U.S. Vets Face Unemployment in Post-War Life

America’s veterans are returning home from wars to staggering unemployment and homelessness rates.

­Their job is to defend their country’s interests, but once that job wraps up, their country has no interest in them any longer. Tens of thousands of American war veterans are simply being discarded.

“They are coming home to a disproportionate rate of homelessness, of foreclosures and evictions. In 2010 a whopping 75,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the United States were homeless; were sleeping on the streets,” said Iraq war veteran Michael Prysner to RT.

War veterans include 55-year-old Joe Mangione. After 16 years of military duty, he is homeless on the streets of New York with health problems he can’t afford to take care of and no job.

“Just to sit here like this, it’s not easy. It’s degrading! It’s just demoralizing. I had no resources. I can’t collect unemployment because I was hurt and was working cash. And that unemployment runs out anyhow,” said the veteran.

Mangione says all the US military machine cares about is money, while the people who risked life and limb are disposed of once they’ve served the purposes of politicians.

“It’s a bunch of deceptions. It’s about numbers. As long as they keep the numbers up, the recruiter gets his money; he gets his promotions; his bonuses. They care for themselves. They don’t care about us. They care about their own bank notes,” said Mangione.

The US is winding down its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the damage to the people who fought in those wars remains.

“We have a VA system that is unable to provide us with the services that we need, the services that we are entitled to as a result of us signing a contract and putting our lives on the line for our country,” said war veteran Eli Wright.

Unemployment rates among war veterans are staggering.

“They are coming home to an unemployment rate of about 30 percent for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. This is triple the national average,” said Michael Prysner.

Joining the military used to be considered a great career step that led to a life of honor; these days this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Joining the U.S. military is probably one of the stupidest retirement or career moves you can make as a human being,” said Ted Rall.

The editorial columnist and author believes military service is one of the biggest hoaxes in American history.

“They’re defending the borders, they’re expanding the empire – we owe them. They’ve lost their minds, and they lost limbs, they’ve lost their time and they took risks, they deserve it. Somehow, generation after generation, America keeps screwing its vets,” said Rall.

There are said to be 18 suicide attempts a day among veterans in America, hundreds each month – handling the realities of being forgotten at home is tough.

“When you come home, you’re foreclosed on, your job is gone, and then they want you to go to shelters. And shelters pretty much housing criminals, drug addicts, and a lot of us can’t tolerate that lifestyle,” said homeless U.S. army veteran Joe Mangione.

The hardest truth is that many believe forgotten vets back at home is a permanent stain on America’s image.

“This reality is set to continue indefinitely, with no end in sight. Despite the Iraq war supposedly ending, of course that’s yet to be seen, reality for soldiers with these constant deployments, to wars we don’t want to fight, that is not going to change,” said Michael Prysner.

After nearly nine years of war in Iraq, the US Government plans to bring American soldiers back home by the winter holidays. But with joblessness, homelessness and official neglect an undeniable reality for many of America’s veterans – after the cruelty of war, thousands more may be faced with the cruelty of life after it.

[Source]

Food Price Inflation, Job Loss, & the National Debt

More stores closing, more jobs lost:

The Gap plans on closing 189 locations or 21% of its namesake stores (Old Navy and Banana Republic) by the end of 2013 but plans to open more stores in China (from 15 by end of the year to 45 by end of next year).

Discount retailer Syms and its subsidiary Filene's Basement have filed for bankruptcy protection and plan to close all 46 of their stores.

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1 in 15 people in America now living in poverty.

44 million + (15%)  Americans are benefiting from Food Stamp (Supplemental Nutrition Assurance Program) program. The program is facing possible cuts as policymakers search for new ways to curb the rising cost.

National debt is closing in on the $15 Trillion mark. 

 

 From Treasury Direct

Food price inflation:

The price of food is expected to increase 3.5 to 4.5 percent this year overall

With Halloween over, the nation’s thoughts turn now to Thanksgiving.  This most American of holidays is a cornucopia of culinary delights -turkey and dressing; mashed potatoes and gravy; cranberry sauce and all the other traditional Thanksgiving dishes which are at the heart of this celebration.

One of the greatest aspects of life in this country is the fact that overall, we as Americans enjoy a true abundance of food. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this year U.S. farmers are expected to produce 750 million pounds of cranberries, along with 2.4 billion pounds of sweet potatoes, 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins and more than 2 billion bushels of wheat, the essential ingredient for bread, rolls and pie crust. The typical American consumes 13.3 pounds of turkey each year, with no doubt a hearty helping eaten at Thanksgiving time.  As you may have noticed if you have visited the grocery store recently, prices for all this abundance have been on the rise. Thus, the question is: how much more will the Thanksgiving feast cost us this year?

Price inflation is measured by the changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).  The CPI is a measure of the level of average prices paid by urban consumers for a defined market basket of goods and services, including food.  The CPI for “food at home” is a component of the full CPI and is the principal indicator of changes in retail food prices. Thus, the CPI for food consumed at home and its changes are an accurate measure of price inflation for food items.

The 6.3% rise in “food at home” prices over the year has been much higher than the 3.9% increase in overall prices.  Food commodities such as soybeans, corn and wheat, along with energy prices, have increased over the past year. These increases, combined with a weak U.S. dollar, have caused most of the grocery store price increases which have been observed in 2011.  Several key ingredients for the Thanksgiving feast have risen substantially over the past year, including turkey, which is up 7 percent to an average of $1.68 a pound.  So, that 10-pound turkey, which cost $15.66 last year, is going to set you back $16.80 this year.  Other food items with above average price increases include: white potatoes, up 23%, dairy products, up 10.2%, fats and oils, up 11.3% and fruits and vegetables, up 6.7%.  Thanksgiving dinner is still going to be well within the reach of most American families, but it is going to be more expensive this year.

The Move Your Money Project - Nov. 5 is Bank Transfer Day

Saturday, Nov. 5, has been declared Bank Transfer Day as thousands of people around the country are set to transferring their money from large corporate banks to small banks & credit unions.


The Move Your Money project is a campaign that aims to empower individuals and institutions to divest from the nation's largest Wall Street banks and move to local financial institutions.

According to Huffington Post:

People fed up with the nation's biggest banks, whose casino-style investment practices are partly responsible for the financial crisis, are pledging to move their money  to small community banks and credit unions. They're taking the power into their own hands and voting with their dollars to help put an end to predatory lending, outrageous fees and impersonal service.

Many are transferring to credit unions instead. 


From Reuters:
The credit unions pulled in some 650,000 new customers since September 29, when Bank of America announced it would add a $5-a-month debit card fee, an industry trade group reported. Deposits from new customers surged to $4.5 billion, according to the survey released Thursday of 5,000 credit unions by the Credit Union National Association.

More info at Move Your Money Project

12% of Americans have no bank accounts

More people in the Southeast don’t have bank accounts than in any other part of the country. Mississippi leads the country with more than 16% of households using cash-and-carry for all their transactions.


A new interactive map released by Wednesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows state-by-state comparisons for median bank fees and policies, as well as percentage of households that don’t have a bank account, across the United States.

The national median monthly fee for a checking account is $8.95 — or more than $107 per year. The national median minimum combined balance to avoid a monthly fee is $2,500.

But with fees rising for accounts at the biggest banks — and with the median income falling — more Americans could find themselves on the margins of the banking system, and unable to afford an account. Amenities that are part of having a bank account, including checking, savings, and access to credit, could slip out of reach for more millions. Today, many people without bank account rely on borrowing money from friends and family, or from payday loan operators, short-term lenders that charge interest rates of up to 400% annually.

In eight states and the District of Columbia, at least 10% of households don’t have any kind of bank account, according to the Pew Trust data. Overall, around 12% of all Americans do not have any financial institution to call their own, based on 2009 data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

States with the fewest number of account-less households are clustered in northern New England, as well as Washington, Montana, Utah and Minnesota. Utah has the smallest percentage of unbanked households: Just 1.7% of households are unaffiliated with a financial institution.

People without a bank account also have trouble moving up the social ladder, as their lack of one puts things like mortgage loans out of reach.

“We know that those who are banked are much better able to save for long-term goals,” says Susan Weinstock, director of the Safe Checking in the Electronic Age project for the Pew Trusts.

[Source Daily Finance]

Note: Just a quickie interesting addition to this - I just read that Bank of America has decided to drop the $5 month debit card fees after the public backlash.