It's funny how the people of the other side of the coin like to say they are for smaller government & deregulation like they go hand in hand. Basically, mergers are a right-wing cause. Thank the republicans for fucking your futures, outsourcing your jobs, deregulating to an extent that corporations have the rights (if not more) of an individual and are able to create monopolies thereby screwing the middle class more and more every single day.

What we need is strict regulation, new laws and a new labor movement. I used to be alright with rich folk (like my parents) but now that I've seen the upper-class piss and shit all over the middle & lower classes I am all for CLASS WAR. Fuck them.

This guy spends the whole video telling us what the symptoms are but ignores what got us here and how to fix it. No surprise the anti-free market (anti-freedom) people are oblivious to it.

Government and bankers have been running a ponzi scheme for most of the last century: Economic central planning and fractional reserve banking. Bankers have been stealing more and more from us every year through money manipulation and taxes.

Inflation is not some magical or natural occurrence. It is baked into the system. It is direct theft. A gallon of milk has pretty much the same value as it did 50 years ago, yet the price has changed, why? And for those that say, well prices have gone up but so have wages so it evens out. Not true. In the arbitrage between the two, you're always going to be on the losing side. And that ignores the theft of savings, and ignores how bankers exploit that arbitrage. That is why we have booms and busts. Bubbles are purposely induced through collusion and fraud to financially rape the people.

Without the fraud and collusion, there wouldn't be trillions of debt. And tax rates would probably be at the highest 10%. Income tax needs to eventually be abolished. In a free world, you trade your labor for wages. The government has no claim to your labor, so why does it have a claim to the wages you traded it for? Taxing consumption above the poverty level makes the most sense. But that can never be implemented without first eliminating the tax on income. You tax things you want less of, you bailout things you more of. The government taxes productivity (income), and rewards fraud (bank bailouts).

How do we fix this:
1. Eliminate the cancer: The Federal Reserve. Eliminate the whole concept of a central bank deciding monetary policy in general. Allow free choice and freedom of currency. Force banks to disclose their reserve ratio to issue loans. The free market will probably force banks to hold close to 100% of reserves. And banking would also become more of a co-op system like credit unions.
2. Cram down all the toxic loans on the Fed's balance sheet to the fair market value of the home and renegotiate the terms for the home owner.
3. Close down the Military Industrial Complex. End all wars. Close down all foreign military bases. Focus Department of Defense on actually defending threats instead of creating them. Abolish the CIA.
4. Break the global oil cartel.
5. Probably have to break up the big banks and pass regulations similar to Glass-Steagall to keep them from getting "too big to fail". Separate banks from investment firms, insurance firms etc. Enforce real regulations that protect consumers, not the parasitic speculators. If a hedge fund makes bad bets and loses, then they lose. No bailouts.
6. Eliminate the false free trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT. Stop incentivising global companies to outsource production oversees.
7. Eliminate tax on production. (Income tax)
8. Ban health insurance. (The middle man) We would probably have to fully nationalize health care. (It is anyway really) And then work towards a system of free choice and volunteerism.

Probably more solutions, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. And yes, I'm a free market idealist.

A rather simplistic, populist bit of tripe.

To start with, if this guy thinks that things were so great back in the 1960s then maybe he should think again. The 'middle class' he talks about in the 60s was a far smaller entity than it is in 2011. In the 60s the country had a higher proportion of people in the 'lower' class. Since that time, the average american family has gotten proportionally wealthier - not poorer - and enjoys a higher standard of living, more property, and greater economic freedom than ever before. The entire premise of this video is nothing but an anachronistic fantasy.

The pap about families easily affording homes, cars, education, and retirement in the 60s on a single income is also a load of bull feathers. Middle class stiffs had to make tough choices back then too, and didn't have the dosh to just toss around money like that. His cutsey chalkboard claptrap cartoons of a smiling 'middle class' family easily affording any expense they wanted is stupidly wrong.

And this moron acts like people on a single income TODAY can't afford a home, car, college, and retirement. I am the lone wage-earner in my family. Not ONCE have I gotten government assistance or a handout on the dole. And I own a home, 2 cars, have $13,000 in savings for the kids, and I'm on track to be a millionaire when I retire. How did I do it? Because I'm not stupid. The middle class doesn't have to go into debt for these things - and this JERK'S premise that MC families have to rack up huge debt to live life is absolute specious.

And unions - yeesh. I noticed carefully that this obviously neolib goombah didn't bother mentioning that the over 26 TRILLION dollars in debt this nation has only exists because of private and public sector union unfunded liabilities. Corporations send world overseas because unions ARE making the cost of business in the U.S. (not to mention the fact that we're #1 in the world in corporate taxation) unfeasible for many industries. And he also doesn't mention the decrease in union size is only in the private sector, but that PUBLIC sector unions have swollen in size to gargantuan, slovenly, grotesque levels - and are (of course) literally breaking America's bank with thier costs. Of course companies outsource labor when paying a US employee costs them 100X as much money for only a fraction of the output. Only in the neolib Planet Fantasy does everyone get 100,000 a year for pushing brooms, assembling widgets, and other unskilled jobs that any reasonably trained lemming can perform.

He also doesn't mention that the top 50% of American taxpayers are paying 95% of the taxes, and that the "middle class" that he disingenously claims to speak for is actually paying almost NO INCOME TAXES at all. The bottom 50% of wage-earners (that's the middle class for you neolib idiots out there) only pay 5% of the taxes. How much more can the you burden the top 50% with before they pull up stakes and leave? That's the problem New York City, Chicago, LA, and many other neolib Meccas are facing. They have raised taxes so high on "the rich" (which Obama defines as anyone earning over 200K) that they are leaving these leftist enclaves, which in turn are literally dying on the vine under the weight of their own stupid policies and union debt.

But I do agree with some of the comments about lobbyists and the tax code. I do believe that is a problem, but it is a GOVERNMENT problem not a lobbyist problem. The government is the new "Robber Baron", when 100 years ago the government was protecting people from Robber barons. But of course this guy doesn't focus on the fact that it is GOVERNMENT making these stupid laws, and not companies. In fact, many companies hated the repeal of Glass-Steagall but government wanted it so Barney Frank could have is precious UFFODUBBLE HOWZING! Banks never wanted to be forced to give loans to people who they never would have touched in the 1960s - but Government played the Race Card with accusations of redlining and forced it through.

The problems with income disparity people whine about are largely a phantom. More people in the US are wealthier than they've ever been in the nation's history. Carping about how much MORE the uber-rich have than the middle class is pure sophistry.

I agree with everything you just wrote.

The only thing that I would point out is the media is biased as Jon Stewart put it to be lazy, and to generate conflict, but it will spin what is going on in society either conservative or liberal to get out of real reporting, and to be sensational. Anything they can do to get people to consume said media is fair game. That laziness falls on both sides of the political spectrum media wide. And it doesn't help when society tunes out when the story isn't something that elicits an emotional response, or doesn't have a simple lesson or solution. Nuance and complexity is something most Americans abhor.

Case in point, when is the last time you saw something on the news that showed how many IT jobs are given to people with work visas, and compare that to how many people are graduating college with computer science degrees to illustrate that portion of outsourcing? I don't think I've ever seen that presented in the news. That point is very hard to pin as conservative or liberal because solutions to remedy it could come from both parties. And there's no easily identified villian, either. So instead, let's paint the big bad evil corporations for outsourcing in general because that's easy to report on, throw some basic generalized stats up about number of jobs outsourced, show corporate profits increasing, and do people love to consume that kind of story. I see that left and right in IT. I know friends who see it left and right in other sections of the economy like bioengineering, etc. But it never gets reported on. These are the jobs and sectors that will be growing in the modern economy, and we as a nation are doing a poor job preparing the next generations to succeed in them, no question about it.

Or conversely, if you love you some Fox News, let's focus on the fact that there's this agency called Planned Parenthood, that is in part funded by federal tax dollars, and it performs abortions! OMG! This must be this huge problem! Only, if you're a sane individual, you'd normally then want to know how much of this is going on, and you quickly realize the number of abortions that are performed in these facilities is under 100 annually nationwide, and it's dubious at best if federal dollars actually paid for any of those procedures. But finding those statistics is either purposefully omitted to sensationalize and stir up conflict, or done so out of sheer laziness. But conservative Americans eat that stuff up, because it's easy for them to follow, clearly identifiable villians, and fits their ideological narrative of the US crumbling from disregarding "traditional values". The facts of course clearly show this isn't a significant problem.

Back to the housing crisis, etc, the truth is there's blame to go around with the banks, government, and consumers. I also have a friend who took on a mortgage he shouldn't have. Got an 80/20, he's a single income earner, wife is in the process of getting a degree in nursing, they have two kids. In 2006, they got this big massive house in a brand new neighborhood. It's the American dream. Now, it's not like this guy is dumb. He took out $400,000 mortgages (80/20), very high interest, etc. on a single income, knowing full well his wife was going to school, and he didn't have an emergency fund to speak of.

I don't care what he was told by the lenders and real estate agent - he had no one to blame but himself in the end. He had a perfectly good house in a good neighborhood already. He just bought a new car as well. He had credit card debt. He wasn't putting much money away for retirement either. There's nothing anyone can say but "it's your fault" when the economy tanked in 2008, we both worked for the same company, and they cut our salaries to avoid layoffs. I'd have been sympathetic if he were doing the basics right, had a good emergency fund, could put a good 20% down for the mortgage, had no credit card debt, etc., then got caught later despite his best efforts, or lacked the mental capability to know he was walking into a potential economic deathtrap. But he wasn't putting forth anywhere close to a best effort financially speaking. When the same thing happened to me, I cut back on paying my mortgage off early, and sat on a six months emergency fund if the layoff ever came, and increased my retirement contributions when the market tanked to jumpstart it when the market would inevitably rebounded. There was never a sleepless night.

He's in better shape now, we got our salaries put back, and what did he do? Took that several year "postponed" trip to Disneyworld with the wife and kids, put off contributing to the reinstituted 401k, never has started an IRA for him or his wife, no college fund for the kids, only has one month emergency fund, although he has reduced his credit card balances.

I wouldn't pretend to know which is worse in the US - predatory lending and other abuses by businesses against consumers, or a complete lack of personal responsibility. But I know this - there's plenty of both, but you certainly don't hear it's both from pretty much any media outlet.

Unknown Unknowns

By Thomas Sowell (Jul 13, 2011)

When Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense, he coined some phrases about knowledge that apply far beyond military matters.

Secretary Rumsfeld pointed out that there are some things that we know that we know. He called those "known knowns." We may, for example, know how many aircraft carriers some other country has. We may also know that they have troops and tanks, without knowing how many. In Rumsfeld's phrase, that would be an "unknown known" -- a gap in our knowledge that we at least know exists.

Finally, there are things we don't even know exist, much less anything about them. These are "unknown unknowns" -- and they are the most dangerous. We had no clue, for example, when dawn broke on September 11, 2001, that somebody was going to fly two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center that day.

There are similar kinds of gaps in our knowledge in the economy. Unfortunately, our own government creates uncertainties that can paralyze the economy, especially when these uncertainties take the form of "unknown unknowns."

The short-run quick fixes that seem so attractive to so many politicians, and to many in the media, create many unknowns that make investors reluctant to invest and employers reluctant to employ. Politicians may only look as far ahead as the next election, but investors have to look ahead for as many years as it will take for their investments to start bringing in some money.

The net result is that both our financial institutions and our businesses have had record amounts of cash sitting idle while millions of people can't find jobs. Ordinarily these institutions make money by investing money and hiring workers. Why not now?

Because numerous and unpredictable government interventions create many unknowns, including "unknown unknowns."

The quick fix that got both Democrats and Republicans off the hook with a temporary bipartisan tax compromise, several months ago, leaves investors uncertain as to what the tax rate will be when any money they invest today starts bringing in a return in another two or three or ten years. It is known that there will be taxes but nobody knows what the tax rate will be then.

Some investors can send their investment money to foreign countries, where the tax rate is already known, is often lower than the tax rate in the United States and -- perhaps even more important -- is not some temporary, quick-fix compromise that is going to expire before their investments start earning a return.

Although more foreign investments were coming into the United States, a few years ago, than there were American investments going to foreign countries, today it is just the reverse. American investors are sending more of their money out of the country than foreign investors are sending here.

Since 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal, "the U.S. has lost more than $200 billion in investment capital." They add: "That is the equivalent of about two million jobs that don't exist on these shores and are now located in places like China, Germany and India."

President Obama's rhetoric deplores such "outsourcing," but his administration's policies make outsourcing an ever more attractive alternative to investing in the United States and creating American jobs.

Blithely piling onto American businesses both known costs like more taxes and unknowable costs -- such as the massive ObamaCare mandates that are still evolving -- provides more incentives for investors to send their money elsewhere to escape the hassles.

Hardly a month goes by without this administration coming up with a new anti-business policy -- whether directed against Boeing, banks or other private enterprises. Neither investors nor employers can know when the next one is coming or what it will be. These are unknown unknowns.

Such anti-business policies would just be business' problem, except that it is businesses that create jobs.

The biggest losers from creating an adverse business climate may not be businesses themselves -- especially not big businesses, which can readily invest more of their money overseas. The biggest losers are likely to be working people in America, who cannot just relocate to Europe or Asia to take the jobs created there by American multinational corporations.

It doesn't matter if the mother wants to stay at home with the children. Reality is dictating that she needs to earn additional income for the family. It's statistically proven if I spend more time with my wife, our marriage would be better, but it doesn't give me a right to not work. Reality is reality, doesn't matter if it's economic or otherwise. Look, families requiring two income earners is nothing new. Women entering the workforce has been a growing trend since WWII. One income earner staying at home is a luxury. I'd be more sympathetic if they didn't railroad their lifestyles upward on a single salary. Driving a big SUV, bought an oversized house, all on a one income salary. You're painting a picture that they're dewy eyed innocents in this, and they're being enslaved without their tacit approval to debt. If it was so darned important for the wife to stay at home, then they should have made that a priority to preserve this lifestyle instead of buying a big SUV, buying that big house, etc. I have sympathy that they got caught with their pants down, and didn't realize what they're doing, but now it's time for the pants to be pulled up. She needs a freaking job until they're in a better economic place, period! No sympathy from me about having to do this. And she should be doing that to BENEFIT her family. Don't want to leave the home? Plenty of jobs she can do from home now in the internet age. But do something, don't just sit there clipping coupons only. That's another the part that killed me, they paint coupon and bargain shopping as this horrific thing. Seriously?! That's called life!

Look, my wife doesn't work due to medical reasons. I'm completely sympathetic to a spouse needing or wanting to not work. But that means sacrifices in other material things. My wife and I rarely travel, when we do half is reimbursed by my employer. I earn a six figure salary in IT, and I'm constantly working my butt off to earn more certifications and expand my skills, because the reality is if I lose my job and don't find another good paying job quickly, we're screwed. I gave up my dream to be a teacher when my wife had medical issues that prevented her from working. That's a sacrifice by me for my family, and I don't complain about it other than to illustrate why talented people leave the teaching profession because they're grossly underpaid. We don't own a big house. We have a very large emergency fund, no credit card debt, etc. This is all in the face of the reality of our life choices.

As for my point about education, etc. You should read what I wrote more carefully. I never said that education was the biggest problem. I never disputed anything about what you're saying about outsourcing. I was pointing out that outsourcing isn't ONLY about corporations trying to pay less for labor because they're greedy. That certainly goes on (A LOT), but we also bring workers in from other countries because we simply don't have enough of those skills, too. The lack of skills we need in American workers is also a major problem, and part of that is a conscious choice made by Americans to underfund schools, to not go to college, to not seek education post-grad, to not spend some time outside of work expanding their skills, etc. Don't want to do those things? Fine, then accept less material things in your life. But don't go around complaining you can't afford an overpriced house, large SUV, all on a struggling single income salary to feed four people. For that Arizona family, where I do see society failing is there is very little help training/retraining the parents for new careers that would help them and the economy recover now that they made their mistakes. With that said, if neither is willing to do that, what would it matter?

I said that it's not just about the talking points of the political left. If you read my other posts (especially how many times I've taken qm to task for various things), I'm not a political ideologue for the right (or the left for that matter). This video is obviously slanted to the left, and that's not an accurate reflection of reality. Solutions shouldn't just come from the left or right to address a single problem. Neither has a monopoly on good ideas.

documentaries always have a certain bias.
we all do when trying to make an argument or point.this should not come as a surprise.
people have a right to their own opinions and ideologies,they just dont have a right to their own facts and to impose disinformation in order to manipulate using a contrived argument.

@heropsycho
your comment was well thought out but i do find a few statements you made a tad...disconcerting.
you question the stay at home mother as to her reasons for staying home.
they may be many but the main reason most stay-at-home moms..well..stay at home is for the children.which has been statistically proven to be beneficial for the well-being of not only the home but the children as well.
you wonder why she is not at work.
should everybody get on the hampster wheel and sacrifice the welfare of their family?
has the american dream so devolved as to be almost non-existent?
should every family become debt slaves?
and those who do not should be criticized and derided for not being one?

another part of your comment mentioned outsourcing and the possible reason was lack of education and training.
i agree with that comment but i feel it is missing some vital contextual references:
1.america was a manufacturing giant during the 50's 60's and 70's mainly due to WWII and the decimation of europes manufacturing (bombs tend to do that).
2.while the IT business is booming and i agree that we do need more training,you failed to mention that these "imported" workers tend to make far less than their american counterparts.
3."outsourcing" is a media manufactured word to fit the narrative but fails to identify what it really is:slave labor in third world countries.
4.you also failed to mention the REASON why so many american manufacturing companies "outsource" which is basically sweetheart deals and tax havens,nevermind the total lack of labor safety practices,humane working conditions,child labor laws.these companies dont go to third world countries due to lack of labor or training but rather so they can pay an 8 yr old girl 37 cents a day to make your nike sneakers.

so i disagree with your conclusion that the biggest problem facing the US economy is training and education (a factor but not the biggest problem).
the biggest problem the US economy faces is:two full scale wars and a "police action" all funded on borrowed money.
public elections funded by private entities (corporations and financial institutions)which leads to a corrupt legislature who works for their financial backers and no longer for the people.
a bail out of financial institutions due to their being "too big to fail" and are now ironically bigger than ever.
the absolute and utter failure of the fourth estate to watchdog the powerful in order to inform the public for fear of losing access to the very power they were charged to watchdog.because if they had done their job iraq would have never happened nor would the housing and consequent financial crisis.

these are just a few of the things from a very long list but i feel they are substantial in where we are now.

qm is right. This is pretty left leaning.

I think this country has gone too far to the right economically, but I still couldn't help but ask myself while watching this if this recession is so bad, why are they interviewing middle class after middle class person who isn't homeless, is not going hungry, etc. There's the one interview of a couple, where the wife is a home maker, why is she not working?

The talk shouldn't just be centered around the same left talking points of what ills the economy. What about the declining importance in middle class culture for education? In middle class culture, there's a growing distrust of public education, education institutions, of the academic elite, etc., why? What about seemingly the middle class's refusal to adjust to reshaping of demand for skills? What was deemed a large portion of middle class jobs generations ago required less education, and less ongoing enhancement of skills. The middle class now seems to insist on jobs that the US economy has diminishing demand for, and not be attracted to professions we desperately need more labor and skills in, such as IT professionals, where we issue work visas and IMPORT LABOR for to get the job done, even when the economy is so bad right now. And of course, these new jobs require more initial and ongoing investments in education.

I don't intend to suggest that this is all these people's faults, because it's not. But what is killing the US economy isn't just outsourcing, bank bailouts, union busting, and poor government policy decisions. In fact, part of the reason outsourcing occurs in some industries such as IT is there's so little supply for a skill in the US and such high demand for it, such as in IT, that it's cheaper to send that job overseas where there's more supply for it.

There's absolutely no reason for the US to be shipping IT jobs overseas. We should be figuring out ways to keep them here, and disregard political ideologies to make that happen. Maybe it involves more gov't grants to encourage people in the US to get the training they need to be able to do those jobs. Maybe it's more socially promoting the importance of math and science subjects early on in school. To me, one of the biggest problems the US economy faces right now is the jobs of the future require more skills and education than ever before, yet it's becoming increasingly difficult to get the required education.

These are the problems I wish were discussed objectively and intelligently debated instead of having to combat idiotic stuff like Santorum stating gov't bailouts have in the short run cost American jobs.

Not to mention the fact that 'creating jobs' isn't some selfless act of altruism, it's a normal part of running a business, and it's certainly no cause for being excused from civic responsibilities. >> ^DuoJet:

"... THEN he CREATED thirteen THOUSAND JOBS!!!"
Great, but how many jobs were lost as a result of outsourcing HR duties to Paychex?

"... THEN he CREATED thirteen THOUSAND JOBS!!!"

Great, but how many jobs were lost as a result of outsourcing HR duties to Paychex?

i feel ya BB.

it's just the current narrative that most people buy into propagated by the media.
why?
because they have shit to do,families to take care of and many times two jobs..sometimes three.
the factual information is out there but you have to look to find it and most people just dont have the time.
so we get folks regurgitating factoids and arguments given to them by well-paid pundits.
"they took our jobs"
if some dude from mexico who cant even speak the language, and has no education, took your job then you are a loser of such EPIC and humiliating proportions.
pablo didnt take your job,your job was outsourced to india.blame your company not some migrant worker.

in the 80's they gave us the narrative "welfare queens" now we are being told it is those "greedy" and "lazy" school teachers,and the unions they are part of,totally ignoring the history of unions and the thousands who died fighting so we can have:
40 hr work weeks.
weekends off.
safer work enviroments.
equal labor practices and the fact that its illegal to have your 8 yr old daughter working 14 hrs a day..7 days a week.
the list is impressive.

they say that universal health care is socialism while conveniently ignoring certain aspects of our government being of that very model.
they also ignore those pesky facts that health care would be cheaper on a single payer plan.one that we already have!
medicare is by far one of the most efficient per dollar than any other government institution.
but those facts just get in the way of their narrative.

look at how they formulate their premise.
using words to compare our government with running a business or household.
it is weak and factually dishonest but people can relate to that because they understand...
it relates to how THEY live,so it makes sense to them.
but it has nothing at all to do with reality.

the food stamp program,along with social security have been two of the great success stories.
keeping the poor and working poor from destitution due to all resources going to food.
lowered child mortality because these kids can eat and older,more vulnerable of this society dont end up homeless.
almost 70 million on food stamps but what will they show as their proof these things are a failure?
anecdotal evidence.not to convey a strong point but rather to appeal to the emotional nature of us all.

these people are being duped into believing that certain politicians think and feel just like they do.
no...they dont.
the ONLY time you matter to a politician EVER..is the election cycle.

for as long as public elections are financed by private funding special interest will always have their ears and by proxy...set the narrative.
they call it "public relations".
i call it what it is:propaganda.

oh man.total derailment.
my bad.

>> ^quantumushroom:


Jobs bill? His Earness has spent 1 trillion and not made a dent in unemployment.
We need a Government GTFO Of The Way Bill.


Shit man, I asked you to comment so we could discuss the substance of the video.

No one cares about your contradictory, philosophical doctrinal rhetoric.

Obama is the fucking president. That's the executive branch of the government. He's like the top super boss of all the Police and Military.

Congress, The House & Senate, are the Legislative branch. They are responsible for proposing new bills that will become law.

You talk smack about "Libtards" or "Taxcrats" all the time

Tho when Crowley points out that Republicans [whom you love so dearly].. have done shit all to pass a bill which will:
1. protect businesses from imports
2. protect service jobs from outsourcing
3. establish a viable green sector industry producing solar panels or wind turbines for export

You don't say..

"Hey, Crowley makes a good point. I support these "Republican'ts" but they constantly sit on their hands. I'm tired of them."

or.

"Why can't these "Re-Pluto-cains" stop lining their pockets with tax cut bills and use there time to craft a bill that supports the individual worker & the individual American Dream!"

Answer. Not with "I hate government. Especially BLUE colored government" jibber jabber.

Answer like you're a single mother who has been unemployed for 99 weeks and now has to pay the remaining 20% of tuition costs that would have been covered by scholarship funds had they not been stolen by Republican Governors like Nathan Deal of Georgia.

Defend your Republican masters in their lack of pro-active legislation in putting American citizens back to work.

I think all NASA video projects should be outsourced to Blizzard.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Who is crazier:
Those who suspect a man refusing to release a document that would easily end all speculation MIGHT have something to hide,
or
those who still believe a nation can tax and spend itself into stability and prosperity, with the top producers paying the heaviest federal taxes and the "bottom" 50% paying nothing, but slurping up plenty of entitlements.


Oh yeah. America's economy is in the toilet because half of it is composed of worthless, parasitic bottom feeders 'slurping up entitlements'.

It couldn't be because the biggest corporations are paying less than zero income tax while they outsource jobs overseas, or that Wall Street scammed millions of people out of their retirement funds and homes, or that the Republican party has been puppets of the oil and military industrial complex for decades and has squandered billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives to 'make the world a more democratic (read pro-American business) place'.

No, it's definitely the fault of the poor.