50
Random Facts That Make You Wonder What In The World Has
Happened To America
06 July 2010Our world is changing at a pace that
is so staggering these days that it can be really hard
to fully grasp the significance of what we are
witnessing. Hopefully the collection of random facts
below will help you to "connect the dots" just a
little bit. On one level, the facts below may not seem
related. However, what they all do have in common is
that they show just how much the United States has
fundamentally changed. Do you ever just sit back and
wonder what in the world has happened to America? The
truth is that the America that so many of us once
loved so much has been shattered into a thousand
pieces. The "land of the free and the home of the
brave" has been transformed into a socialized Big
Brother nanny state that is oozing with corruption and
has accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the
history of the world. The greatest economic machine
that the world has ever seen is falling apart before
our very eyes, and even when our politicians actually
try to do something right (which is quite rare) the
end result is still a bunch of garbage. For those who
still love this land (and there are a lot of us) it is
heartbreaking to watch America slowly die.
The following are 50 random facts that show just how
dramatically America has changed....
#50) A new report released by the United Nations is
publicly calling for the establishment of a world
currency and none of the major news networks are even
covering it.
#49) The state of California is so broke that Arnold
Schwarzenegger has ordered California State Controller
John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the
federal minimum allowed by law -- $7.25 an hour for
most state workers.
#48) A police officer in Oklahoma recently tasered an
86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on
her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe because
they considered her to be a "threat".
#47) In early 2009, U.S. net national savings as a
percentage of GDP went negative for the first time
since 1952, and it has continued its downward trend
since then.
#46) Corexit 9500 is so incredibly toxic that the UK's
Marine Management Organization has completely banned
it, so if there was a major oil spill in the North
Sea, BP would not be able to use it. And yet BP has
dumped over a million gallons of dispersants such as
Corexit 9500 into the Gulf of Mexico.
#45) For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40
million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture projects that number will go
up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
#44) It has come out that one employee used a Federal
Emergency Management Agency credit card to buy $4,318
in "Happy Birthday" gift cards. Two other FEMA
officials charged the cost of 360 golf umbrellas
($9,000) to the taxpayers.
#43) Researchers at the State University of New York
at Buffalo received $389,000 from the U.S. government
to pay 100 residents of Buffalo $45 each to record how
much malt liquor they drink and how much pot they
smoke each day.
#42) The average duration of unemployment in the
United States has risen to an all-time high.
#41) The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in
the United States now collectively own less than 1
percent of the nation’s wealth.
#40) In the U.S., the average federal worker now earns
about twice as much as the average worker in the
private sector.
#39) Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security
benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each
retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by
approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected
that there will be approximately two workers for each
retiree.
#38) According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to
Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6
trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6
trillion by 2015.
#37) The federal government actually has the gall to
ask for online donations that will supposedly go
towards paying off the national debt.
#36) The Cactus Bug Project at the University Of
Florida was allocated $325,394 in economic stimulus
funds to study the mating decisions of cactus bugs.
#35) A dinner cruise company in Chicago got nearly $1
million in economic stimulus funds to combat
terrorism.
#34) It is being reported that a 6-year-old girl from
Ohio is on the "no fly" list maintained by U.S.
Homeland Security.
#33) During the first quarter of 2010, the total
number of loans that are at least three months past
due in the United States increased for the 16th
consecutive quarter.
#32) According to a new report, Americans spend twice
as much as residents of other developed countries on
healthcare, but get lower quality and far less
efficiency.
#31) Some experts are warning that the cost of bailing
out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach as high as
$1 trillion.
#30) The FDA has announced that the offspring of
cloned animals could be in our food supply right now
and that there is nothing that they can do about it.
#29) In May, sales of new homes in the United States
dropped to the lowest level ever recorded.
#28) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's
paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30
to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has ranged
between 300 to 500 to one.
#27) Federal border officials recently said that
Mexican drug cartels have not only set up shop on
American soil, they are actually maintaining lookout
bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern
Arizona.
#26) The U.S. government has declared some parts of
Arizona off limits to U.S. citizens because of the
threat of violence from Mexican drug smugglers.
#25) According to the credit card repayment
calculator, if you owe $6000 on a credit card with a
20 percent interest rate and only pay the minimum
payment each time, it will take you 54 years to pay
off that credit card. During those 54 years you will
pay $26,168 in interest rate charges in addition to
the $6000 in principal that you are required to pay
back.
#24) According to prepared testimony by Goldman Sachs
Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs
shorted roughly $615 million of the collateralized
debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed
securities the firm underwrote since late 2006.
#23) The six biggest banks in the United States now
possess assets equivalent to 60 percent of America's
gross national product.
#22) Four of the biggest U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs,
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup) had a
"perfect quarter" with zero days of trading losses
during the first quarter of 2010.
#21) 1.41 million Americans filed for personal
bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.
#20) BP has hired private security contractors to keep
the American people away from oil cleanup sites and
nobody seems to care.
#19) Barack Obama is calling for a "civilian
expeditionary force" to be sent to Afghanistan and
Iraq to help overburdened military troops build
infrastructure.
#18) On June 18th, two Christians decided that they
would peacefully pass out copies of the gospel of John
on a public sidewalk outside a public Arab festival in
Dearborn, Michigan and within 3 minutes 8 policemen
surrounded them and placed them under arrest.
#17) It is being reported that sales of foreclosed
homes in Florida made up nearly 40 percent of all home
purchases in the first part of this year.
#16) During a recent interview with Larry King, former
first lady Laura Bush revealed to the world that she
is actually in favor of legalized gay marriage and a
woman's "right" to abortion.
#15) Scientists at Columbia University are warning
that the dose of radiation from the new full body
security scanners going into airports all over the
United States could be up to 20 times higher than
originally estimated.
#14) 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000
saved for retirement.
#13) The FDIC's deposit insurance fund now has
negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which represents
a slight improvement from the end of 2009.
#12) The judge that BP is pushing for to hear an
estimated 200 lawsuits on the Gulf of Mexico oil
disaster gets tens of thousands of dollars a year in
oil royalties and is paid travel expenses to industry
conferences.
#11) In recent years the U.S. government has spent
$2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits
of Chinese prostitutes and $400,000 tax dollars to pay
researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires,
Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky
sexual behavior when drunk.
#10) U.S. officials say that more than three billion
dollars in cash (much of it aid money paid for by U.S.
taxpayers) has been stolen by corrupt officials in
Afghanistan and flown out of Kabul International
Airport in recent years.
#9) According to a report by the U.S. Department of
Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics,
the baggage check fees collected by U.S. airlines shot
up 33% in the first quarter of 2010 to $769 million.
#8) Three California high school students are fighting
for their right to show their American patriotism -
even on a Mexican holiday - after they were forced to
remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.
#7) Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and
spending on entitlement programs like Social Security
and Medicare are somewhere in the neighborhood of 10
to 15 percent of GDP. By 2080, they are projected to
eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP.
#6) The total of all government, corporate and
consumer debt in the United States is now about 360
percent of GDP.
#5) A 6-year-old girl was recently handcuffed and sent
to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at
her elementary school.
#4) In Florida, students have been arrested by police
for things as simple as bringing a plastic butter
knife to school, throwing an eraser, and drawing a
picture of a gun.
#3) School officials in one town in Massachusetts are
refusing to allow students to recite the Pledge of
Allegiance.
#2) According to one new study, approximately 21
percent of children in the United States are living
below the poverty line in 2010.
#1) Since 1973, more than 50 million babies have been
murdered in abortion facilities across the United
States.
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