1. According to the Wall Street Journal, 5.5 million Americans are currently unemployed and yet are not receiving unemployment benefits.

2. The number of “low income jobs” in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.

3. U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

4. Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year. That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

5. When 2007 began, there were about 26 million Americans on food stamps. Today, there are over 44 million on food stamps, and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

6. The U.S. dollar is in such bad shape that now even Steve Forbes is predicting that the U.S. is “likely” to go back to a gold standard within the next five years.

7. All over America, state and local governments are selling off buildings just to pay the bills. Investors can now buy up government-owned power plants, prisons and municipal buildings from coast to coast. For example, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey recently sold off 16 government buildings (including the police and fire headquarters) just to pay some bills.

8. All over the United States, many of our once great manufacturing cities are being transformed into hellholes. In the city of Detroit today, there are over 33,000 abandoned houses, 70 schools are being permanently closed down, the mayor wants to bulldoze one-fourth of the city and you can literally buy a house for one dollar in the worst areas.

9. During the first three months of this year, less new homes were sold in the U.S. than in any three month period ever recorded.

10. 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another.

11. The percentage of millionaires in Congress is more than 50 times higher than the percentage of millionaires in the general population.

12. Standard & Poor’s has altered its outlook on U.S. government debt from “stable” to “negative” and is warning that the U.S. could soon lose its AAA rating.

13. The 50 U.S. state governments are collectively 3.2 trillion dollars short of what they need to meet their pension obligations.

14. The 50 U.S. state governments are collectively 3.2 trillion dollars short of what they need to meet their pension obligations.

15. The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

16. Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up by about 30%.

17. When Americans think of “government debt”, most of them only think of the federal government, but it is not just the federal government that has a massive debt problem. State and local government debt has reached an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP.

18. Those that were alive in the 1970’s will remember how much was made of the “Misery Index” during the presidency of Jimmy Carter (1976-1980). At that time, the “Misery Index” was constantly making headlines in newspapers all across the country. Well, according to John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, if we calculated unemployment and inflation the same way that we did back during the Carter administration, then the Misery Index today would actually be higher than at any point during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.

19. Most Americans don’t realize how much the U.S. dollar has been devalued over the years. An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 would cost you $115.93 today. An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 would cost you $454.36 today.

20. Cotton prices are up more than 80 percent over the past 12 months. Silver is up 80 percent.Gold is up more than 21 percent from a year ago.