NASA Video: Why the World Didn't End Yesterday

NASA delivers a video message 10 days early which explains why the world didn't end yesterday. It essentially goes through the myths of doomsday and debunks each one.

Keep Your Food Storage Hidden in Plain Sight

Editor's Note: Many thanks to Lee Flynn for this guest post. Kindly check out his links after the article.

Planning for a disaster scenario in which you are left without power or water for a few days in not too difficult to do. Most of the food from your pantry and extra water will get you though most emergencies. But what if you were left without power and water for, let’s say, a month… or longer? How can you store the food you need to survive and also keep it secret from bands of pillaging people who didn’t prep for disaster like you did? You can store the food you need in a small space and we are going to examine how.

Have you ever seen how much food it actually takes to sustain one person for one year? The amount is tremendous and adding the size of your family can leave you with a legitimate storage space issue. You will roughly need 80 sq/ft of storage space to sustain a family of three.

 

Rather than trying to convince your family that the 50 buckets of emergency food will make a great TV stand or bookshelf look for creative ways to keep that amount of food hidden in plain sight. That’s right you can have a home with limited space and still have a large supply of backup food and supplies.



Food Storage Safety

First let’s address one of the big concerns with food storage - safety. Making sure the food you are keeping in case of an emergency is free from contamination is a big deal. If your food is full of bacteria, mold, fungus, insects, or other pests not only will the food be inedible but if ingested could be a serious health risk. Botulism can be fatal people, be careful!

Food and water must be safely prepared and packaged for storage to avoid getting sick or losing the food due to spoilage. Water needs to be stored in a cool place away from direct sunlight. Check your water every six months to make sure nothing has contaminated it making it undrinkable. Green or blue containers work best for water. Don’t reuse water containers that had other liquid in them. Chances are you won’t be able to completely clean them making the water undrinkable quickly.

Avoid storing food in places that change temperature, like the garage or a shed, for long term because it can get very hot in the summer months destroying food quality. If you vacuum seal food use an oxygen absorbers in each container. Keep a journal of the shelf life in your food storage and rotate out items which may be expiring soon. This isn’t a big concern with prepackaged food storage due to the fact that they last for 25 years on average.



Hiding Your Food in Plain Sight

Take a look at the type of containers each type of food comes in to decide where to hide it. The standard food storage container is a 5 or 6 gallon bucket filled with Mylar bags full of food. These hefty buckets can make great replacements for box springs or a bed frame. Simply place your buckets under the bed evenly cover it with a piece of plywood and place the matters on top. Under a full size bed you can store 15 – 20 buckets of food! Converting each family member’s bed like this will provide lots of extra room. Don’t forget the bed skirt to hide it from view.

Another way to hide food in the open is turning household items into dual purpose pieces of furniture. Some of the easiest conversions are changing nightstands and end tables into food storage containers. The inside is full of food and you can still rest your drink on the top.

Tall furniture that is be close to the ceiling like a bookshelf can also hide food but be careful. Placing food on the top of bookshelves will keep it above eye level if positioned correctly. Remember a thief may peer through the window. A well placed bookshelf near a window can completely hide the top.

Do you have a kitchen island? The island can be converted into a can rack or shelved storage container. Can racks can literally hold hundred of cans of food in a small space freeing up cupboard space. Unfortunately if you suffer a home invasion during the dystopian nightmare the kitchen is the first place they go for food. Lock the island to deter theft and put it on wheels to keep it mobile.

Do you have room for another dresser or just extra space for one? A hollowed out dresser filled with food hold lots of food and may not be the first place an intruder would look. If you don’t want a new dresser for food just convert some of the drawers to food storage, easy.

The closet is another small space food storage option.  Many closets have lots of wasted space if they don’t have shelves. The bar for clothes and one shelf above that isn’t good enough to be useful. Take the measurements of the closet and find some heavy duty racks that will fit inside. Then use the racks to store food.

The utility room where the washer dryer live is like the closet because you can have significant wasted space. Build or buy shelves or even install a can rack that can fit over the washer/dryer. It will fill up the space nicely.

Do you have books on bookshelves? There are probably a few extra inches of space that canned goods could fit nicely behind the books and stay concealed.

Organizing food into a small space can be easy. It will require some creativity and may require some sacrifice. If you have to get rid of some unused clothes or junk to make more room for food, do it! Best of all the organization and storage of your food can be done economically. You don’t need to buy expensive items to hide cans behind books or under the bed. Don’t let uncertainties about actually fitting food storage in a small space stop you. Build it up slowly and steadily.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lee Flynn is a freelance writer and expert in emergency food storage.

Food Preservation in the Event of the Zombie Apocalypse

Note: This is a guest post by Empress of Drac

You just got home from work and turn on the news only to hear the impossible - the zombie apocalypse is upon us and everyone must be ready for the worse. Cities are in despair, and citizens are banding together in order to increase their chances of survival. There is a massive shortage of food as the days go by, and these groups of survivors are looking for anyone who has a steady supply of nourishment. You sit and wait, hoping to see a group of nomads you can join, because you have exactly what they need.

            Thanks to a change in the way you chose to purchase your groceries, you are sitting on a large supply of freeze dried food. Thanks to the research you did; you know that the best food storage is the easiest food storage. Buying freeze dried foods is a great idea to both save money and have a healthy supply of food that will last a long time in an emergency.

While the world reels from the spoiling of huge amounts of food, you and other like-minded individuals have freeze dried foods can last up to 20 years while sealed and for up to 18 months when opened. Once the power went out, you had nourishment that would sustain you for a long time without the need for electricity to prepare it. This made freeze dried better than any other food alternatives. 

You also know that it only takes a little bit of water to reconstitute the freeze dried foods, so it won’t put too much of a dent in the ration of water you have. The foods are also packaged in the prime of their nutritional value, so once they are ready to eat; you are still getting all the vitamins and minerals that the foods would offer if they were fresh. Stocking up on freeze dried foods instead of store bought gives you a much better option to save money and provide comfort in the event of an emergency. Now that the zombie apocalypse has hit, it’s a good thing you made the switch; you can trade access to your food supply for the safety from the roving bands of humans.

Freeze dried foods can provide a healthy, cheaper alternative to purchasing foods in the grocery store. They can also provide the needed currency to save your life in the event of the zombie apocalypse. Either way, freeze dried foods are a good investment.

     

 

Casting: Looking for Single Survivalists & Preppers for TV Show

Received an email a couple of days ago from a casting agent/company who are currently looking for single survivalists and preppers for a show. Here are the details:

CASTING:
SURVIVALIST AND PREPPERS,WHO ARE SINGLE AND LOOKING TO DATE



DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR, YET YOU ARE STILL SEARCHING FOR SOMEONE TO FALL INLOVE WITH?


A Major television production company is casting single men and women who share the belief that the world is soon ending for a new major television series. We are in search of people who passionately believe in the world’s inevitable end, but are also single andlooking for someone to enjoy the rest of their time on earth with!  Please tell us your story.

Please email us with yourstory with a current photo of yourself along with a current contact telephonenumber and email address to Sean De Simone (http://seandesimonecasting.com/) at survivaldatecasting@gmail.com

Zombie Apocalypse Scenario Used to Teach Social Work

Cool way to get undergrads interested in social work

"In times of catastrophes some people find their humanity, while others lose theirs. What will you and your group do?"

MSU (Michigan State University) School of Social Work is offering a course elective taught by Glenn Stutzky called Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse: Catastrophes & Human Behavior.

Don't let the subject title fool you - the course explores the human condition among other key concepts. According to the description, the class is designed to "examine major catastrophic events from the past, look to potential future events, and consider a concept for increasing our chances of survival."

It even incorporates a catastrophic simulation (Coronal Mass Ejection Incident has caused a Zombie pandemic) during the beginning and end of the course which includes assigning the students into survival groups. They, in turn, are posed with a challenge to come up with solutions to surviving and coping with the aftermath.

[Source: MSU School of Social Work]

So Long to Signatures: The Dying Art of Cursive

I was going through my notebook where I write blog post ideas and such and I found an old topic that I never got a chance to write about.

Apparently, cursive writing is no longer a required part of the school core curriculum as stated on the Common Core State Standards for English. The majority of the U.S. has already adopted the standard.

Public schools can still teach cursive but students are expected to be keyboard-proficient.

My question is: if those who don't already know how to write cursive aren't taught how to write it (21st century children) then what motivation would they have to learn how to read it? Can you imagine an entire generation unable to read a simple document hand-written in cursive?

What about the individuality of having your own recognizable, unique penmanship?

It saddens me that even school officials would refer to cursive as a dying art.

It's like saying "I don't have to be good at spelling, that's what auto-correct is for."

While it has been deemed inefficient and a waste of time to teach an antiquated art form, a recent study suggests that writing by hand increases brain activity and memory of concepts.

*****

Editor's Note:
I'm not at all surprised that cursive is being phased out of the public school system.
I still remember when I was in high school, there were budget cuts that eliminated the animation and film program --- in an ART SCHOOL. So all of us who went to this specialized high school strictly for these programs were bumped into commercial art and photography instead. I've attended private schools from pre-k all the way up to junior high - and when I transitioned into a public high school, I realized then how much more advanced my level of study had been. As a freshman I was taking senior level classes because I had already covered everything else.

It's essentially what happened to 3d animation replacing the "old-school hand drawn on paper and cells" process. During art school one of the first required classes was traditional animation. Why? Because not only did it teach us the basics and foundation, it gave us a greater appreciation for it once we moved into the digital phase of the curriculum. Many of the skills learned from the traditional skills were transferrable to the digital one.

This is especialy disconcerting to me because I'm a writer as well. While I compose a lot of my stories on my laptop or tablet, I still spend a lot of time writing stories in longhand.

I take all of my notes down for school in longhand as well, as do all of my classmates. Some of us use laptops / tablets in conjunction with it but not as a primary method of jotting notes.

While I agree that students' curriculum should keep in pace with modern technology and prepare them for the future, learning cursive can only further benefit them overall in their pursuit of education and future endeavors and should not be viewed otherwise.

Mixing the old with the new would be the optimal solution to this and not just making one completely obsolete.

Speaking of obsolete, here's one of my personal favorite episode of The Twiilight Zone. The Obsolete Man.

Part 1


Part 2

[Sources: http://www.corestandards.org

               HuffingtonPost

               Cleveland.com

               USA Today  ]

Interesting Numbers on Gun Purchases During Holidays 2011

Guns were a hot item during the 2011 Holidays.

The FBI recorded 1.5 million background checks requested by gun dealers regarding their customers this past December alone.

On December 23 there were 102,222 firearm-related background checks.

These figures may actually be significanty higher since an individual can purchase multiple guns.

Close to 500,00 of the background checks were done six days before Christmas.


Sources:
 NY Daily News
 USA Today
Telegraph

The Christmas Tree Tax brought to you by the Agriculture Dept.

One of Christmas' most recognizable symbols apparently needs a PR campaign -- and a new tax to pay for it.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the green light to a new 15-cent tax on live Christmas trees on Tuesday in order to pay for a new board tasked with promoting the Christmas tree industry.

The new fee and board were announced in the Federal Register on Tuesday, to be effective Wednesday. According to the Agriculture Department announcement, the government will impose a 15-cent-per-tree charge on "producers and importers" of fresh Christmas trees, provided they sell or import more than 500 trees a year. 

The change quickly drew opposition from Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., who vowed to fight what he described as a "Grinch" move by the administration. "It is shocking that President Obama tried to sneak through this new tax on Christmas trees," Scalise said in a statement Wednesday.

The program and fee, though, were supported by some in the Christmas tree industry. The money is not meant to pay down the debt or fund any other program. The Agriculture Department-imposed tax is designed to go back into the new Christmas Tree Promotion Board.

The board, proposed earlier this year, is the culmination of a years-long effort by the fresh Christmas tree industry to promote itself, according to the background provided in the Federal Register. The industry has faced increasing competition from producers of artificial trees, but efforts to collect voluntary contributions for a fresh-tree marketing campaign have repeatedly run out of funding. So the government stepped in to mandate a fee to support the promotion board.

Heritage Foundation Vice President David Addington, who first reported on the rule on his blog Tuesday evening, said there are two problems with the new fee. First, he said it's likely the 15 percent fee will be passed on to consumers. Second, he said it's inappropriate for the government to be putting its "thumb on the scale," helping out the fresh-tree sellers and not the artificial-tree sellers.

"If it's one thing I think the free market could handle, it's letting people decide what kind of tree they want to buy for Christmas," Addington told FoxNews.com.

But Agriculture Department spokesman Michael T. Jarvis defended the program, saying it's along the lines of over 20 other promotional programs supported by the department, such as the "got milk" campaign.

"It's worked great for beef, pork, chicken, eggs," he added.

Jarvis also insisted the fee does not count as a tax, since the industry is effectively "assessing themselves."

"This one's not a tax," he said.

The industry itself further rejected the claim that the fee would be passed onto consumers. The National Christmas Tree Association said in a statement that the program "is not expected to have any impact on the final price consumers pay for their Christmas tree."

The group said most growers who weighed in on the proposal were in favor of it.

According to the Federal Register, the new board is supposed to launch a "program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry's position in the marketplace."

As part of that job, the board has been charged with improving the image of both Christmas trees and the industry itself. After three years, an industry-wide referendum will be held to determine whether to renew the program.

The tax was requested by the Christmas Tree Checkoff Task Force, an industry group, worried by declining market-share for fresh-cut trees.

Per the rule:

According to additional data supplied by the Task Force, the market share of fresh Christmas trees in the U.S. from 1965 to 2008 has declined by 6 percent. In comparison, the market share of artificial trees has increased 655 percent from 1965 to 2008


_________________________________________

(On a slightly humorous, mildly snarky) Note:
First off, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there's such a thing as a Christmas Tree Checkoff Task Force. Seriously? That sounds like something out of Tim Allen's Santa Clause movies.

Taxing Christmas trees to help promote it? It's a pretty popular holiday symbol as it is, it doesn't need anyone's PR help.

As lovely as they look and smell, live Christmas trees are overrated, high maintenance, not very eco-friendly at all and for the most obvious practical reason - it's too much cleanup. You ever have one of those guys cut the trunk off way too high and you're left with a stump to try to ram down the tree stand. So what happens is that you end up having a wobbly, wonky tree that you try to counterbalance and offset with more ornaments on one side...you get the point. I think I still have pine needles in the back of my truck from last year's tree.

This year, we're welcoming back the artificial Christmas tree into our home.

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]

Remember, remember the 5th of November (Guy Fawkes, Occupy Movement, Operation Cashback)

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

Over in Britain, the 5th of November becomes a special night where people up and down the country let off fireworks and light bonfires to celebrate Bonfire Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Night.

The tradition stems back to the events of the 5th November 1605. Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder plot, was caught guarding explosives which were set to go off under the House of Lords – in an attempt to assassinate King James I whilst he attended the State Opening of Parliament. Guy Fawkes was then found guilty and hung, drawn, and quartered; a rather grizzly end.

With the plot failed, the government proclaimed the 5th of November as a day of thanksgiving and since then celebrations in one form or another have taken place across the country on this day.

Most local towns and villages nowadays will have a fireworks display, and will occasionally burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on the large communal bonfire.

***
You may have recognized the photo above as a still from the film V for Vendetta, based on the comic book series by Alan Moore.

From wikipedia:
The series depicts a near-future UK after a nuclear war, which has left much of the world destroyed, though most of the damage to the country is indirect, via floods and crop failures. In this future, a fascist party called "Norsefire" has exterminated its opponents in concentration camps and now rules the country as a police state. "V", an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent, and intentionally theatrical campaign to murder his former captors, bring down the government, and convince the people to rule themselves.

The face of "V" is also being used today by many of the Occupy protestors as a sign of discontent.

Today many customers of big banks are transferring their money into smaller local institutions such as credit unions to show solidarity with the ever-growing Occupy movement. You can read my Bank Transfer Day / Move Your Money Project post from yesterday.

There's also been word that the hacktivist group Anonymous will host a series of attacks on various institutions waged by members of the online collective Anonymous. Among the rumored targets this weekend include Fox News, Facebook and a notorious Mexican drug cartel. 

Anonymous posted a video on YouTube regarding this:

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V


"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." -  John F. Kennedy

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.

**********

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.