Americans Live In A World Of Lies
Americans Live In A World Of Lies
Paul Craig Roberts
The US government and the
presstitutes that serve it continue to lie to us about everything. Today the
Bureau of Labor Statistics told us that the unemployment rate was 3.9%. How can
this be when the BLS also reports that the labor force participation rate has
declined for a decade throughout the length of the alleged economic recovery
and there is no upward pressure on wages from full employment. When jobs are
plentiful, people enter the labor force to take advantage of the work
opportunities. This raises the labor force participation rate. When employment
is full—which is what a 3.9% unempoyment rate means—wages are bid up as
employers compete for scarce labor. Full employment with no wage pressure and
no rise in the labor force participation rate is impossible.
The 3.9% unemployment rate
is not due to employment. It results from not counting discouraged workers who
have ceased to search for jobs because there are no jobs to be had. If an
unemployed person is not actively searching for a job, he is not counted as
being in the labor force. The way the unemployment rate is measured makes it a
hoax.
The government tells us
that there is essentially no inflation despite the fact that prices have been
rising strongly—the price of food, the price of home repairs, the price of
drugs, the price of almost everything. Two years ago the American Association
of Retired People’s Public Policy Institute reported that the average retail drug
price has been increasing “at a worrying pace of 10 percent a year, and about
20 drugs have astoundingly had their prices quadruple since just December.
Sixty drugs doubled over the same period. Turing Pharmaceuticals, headed by
Martin Shkreli, is one of the most pronounced examples of this kind of
behavior. The company bought a lifesaving cancer medication only to increase
its price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.” https://www.rt.com/usa/334004-drug-prices-doubled-years/
Incomes, of course, have
not doubled. In real terms incomes have declined. Moreover, expenditures on
medicines are a huge percentage of the budgets of the elderly and those on
Medicare. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average annual cost of
prescription medicines for the elderly accounts for three-fourths of the
average Social Security pension and for about half of the median income of
peope who receive Medicare benefits. https://www.rt.com/usa/334004-drug-prices-doubled-years/
Real jobs have also
declined. The jobs that the financial presstitutes report to be unfilled are
not jobs that provide a living. The BLS reported that the number of Americans
working multiple jobs rose in July by 453,000, bringing the number of Americans
who hold multiple part-time jobs to 8,072,000.
Looking at July’s payroll
jobs report again we see the Third World complexion of the US work force. The
alleged new jobs are concentrated in lowly paid domestic services: temporary
help services, health care and social assistance, waitresses and bartenders.
There is scant sign of a
vibrant economy, but high debt is everywhere. Debt is growing faster than the
income needed to support it. The US government is on course for another $1
trillion annual budget deficit. The federal, state, and local tax base has been
decimated by the global corporatons’ export of high productivity high
value-added manufacturing and professional skill jobs. In the name of “free
trade” the tax base for Social Security, Medicare, and public pensions has been
given away to China and other Asian countries where labor costs are low. The US
global corporations make higher profits by shrinking the US tax base.
Neoliberal economists defend this absurdity as “free trade” that benefits
Americans.
The millions of Americans
whose jobs were given away to foreigners know full well that they have not
benefited. They know the story told by neoliberal economists and financial
presstitutes is a lie.
The lies, of course, go far
beyond the economic ones. Russiagate, which has dominated the print and TV
media and NPR since the last presidential campaign is a massive lie that
continues day after day. On August 3 the NPR presstitutes, for example, were
smacking their lips over the prospect that Paul Manafort was on trial and might
give special Russiagate prosecutor Robert Mueller a conviction that could lead
to Trump’s removal from the White House. The presstitutes speculated that a
convicted Manafort would tell on Trump in exchange for a lighter sentence.
The NPR presstitutes did
not reveal that Manafort was not on trial for anything related in any way to
Russiagate. Manafort is being tried on income tax evasion charges dating
from a decade ago when he was a consultant to Ukrainian politicians. There is
no doubt but that these are false charges whose purpose is to coerce Manafort
into protecting himself by making false charges against Trump. If Manafort is
convicted it will not be on the basis of any evidence. Manafort will be
convicted by the presstitute media which will convince jurors that Manafort is
“one of those rich who don’t pay taxes.”
That President Trump permits
this witch-hunt to continue, a witch-hunt that far oversteps Mueller’s
Russiagate mandate for which not a shred of evidence has been found, shows how
the presstitutes working hand-in-hand with the military/security complex and
DNC have disempowered the President of the United States. While Americans sit
there sucking their thumbs, the coup against the President proceeds before
their eyes.
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