Quote Originally Posted by 53driver View Post
The litmus test for a divided country is in these pages....
We have most posters either feel VERY strongly one way, or VERY strongly the other.
Very little in between.

I'm sure a professional statistician would rule this particular cross section of America as not exactly statistically representative of America for several reasons.
HOWEVER, it is a valid statistical sampling of this microcosm which IS our world here as a Group.
The division is strong and seemingly defendable by each side.

Our country is divided into 2 completely different ideologies.
I'll not delve - y'all know the issues.
Race, creed, & color seem to span both sides.

But right now, this country is hurting badly - whatever the cause.
Follow the money......
We are reportedly almost $20trillion in debt and that is just the debt, it doesn't count the interest due which brings the total to almost $80trillion. Yes. $80TRL needs to be paid back.
And how is that ever going to happen? On the backs of the taxpayers. And who might they be?
The jobless rate that everyone seems to quote 4-5-6% does NOT include those people who have stopped looking for work. The real number of unemployed people is near 10% of those so able.
In this table, U3 is the "official government unemployment rate - but looking at all the classifications, you can see how the numbers are massaged. And that's assuming these numbers are not "fudged" somewhere else.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm

The taxpayer base is dwindling...
The fiscal stress funding the "social programs" is increasing as more people are allowed into the country and are not in the tax payer base...
And? It's not showing any signs of turning soon.

America's Federal government is hurting.
America's Federal government cannot survive economically like this - our own households would have fallen apart a long time ago had we run up that kind of debt.
The Government has failed the American citizens for years, taking us off the gold standard, making Social Security part of the "General Fund", borrowing money with no plan to pay it back, and the other branches just sit there and stare while havoc is wreaked by Legislative, approved by the Administrative and condoned by the Judicial.

More coffee....
Steve