Video Evaluation There Will Be No Economic Recovery. Prepare Yourself Accordingly, - Essay Example

2 December Video Evaluation On first perception of the of the video, “There Will Be No Economic Recovery.Prepare Yourself Accordingly,” I have to say that it was really kind of a slap in the face. My first thought was that this was going to have a very pessimistic approach to the economy within the United States. Based on history, the economy fluctuates. To truly believe that it will never bounce back is very disheartening both for my own generation but also for future generations. I thought to myself, ‘Why would I ever want to keep my family in America?’ Does this mean the land of opportunity is weakening and there is no hope? This is a very discouraging concept to believe (Molyneux 2013). Prior to watching this video, it was to my understanding that social programs helped the poor people. I thought that the job forecast was actually increasing. I knew that our government was in over its head with debt but I presumed it was due to our country’s intervention in the Middle East. I believed that the middle class actually were living paycheck to paycheck and I did believe many lived off of credit cards and loans. However, I did not really realize that what they had spent was money they did not have in the first place. At the rate that this economy is moving, there is little to no hope of changing. I had no idea that we were so much worse off economically than we were in the 1950s and while it is easy to blame the President, the majority of the issues are also to be blamed on Congress. I discovered by watching this video, I was quite wrong about many of my theories about our economy. There is much to be learned from this video. The statistics are extremely eye-opening. When looking at the graphs and charts that Molyneux had created, it is evident that many thing that the government are doing to try to help increase the recovery process are actually failing. Programs that were established over 40 years ago are haunting the country today as people who do not work and live off the government are making more than those who do work. The debt is increasing per household, per corporation and also federally. People are spending imaginary money that they simply do not have. The wages people are making are spent on their debts. Items are increasing in price while what they make per hour cannot cover the prices of goods that people need. Many people are living well below poverty level. Actually, it appears that the people who are on welfare are sitting better economically than the people who are actually working to earn their wage. This is a problem because the government spends so much of the country’s tax dollars to support the people on welfare. This does leave a gloomy forecast for the economy of the United States if something does not happen soon. The rich are getting richer and even though the government prints more money, they keep the majority of it and it also increases inflation. This is the world that Molyneux believes is to be the end of America. This is how all of the western society is functioning economically. Some countries are further ahead than the United States while others are behind. The United States underwent a recession period and it is believed that the economy would recover. Molyneux claimed that this is quite different than the Great Depression that the country experienced following the World War (Molyneux 2013). This is the country that we currently live in and it is likely our future generations will too. While there are challenges, Molyneux states that there are also great opportunities ahead. Since the 1970s, many people do not have faith in its leadership. Molyneux made comparisons that people liked things like abortion, President Nixon, and Paris Hilton even more than they liked Congress. While that is like comparing apples and oranges, it is still pretty clear that the majority of Americans dislike Congress’ actions during this recession and recovery period because nothing is working. Since the government is often associated with the elitist portion of society and are often the ‘rich’ people, the economy is working out pretty well for them and they have almost completely eliminated a middle class in the United States (Molyneux 2013). Overall, the employment ratio was lower in the 1950s of people who were of working age and actually had jobs. In the 1950s, this ratio was about 56 percent but at this time, very few women were in the workforce. The country hit a peak in 2000 with around 65 percent of people in the workforce but then has since plummeted back down to around 58 percent of civilians being employed around 2013 even though women are in the workforce. This includes public and private sectors (Molyneux 2013). Wages as a percent of the economy has also dramatically crashed. It is at an all-time low. There is less consumer confidence. Instead, more people are borrowing money which is causing debt to increase significantly. People are borrowing more money just to maintain their lifestyles and turn to credit in order to do so. Corporations have seen a major spike in borrowing money since the 1980s and it is at an all-time high. Federal debt is also increased. Saving is declined because interest rates are also declining. When money sitting in the bank used to at least draw a little bit of interest, it does not accrue the interest quite as quickly as it once did and banks and financial institutions have been on the verge of crumbling, particularly during the recession when the country was in a huge financial crisis. People were upside down in their debt payments and were not getting paid enough in wages. Jobs were being lost left and right due to companies downsizing or even closing. This left many people with the option of giving in and letting their properties go. Their options were to file bankruptcy or to foreclose on properties, liquidating many of their assets and leaving them penniless and unable to obtain credit (Molyneux 2013). Most of the problems in the economy occurred in the 1980s. The rich keep getting richer and the poor people keep getting poorer. The people connected to the government more closely are more likely to use the money. This increases inflation. Welfare and social security was designed to help people who were poor. However, too many people have taken advantage of it to the point, the desired outcome to help people come out of poverty actually backfired and went the opposite direction. The poor people are stuck being poor (Molyneux 2013). When considering the average hourly earnings, it has not changed that much in the past 50 years. In 1964, the typical wage per hour was $17.54 and spiked in 1972 at $20.07. It bottomed out in 1993 and then increased slightly. However, this becomes a problem when someone is in debt because they are owing those wages toward their debts. This leaves them upside down unable to live except by paycheck to paycheck, unable to save money because they are using the money that they have earned to pay for expenses but to also pay off debts that have been obtained through loans and credit options (Molyneux 2013). In the 60s and 70s, the government programs were designed to close the income gap. Instead, it actually made it wider. The rich people have gained and the poor and middle class suffered. There have been an increase of spending on social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and health care. This robs from other sectors in order to pay for these programs. Taxes were increased. There is more federal debt. Inflation is caused through more printing of money. The majority of the money is actually kept by the government. The deficit of the debt is being increased by these social programs. It is what consumes the majority of the federal tax revenue. This then cuts into the infrastructure where other money should be spent by the government to fix roads, go toward education, and other sectors. The total welfare spending is almost $170 per day for each household considered to be in poverty. Unfortunately, the people in the workforce are actually making less per day and per hour than the people who are on welfare. The household median income per day is less than $140 per day. This does not give people an incentive to have a job. Instead, it actually would discourage people from seeking employment and just living off of the government’s aid than to actually work for it. People on welfare are virtually making more money than those who are employed (Molyneux 2013). According to the United States Department of Labor, 163,000 new jobs were created in June 2012. However, 1.2 million jobs were lost that same month. In the following five months, more jobs were created. However, the jobs that were created, were in the government. The level of private sector jobs decreased significantly. Due to population growth, there are many people who still remain jobless. To be considered unemployed, a person has to be still actively looking for a job. This taints the actual statistics of the unemployment rates in the country. Approximately half of a million people leave the work force per month. Millions of people instead were added to the food stamp program (Molyneux 2013). When President Obama first took office, the number of people that were classified as long-term unemployed workers was 2.6 million people and since the administration has been heading the government, that number has risen to 5.6 million people classified as long-term unemployed workers. Approximately 88 million people that are of working age who are not employed are not even looking for employment. Many of the jobs in manufacturing have been sent to India and China because it is cheaper and the United States also has much stricter laws. It was just easier to send those factory jobs overseas so the quality of work has also decreased. Instead, service jobs are what people have to choose from because the majority of manufacturing jobs are being sent overseas (Molyneux 2013). People who have always worked factory jobs and are uneducated now have their jobs ripped from them. What are they to do now? No one is going to hire a 50-year-old whose only job experience is a factory job unless they go to the service sector which is typically a low-paying job. Now, federal workers are collecting more wages than any other working sector, typically making six-figure incomes annually (Molyneux 2013). In conclusion, while this seems to be a pessimistic attitude toward the economy, seeing the statistics speak for themselves. Under the current administration, the economy is not thriving. It is simply making the richer more rich, eliminating a middle class, and keeping the people who are poor stuck. The opportunity for the economy to turn around is not looking good for the future. The government has tainted numbers of employment by adding federal jobs. The majority of middle class and those who are poor are likely to not be qualified enough to even obtain those positions. The social programs that were once intended to help people have done nothing but hinder the government. The money that should have been set aside for people to retire by drawing social security is going to be gone for future generations. Most people are literally living paycheck to paycheck, only to try to pay off debt. The government payoffs went to corporations and did not help the average civilian. The recovery has only helped the rich and the corporate sector. People do not have money to build savings, leaving them stuck in the workforce likely until they can no longer work. Financial burdens have increased and remain steady while people are gradually trying to dig themselves out of the hole of debt that they are in. It will take a long time for people to pay off debt and to live comfortably. At this point, it is nearly impossible. Jobs are being lost to foreign countries and the forecast of the economy still does not look good. Regardless of political affiliation, it will take a strong and focused administration and legislative branch to pull America out of this slump. Otherwise, there is no recovery. There will be no jobs for my generation or my offspring. The country will be financially distressed if spending continues. Taxation of the people does not help because it simply takes more money from the middle class to help pay for the lower class. It will take a group of strong government leaders to truly make a turn-around and to create jobs and incentives for people to have jobs. Right now, it seems that it is much easier to just not have a job and to live off the government. It will take drastic measures to get the economy back on the road to recovery and then when the administration takes those leaps, they will then be forced to keep conservative with taxation and spending in order to balance the economy. As of now, the economy looks bleak. Works Cited Molyneux, Stefan. There Will Be No Economic Recovery. Prepare Yourself Accordingly. YouTube. 8 Jan. 2013. 2 Dec. 2014. http://youtu.be/bYkl3XlEneA. Read More