Main MenuClick this button to go to the main menu

Main Menu

Pension Underfunding Public Debt Overbuilding in Fault Zones, Floodplains,

and Coastal Areas Retirement Savings and Social Security Energy

Main Menu

Overbuilding

Pension Underfunding

Retirement and Social Security

Public Debt

Energy

The Year The Cost

1998 $1.13

1999 $1.24

2000 $1.64

2001 $1.56

2002 $1.49

2003 $1.56

2004 $1.99

2005 $2.35

2006 $3.04

2007 $3.01

2008 $4.14Main Menu

In 1929, worldwide economies crashed because of the plunges in the stock market.

This year, the biggest single day drop in history happened in Wall Street.

Is history repeating itself?

Main Menu

Major economic problems in the U.S. include national debt, external debt, entitlement liabilities for retiring baby boomers who have already begun withdrawing from their Social Security accounts, corporate debt, mortgage debt, a low savings rate, falling house prices, a falling currency, and a large current account deficit.

Main Menu

Pension Underfunding: A pension plan whose financial obligation exceed its assets.

The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is $23 billion in debt

It will become a candidate for a Federal bailout, much like the FDIC in the 1980s during the savings and loan crisis. --Without proper funding, people wont be

able to withdraw pension funding when time comes to retire.

Back to Threatening 5

The public debt is greater than $7 trillion The proportion of foreign holdings is really

just a minor issue compared to the sheer imprudence of spending so far beyond the nation's means.

The Federal government's inability to keep spending under control has led to a huge debt, about a quarter of which ($1.9 trillion) has been funded by investors outside the United States.

-- Why are we electing people who don’t know how to spend our money wisely?

Back to Threatening 5

Property Damage in 2004 alone was $22 billion.

People are constantly moving to the coast. The higher the population, the higher the cost of property and land.

While coastal regions are pleasing, they are at high risk for major property damage due to storms and flooding

--Is warmth and beach really worth sitting in the crosshairs of a category 4 hurricane?

Back to Threatening 5

Trustees say that we will be $4 trillion dollars short of breaking even. The program will be in “the red,” meaning it wont be making any money.

Americans aren't saving enough for retirement on their own, and Social Security is in financial trouble.

--Will there be money for the disabled and retired?

Back to Threatening 5

Increasing use of technology make the impact of increasing prosperity more severe(which tends to increase energy use), while efficiency is less important than the luxury uses of energy.

Plus, we are trying to find other resources to use for energy, but the cost to use them is too great.

Energy spending is around $755 billion a year, but that figure is expected to grow 1.6% a year above inflation for the next 20 years.

-- Congress keeps making promises of energy bills or energy saving supplies, but they’ve been making this same promise since the 1970’s. Why don’t we push a little harder? Why do we let them break their promises?

Back to Threatening 5