I recently read an interesting fact about unemployment and how over the last four years the number of Americans not in the labor force was three times larger than the entire 1980s.
The mainstream media likes to put a feather in their cap showing how the number of Americans filing for bankruptcy has declined over the last two years due to a recovering economy.
The number of those filing bankruptcy cannot be changed and it has declined, but the reasoning is completely false.
It was recently reported that 157,000 new jobs were added to the US economy in January, but if you look at the non-seasonally adjusted numbers, the number of Americans that were employed decreased by 1,446,000 between December and January.
They won't mention this but love to talk about how the Dow broke 14,000 mark for the first time since 2007.
To really put things into perspective go back to 2007 when the boom was on.
At that time, more than 146 million Americans had a job.
Four years later, 141.
6 million people are now employed even though there has been a steady increase in the population over this timeframe.
If you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig, there's no way to sugarcoat the true numbers.
Even if we gave the media the benefit of the doubt and allowed them to use the numbers they are using, one thing they're not telling us is the kind of jobs that have been created.
Before the election, one month showed an increase of 50,000 new jobs created, but what was not told is 35,000 of these jobs were at a nationwide fast food chain that had a national hiring campaign.
Although it might be putting someone back to work, most of these jobs created are only paying $10 an hour less.
Most Americans are carrying large amounts of consumer debt from their past and are hopeful to avoid filing bankruptcy if at all possible.
The average American now has over $16,000 in credit card debt and growing.
Add the interest into this equation and you'll see most people are only paying minimum payments with never being able to pay this debt off in their lifetime.
They have the choice, either file bankruptcy or kick the can down the road and hope something good happens that will allow them to pay these debts off.
In my personal opinion, this is foolish and delusional.
The economy is not getting better it is getting worse and some financial experts have even said that what is to come will make the Great Depression look like the good old days.
Small businesses nationwide are being systematically wiped out by the government.
Nowadays, with government regulations and the cost of doing business it's next to impossible to start a new business.
This year healthcare will be an added cost to a group that is already on the verge of filing bankruptcy.
In a recent Gallup poll of small businesses, it found that 30% of all small business owners are not hiring because of fear that they will not make it another 12 months.
Let's face it, banks are once again lending on no money down mortgages and giving credit cards to just about anyone.
This was the same cocktail that caused the 2007 collapse, but this debt bubble is bigger and badder and ready to burst.
What's crazy is on Zerohedge a graph showed how household spending had increased since 2002.
Every country listed had a steep incline up to 2007 and then a decline to current times.
That is, except the United States where we are seeing a steady increase since 2002 with a small drop in 2007 and then straight back up to the old days and beyond.
People need to read the writing on the wall and stop listening to the evening news.
If your finances are so bad that filing bankruptcy is an option, don't wait around for the government to bail you out, because they're not coming.
People need to prioritize and stop borrowing money to continue a lifestyle they cannot afford.