A single graph that depicts a society spiraling into the dustbin of history

Why work when you can just collect disability? After all, last month a record 8.9 million took advantage of impossible-to-verify "ailments" like back pain and mood disorders.

...Today, 6.5 workers are on disability for every 100 who have a job. That's double the ratio from two decades ago. The number of people on disability has climbed almost sixfold since 1970.

That influx has caused SSDI costs to climb faster than its dedicated payroll tax revenues. The program has been running a deficit since 2009, and will be insolvent by 2016, according to the program's administrators...


...Last year, the federal government paid $135 billion in disability benefits, which is more money than it devoted to food stamps and welfare combined.

And because those on disability are eligible for Medicare benefits after two years, the sharp rise in SSDI enrollment has put a huge strain on Medicare's budget, costing the program $80 billion in 2012, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In other words, one-sixth of Medicare's budget now goes to pay benefits for working-age disabled.

Record numbers on disability, a large percentage of which are fraudulent. Record numbers on food stamps, many of those fraudulent. Record welfare payments, many of those also fraudulent. Record income tax credit fraud. In fact, government officials have documented hundreds of billions of fraudulent payments each year laced throughout the federal government's massive, unsustainable wealth redistribution programs.

One might call this the Obama-Krugman-Blodget recipe for national suicide.

But I'll be charitable and simply ask: what is this, the fourth annual "Summer of Recovery"?

Has the Inflation Genie Escaped? "Every nation is about nine meals away from a revolution"

Really good charts spotted at Market Daily Briefing that reflect the real costs of Ben Bernanke's magical printing press, which is spewing out dollars at an unprecedented clip.

Food is important, especially when you don't have it. The rule of 3s says "3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food" but another saying is, "every nation is about nine meals away from revolution."

It was posited here that the Arab Spring was due in no small part to high food prices for peoples whose food budgets started out at around 40%. For instance, the Egyptian government had a food price support in place, and when global prices rose, it became too expensive for them to run. Down went the Egyptian government, after being in power for 40 years. Check out the "Food" column in the table below and you'll have a sense.


The CPI that a population feels when prices move depends on where it spends. In the US, the food spend is 7% of our income. So if the food price index moves from 125 to 225 (an 80% move) as it did in 2006-2008, we would see a CPI impact of about 6%. For people whose food budgets account for 46% (such as the average Pakistani), they would see a CPI impact of 36%.

Since Barack Obama took office, the real price of food has increased about 40 percent.

Combined with Bernanke's ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate) policy -- which makes it extraordinarily difficult to generate income on savings accounts, CDs and money markets -- lower- and middle-class senior citizens are among the hardest hit by the irresponsible deficit spending instigated by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

MARK LEVIN TRANSCIPT: What happens when the system collapses?

A caller to Thursday's Mark Levin Show [MP3] had an interesting question regarding the inevitable result of Barack Obama's record-setting deficits.

Curtis: We talk about all of this out-of-control spending, we have the CBO reports, the GAO, the Medicare Trustees, I mean how much time do we really have before...

Levin: Well, the Social Security Trustees report that we have only 11 years, that's all.

Curtis: But the government... the government bubble... the government collapse?

Levin: It's hard to know. Hard to know, but at some point... you can see, Curtis, how they're struggling now. They're having to do these little Continuing Resolutions, they have to lie about how much we're in debt and the yearly deficit.

You can see that they're in full cover-up mode like Ponzi or Madoff. But it's hard to know exactly when [it all comes crumbling down]...

Curtis: What will this collapse look like [when it occurs]? What will we experience?

Levin: I can give some indicators. I don't know exactly what it will look llike. But some indicators will be:

- the seizing of assets... oh, they'll say it's done legally, to get "the rich", to close some "unfair loophole". Including, I believe, and I've talked about this extensively, 401(k) plans and private pensions. There's trillions of dollars sitting there and, in the view of the government, you have that money sitting there because they gave you certain tax advantages that they choose to take away.

- also in terms of programs the government offers, those programs will dry up. You'll start to see that.

- you'll start to see hyper-inflation, where the Fed -- through monetary policy -- will try to keep apace with [Obama's] disastrous fiscal policies.

- you'll see promises that the government made, such as Social Security and Medicare, start to disappear.

What you'll see in a more theoretical sense is a breakdown in the social contract. You'll see that all of these welfare programs were not social service and insurance programs, those were just facades. So all of the false premises and pretexts that were used to develop these massive entitlements, all of the borrowing and printing, will have an enormously devastating effect on our financial system.

And what is our financial system? What is the currency? The currency is not just a means of exchange. It represents the fruits of your labor. It's your paycheck. It's your savings. It's your pension. It's your investment. It's what you use to purchase food and clothing and the basics, energy. The government's in charge of the currency. The government's in charge of valuing it devaluing it.

And so my point is, you will see signs... of more and more aggressive central government... this is one of the reasons you hear me, on and on and on, attack class warfare. Because it's not about class warfare. If they can break down the most successful and productive elements of our society, they're going to break you down.

And when they break you down, you're going to ask for help. From whom? The government. Not all of you, but you get the point. When the thing begins to unravel, it collapses.

I'm not Nostradamus here, but the Constitution was set up the way it was set up to prevent this sort of thing. The people in public office today, the president, almost all of the members of his party in DC, reject limited constitutional government.

The lessons of Argentina are especially relevant.


Thanks to Biff Spackle for the transcript.

The sad truth about Social Security

Please hide this particular article from any young hopenchangers who suffer from the delusion that Social Security will be around when they're ready to retire.

Social security is not earned retirement income, an entitlement nor a benefit.

Many people believe that Social Security is an “earned right.” That is, they think that because they have paid Social Security taxes, they are entitled to receive Social Security benefits. The government encourages that belief by referring to Social Security taxes as “contributions,” as in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act...

...However, in the 1960 case of Fleming v. Nestor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workers have no legally binding contractual rights to their Social Security benefits, and that those benefits can be cut or even eliminated at any time.

Nestor sued, claiming that because he had paid Social Security taxes, he had a right to Social Security benefits.

The Supreme Court disagreed, saying “To engraft upon the Social Security system a concept of ‘accrued property rights’ would deprive it of the flexibility and boldness in adjustment to ever changing conditions which it demands.” The Court went on to say, “It is apparent that the non-contractual interest of an employee covered by the [Social Security] Act cannot be soundly analogized to that of the holder of an annuity, whose right to benefits is bottomed on his contractual premium payments.”

The Court’s decision was not surprising. In an earlier case, Helvering v. Davis (1937), the Court had ruled that Social Security was not a contributory insurance program, saying, “The proceeds of both the employee and employer taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like any other internal revenue generally, and are not earmarked in any way.”

In other words, Social Security is not an insurance program at all. It is simply a payroll tax on one side and a welfare program on the other. Your Social Security benefits are always subject to the whim of 535 politicians in Washington. Congress has cut Social Security benefits in the past and is likely to do so in the future...

Unfortunately for the drones (i.e., the Obama Cultists), the math always defeats the political rhetoric. Always. And the fuse on the fiscal time-bomb is fizzling away, without any of our leaders making the slightest effort to douse it.


Hat tip: R.F.

The 10 Stats You Should Never Show a Baby Boomer

ECB has 35 stats you may want to hide from any baby boomers you know. You may ask: Doug, of those 35, which are... the... 10... most... terrifying entertaining?

10. Right now, there are somewhere around 40 million senior citizens in the United States. By 2050 that number is projected to skyrocket to 89 million.

9. 25 percent of all Americans in the 46 to 64-year-old age bracket have no retirement savings at all.

8. 46 percent of them have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.

7. Elderly Americans tend to carry much higher balances on their credit cards than younger Americans do.

6. Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States.

5. In 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits. Today, that number has fallen to 2.5 workers, and if you eliminate all government workers, that leaves only 1.6 private sector workers for every retiree receiving Social Security benefits.

4. Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.

3. Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.

2. State and local government bodies in the state of California have 325 billion dollars in combined unfunded pension liabilities.

1. The total amount of unfunded pension and healthcare obligations for retirees that state and local governments across the United States have accumulated is 4.4 trillion dollars.

Bottoms up!