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If those 20 signs are right, it's grim!

Despite the hype that the US economy is on the upturn, albeit slowly, more sober pundits are still saying that all the signs are that the situation borders on the grim. One would hope not - for the sake of Americans and the rest of the world, so dependent on the well-being of the American economy.

This piece on AlterNet, "20 Signs that the Economic Collapse Is Already Upon Us" make for more than disturbing reading:

"For most Americans, the economic collapse is something that is happening to someone else. Most of us have become so isolated from each other and so self-involved that unless something is directly affecting us or a close family member than we really don't feel it. But even though most of us enjoy a much closer relationship with our television sets than we do with our neighbors at this point, it is quickly becoming undeniable that a fundamental shift is taking place in society. Perhaps you noticed it when two or three foreclosure signs went up on your street. Or perhaps it got your attention when that nice fellow down the street lost his job, and he and his family seemingly just disappeared from the neighborhood one day. The Census Bureau made front page headlines all over the nation this week when they announced that one out of every seven Americans was living in poverty in 2009. Every single day more Americans are getting sucked out of the middle class and into soul-crushing poverty.

Unfortunately, most Americans don't really care because it has not affected them yet.

But this year, millions more Americans will discover that the music has stopped playing and they are left without a seat at the table."

Continue reading here.

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