The Middle Class Sure Isn’t What It Used to Be

This report was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper

If you’ve noticed that it takes a lot more money to live the middle-class American Dream than it used to, you aren’t alone. Buying a house, saving for retirement, and putting your kids through college while living comfortably is a whole lot harder than it once was. Being part of the middle class sure isn’t what it used to be.

Despite the rosy outlook on employment numbers, things have become incredibly difficult for many families. They’re deeply in debt, living paycheck to paycheck, and without an emergency fund. Let’s take a look at what the media is saying about the middle class.

First of all, what IS “middle class”?

There are many different definitions of middle class, and a lot of it depends on where you live. “Easy,” you may be thinking. “Just live somewhere with a lower cost of living.” Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy, because when you move to an area with a lower cost of living, you’re likely to get paid less for your occupation.

Once upon a time, the middle class was the largest group of Americans. Now, according to the Pew Research Group, it is closely matched by people in the low-income class and the high-income class. The image below shows the stats for 2014.

Photo Credit: Pew Research Group

According to Quentin Fottrell, the personal finance editor for MarketWatch, “middle class” is tough to define:

There is no universal definition of the middle class. The Pew Research Center often uses the middle wealth quintile, the middle 20% of Americans’ income and wealth. Other economists have said it’s defined as making 50% above or below the median annual income. Most Americans regard a college education as a critical component to becoming middle class. Some 71% of people with a college degree consider themselves middle class versus just 58% of people with a high school diploma or less, according to a 2012 survey by Gallup. And yet college graduates in 2017 are shouldering $1.3 trillion in student debt.

Previous studies suggest those who identify as middle class as higher than 50%, but also indicates that the middle class is shrinking. Those who identify as middle class has fallen to 59% in 2010 from 62% in 1991, according to a separate report by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.  (source)

Other sources cite variables like savings, net worth, debt, and spending to determine whether a family is “middle class.”

These two calculators will help you compare your income to others in your area:

• The Pew Research Group Income Calculator


• The CNN Money Middle-Class Calculator

For the purposes of this article, we’re going to go with Pew’s definition of the middle wealth quintile.

The middle class is shrinking

The middle class is getting smaller. According to an article on Quartz:

Pew defines middle earners as anyone who earns between two-thirds and twice the median household income in a given year. In 2014, this included a three-person household earning between $42,000 to $126,000 per year. In 1971, 61% of households were middle earners by this standard. By 2015, only 50% were. (source)

The Pew Group said:

After more than four decades of serving as the nation’s economic majority, the American middle class is now matched in number by those in the economic tiers above and below it. In early 2015, 120.8 million adults were in middle-income households, compared with 121.3 million in lower- and upper-income households combined, a demographic shift that could signal a tipping point, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. (source)

Both of the above articles state that more people are getting pushed into the higher income class than are sliding into the lower income class, which sounds great, initially. But when you look at it more closely, those in the middle class are far less wealthy than they used to be:

…middle-income Americans have fallen further behind financially in the new century. In 2014, the median income of these households was 4% less than in 2000. Moreover, because of the housing market crisis and the Great Recession of 2007-09, their median wealth (assets minus debts) fell by 28% from 2001 to 2013…

…The gaps in income and wealth between middle- and upper-income households widened substantially in the past three to four decades. As noted, one result is that the share of U.S. aggregate household income held by upper-income households climbed sharply, from 29% in 1970 to 49% in 2014. More recently, upper-income families, which had three times as much wealth as middle-income families in 1983, more than doubled the wealth gap; by 2013, they had seven times as much wealth as middle-income families. (source)

It’s getting harder and harder to thrive on a middle-class income

The middle class isn’t what it used to be. Once the “American Dream,”middle-class families are struggling for several reasons. Despite their incomes, they owe more and have saved less than ever before. If you can dig through the politically charged introduction and get to the statistics in this NY Mag article, you’ll find the following:

The percentage of families with more debt than savings is higher now than at any point since 1962, while the median American family’s net worth is lower than it’s been in nearly a quarter-century…

…So, this is what a “good” economy now looks like in the United States: shrinking household wealth; soaring middle-class debt; wage growth that can’t keep pace with the rising costs of housing, healthcare, and higher education; job growth concentrated in part-time positions; widespread retirement insecurity; and more wealth-less households than America has seen for 56 years. (source)

Having more debt than savings is called “negative wealth.” One-fifth of American households fall into this category. Of course, $1 trillion in credit-card debt and $1.4 trillion in student loan debt has to take a toll eventually, right?

Then there’s the ridiculous cost of healthcare in our country. (I recently had my own bad experience with healthcare costs.) Those who are on the upper end of the middle class are hit with premiums well into the thousands of dollars per month for far less coverage than they had previously.

“Health-care spending is growing at an unsustainable rate. Insurance and medical costs are draining the incomes of the middle class—tens of millions of people who earn too much to qualify for government-subsidized coverage, but not so much that they don’t feel the bite of medical bills…Health premiums and out-of-pocket costs wiped out most of the real income gains for a median family from 1999 to 2011, according to an analysis published on the blog of the journal Health Affairs in 2013.” (source)

Finally, Americans don’t have much in the way of an emergency fund. A recent study found that a whopping 47% of us would be unable to cover an unexpected bill of only $400. The middle class – and often even the upper middle class – are living paycheck to paycheck, and not always through poor handling of money.

Where the great jobs are, folks want to make $300,000-400,000 to live a middle-class lifestyle.

Lots of young people go deeply into debt for an education that will (hopefully) land them a job in Silicon Valley, New York City, or some other metropolitan area. After all, that’s where the jobs that start you off at $80,000 a year are, right?

Unfortunately, these are also the places in which the cost of living is completely out of reach for those with middle-class incomes, making it so that to be “middle class,” people feel as though they need to earn anywhere from $300,000-400,000 per year. This article pinpoints the actual amount of money you’d need to make in 25 different metropolitan areas to live a middle-class lifestyle.

While there’s a big difference between these amounts and the amounts that statistics show are needed, the stats aren’t showing everything. Sam Dogen wrote an article about why you need to earn more:

Let me tell you a sad story: In order to comfortably raise a family in an expensive coastal city like San Francisco or New York, you’ve got to make at least $300,000 a year. You can certainly raise a family earning less as many do, but it won’t be easy if your goal is to save for retirement, save for your child’s education, own your own home instead of rent and actually retire by a reasonable age. (source)

Here’s the budget he put together. If you read the article and look at his review of the expenses, they aren’t as out of whack as they might sound to those of us who live outside of the major metro areas.

While I can’t actually imagine making that kind of money every year, neither can I imagine facing those kinds of expenses. When your base costs are that high, even hardcore frugality can’t save you.

What’s a middle-class family to do?

It’s essential to watch the trends and be ready if things come tumbling down. Here are the things on which you should focus:

• Building an emergency fund – you don’t want to be one of those people who can’t handle a $400 emergency, right?


• Reducing your fixed expenses – this will help you through the rough times


• Building a stockpile – this will cut your costs to the bare minimum during bad times


• Paying off debt – this will help you live within your means

It’s essential to pay attention to what is going on in the economy. Jose, our writer from Venezuela, wrote of numerous warning signs that should have told him that a financial crisis was drawing near. If you want to keep up to date with what is happening, subscribe to my newsletter here.

Finally, maybe it’s time to take a look at the lifestyle for which you yearn. Maybe you need to focus on simplicity. Maybe you don’t need to keep up with the Joneses. Maybe, after some adjustment, you’ll find that you are happier without the stress of competing for that middle-class lifestyle.

Figure out your priorities. Would you rather have a big house or travel the world? Would you prefer to put your kids through school debt-free or have a new car every other year? Most of us can’t do both.

The only way to be different from those families who are struggling to pay their $24,650 in monthly expenses is to live differently than they do. Being part of the middle class isn’t what it used to be. It doesn’t take a financial expert to see that the US economy, despite the optimism from the White House, is going to continue to hit most of us hard. Now is the time to make the changes before they’re forced on you.

“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday”: 13 Random Revelations from April, 2018

This article was originally published by Doug “Uncola” Lynn at TheTollOnline.com

As we travel the stormy seas on the way to our forthcoming destination, thirteen revelations from April, 2018 are now randomly recorded by this mate as follows:

1.) According to a April 22-24, 2018 Fox News poll of 1,014 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide:  Two-thirds said it is at least “somewhat important” that Mueller’s Russia investigation continues, and “56 percent think it’s likely the special council’s probe will find that Donald Trump committed criminal or impeachable offenses”.

2.)  A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 70% of Democratic voters would like to see impeachment hearings begin if Democrats regain control of the House and Senate.

3.) At a rally in Washington Township, Michigan on Saturday, April 28^th, Trump claimed Republicans will retain the House and Senate in the 2018 midterm elections because of the economy:

‘Jobs are booming and confidence is soaring. All over the world, they’re talking about this success,’ the president crowed.

Since Trump took office, the U.S. economy has added 2.7 million jobs — an average of 181,000 per month — while growth was fastest in counties that gave Trump the most votes, according to a Washington Post analysis of U.S. Labor Department data.

 4.) According to Kiplinger:  Interest rates will continue rising due to “government deficits and an expanding economy with slightly higher inflation”. This means, although the Fed raised rates only once during Obama’s presidency, they have raised rates five times so far since Trump’s election and with two more increases anticipated in June and December of 2018; plus three to four more hikes expected in 2019. If all those occur, then rates will be raised 10-11 times in the 38 months between Trump’s 2016 election win and the start of 2020.

5.) At an engagement over the weekend attended by my family and friends –  I spoke with several Republican voters and NOT ONE had heard of the April 2018 criminal referrals by Congress to the Justice Department and FBI. In fact, when I informed them of the referrals which included James Comey, Hillary Clinton, Andrew McCabe, and others, most thought I was joking; while one politically conservative relative simply told me he was sick of Trump’s twittering.

6.) On April 12, 2018 – James Mattis, the US Secretary of Defense, admitted there was no evidence of the recent chemical attack in Syria; and the lack of proof was also reported to have been confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) last week. It looks like Trump may have bombed Syria for nothing, but it’s okay because Americans don’t really care.

7.) At Saturday’s debauched, even x-rated, White House Correspondents’ Association dinner –  hatred, misogyny, and hypocrisy were celebrated even though some CNN reporters in attendance later said it was uncomfortable, cringeworthy, and harsh. Of course, no one expressed outrage DURING comedian Michelle Wolf’s disastrously devious and disrespectful diatribe. Not even one heckler. Not one.

8.) The Political Left is comprised of bona fide racists who, last week, called rap star, Kanye West, and conservative commenter, Candace Owens, “Uncle Tom, Coon, Uncle Ruckus, and other insults”. Moreover, it is now in vogue for comedians like Stephen Colbert to broadcast fried chicken and crazy negro jokes.

9.) In April, the U.S. Department of Justice continued to cover-up the corruption of the same intelligence agencies that Senator Chuck Schumer once claimed had “six ways from Sunday” at “getting back” at Trump. The collusion of the intelligence agencies against a constitutionally elected president is now a matter of public record and the legal double standards have been exposed for all to see. It appears the Justice Department’s latest strategies are to stall, or comprehensively redact, the release of documents and to ignore deadlines imposed by Congress in the hopes of a Blue Wave this fall carrying, and burying, all of their dirt back into the swamp.

10.) The unprecedented and disgraceful April 9, 2018 raid  of a lawyer currently representing the sitting President of the United States, proves that both the constitution, and attorney client privilege, are now dead in America. It is, perhaps, fitting the raid was the result of a referral from Robert Mueller’s likely illegal special counsel investigation.

11.) Trump’s allies are drowning in legal fees, his pick to lead Veteran’s affairs was forced to withdraw from the nomination process, and his immigration policies remain overturned by federal judges.

12.) The head coordinator for an illegal migrant caravan that is now attempting to invade the U.S. southern border, is originally from Mexico and remains a permanent resident of Minnesota. If the caravan was legitimately seeking political asylum, they would have remained safe within Mexico’s borders; yet they all kept marching north. That means any claims of asylum were always a farce and, although Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called the caravan “a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system”, none of its organizers here in America appear to be in any legal jeopardy at this time.

13.) Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL) has recently stated that many of the Republicans who have announced their retirement from Congress in 2018, did so for fear of being assassinated by crazed, gun-toting leftists.

Indeed. Transitions are markers to what will pass as our voyage traverses the ocean of time from history to revelations unknown. So stay awake, keep your eyes on the horizon, your hands steady at the helm, and, look for true north to guide some, but not all. Most importantly, keep your life preservers near and dear.

Up and down, round and round it goes; how it ends, we just don’t know. Either the storm will pass or the ship will sink. All aboard and bottoms up. Anchors away.

It’s May.

The Death Of Retail Real Estate Continues: 77MM Sq.Ft Of Shopping Space Closed In 2018 Already

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

Retail real estate carnage is going to continue this year with no signs of slowing up, as Bloomberg reported this morning that over 77 million square feet of retail real estate has closed this year and that 2018 will easily pass 2017’s record of 105 million square feet closed. The latest example was the fall of the once massive Toys ‘R’ Us name:

The fall of the Toys “R” Us chain, with more than 700 U.S. stores, shows how much retail real estate has changed in just the last decade. When KKR & Co., Bain Capital, and Vornado Realty Trust took over the company in 2005, the buyers justified the $7.5 billion price, in part, because of the supposedly valuable properties that came with the deal.

If there was ever to be any silver lining to the complete carnage in the retail real estate space, it was the argument that has been perpetuated over the last decade or so: despite retail stores closing, the real estate would eventually be worth something.

This argument was made by real estate investment trusts as well as activist investors and analysts who tried to put a positive spin on the death of brick and mortar retail. Now, with more space freeing up, the bid under former retail property is at ask of falling off as supply is starting to get far ahead of demand:

Real estate can put a floor under the value of a retailer and make it easier for the company to borrow. Maybe a particular store concept doesn’t work out as consumers’ tastes change, but in that case, investors can always sell the land and buildings to someone with a better plan. Long-term leases can be similarly valuable. But what if the problem isn’t that a particular store is out of fashion, but that consumers are just shopping less at brick-and-mortar retailers in general? As more storefronts empty, the valuation floor will look wobblier.

This pace of closings puts 2018 on pace to pass 2017’s record of 105 million square feet of retail space closed:

At last count, U.S. store closures announced this year reached a staggering 77 million square feet, according to data on national and regional chains compiled by CoStar Group Inc. That means retailers are well on their way to surpassing the record 105 million square feet announced for closure in all of 2017.

It doesn’t look like the pace of these closings is going to slow anytime soon, either:

And with shifts to internet shopping and retailer debt woes continuing, there’s no indication the shakeout will end anytime soon. “A huge amount of retail real estate in the U.S. is going to meet its demise,” says James Corl, managing director and head of real estate at private equity firm Siguler Guff & Co. Property owners will “try to re-let it as a gun range or a church—or it’s going to go back to being a cornfield.”

So goes one set of stores, as go others. Despite the fact that the U.S. still has some of the most square footage of shopping space per person, there isn’t enough being spent at these locations to make them worth it:

Even though retailers have been retreating for years, the country still has about 24 square feet of shopping space per person, many times more than any other developed nation, according to research firm Green Street Advisors. Consumers aren’t spending enough offline to support such a generous amount. Vacancies are headaches for landlords, of course, but they also have a mushrooming effect. People may steer clear of a mall that has lost an anchor tenant or has an abundance of “for lease” signs in smaller spaces. Deserted big-box stores, their facades naked and parking lots barren, can spread a sense of blight for blocks around. Who wants to open a business next to a place that’s gone out of business?

The article finishes by pointing out that companies like Amazon and Whole Foods have still seen success using a brick-and-mortar retail concept. It’s possible that the space is simply just downsizing and becoming more efficient instead of disappearing entirely. Regardless, there seems to be a long runway to go in terms of retail real estate freeing up over the next couple of years. The trend of internet versus department stores also remains anything but encouraging.

And the outlook, with overlevered companies and lack of a serious bid under property prices, continues to look grim. Retailers are not going to be able to refi or recapitalize in ways necessary to try and grab onto lifelines. As the sector continues to collapse it’s going to be harder and harder to try and engineer turnarounds – this could lead to a self fulfilling prophecy of accelerating turmoil and collapse for the industry:

But not every deserted retail property can be turned into a gym, theater, or boutique outlet of a tech company. That reality will weigh on any investor thinking about scooping up a struggling chain with real estate assets today—especially buyers in private equity, who borrow heavily to finance their deals. “Retailers cannot support large debt loads,” says Perry Mandarino, head of restructuring at B. Riley FBR, an investment bank that’s worked on retail liquidations. “Add to that the possibility of a decrease in the value of other collateral, such as real estate, and the successful execution of a retail-leveraged buyout may be almost impossible.”

Almost a year ago to the day, we reported on retail closing setting up to hit a scorching pace in 2017. The narrative for 2018 stays the same, only worse. In early 2017 we pointed out the astonishing fact that “Barely a quarter into 2017, year-to-date retail store closings had already surpassed those of 2008.”

We asked in early 2017 if Amazon was assured of becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar stock, perhaps hitting the milestone even before Apple? Here is how the two names have fared since then:

The race is on.

Others have given up waiting for a recovery that seems always out of reach and are settling into what appears to be the new normal – but regardless, 2018 is setting up to, once again, break new ground in misery for retail real estate.

‘Flippy’ a Burger-Flipping Robot just Started its First Shift

(The Daily Sheeple) Flippy, a burger-flipping robot, has just begun work at a restaurant in Pasadena, California. It is the first of dozens of locations for the system, which is destined to replace human fast-food workers.

According to a press release from Miso, the company — which bills Flippy as the world’s first burger-flipping robot — began working with Caliburger two years ago to develop it as a “cost-effective and highly efficient solution” that is “specifically designed to operate in an existing commercial kitchen layout and to serve alongside kitchen staff to safely and efficiently fulfill a variety of cooking tasks.”

“The kitchen of the future will always have people in it, but we see that kitchen as having people and robots,” said David Zito, co-founder and CEO of Miso Robotics tells KTLA in Los Angeles. “This technology is not about replacing jobs — we see Flippy as that third hand.”

But Flippy still needs a human to help it do its job. In its current version, the robot has to have a human coworker nearby to place the patties on the grill, put the cheese on top at the right moment, and add the extras, such as lettuce and sauce before wrapping the sandwiches for customers. So all it does is flip burgers.  But it is just one more nail in the minimum wage’s coffin, that’s for certain.

“The Flippy robot takes the form of a relatively small, wheeled cart equipped with a 6-axis robotic arm and what Miso Robotics calls a ‘sensor bar,’ TechCrunch writes. “It takes in data from thermal sensors, 3-D sensors and different cameras onboard to perceive its environment. Digital systems that send tickets from the counter back to the kitchen give Flippy its orders.”

TechCrunch also reported that unlike rival burger bots under development, such as one made by Momentum Machines, Flippy uses artificial intelligence to improve its technique – so the more it works, the better it gets at the job, in much the same way that might be expected from a human worker.

The post ‘Flippy’ a Burger-Flipping Robot just Started its First Shift appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Thousands More Stores Are on the 2018 Retail Apocalypse DEATH LIST: Are your local stores on the list?

This report was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper

Every year, it seems like more and more retail outlets are going out of business, resulting in the loss of jobs and local supplies. Last year, hundreds of stores closed, and this year, even more shops are scheduled to shut their doors for good.

The 2018 Death List

This year, in an effort to save their businesses, the following retailers will close hundreds of their stores, according to Fox Business.

• Abercrombie & Fitch: 60 more stores are charted to close


• Aerosoles: Only 4 of their 88 stores are definitely remaining open


• American Apparel: They’ve filed for bankruptcy and all their stores have closed (or will soon)


• BCBG: 118 stores have closed


• Bebe: Bebe is history and all 168 stores have closed


• Bon-Ton: They’ve filed for Chapter 11 and will be closing 48 stores.


• The Children’s Place: They plan to close hundreds of stores by 2020 and are going digital.


• CVS: They closed 70 stores but thousands still remain viable.


• Foot Locker: They’re closing 110 underperforming stores shortly.


• Guess: 60 stores will bite the dust this year.


• Gymboree: A whopping 350 stores will close their doors for good this year


• HHGregg: All 220 stores will be closed this year after the company filed for bankruptcy.


• J. Crew: They’ll be closing 50 stores instead of the original 20 they had announced.


• J.C. Penney: They’ve closed 138 stores and plan to turn all the remaining ones into toy stores.


• The Limited: All 250 retail locations have been closed and they’ve gone digital in an effort to remain in business.


• Macy’s: 7 more stores will soon close and more than 5000 employees will be laid off.


• Michael Kors: They’ll close 125 stores this year.


• Payless: They’ll be closing a whopping 800 stores this year after recently filing for bankruptcy.


• Radio Shack: More than 1000 stores have been shut down this year, leaving them with only 70 stores nationwide.


• Rue 21: They’ll be closing 400 stores this year.


• Sears/Kmart: They’ve closed over 300 locations.


• ToysRUs: They’ve filed for bankruptcy but at this point, have not announced store closures, and have in fact, stated their stores will remain open.


• Wet Seal: This place is history – all 171 stores will soon be closed.

And these are just the people who have announced store closures so far. In an environment hostile to brick and mortar businesses, more are sure to come.

Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost.

Even if you don’t like to shop, this is a sign of economic trouble. The malls that sit empty are a sign of massive unemployment.

Jobs in the retail sector are the most prolific in America, employing 4.3 million workers as salespeople and 3.3 million workers as cashiers. (source) The current store closures mean the end of employment for tens of thousands of workers.

All in all, the collapse of the retail industry could, at some point, put the livelihoods of more than 7 million people in jeopardy. Perhaps the doomsaying economists like Peter Schiff and Dave Kunstler are right when they warn that a Great Depression the likes of the one in the early 1900s is upon us. That means not only massive unemployment but also massive hyperinflation, making it nearly impossible to stay fed.

Let’s add to rising retail unemployment the move to more self-checkout, more AI, and more computerized systems instead of human staff. It’s not too hard to understand why people could soon be dependent on a Universal Basic Income and a return to an almost feudal society.

A Great Depression now would be far worse than the historic one we all look back on.

And if that’s the case, it’s bound to be even worse. Back in 2006, our urban population exceeded our rural population for the first time ever. This means that people will be unlikely to have the space to grow food for self-reliance.

As well, we’ve gotten so far away from the skills of self-reliance that it’s practically a lost art. Our society is one of consumers, not producers, and this means that in a depressed economy, many more people will be at the mercy of government handouts. And let’s face it, in a depression, those handouts, if they happen at all, will be very sparse.

These days, most folks don’t know how to grow food, preserve food, sew, or build. For a list of self-reliant skills and links to places that will help you learn them, go here to my Self-Reliance Manifesto. No matter where you live, some of these skills will be applicable you, and it’s more urgent now than ever to put them into practice. To learn more about living through a societal and economic collapse, check out articles by Jose, who is currently trying to get his family out of Venezuela due to their own crisis. (Here’s one that is really enlightening.)

What do you think?

Is the retail apocalypse a sign of impending financial doom or merely a move toward a more digital society? Will unemployment begin to rise even further?

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget.  Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

WalMart Raises Starting Wage To $11, Provides One-Time Bonus Following Trump Tax Reform

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

Add Wal-Mart to the growing list of companies boosting employee compensation in the aftermath of the passage of Trump’s tax reform.

In a just released press release, Wal-Mart Stores announced it is boosting its starting hourly wage to $11, expanding maternity and parental leave benefits and providing a one-time cash bonus for eligible associates – those who have been with the company at least 20 years – of up to $1,000, capitalizing on the U.S. tax overhaul to stay competitive in a tightening labor market.

The company said that the increase will take effect in February next month and will cost approximately $300 million incremental to already planned wage hikes. The one-time bonus of up to $1,000 is based on seniority and will amount to an additional $400 million. The company is also expanding its maternity and parental leave policy and adding an adoption benefit.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that “we are early in the stages of assessing the opportunities tax reform creates for us to invest in our customers and associates and to further strengthen our business, all of which should benefit our shareholders. However, some guiding themes are clear and consistent with how we’ve been investing — lower prices for customers, better wages and training for associates and investments in the future of our company, including in technology. Tax reform gives us the opportunity to be more competitive globally and to accelerate plans for the U.S.”

As Bloomberg adds, Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, has fought in recent years to improve its image in the U.S., as it weathered criticism over its treatment of employees. With the wage increase and bonus payment, the world’s biggest retailer seeks to even its pay gap with resurgent rival Target Corp., while simultaneously sending a high-profile thank you to the U.S. government for slashing the corporate tax rate.

The full release can be found here.

44 Numbers From 2017 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse

2017 went by way too quickly. Donald Trump’s first year in the White House shook up the entire planet, and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next. Personally, as 2017 began I was still having a hard time actually believing that Trump was going to be our president. Once he was finally inaugurated on January 20th I was able to relax a little bit, but at that point I had no idea that I would soon be running for Congress here in Idaho as a pro-Trump candidate. As 2018 begins, I think that it would be good to look back and remember some of the most important things that happened over the past 12 months. The following are 44 numbers from 2017 that are almost too crazy to believe…

#1 During Donald Trump’s first year, ISIS lost 98 percent of the territory that it gained while Barack Obama was in the White House.

#2 The price of Bitcoin rose more than 1,300% during 2017.

#3 According to the Washington Post, one out of every ten young adults in the United States has been homeless at some point over the past year.

#4 The United States has lost more than 70,000 manufacturing facilities since China joined the WTO in 2001.

#5 On Donald Trump’s first full day in office he was 70 years, 7 months and 7 days old, and it happened in year 5777 on the Hebrew calendar.

#6 The all-time record for the number of retail store closings in the U.S. was absolutely shattered in 2017. According to the latest figures, a total of 6,985 store locations were shut down last year, and we are expected to break the record again in 2018.

#7 Incredibly, the number of retail store closings in 2017 was up 229 percent compared with 2016.

#8 When Ronald Reagan entered the White House, the federal government was about one trillion dollars in debt.  Now we are 20 trillion dollars in debt with no end in sight.

#9 Prominent names in the financial world such as John McAfee and James Altucher are predicting that the price of Bitcoin will eventually reach one million dollars.

#10 According to the most recent numbers that we have, 41 million Americans are currently living in poverty.

#11 A recent CNN poll found that only 37 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party.

#12 Ever since the beginning of April, Congress has had an average approval rating of less than 20 percent.

#13 The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 5,000 points in 2017, and that absolutely shattered the previous record of 3,472 points in 2013.

#14 At one point in 2017, the total market cap for all cryptocurrencies combined (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, etc.) surpassed the half a trillion dollar mark.

#15 Wildfires burned an astounding 9,791,062 acres over the past year.

#16 It is being reported that less than 50 percent of all third, fourth and fifth grade students in the state of California meet minimum standards for literacy.

#17 At one very poorly performing elementary school in California, 96 percent of the students are not proficient in either English or math.

#18 Back in 1960, an average of $146 was spent on healthcare per person for the entire year, but today that number has skyrocketed to $9,990.

#19 Thanks to Obamacare, an appendectomy is ten times more expensive in the United States than it is in Mexico.

#20 Thanks to Obamacare, a family of four in Virginia is now facing the prospect of paying $3,000 a month for health insurance.

#21 It is being projected that the average rate increase for Obamacare plans will be 37 percent in 2018.

#22 In 2017, we found out that 264 cases of sexual harassment involving members of Congress have been settled for a grand total of $17,250,854 since the start of 1997.

#23 Economic growth is starting to pick up under President Trump, but the U.S. economy only grew at an average rate of just 1.33 percent over the 10 years prior to 2017.

#24 It is being reported that homelessness has become so pervasive in ultra-liberal Seattle that “400 unauthorized tent camps” have popped up around the city.

#25 One survey that was conducted in 2017 discovered that 78 percent of all full-time workers in the United States live paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time.

#26 According to the Federal Reserve, the average U.S. household is now $137,063 in debt, and that figure is more than double the median household income.

#27 A staggering 59.8 percent of younger Millennials (18 to 25) are now living with relatives, and overall an all-time record 38.4 percent of all Millennials are currently living with family.

#28 Boston University professor Larry Kotlikoff says that the federal government is facing a fiscal gap of 210 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.

#29 According the National Center For Health Statistics, nearly 40 percent of all U.S. adults are now officially obese. That is an all-time record.

#30 Our obesity epidemic is now costing us 190 billion dollars a year.

#31 Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, and Warren Buffett now have more money than the poorest 50 percent of the U.S. population combined.

#32 At this point, 20 percent of all U.S. households have “either zero or negative wealth”.

#33 U.S. stocks have have increased in value by more than 5 trillion dollars since Donald Trump was elected.

#34 For the season, NFL television ratings were down about 9 percent, and many believe that the anthem protests were the primary cause for the ratings decline.

#35 One very disturbing survey found that less than one out of every four Republican members of Congress support building Trump’s border wall. This is just one reason why we need to vote out the RINOs and replace them with pro-Trump candidates that will support President Trump’s agenda.

#36 Another survey discovered that 50 percent of all Americans favor a pre-emptive strike on North Korea even though many of them cannot even find North Korea on a map of the world.

#37 Last year criminals were able to hack into Equifax and make off with the credit information of 143 million Americans.

#38 Venezuela, the 11th largest oil producing country in the entire world, decided to stop using the petrodollar in 2017. This was one of the biggest news stories of the entire year, and yet the mainstream media in the U.S. didn’t want to talk about it.

#39 It has been reported that only 25 percent of all Americans have more than $10,000 in savings right now.

#40 A study conducted by the Federal Reserve found that 44 percent of all U.S. adults do not even have enough money “to cover an unexpected $400 expense”.

#41 In the early 1970s, 70 percent of all men in the United States from the age of 20 to the age of 39 were married, but today that number has fallen to just 35 percent. Instead of getting married and starting families, a lot of our young men are still living at home with their parents. Today, 35 percent of all young men from the age of 21 to the age of 30 “are living at home with their parents or a close relative”.

#42 In 2017, the federal government spent more than 4 trillion dollars for the first time ever.

#43 Our government continues to waste money in some of the most insane ways imaginable. For example, in 2017 we learned that the U.S. military actually spends 42 million dollars a year on Viagra.

#44 One survey discovered that 40 percent of all Americans now “prefer socialism to capitalism”, and so we have much work to do if we intend to have any chance of turning this country around.

Michael Snyder is a pro-Trump candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years.Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream. 

If you want to know what is coming and what you can do to prepare, read his latest book Get Prepared Now!: Why A Great Crisis Is Coming.

Defaulting on Student Loans Can Mean Loss of Jobs

The following states have laws permitting suspension of professional or driver’s licenses of individuals defaulting on student loans – compounding a deplorable racket:

Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Maybe others will join them, part of a great wealth transfer swindle, shifting it inexorably from most Americans to its privileged class, ongoing for years.

The student loan racket is a disturbing government/corporate partnership. Students are exploited for profit. Providers are enriched.

For many, rising tuition and fees make higher education unaffordable. Others need large loans to attend, forced into burdensome debt bondage. For many, it’s crushing.

For too many, it’s permanent, amounts owed unforgiven. Declaring bankruptcy doesn’t end the obligation.

Lenders thrive on defaults. Wages can be garnished. So can Social Security and disability income, along with other retirement benefits. Liens can be placed on property owned. Tax refunds can be seized.

A conspiratorial alliance of lenders, guarantors, servicers, and collection companies profit from debt service and inflated collection fees – a deplorable predatory system.

Principal, accrued interest, late payment and collection agency penalties create enormous burdens to repay.

Once entrapped, escape is impossible. Unless repaid, future lives and careers are impaired.

Outstanding student loan debt exceeds $1.5 trillion, second only to household mortgages – nearly equal to credit card and auto loan debt combined, the amount increasing by an astonishing $3,000 per second, $180,000 per minute, $10,800,000 per hour, over 259,000,000 daily, around $100 billion annually – why it’s so lucrative for lenders and collection companies.

The New York Times addressed the issue, saying “(f)all behind on your student loan payments, lose your job.”

“Firefighters, nurses, teachers, lawyers, massage therapists, barbers, psychologists…real estate brokers (and others) have all had their credentials suspended or revoked.”

Numbers of individuals affected aren’t known because states don’t keep records. Loss of jobs means lost income, for many desperation, many others unable to work in their chosen field, disrupting their lives and welfare.

Failure to make payments on time affects credit ratings, harming the ability to get future loans.

In 1990, the Department of Education urged states to deny professional licenses to student loan defaulters, or revoke them from individuals having them.

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten called suspending or revoking licenses “tantamount to modern-day debtors’ prison.”

Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts and Washington aren’t using their laws. Oklahoma and New Jersey eliminated earlier ones enacted into law.

Where enforced, the livelihood of anyone failing to maintain repayments as required is jeopardized.

If out of work because of failure to keep up and having licenses suspended, how is future debt service possible without employment providing income?

Congress bears full responsibility for increasing debt bondage. It ended bankruptcy protections, refinancing rights, statutes of limitations, truth in lending requirements, fair debt collection ones, and state usury laws when applied to federally guaranteed student loans.

Millions of graduates and families are harmed, many relegated to years of debt bondage, for some a lifetime – through legalized wealth extraction, a congressionally sanction extortion racket.

The post Defaulting on Student Loans Can Mean Loss of Jobs appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

What If Money Was No Object? (VIDEO)

You probably hear this now-cliché question all the time: “If money was no object, what would you be doing with your life?” But hearing a question multiple times doesn’t make it any less valid. There is a profound truth underlying these words which it seems many of us have come to belittle or outright ignore, and yet the implications of truly internalizing their meaning are huge.

You may be a young, excited individual coming into the workforce or you may be part of an older generation who has been in the workforce for a while, wondering, “How did I get here?” Or perhaps you are someone who already loves what you do. In any case, I truly think that regularly asking yourself what it is you would love to do with your time if money was no longer an object can be a powerful tool. So why don’t we go ahead and do some self-analysis? But first, let’s listen to what Alan Watts has to say about the topic, as I think it will really get us into the right mindset for this task.

The Exercise

This exercise is a pretty simple one, just like the question it addresses. When answering these questions, it is important to go beyond some of the things we are kinda taught are the things to strive for. For example, letting go of our ideas about ‘success,’ money, material goods, fame, etc. and instead looking at it like Alan says – if money didn’t matter and I could do anything right now… what would it be?

Don’t worry about the whole career or job thing right now, just begin with what you like. Then think about what you feel you can contribute to the world, whether it be to just one person or a whole community (or the entire globe!). Educating others, contribution to a project, and bringing joy to others are all examples of ways you could contribute to the world. 

Then grab a piece of paper and write:

“What do I enjoy doing? What makes me tick or gets me excited?”

“What would my ideal day look like if I could do what I wanted to do?”

“What is my ideal job? What does it look like?”

“What are my favorite hobbies or things to do?”

Once you start answering some of these more basic questions, we dive into things like:

“Why do I like these things I enjoy doing?”

“What about them are interesting to me?”

What this does is gets you thinking about yourself and the things that you enjoy. More importantly, it gets you thinking about why you enjoy them. This is key, because it helps you to isolate the elements of those activities that are important to you. You can then use that knowledge to find or incorporate those things into many different tasks or jobs. Because sometimes you really should ‘sweat the small stuff.’ Sometimes it’s those little details which make a job really great, or really awful.

In the end it’s all about participating in activities that bring you joy and ignite your passion, even if it’s only for a few hours a week. The key is trying not to get too stressed about the process either. Worrying that you can’t find your passion or your purpose is not going to help you find it. Have fun and be playful with it. The answer may also change a year from now or 5 years from now. It is human nature to change and to grow, and our passions and interests may change as we do.

Do you want to bring more happiness into your life?

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Guess What Happens in States Where Food Stamp Recipients Have to Work

By: Daniel Lang, www.SHTFplan.com | 

Leftists are constantly reminding of us of the merits of welfare. They tell us that without the help of taxpayer funded handouts, millions of Americans will starve or be left homeless. There’s no doubt that some people really do need help, but this black and white view of welfare doesn’t paint the full picture. Conservatives and libertarians have suspected for decades that many of the people on welfare are actually mooching off of the system. So to reconcile the need to help people who are helpless with the very really problem of people abusing the system, they’ve come up with a great compromise.

In regards to food stamps, they’ve suggested that we offer food assistance on the condition that the recipients are working. Or at the very least, that they volunteer or community service or are making an effort to train themselves for a new job. So what happens in states that have work requirements for food stamp recipients?

Alabama began 2017 by requiring able-bodied adults without children in 13 counties to either find a job or participate in work training as a condition for continuing to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

According to AL.com, the number of those recipients declined from 5,538 to 831 between Jan. 1 and the beginning of May – an 85 percent drop.

Similar changes were implemented in select counties in Georgia and by the end of the first three months, the number of adults receiving benefits in three participating counties dropped 58 percent, according to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported that in 21 additional counties that restored the work requirement, there was a 62 percent drop in SNAP participants.

Of course many leftists will try to shoot holes in this data, by suggesting that perhaps many of these people were working unofficial jobs that paid under the table. Because of that, they were already doing the best they could, and the government cut off their benefits when they couldn’t prove that they were working. The only problem with that assumption, is that we know exactly what happens to people who have to choose between getting cut off from food stamps, and finding a job. Statistics show that they choose to find a job, and their incomes go up drastically. They really weren’t working in the first place.

In October 2014, LePage announced that able-bodied adults would have to find work, spend 20 hours per week in a work program, or perform community service for six hours a week.

Food stamp participation declined 14.5 percent from 235,771 in January 2014 to 201,557 in January 2015, according to the state.

An analysis of a group of 7,000 Mainers who left SNAP in 2014 found their total earnings increased from $3.85 million in the third quarter 2014 to $8.24 million in the last quarter of 2015.

Kansas saw a 75 percent decline after implementing work requirements in 2013. In addition, nearly 60 percent of former beneficiaries found employment within 12 months and their incomes rose by an average of 127 percent per year, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.

The left will never admit it, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that many of the people receiving welfare benefits are able bodied, and fully capable of finding a job. We know this, because when they’re given the choice between losing a couple hundred dollars per month in benefits, and finding a job that will earn them enough money to not need benefits, they choose to find work. We’re subsiding millions of people who just don’t want to work.

And the other detail that the left will conveniently overlook, is that these people are basically siphoning off money from folks who are genuinely in a bad financial place. There would be more money for people who are actually poor.

This is money that could be spent on those who work their hands to the bone every day to provide for their families, and still can’t pay their bills. Or it could be spent on people who simply need to make ends meet while they’re between jobs. If not for these welfare queens, the government could provide more benefits to people who actually need help. That would lift them out of poverty faster, which could reduce the taxpayer’s burden in the long run.

In short, there’s a lot of people taking advantage of welfare programs like food stamps, which takes money away from the people who really need help in our society. And the left’s welfare policies are enabling them.

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Contributed by Daniel Lang of www.SHTFplan.com.

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President of National Border Patrol Council: ‘We signed up to do a job and Trump is allowing us to do that job’

A new "energy" among border patrol agents is a stark contrast to policies implemented during the Obama Administration"s open border agenda

(INTELLIHUB) — President of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) Brandon Judd appeared on Fox News Monday to talk about the logistics of a border wall and the moral of border patrol agents under the Trump Administration.

“We’ve had a drop [in illegal crossings into the U.S.] that we’ve never seen before with any presidency,” the NBPC President said. “So if you are in the left, right, or middle, you have to say that this president has done exactly what he said that he was going to do which is have border security like we expect to see.”

Judd also pointed out that there is a good “vibe” in amongst agents right now and that President Trump’s administration is allowing agents to ‘do their job.’

Via Intellihub

Featured Image: Pablo Manriquez/Flickr

©2017. INTELLIHUB.COM. All Rights Reserved.

Would You Hire Someone Who Gets 218 Days off a Year? You Already Have

(ANTIMEDIA) Washington, D.C. — Know of any jobs that pay $174,000 a year, plus benefits, for only working 147 out 365 days? You may laugh off the notion, but in fact, the answer is yes, you do. Because that’s what your elected House representatives make, and the number 147 is how many days they’re actually working during a congressional session.

According to an official calendar posted by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the United States House of Representatives will have 218 days off in 2017. Members of the Senate, who earn the same salary as their congressional counterparts, put in a bit more time, but the difference is marginal at best.

In fact, members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate get the entire month of August off. Yes, you read that correctly, Americans. The people you’re electing to represent you get a solid month-long vacation each year. More than that, technically, as the calendar shows congressmen are out of session from July 29 until September 4.

Some members of Congress, however, feel they deserve more. One such individual is the outgoing representative from Utah, Jason Chaffetz. He recently told The Hill that he believes congressmen should receive an additional $2,500 a month stipend for housing.

Claiming the pay bump would allow him and other members of Congress to “have your spouse join you here” in Washington, D.C., Chaffetz added that if he “wasn’t buying as many airline tickets” to fly back home to see his family, if would be far less expensive to serve as an official of the United States government.

To be clear, Chaffetz is suggesting that taxpayers should collectively dole out an additional $30,000 a year per lawmaker. This, if it came to pass, would mean an additional $16 million in taxes annually for Americans.

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