U.S. Is Doomed? Unemployment, Taxes and Unfunded Retirement Are Squeezing  Each Generation, 59% Say It’s No Longer Possible To Work Hard and Get Rich,  There Are Nnow Roughly 142.2 Million Workers Supporting 102.6 Million Not  Working, Global Image of America Plummets, And Endless Government  Manipulation

Let’s  Stop Fooling Ourselves: Americans Can’t Afford the Future

59%  Say It’s No Longer Possible To Work Hard and Get Rich In U.S.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% of  American Adults now say it is possible for anyone in the country to work hard  and get rich, generally unchanged since late 2012.

Fifty-nine percent (59%), though, say that is no longer possible, up from 55%  in late January and the highest level of pessimism in over four years of  surveying. …

These  numbers tell an unsettling story about the U.S. economy

From Global Economic Policy Journal:

In the last 5 years:

Non-Workers to Workers

Let’s consider the ratio of workers to non-workers. Workers are those  employed, non-workers are everyone else (the unemployed + those not in the labor  force).

In the last five years, the number of non-workers rose by 14.3 million while  the number of workers fell by 5.3 million.

In 2008, there were 144.6 million workers supporting 88.3 million not  working.

There are now roughly 142.2 million workers supporting 102.6 million not  working.

… In the year 2000, there were 1.78 workers for every non-worker. Now there  are only 1.39 workers for every non-worker. Meanwhile, food stamp usage is up  from 17.2 million to 46.6 million, and medical costs are soaring…

World  poll: Image of U.S. declines

Worldwide approval of U.S. leadership dipped considerably during President  Barack Obama’s fourth year in office — but it increased in some countries,  including Mexico.

The median approval rating for U.S. leadership for 130 countries was  41 percent in 2012, down 8 percentage points from the 49 percent approval during  Obama’s first year in office, according to a Gallup poll released  Wednesday.

Gallup asked, “Do you approve or disapprove of the job  performance of the leadership of the United States?”

“This shift suggests that the president and the new secretary of state may  not find global audiences as receptive to the U.S. agenda as they have in the  past. In fact, they may even find even once-warm audiences increasingly  critical,” Gallup’s Julie Ray wrote.

…

Mark  Faber: Endless Government Manipulation | McAlvany Commentary

Tweet  from Pimco’s Bill Gross

Gross: US corporate profits flatlining. If stocks continue higher  thank the Fed and investors that think wealth is printing  money