The US Census Bureau stated that the US population grew by a mere 0.1% (392,665) in 2021, marking the lowest rate of growth in US history. This is the first time since 1937 that the nation grew by fewer than one million people. The US has not experienced such low levels of growth since 1918-1919, when both the Spanish Flu and World War I were unwinding.
Noting the chart above, the population began to plummet in the mid-2010s. This is a result of decreased fertility and migration as well as an aging population. The COVID pandemic only contributed to a declining population, but the trend was already in motion. Part of the problem is cultural as well. Over half of Millennials witnessed their parents divorce. Women have increased options for employment and career motivations, often opting to have fewer children. There is also a school of thought that it is unethical to have children, as certain US politicians have mentioned in the past.
The biggest issue and cause of population decline comes down to finances. Home prices are at historical highs. Putting the real estate bubble aside, the USDA released a report entitled “The Cost of Raising a Child” that is based on historical prices from 1960 to 2015. The report found that parents could expect to pay $233,610 on raising a child from birth to the age of 17. Factoring in inflation, the cost is over $273,952.64 today.
However, children typically do not leave home at 17, again due to finances. Americans are saddled with student loan debt, and a 2019 poll indicated that over 30% of Millennials expected to move back in with their parents after college. That was an optimistic guess as the Pew Research Center found that 52% of young adults were still living with their parents as of September 2020. Part of it is due to the pandemic, but in February 2020, 47% of young adults were still living at home. The figure has not been seen since the Great Depression when 48% of young adults reported living with their parents.
On an annual basis, the USDA estimates that middle-class Americans will spend $12,980 per year per child, which roughly translates to $15,221.55 today. Of course, this figure does not account for unexpected expenses, as any parent knows are inevitable. Simply put, young adults can no longer afford to have children.
No one earning under $400,000 will experience a rise in taxes, the Biden Administration repeatedly promised. Unfortunately, albeit unsurprisingly, this is not true as the IRS is now hunting for new taxes for nearly every transaction that takes place. Payment apps such as Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, and PayPal were easy ways to transfer money in an instant, and people do not typically use these apps for large sums. Yet, this month the IRS will begin collecting taxes on commercial transactions amounting to $600 or more per year.
PayPal users may have received the following notice asking for detailed personal information to provide the IRS:
“You may notice that in the coming months we will ask you for your tax information, like a social security number or tax ID, if you haven’t provided it to us already, in order to continue using your account to accept payments for the sale of goods and services transactions and to ensure there aren’t any issues when these changes take effect in 2022. This helps us meet our obligations to the IRS.”
Before the American Rescue Plan Act changed the tax code, mobile payment apps were only required to report anyone with over 200 commercial transactions that exceeded $20,000 in value. The IRS claims that it will only amass taxes on “commercial transactions,” but that is a fine line. If someone pays their child a monthly allowance for services, does that count as a commercial transaction? If someone pays their neighbor for parts, for, say, fixing their car, would that count as a commercial transaction? Would buying an item on a site such as Craigslist be considered a commercial transaction? If someone lies and says a transaction was personal, will they be convicted of tax evasion? The IRS will need to dive deep into our private lives to determine exactly where our money is going.
Another discounted issue here is that many of these payment platforms incentivize users to connect their personal bank accounts to avoid a credit card fee (typically 3%). Let me be clear – if you do not abide by the new rules, these payment platforms will lock you out and, at best, freeze your funds. The original intention of payment apps being a simple person-to-person transaction has been destroyed due to the American Rescue Plan Act. In this regard, cash is still king, but the IRS will likely plan an assassination.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 92 Comments
We have talked about this quite a bit. {Go Deep} I’m not sure how this attempted needle threading is going to work out in the longer term. The announcement has come as a surprise to the Canadian trucking industry.
Apparently fearing the economic consequences, the Canadian government has dropped the vaccination requirement for Canadian truck drivers, and instructed border officials to permit unvaccinated Canadian truckers to cross the border.
The vaccine mandate for cross border truckers was scheduled to begin in a few days, January 15th. However, the Canadian vaccination rule for U.S. truckers will remain in place.
MONTREAL — The federal government is backing down from its vaccine mandate for Canadian truckers three days before it was set to take effect. Ottawa announced in mid-November that truck drivers crossing into Canada would need to be fully vaccinated by this Saturday.
But on Wednesday evening Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman Rebecca Purdy told The Canadian Press that Canadian big-riggers will not have to quarantine if they are unvaccinated or have received only one dose.
[…] The new rule will still take effect for American truckers, who will be turned away at the border unless they’ve been inoculated starting this weekend. (read more)
How the hell can Canada justify dropping the vaxx mandate for Canadian truck drivers, but not for U.S. inbound shipments? Are they preparing for a massive amount of rig switching at the border? Good grief, what a mess.
♦ Here’s where the weakness of Biden and Buttigieg comes into play. If the U.S. side of the border enforces the vaccine mandate, the Canadian truckers will still be blocked, as the U.S. truckers are now stopped from entering Canada. However, that would take a U.S. administration ready to enforce equality in the supply chain against Canada.
There could already be an agreement between the White House and Canadian officials, and we just don’t know about it. However, I would not make that assumption. With this administration everything is done on the fly as a reaction to the politics of events.
Surely some enterprising journalist in DC is going to ask the White House what the U.S. response is?
Then again, maybe not. After all, the insufferable DC doofus tribe likely have no concept of the chaos that can unfold over this trucker vaccine mandate writ large; which is scheduled to take effect on January 15th for cross border trucking, and then on January 22nd for all truck drivers inside the U.S. hauling domestic routes.
If Canada has dropped the vaccine requirement for their truckers, but not U.S. drivers, the Biden administration needs to hit them back.
Keep watching this issue, because the January 15th deadline was also supposed to take place at the U.S-Mexico crossing.
This situation reminds me of the Pennsylvania state government shutting down truck stops, rest areas and fuel stations during the beginning of the pandemic, then wondering why all their stores were empty within days? Duh!
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 161 Comments
A Quinnipiac poll released today [DATA HERE] shows just how far Joe Biden has fallen in the eyes of most Americans. Of particular note inside the data is how Hispanics and Latinos view the Biden policies as complete failures.
Among adults overall, Americans give negative scores on the following issues when asked about Biden’s handling of…
The economy: 34 percent approve, while 57 percent disapprove;
Foreign policy: 35 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove;
The response to the coronavirus: 39 percent approve, while 55 percent disapprove.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 528 Comments
Recently revealed video shows the Joe Biden White House is erecting a concrete (K-Rail) blast and security containment wall directly around the White House. There doesn’t appear to be any explanation readily available. Pictures below:
These types of security barriers are sometimes erected when heads of state are planning to come to the White House. However, there doesn’t appear to be any information about an anticipated delegation or foreign dignitary. Additionally, according to one researcher on social media {LINK}, all of the publicly available CCTV video-streams have been disabled as this work is taking place.
The perimeter fence appears to be approximately 10′ high and is made from reinforced concrete k-rails. It is also being installed directly around the White House building itself. Quite odd. Video Below:
You never want to jump to conclusions, but given the COVID pandemic situation it’s doubtful the fencing would be for a head of state arrival.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 243 Comments
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the December inflation data today [DATA HERE] for December. Readers on these pages are not surprised to discover that inflation in the U.S. economy has now reached a forty year high at 7 percent. {Go Deep}
Unfortunately, the 7% in June of 1982 was when inflation was on the way down from Jimmy Carter’s failed economic policy. This time our 7% milestone has been achieved while inflation is on the climb thanks to Joe Biden’s failed economic policies.
Carter’s mess was created by regulation, policies and oil prices. Biden’s mess is created by the same and much more.
Yes, it will be getting worse.
That weird picture with the Bidens and the Carters comes to mind. The scale within the picture is appropriate when considering inflation and what is to come. Biden’s inflation is much larger than Carter’s.
As you know, the top line number of 7% is a false premise. We are feeling much, much higher overall prices in our lives with gasoline, home heating fuel, electricity costs, housing and the astronomical prices at the grocery store. The BLS data is backward looking, meaning it was compiled in early December 2021 for comparison to December 2020. Where we are CURRENTLY is much worse than where we were in early December.
We are feeling the front side of the inflation hurricane right now. The consumer prices at end of January and through February are now reflecting new purchase order prices and contract prices to wholesalers, buyers and retailers. The higher energy costs, fuel costs, warehousing costs, transportation costs and delivery costs are cumulative. As a result, the December report is simply the precursor to what will be much more damaging inflation data in Feb (showing this month) and March (showing Feb).
Additionally, the BLS data captured gas prices at their slight drop from oil prices in late November and early December. The price of oil has now gone even higher, and the price of gasoline is once again on the rise. We have not yet seen the worst of this folks. Hopefully most are prepared.
I modified BLS Table-1, taking out some of the noise, to give the snapshot of how the bureau is compiling data:
You can review BLS Table-2 Here for a detailed breakdown of each category.
As previously mentioned, the contracted price for goods delivered (depending on sector) are net terms in 30, 60 or 90 days. Meaning, the purchase price on final goods wholesalers were receiving in November, 2021, were agreed upon months before. Those terms for current arriving goods are no longer valid. The new Q1 2022 terms (purchase orders) carry higher costs, and as an outcome, higher prices to consumers are still coming.
The media are trying to put a spin on the inflation data in an effort to protect the Biden administration from the catastrophic damage caused by policy. Some of the talking points the media are trying to use are just ridiculous, Pravda would be proud.
Reuters delivers this nonsense: “But Americans have so far remained upbeat, thanks to a tight labor market. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose again in December, this time above projections by economists surveyed by Reuters. That’s fueled spending: Holiday retail sales increased almost 11% in 2021 compared with 2019, according to the Mastercard Spending Pulse. Consumers may be able to take certain supply-chain related cost hikes read more in their stride.”
But I must credit ABC as an example of the most laughable deflection which has been deployed by the White House….
As noted by Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, Ron Klain and now ABC news pushing their talking points, who do they blame? YOU.
The Biden administration is blaming consumers by saying DEMAND is too high, DEMAND is the problem. WATCH:
As crazy as this sounds, it was predictable. The Biden administration actually wants the demand for goods and services to contract. Repeat, they want demand to stop. This is the basic premise behind “lower your expectations.”
First, the DC politicians delivered the “rust belt” to us as an outcome of their favoring Wall Street over Main Street, and now they are wiping out our checking accounts with massive inflation. Remember the oft repeated -and infuriating- catch phrase, “The U.S. is a service driven economy?“, said by both wings of the UniParty? Well, put another way… first they off-shored our jobs, now they off-shore our wealth. This is not an accidental outcome of flawed policy, they are doing this intentionally.
We are being gutted from the inside.
You don’t accidentally stop pipelines, cancel oil leases, shut down refining capacity, change port regulations and then act surprised by saying: ‘Whoopsie’ gasoline seems to be costing more? Duh! It’s a feature not a flaw. Many of the people behind Joe Biden are stupid, but they ain’t *THAT* stupid. They know what they are doing, but they have to pretend not to know things in order to avoid the tar and feathers.
If they can reduce demand by making things unaffordable, they can claim victory over inflation (mid/late 2022) and proclaim their economic policies a success. The prices will never drop, but the percent of change will stall out. They will push the windmills, sustainable algae cakes, and other ideological quests from the Moonbat tribe who worship at the altar of climate change.
The downside of the White House achieving what they call “success” is unfortunately, by the time we reach that point we will have nothing left; we’re broke. Prices will finally level off, but the savings of Americans will have been depleted, and wage growth will take years, if ever, to catch up. You will own nothing, and be happy.
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 335 Comments
Earlier today, the White House pushed the Director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, to the podium to defend the administration from the outcomes of their economic policies. Consider this presser the pre-quake tremors.
Mr. Deese begins his presentation by saying giving American workers back their jobs, after shutting down their workplaces and locking out their ability to work at their job, is the equivalent of creating new jobs; the administration is very proud of their magnanimity. Mr. Deese then moves on to the inflation data from today and celebrates a “decrease in the rate of price increases.” Yes, he used those exact words.
Deese then goes on to say [01:59] that despite the claimed 7% inflation, prices at the grocery store are not higher, gas prices have dropped, home heating costs and natural gas costs are lower, and things are going swimmingly. I’m not joking about any of that, just watch the first four minutes:
There was really bad news following the White House celebrating their current economic success. Brian Deese stated the White House intends to use the federal government to get involved in supply chains (distribution), pricing (federal price controls), availability (distribution of products under newly claimed emergency federal authority power via the “pandemic”) and providing relief (protecting urban areas).
What Deese is saying there [4:00 – 09:00] is the worst thing we could ever want to hear when there are massive price increases and simultaneous shortages. The federal government is ‘leaning forward’, and is going to get more involved.
Then at 09:00 of the video, the alarm bells start ringing. Journalists asking Brian Deese what the White House is planning to do to get involved and provide national food security. “The shelves are too empty, and the food is too expensive. What is the White House going to do?”
Posted originally on the conservative tree house on January 12, 2022 | Sundance | 273 Comments
The absence of food will change things….. Quickly.
The issues will fluctuate region by region and chain by chain as we enter the destabilization phase. In this phase the impacts in some operators will be small, and in others will be more noticeable. The difference will be the overall operational excellence in the proprietary business system they operate.
However, once the internal merit is exhausted, the manufacturing issues will impact all food retailers regardless of their warehouse and distribution excellence, or lack thereof. Ironically, small independent stores might be in the best position to withstand fresh supply pressure as they are closer to the field.
The further away the retail business operation is from the farmer, the greater the impact. The more people, systems and bureaucracy there are between the retailer and the farmer, the greater the operational impact. The longer the supply chain, the greater the impact. It is an unusual dynamic, but the local farmers’ markets are going to be the best source of consistent local supply. That reality is why the urban areas are going to be hit the hardest.
In this media report from Philadelphia, the local NBC affiliate blames the food supply issues exclusively on Omicron.
Europe’s regulatory body known as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) held a press briefing on Tuesday, January 11 for updates on the COVID-19 pandemic. Marco Cavaleri, the EMA head of biological health threats and vaccine strategy, raised significant concerns about the present mass vaccination program implemented across the European continent. Acknowledging the highly contagious nature of the Omicron variant, the regulatory official expressed that the level of severity appears milder than the Delta variant yet emphasized the importance of further data collection for a true understanding of the unfolding Omicron epidemiological impact. Cavaleri explained that based on recent studies, vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease becomes significantly reduced, waning over time, and this means more fully vaccinated people in Europe become susceptible to breakthrough infections caused by either Delta or Omicron. However, the EMA official noted that with a booster, vaccine effectiveness shoots back up. Significant risks to human health manifest, however, based on the premise of a public health response driven by continuous COVID-19 vaccination booster jabs. Cavaleri cautions that repeated booster jabs may adversely impact the human immune system. The regulator’s comments effectively challenge the current paradigm of the COVID-19 response. Is it time now to transition to an endemic-based COVID-19 response regimen?
Health agencies in Israel have initiated a fourth COVID-19 booster for higher risk demographic cohorts (e.g. over the age of 60), and Turkey, as well as Holland, are contemplating a fifth booster jab. What are the implications for such a public health strategy? This could potentially be dangerous, negatively impacting the immune system, suggests EMA’s Cavaleri.
A pharmacologist by training, Cavaleri spent several years in pharma research and development (R&D) with a specialization in antibacterial and antifungal programs spanning preclinical to clinical development. By 2005 he joined EMA as a Scientific Administrator, progressively advancing in the regulatory organization.
Cavaleri’s message implies the need for an urgent dialogue on the present mass vaccination program. While TrialSite has continuously challenged the underlying premise that vaccines can eradicate a consciously evolving pathogen such as a coronavirus, greater concern centers on mounting risks associated with continuous COVID-19 boosters. Cavaleri shares the same concern during this press conference, emphasizing the need now to transition from pandemic to endemic stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.Subscribe to the Trialsitenews “COVID-19” ChannelNo spam – we promise
Danger of Over-Vaccination
Openly critiquing what in the United States is considered gospel by health officials, Cavaleri went on the record about the potential harm of ongoing COVID-19 boosters declaring they “can be done once, or maybe twice, but it’s not something that we can think should be repeated constantly.”
Pandemic to Endemic?
Openly questioning the current public health trajectory in Europe, the official continued, “We need to think about how we can transition from the current pandemic setting to a more endemic setting.”
Cavaleri’s message should be seriously embraced, as COVID-19 booster shots administered every four to six months may very well threaten the human immune system leading to dangerous vulnerability, thereby possibly exacerbating the current health crisis, and creating what could become a dire situation.
TrialSite’s founder Daniel O’Connor shared, “thus far clinical trials haven’t been designed, funded, and conducted to evaluate the impact of ongoing booster programs on human safety. How do we know what the impact of multiple boosts could be on our health in the short, intermediate, and long term?”
O’Connor further emphasized that “this kind of ongoing, unfolding response with powerful novel technology without the appropriate data to better understand the health implications seems haphazard, even reckless.” The TrialSite founder suggested that the ongoing public health response to COVID-19 itself “seems to be one big, ongoing real-world research initiative.”
A growing number of medical and health experts introduce the need to soon transition to an endemic-centric response model (e.g., treat COVID-19 as a bad seasonal flu). However, many other experts such as the University of Illinois, Chicago infectious disease chief Dr. Richard Novak was quoted yesterday stating that we are still quite a way off from such a transition. Speaking with Chicago-area media Novak said, “No, we probably won’t be carrying vaccine cards forever, but eventually we will have a virus that is endemic and will cause mild illness and become sporadic.” According to Novak’s interview with ABC7, the milestone marking pandemic to endemic stage may be a few more years away, “depending on future variants.”
However, EMA’s Cavaleri indicates at least in Europe, the various national health agencies ought to start a dialogue, perhaps exploring how to integrate the COVID-19 vaccine into a seasonal influenza vaccine regimen.
Public confidence is continuing to decline, according to a recent poll from the Trafalgar Group partnered with the Convention of States Action. The survey conducted in December recorded responses from 1,076 Americans who seem to be concerned that society is completely in a state of decay. Question one: “Do you believe American society and culture is in a state of decay or a state of progress?” An alarming 76.8% of respondents reported that they believed society was in a state of decay, 9.8% felt society was progressing, and 13.4% were unsure.
Confidence is declining on both ends of the political spectrum: 61 percent of Democrats, 85.9 percent of Republicans, and 81.8 percent of No Party/Other reported that they believed the country was decaying.
“Americans have always been fueled by hope and optimism, and now are united in disgust. Our leaders in Washington, DC are setting the tone, and clearly we need dramatic changes there in both parties in the next election,” Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States Action group, stated. “United in disgust” certainly describes the way the world feels. The “leaders” in DC have abandoned the people as we go on to year three of the COVID power grab. Unemployment is down, wages are up, but inflation is so high that the average person is scraping by. The rules constantly change, and society at large has been pushed to a psychological breaking point by governments.
Our model indicates that this private wave will continue for years to come before peaking in 2032. Government has lost the public’s trust entirely. This is why I say their Build Back Better agenda will not succeed, for the people are beginning to realize that the “new norm” is an unacceptable way of life.moreCategories:North America
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