TOTAL LICENSING
By George Medina, Intercontinental Licensing
“READ ALL ABOUT IT! READ ALL ABOUT How our anti-recession medicines shall affect to 3.2%. More than 5 million jobs have vanished
IT!” the newsboys used to shout when there these issues will be of supreme importance. since the recession began in December 2007.
were still extras and newsboys were still run- • How do we finance our households since Since agricultural states seem to have lower un-
ning through the streets. the beginning of the crisis?: employment rates, does that mean “pack up and
And now we shall try to analyze the un-analyz- % of Income From: 2005 Today move”, as the Great Depression moved people
able that broke out over America between De- Household Income 15 32 from Eastern states to the West? No, it means
cember 2007 and the present. The most shock- Salary 11 22 that agricultural depression in traditionally hard
ing news! Or was it? Retirement Funds 9 35 scrabble lands is not as severe as it is in the big
If you expect stock market tips from me, don’t Savings 19 43 cities. There are fewer jobs to lose. Farmers
read on! Investments 8 53 and their families do a lot of work themselves.
But if you want to look around you with the (No it doesn’t add up to 100% because, obviously, The average monthly Social Security benefit (un-
telescope of hindsight – come along with me… the answers can be mixed between percentages.) employment) has risen from $900 in 2000 to
I would first like to quote Mark Twain: It is logical to assume that this money, which $1200 now. Even with this increase we cannot
“For the most of us the past is a regret, the fu- must now be spent to make ends meet or that overlook the difficulties that have descended on
ture an experiment.” We see: is reducing our reserves, is not immediately the states where so many of the families were
replaceable. Even “when times get better” it already just about managing on two wage earn-
A NEW NATION will have impoverished the Middle Class which ers and where the collapse of a certain indus-
If you have previously followed my columns you mostly supply these statistics. try (cars in Michigan, textile and apparel in the
will remember that I have previously touched on By March 2009, the ranks of the poor who Southern states) has aggravated the stress.
this topic – but how can we understand where need food stamps and other social services
we are, or where we are going, if we do not look have swelled due to the almost 8% who have TODAY’S AMERICA IS GRAYING
into the mirror and see who we are now, and, in- lost their jobs in the present recession (com- Spending on Social Security and Medicare and
cidentally, adjust our time honored assumptions pared wit the “Great Depression” of 1929-30 Medicaid has risen from 7.1% in 1990 to 8.2% of
if we are more than 40 years of age. when it was 25%). However, it’s probably safer the total U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
“Tradition is a guide and not a jailer,” said W. not to compare – blissfully most people hardly and is predicted to hit 9.3% next year – with
Somerset Maugham. remember, and even those whose parents told medical expenses the main culprit.
• At the end of the 1900’s “We the People” them about it are rapidly disappearing from our In the USA, the working age population who
were 270 million. At the end of 2005 we had environment. Still, as we all have read in count- must support all these expenditures with their
grown to 296 million and by 2050 we expect to less novels and seen in many films, those were taxes (ages 20-64) is 59.7% in 2000, comparing
be 438 million. terrible times. to Western Europe or China where it stands at
• Some 80% of that increase of 142 million, We firmly believe that the protective proce- 61.1%. It is estimated, however, that by 2050 ev-
that is 113 million, will be immigrants or chil- dures and laws brought in by FDR’s New Deal ery two workers will support one retiree, com-
dren of immigrants. It follows that we can see make a re-occurrence of the Great Depression pared to 1950 when the ratio was 16 workers
that no economic crisis can be allowed to de- impossible. Yet, the budgets of the Federal gov- to 1 retiree. Yet, despite the need for taxes, The
tour us into recriminations about jobs, housing, ernment (which needs to help the states carry Economist reports:
healthcare, or education between “them” and the expenses) are severely strained. It is true “Of the 400 richest tax payers in the US, 31%
“us”. In 2050 only 47% of our population will that these payments are funded by each state paid taxes at an effective rate of less than 10%
be “white”. from payroll taxes, but when the state is short last year thanks to tax deductions, tax-free
• If we will have all these people close to the of funds the Federal government gives support earnings, and other tax clauses, according to the
traditions of Mexico, China, the Philippines, India, under other entitlements. IRS.”
or Vietnam, no wonder that our schools will give Whereas we can average the unemployed at It is assumed that the retiree entitlements, So-
rise to a large increase of intermarriage. After 8.5% (highest level in 26 years) nationally this cial Security and Medicare as we know it, will
all, even now, our President stems already from varies by state. The NY region – New York, have to be cut – but …
an interracial marriage. New Jersey, and Pennsylvania – stands at 6.1%.
• President Obama won the Presidential Elec- The spread goes from Michigan at 9.6%; Rhode WATCH OUT! THE BABY BOOMERS
tion partially because there are now 75 million Island at 9.2%; California, South Carolina and Or- ARRIVE!
young people of whom yearly more can vote egon range from 8.4% to 8.1%; down to South In 1960, when Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”
or must look for jobs or attain college degrees. Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming from 3.4% made it a question of morality and national ex-
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