s (we had a great 38-acre spread), it’s not always practical or affordable for most…even with the recession, land prices in most (not all) parts of the country are still expensive and even in ‘recession-torn Michigan, virtually no one is offering cheap land.

Going completely off-the-grid is not an inexpensive process, even for DIY folks. We also, at one point, owned 40-acres of vacant land in AZ which we had planned as our off-the-grid retirement project. An uninsured illness and other factors forced us to sell that land. While planning that project we estimated it would cost us nearly $45,000 to become completely energy self-sufficient excluding the cost of the home itself.

That’s why our Poor Man site and Bulletin is devoted more to the Urban Survivalist. Most of us will be happy to cut our utilities in half, earn a living from home, and to supplement our larder with natural, home-grown food. Not all of us have a complete workshop with our own lumber mill and a circle of like-minded DIY’ers to help us out…hell, I can’t even convince my wife to go along with some of the stuff I do (she will not help raise any animal she might have to eat). Of course, I do throw my politically incorrect insights about how the government mistreats its one-time masters into the mix!

I’ve always admired the Amish, many of whom I’ve hired over the years to perform tough carpentry projects, farrier work, etc. Because of community, they can raise a barn in a weekend without any kind of debt! It’s tough to find that sense of community in most localities.

In that regard I’ll soon expand my book offerings to include a useful new book by Brett Markham called Mini-Farming: Self-Sufficiency of ¼ Acre. I’m waiting on his publisher for prices. As you noted in the previous issue, we’re also offering the best book on stockpiling, now in its 11^th edition – Don’t Get Caught With Your Pantry Down, available on our site. In 1999 we distributed case loads of this book and it’s one I suggest everyone in America own.

Finally, another useful paperback we’ve begun stocking is Anneli Rufus’ Scavengers’ Manifesto: a guide to freeing yourself from the endless cycle of buying stuff and discovering how salvaging, swapping and recycling can save your cash and the earth! This is currently available on my eBay site at 40% less than bookstore prices – go to Oldbooknook.com to order.

With all the doom & gloom that’s fit to print…stock market crashes, earthquakes, oil leaks, mass murders, mining accidents, bomb plots, etc. don’t you think it might be prudent to become more self reliant and prepared?

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(C) and (TM) 2008 PoorMan Recession Survival Center

Most of us have too much stuff-enjoy this Carlin video!

Cost of Buying a US Senate Seat=$10 Million

Cost of Buying a US House Rep=$1.2 Million

Cost of Buying a Presidency=$200 Million

Cost of the loss of US middle class jobs – priceless!

There are some things money can’t buy, but Congress isn’t one of them!

The War on the middle class has left many pummeled and powerless. That’s because politicians have put the squeeze on the middle class by ignoring the challenges we face. Politicians are beholden to corporate elites and not its citizens.

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Background...

We've become serfs on what used

to be the land of the free.

Bureaucratic bungling has become a nightmare of red tape which has cost us jobs and security.

Far too many Americans today are finding themselves in financial hot water. The American dream is eroding. While Washington can spend billions on war, Americans are losing their homes, cannot afford health insurance, cannot afford basic energy costs and many no longer have a job.

Since the 1980s Wall Street has exported American jobs and benefits with alarming speed. It began with blue collar jobs and progressed to white collar jobs. Both political parties stood by and did nothing. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that burger flippers can’t afford $40,000 cars or much else. It’s simple economics that when a country stops producing goods, its decline begins.

The collusion between federal politicians and Wall Street has led to the near collapse of our economy. Policies that over taxed the middle class while Fortune 500 firms paid little or none of their fair share plus an ever-growing government (both in terms of regulations and employees) has led to an unaffordable government and the destruction of the middle class.

Many citizens must shoulder some of the blame as well. Living beyond our means through credit has become a mantra for many in achieving a good lifestyle. Americans on the whole, have become less self reliant. For example, life without a cell phone, would difficult to imagine for many.

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Cost of Buying a US Senate Seat=$10 Million

Background...