Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

I'll put both images next to each other so that they appear together on the screen.

[aeden]

I think the maps are very instructive and behind ground conditions.
Still a sobering view to the plantation economy.

viewtopic.php?p=79994#p79994
Every thing is twisted into dialectic rant for looting the remaining abused tax base.

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-econo ... rs-to-come
In other words, BLS announcements tend to understate the performance of the labor market when the number of retirees is high. <-------

The new base cannot survive with the current inputs cost structures.
It will be instructive as the last segment of the actual productive leave the scent to these orc based logic and swamp tax looters
who cannot manage even common sense.

Proof of the logic as Tranheuser-Busch CEO Blames Bud Light Boycott On Social Media.
Abject retards over their skis for so long it blew past pathetic.

[Guest]

I'm not saying the cities will be better. Just that welfare dependency is spread throughout the country. I would expect to see some marginal improvement in rural areas once the giant sucking sound from Washington and New York is silenced forever. But maybe not in the rural areas that are highly dependent. I would venture to guess that every red county in the West (image above) is tribal land, or nearly so.

The Mexicans are heavily dependent on government handouts. They have overrun rural areas in the US, including my former hometown. Migrants know hoe to game the system and there are a lot of NGOs that help them do it.

[Higgenbotham]

This map shows all U.S. counties. The bluer the county, the larger the percentage of local personal income that comes from Social Security payments.

On average, 16.7 percent of the U.S. population receives some kind of Social Security check — retirement benefits, survivor benefits or disability payments.

On average rural counties and counties with small cities (such as Sumter in Florida) are more dependent on Social Security than are urban counties. In urban counties, 5 percent of personal income comes from Social Security. In rural counties, an average of 9.3 percent of personal income arrives in the form of a Social Security check.

There are wide differences among rural counties, however. You can see some of that in the map. Retirement counties in Florida, Appalachian counties, the Ozarks, northern Michigan and counties in the Hill Country of Texas, for example, have higher proportions of their incomes coming from Social Security than counties in the Dakotas and Wyoming.

https://dailyyonder.com/rural-counties- ... 011/11/03/

It's surprising that the Upper Midwest is less dependent on social security. But social security income also includes social security disability.

[Higgenbotham]

Also, I've been intending to comment on the 6 excerpts I posted from his book but haven't gotten around to it yet. I posted those to provide another view on the coming dark age and also because many of the topics he covers in those excerpts have been discussed and debated here.

The 6 excerpts from Marc Widdowson's book The Phoenix Principle and the Coming Dark Age, in the order posted, discuss these topics:

Characteristics of Economic Descent
World Economic Order and Whether the Dark Age will be Global
Neo-Barbarian Invaders will Destroy the West
Fragmented Spirituality of the Descent will Leave People Wanting
Giant Firms will Fail and there will be an Informal Economy
When the Descent Culminates in Collapse, Every Remaining Nuclear Warhead may be Exploded

Before discussing these excerpts individually, the crux of the matter in my opinion is how severe the financial crisis will be and whether the financial crisis by itself will either cause governments to fail or a large number of deaths. Historically speaking, that's not the case. Let's summarize what is different this time, looking at what may be most important immediately after the worldwide financial system seizes up:

1. Critical components are only manufactured in a small number of often vulnerable locations in the world.
2. Manufacturing of components requires as many as thousands of inputs sourced from all over the world.
3. Farms are typically thousands of acres and use hard to repair equipment that requires high tech electronic components.
4. Populations are dependent on high tech water and wastewater treatment.
5. Big box and large virtual stores dominate retail.
6. Populations are higher and more concentrated in urban areas.
7. Populations are dependent on transfer payments.

We've had 2 minor test runs - the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 covid panic. Both were partial financial seizures.

Number 7 has been discussed some in the past few posts. Now let's relate number 7 to number 5. Big box has admitted they are dependent on transfer payments also and have discussed how much they are dependent on them in formal filings to the US government.

Wal-Mart makes official its reliance on food-stamp recipients for profits
March 24, 2014, 10:28 AM
Steve Goldstein

Wal-Mart Stores filed its 10-K late on Friday after the market closed, and the world’s largest retailer added some new language to the list of factors that could hurt the company.

There are oodles of things Wal-Mart is fearful of, from Fed interest-rate policy to climate change, but here’s the specific language on benefits: “changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans (and) changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans.” (Yes, Wal-Mart’s lawyers got the name of the program wrong — it’s the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.)

The latter language could reflect both the change in the food-stamp program as well as the ongoing debate over whether Congress should renew extended jobless benefits that lapsed at the end of December.

This isn’t the first time Wal-Mart has commented on the business impact of the food-stamp program. On Jan. 31, Wal-Mart said the reduction in food-stamp benefits by as much 5.5% in November hurt its profits last quarter and were the reason the company’s comparable-store sales were negative (-0.4%) rather than flat at its Walmart stores.

Wal-Mart’s risk factors also reflect worries about a skills shortage, both to operate their new stores as well as to build them. The latter is an issue that the building industry is more broadly worried about as well.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/behindthes ... r-profits/

[Higgenbotham]

Because SNAP provides food-purchasing assistance to low-income U.S. households, many beneficiaries shop at discount stores to make their money stretch further. Food stamps account for more than 10% of overall dollar-store revenues and can contribute more than one-fifth of overall supermarket sales in lower-income areas, Fox Business reported, citing comments from Howard Jackson, president of the retail advisory firm HSA Consulting.

As GOBankingRates previously reported, research conducted by IRI found that before the pandemic, SNAP recipients accounted for roughly 12% of all food and beverage sales online and in stores at major chains.

Of the companies that Goldman Sachs analyzed, bargain retailer Grocery Outlet had the highest exposure to SNAP, at about 15% of total sales in 2021. Others with high exposure include Walmart, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Kroger and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Each of those chains got nearly 10% of revenue from food stamps.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/bu ... ar-stores/

[Higgenbotham]

Pelosi Statement on Biden Administration’s Increase in SNAP Benefits
Aug 16, 2021 Press Release
Contact: Speaker’s Press Office
202-226-7616

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement commending the Biden-Harris Administration's actions to increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for 42 million Americans:

“Today is a day of great progress for struggling families across the nation, who will soon see a permanent and substantial increase to their monthly SNAP benefits for the first time ever. Thanks to the Biden Administration strengthening this important lifeline, parents will be able to afford healthy food for their families and children will not have to go to bed hungry.

“Even before the pandemic, countless parents have struggled to put enough food on the table, as current SNAP benefits no longer support a full, healthy diet. That’s why, in the bipartisan 2018 Farm Bill, the Congress directed the Administration to update the Thrifty Food Plan, which is the basis for food stamp benefits, by 2022 based on food prices, consumption data and nutrition guidance. We applaud the President for delivering this increase ahead of schedule to bolster food and economic security for millions of working families as we emerge from this crisis.

“This new permanent increase, alongside the transformative Biden Child Tax Credit that Democrats secured in our American Rescue Plan, will help ensure millions of Americans are able to afford enough healthy food to feed their families. As Democrats continue to advance our Build Back Better agenda, we will fight to ensure that every child has enough healthy and nutritious food to eat so that they may reach their fullest potential.”

https://pelosi.house.gov/news/press-rel ... p-benefits

[aeden]

I seen as did many the dispersion map so those who have paid attention to understand as the haplogroup maps and the facts
in the deception as basic query's also to the retards of ethnic compensations of commissariats.
They will and are in the effects as they know this and only convey about the educated beyond the pale and mental rot of the matter
is just as bad as Pilate tossing in the secular towel as the beast system scale's up.
As we noted clearly, we are told for His name sake these things will be done.
Knowing has nothing to do with seeing since the remnant do fathom the adversary.
As we know and conveyed the agency is the issue who stated to preserve the letter and the book are corrupted.
No good deed was lost on the Cross in that exact time in measure. Lord Acton was right as Lee to the measured seen just as Lincoln
warned us clearly also. The dammed fools today forget who protected the west coast gold reserves and what was after them also was clearly known.
These fiat fools serve the obvious as before. Another cohort study and yes, the fourth system will as be written and ignored by educated idiots.

[aeden]

You are a blue state New York so prepare to fail since you did.

"Whatever we need to do to stop this, we will do," he said on Sunday, adding that the county is prepared to issue fines up to $2,000 per violation per day to any hotel that takes in migrants through NYC's program.

"They’re basically dumping them into a county where we’re not prepared for them," he said.

New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen Acquario said:
"This is a homelessness problem, and it’s largely the fault of the federal government,"

You voted swamp zoo blue criminals. You mean they just flatly told you to pound sand from a Mayor and a muddled swamp career crime's.

..they are lined up for miles.

Uniparty criminals. Bankrupt you and me with odious debt. Criminal grifters thieves.
Only reply from the retards in the myopic class handlers was ranters.

Our zone alone is way over 7000 units that do not even exist short. Or will. The input costs have and will end it from the locusts as the feds are fools to the exetent they never will sort anything out. Even they know that.
The suburb collapse's from the Potemkin swamp uniparty retards just ended you. No rant just facts after a few years we knew your sealed.
Endless tarps free range abodes for miles already seen just flatly ignored.

Economies are shrinking but that is due to the globalization efforts collapsing it. Now the service the debt blowouts will feed as we dumped CLO
buckets last year also.
The reduction of fiat due to the massive debt burden that has been created has reached you have ran out of other people's money. Input cost from the tiny bubbles popping as warned and the repressionary efforts is now the crushing. It was transitory and pain inflicted by design of failed border facts.

They simply told you we will send 10 million to take you out. And are well accomplished in that effort.
The white papers and inputs have been ignored. By design. In out view since the sticky wage blow outs as the cartel labor murders.
It took 520 weeks, but they got cut down in the streets from another criminal outfit as our workers were slaughtered and soundly ignored.
Yes, we took the time to write the Senate for facts to preserve what was already know coming.
We enjoyed the point as not as we ran from the Office not for one. The Rabbi was right about the seal and what was also sent.
You are deceived.

[Higgenbotham]

Press Release

Budget Staff Working Papers: A Growing Culture of Government Dependency
April 4, 2023


Growing Government Spending on Transfer Payments (Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Disability Insurance, Unemployment Insurance, and other programs)

The federal government spent a total of $4.1 trillion on transfer payments to individuals in FY 2022.
This was 65 percent of the entire budget, absorbed 83 percent of all tax receipts, and equivalent to 16.3 percent of GDP.
By comparison, the government spent $2.8 trillion on these programs in 2019, 62 percent of the budget, 80 percent of revenues, and 13 percent of GDP.
Transfer payments increased 46 percent from 2019 to 2022.
Government spending on transfer payments to individuals has vastly grown in real terms:
In 1945, the government spent just $15.6 billion (in 2019 inflation adjusted dollars) on these programs, 1.5 percent of the budget, equal to 0.6 of GDP.
By 1969, spending on transfer payments to individuals totaled $263 billion (in 2019 inflation adjusted dollars), 26 percent of the budget, equal to 4.8 percent of GDP.
By 1994, transfer payments to individuals grew to 50 percent of total spending.


Growing Welfare Rolls

More people are receiving welfare benefits today than at any time in our nation’s history.
In 2022, 81 million people were enrolled in Medicaid (24.3 percent of the population) and 41 million received Food Stamps (12.4 percent of the population).
This is even higher than at the height of the pandemic and government lockdowns.
America’s welfare rolls have grown since the “War on Poverty” was declared. The percent of the population enrolled in:
Medicaid grew from 9.3 percent in 1975 to 24.3 percent in 2022.
Food Stamps grew from 7.9 percent in 1975 to 12.4 percent in 2022.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) grew from 2.9 percent in 1975 to 9.3 percent in 2021.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) grew from 2 percent in 1975 to 2.3 percent in 2021.
In contrast, the percent of the population on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) shrank from 5.2 percent in 1975 to 0.9 percent on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 2019 after welfare reform.


COVID Policy Changes Expand Welfare Eligibility

Congress spent trillions creating new transfer payment programs (such as stimulus payments), expanding existing benefits (such as Food Stamp payments), and relaxing eligibility for welfare (such as preventing eligibility reviews for Medicaid).
The new benefits (as well as many existing government benefits) are ignored or undercounted in determining eligibility for welfare programs.
As Matt Weidinger of AEI has described the result, “a household with two unemployed adults and two young children could have collected more than $67,000 in federal pandemic payments without a penny being counted in determining its eligibility for Medicaid. That’s more than twice the federal poverty level for a family of four. Two-thirds of that amount, or nearly $47,000, would have been similarly ignored when the family applied for food stamps.”
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act waived the Food Stamp work requirements for able-bodied adults during the public health emergency declaration.
Since 2019, 5.5 million people have been added to the Food Stamp rolls.
Congress also increased federal Medicaid funding and prohibited states from removing anyone from the program – even if they were ineligible.
The Foundation for Government Accountability estimates that “90 percent of enrollment growth was a direct result of ineligible individuals,” and that “an estimated 21 million individuals that do not meet Medicaid eligibility standards remained on the program in October 2022.”
The FY 2023 Omnibus Appropriations law ends this requirement on March 31, 2023.
The American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act expanded Obamacare subsidies by eliminating eligibility income caps (previously $106,000 for a family of four) through 2025.
Obamacare subsidies have expanded by 3.1 million recipients (27 percent) compared to 2019.


President Biden Pushes to Expand the Cradle to Grave Dependency

Biden budget proposes new programs and $2.6 trillion in higher entitlement spending, including:
Child Tax Credit Expansion for Three Years – $469.9 billion
Government Child Care – $424.3 billion
Government Paid Family Leave – $325 billion
Government Preschool – $200 billion
Force States to Expand Medicaid – $200 billion
Medicaid Home and Community-Based Care Services – $150 billion
Expand EITC – $136.7 billion
Expand Obamacare Subsidies – $130 billion
Double Pell Grant – $96.1 billion
“Free” Community College – $90 billion
Biden has abused executive power to unilaterally increase spending on entitlement programs by more than $1 trillion, including:
Student loan debt giveaways – $709 billion
Increasing Food Stamp benefit levels 21 percent – $300 billion
Expanding Medicaid eligibility – $218 billion

https://budget.house.gov/press-release/ ... 20of%20GDP.