The intoxicating "dance of the billions" can't last much longer.
Another "Black Thursday" in less than a decade is predicted by top economists.
Here are the startling facts behind our sick economy!
THE ONCE-MIGHTY American dollar is in SERIOUS TROUBLE! Urgent measures are being taken, on the international level to protect the nation's vanishing gold reserves, now down to a 24-year low of less than $15.7 billion.
For the very first time, the U.S. has appealed to the International Monetary Fund for help. "I never thought I'd see the day when the U.S. would be standing at the door," sighed one American official to the I.M.F. Internally, the country is floundering on a rising river of red ink. Total debt in the U.S. — public, corporate and private — is now over ONE TRILLION, 58 BILLION DOLLARS! That amounts to $23,260 for each average family of four! Can you afford that!?
Such economic recklessness cannot go on forever!
Top economists who are not afraid to endanger their own businesses are seriously warning the public to wake up to the alarming facts. A short while ago Dr. Arthur Upgren, professor of economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, startled a meeting of insurance men, bankers and educators when he said, "LOOK OUT FOR THE BIGGEST BUST YOU EVER SAW!"
Dr. Upgren explained that only built-in "snubbers and stabilizers" are keeping our economy afloat and that by 1970 the U.S. will go fiat broke. By the end of that year, he said, liquid assets in banks will be reduced to 20 per cent of their liabilities about where it was in 1929.
Can you fathom how much 100 billion dollars really is?
This staggering amount is equivalent to a stack of $1 bills 6,774 miles high, over four-fifths the diameter of the earth.
$100 billion is the approximate amount of this year's Federal budget, ⅓ of the Federal debt, and one tenth of the total U.S. public, corporate and private debt.
Can't Learn from History
"With two thousand years of European history before your eyes, you (Americans) have repeated every one of Europe's mistakes," said the late Roman historian Theodore Mommsen. Two of the major reasons for the fall of Rome were the spiraling rise of taxes combined with extravagant spending, and the building of gigantic armaments.
The very same mistakes are being made today!
In addition, Americans have not only failed to learn from ancient history, they have forgotten their own recent history! "We can hope the country will do something in response to our warning," continued Prof. Upgren, "though the six deep financial collapses we had from 1873 to 1933 do not encourage us."
Americans have not learned their lesson! Financial collapse NUMBER SEVEN — God's number of finality — will soon be here! And only God Almighty can save you and your family from ruin this time. How you can have supernatural protection we will see later.
Factors Obvious
Just one cursory glance at our glittering, credit-bloated economy should reveal that something is drastically wrong! And when we look at all aspects of it — mounting taxation, the mad spending for fantastically expensive and complex weapons, the crushing welfare and relief burden, the ballooning credit binge, the lurking danger of severe foreign competition, the constant hemorrhaging of our shrinking gold supply — we see the explosive ingredients of a crash that will make the Great Depression of the 30's seem like an unpaid vacation.
Let's analyze these factors briefly, one at a time. First, taxation. In the United States alone there are over 175,000 governmental bodies levying taxes — and they seemingly can't get money fast enough! Federal expenditures alone have multiplied 25 TIMES in the last 30 years. The Federal debt has now reached the fantastic level of 304 billion dollars — and another push upward looms. Each year $10 billion — the largest single appropriation in the budget — is earmarked just to pay interest on this amount. In 1929, before the stock market crash, the Federal debt was less than $20 billion. Do you see why the next crash is going to be far worse?
Not only Federal, but state and local spending has climbed alarmingly. It now runs at four times the 1946 rate. Upwards of $50 billion a year is spent by these other governmental bodies — an amount nearly 15 times the Federal budget for 1929.
Why So Much?
Where is all this money going? Why do you have to work 2½ hours a day just to pay taxes? Why are there over one thousand direct and indirect taxes on a single quart of milk?
Let's look at the defense picture for one answer. Military spending in the U.S. has now reached a record "peacetime" rate of $56 billion a year, absorbing well over half of all Federal funds. And, get this shocker: High government officials are forecasting that if the arms race continues (which it will) the yearly defense outlay will reach 100 BILLION a year within a decade! Imagine! More than the entire Federal budget as it now stands!
Few people realize the enormous amount of time, talent and energy, in addition to money, being devoted to the nation's military program. The Senate subcommittee on education recently heard administration witnesses testify that 75% of all scientists and skilled technicians working on research and development at the present time are doing it in the fields of space, missiles, atomic weapons and other military uses. Only 25% of America's research is devoted to peacetime activity. One scientist now working on new weapons said recently, "You ain't seen nothing yet" compared with what is planned in the way of new weapons (U.S. News & World Report, July 1, 1963).
Caught in a Vise
The United States is now in the extremely awkward position where it can't afford to disarm. Whole corporations and industries are almost solely dependent upon military contracts. To try to reallocate the massive $56 billion defense outlay now would shake the economy right down to the ground.
One reason Rome fell was that she built up a huge military machine to protect her from without — while she suffocated from within on the stench of her own moral decay. The same is true of our society today. Weapons did not save Rome — and they cannot save the United States, Great Britain or any nation today (Ps. 33:16). And neither can our rearmed, purchased allies save us — nations upon whom we've lavished the appalling sum of $100 billion since the end of World War II. In fact, Bible prophecy says that despite our vast military preparedness, it will all be to absolutely no avail. God will not fight with us in the next war as He has in the past. He says to our people, the descendants of ancient Israel: "An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. . . They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; BUT NONE GOETH TO THE BATTLE: for MY WRATH is upon all the multitude thereof" (Ezek. 7:2, 14). Not one missile will be fired, not one plane will be sent aloft, not one nuclear sub will sneak out of port!
Crushing Welfare Load
Welfare programs designed to give everybody "security" have also burgeoned into a mountainous monetary headache. Cost of these programs — old-age survivors and disability pensions, relief, unemployment benefits — skyrocketed from $6.9 billion in 1953 to over 20 billion in 1961. Welfare now absorbs about 20 cents of every dollar the Government spends. Year after year more and more people are tucked under the welfare blanket. WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR ALL OF THIS?
Relief costs alone are threatening to overwhelm strained coffers of some cities and states where chronic unemployment persists. Thirty-two states already have set up state income taxes to help meet rising costs. Even so, the picture continues to worsen. In 1946, 47 of the (then) 48 states operated within their incomes. By 1958, 32 states were spending more than they were collecting.
Now perhaps you can realize why you, the average American working man or woman, have to work 2½ hours a day just to earn enough to pay all of your taxes.
"Historically, whenever any nation has taxed its people more than 25% of their income, that nation has . . . headed for economic decay," reported noted news analyst Paul Harvey back in 1958. "Already our taxes are devouring more than a third [now upwards of 35%] of every income dollar."
No nation can take this type of financial beating for more than a few short years!