Recession Over in June 2009?

What? The recession ended over a year ago?  Is that when the Depression started?  Must be, because while trillions of dollars were thrown at banks and corporations in bailouts, tax cuts, stimulus programs, etc, more Americans than ever are slipping into poverty.  That's 43.6 million Americans in 2009 according to the latest Census Bureau report (The US Census Bureau calculated the threshold for poverty in 2009 for a family of four at $21,756). Not only that, the number of Americans without any health insurance rose by over 4 million people, from 46.3 million to 50.7 million.

The following are 20 signs that the economic collapse has already begun for one out of every seven Americans:

#1 The Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in 51 years of record-keeping.


#2 In the year 2000, 11.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty. In 2008, 13.2 percent of Americans were living in poverty. In 2009, 14.3 percent of Americans were living in poverty. Needless to say the trend is moving in the wrong direction.


#3 In 2009 alone, approximately 4 million more Americans joined the ranks of the poor.


#4 According to the Associated Press, experts believe that 2009 saw the largest single year increase in the U.S. poverty rate since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959.


#5 The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.


#6 Today the United States has approximately 4 million fewer wage earners than it did in 2007.


#7 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many as were receiving it in 2007.


#8 U.S. banks repossessed 25 percent more homes in August 2010 than they did in August 2009.


#9 One out of every seven mortgages in the United States was either delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter of 2010.


#10 There are now 50.7 million Americans who do not have health insurance. One trip to the emergency room would be all it would take to bankrupt a significant percentage of them.


#11 More than 50 million Americans are now on Medicaid, the U.S. government health care program designed principally to help the poor.


#12 There are now over 41 million Americans on food stamps.


#13 The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program increased a whopping 55 percent from December 2007 to June 2010.


#14 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.


#15 California’s poverty rate soared to 15.3 percent in 2009, which was the highest in 11 years.


#16 According to an analysis by Isabel Sawhill and Emily Monea of the Brookings Institution, 10 million more Americans (including 6 million more children) will slip into poverty over the next decade.


#17 According to a recently released Federal Reserve report, Americans experienced a $1.5 trillion loss in combined household net worth in the second quarter of 2010.


#18 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.


#19 Median U.S. household income is down 5 percent from its peak of more than $52,000 in 1999.


#20 A study recently released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College University found that Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need for retirement.

America is the richest country in the world only if you isolate the statistics regarding gross domestic product, and/or if you add the wealth of the wealthiest 1% who, despite the recession, saw their income explode while their taxes were cut dramatically. However, include the statistics regarding we the people, and we're talking third world here.