15 Examples of How 'The Little Guy' Is Getting Absolutely Killed in America Today

End of the American Dream

Those without a lot of wealth or a lot of power are getting absolutely killed in America today. The big corporations, the major financial institutions, the ultra-wealthy and those connected to the top levels of government are absolutely thriving even though the economy overall is in shambles. Meanwhile, "the little guy" is being abused, harassed, regulated, taxed and mistreated like never before. In general, the big corporations and the government don't spend a lot of time tangling with each other. Instead, mostly they seem content with attacking the weak members of the herd (the rest of us). In the United States today, wealth and power have become more concentrated than ever, and the big corporations and the government have figured out thousands of different ways to drain even more wealth and power away from the rest of us. Most of the time, "the little guy" is not even able to fight back. Most Americans have very limited resources and a very limited knowledge of the law. Meanwhile, the "big guys" have almost unlimited resources and can hire huge numbers of lawyers. So what does that mean for the rest of us? Well, it means that until society becomes a lot more just, you better do your best to keep from becoming a target of the "big guys".

The following are 15 examples of how "the little guy" is getting absolutely killed in America today....

#1 The "Little Guy" Is Finding It Increasingly Difficult To Run A Small Business

The number of "self-employed" Americans continues to rapidly shrink. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million. Even though we have 14 million unemployed people in this country and jobs are incredibly difficult to come by, the number of people trying to work for themselves continues to decrease because the environment for small businesses in this country has become so incredibly toxic.

#2 The "Little Guy" Is Being Hounded By Federal Bureaucrats

Did you know that hay is now considered a "pollutant" by the federal government? Kansas cattle feeder Mike Callicrate recently told an audience that the EPA is now cracking down on his feedlot....

“Has the Environmental Protection Agency declared hay a pollutant?” an audience member asked. Callicrate responded affirmatively and explained that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently initiated a formal enforcement action against his Kansas feedlot for, among other things, failure to store his hay in a pollution containment zone. “Now that EPA has declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that leaves a broken hay bale in the field is potentially violating EPA rules and subject to an EPA enforcement action,” Callicrate said. “How far are we going to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?”

#3 The "Little Guy" Is Losing Health Coverage Because Of Obamacare

According to a recent report from the National Federation of Independent Business, one out of every eight small businesses in the United States have either already had or expect to have the health insurance plans for their employees terminated by the health insurance companies because of Obamacare. Another recent survey of mid-size and large businesses found that nearly ten percent of them plan to stop offering health insurance coverage to workers once Obamacare insurance exchanges begin in 2014, and another 20 percent are not sure if they will continue to offer coverage or not. Our health care system is deeply broken and the ones that keep getting the short end of the stick are average Americans.

#4 The "Little Guy" Is Being Forced Into Desperate Living Conditions By This Economy

As I wrote about recently, millions of Americans are now living out of "budget motels" because that is the only option they have left. Large numbers of Americans that have lost their jobs or their homes are now living in decaying hotel rooms because at least it beats living on the street. One of my readers named JD recently left a comment describing his own experience with living in these "budget motels"....

As for living in budget hotels I know firsthand of this. I spent last fall in several of them in my old town. They are shoddy, sometimes you have to share bathrooms with several other people, they are infested with bedbugs and despair clings to the very air itself. Its funny, In Helena MT they have the budget hotel in the general area of the homeless shelter. I call the Budget Inn Hotel Gods Love part 2. Gods Love is the name of the shelter. People go from the hotel to the soupline across the street. Its stunning the people you see in the shoddy hotels and souplines. I saw beautiful women staying in those places. I wondered what happened to them to have to stoop to that level of poverty. I eventually ran out of money so I stayed in my car instead of staying in that terrible shelter. The people are always sick and I was afraid of catching TB or staph infection. Im not better than those people so I hope I dont sound snobby. Im so grateful to God for giving me a second chance to salvage my life. I truly feel like a modern day Cinderella Man.

#5 The "Little Guy" Is Getting Taxed Into Oblivion While The "Big Guy" Has It Relatively Easy

Today, the wealthiest 400 Americans pay approximately 18% of their income in taxes. Many middle class Americans find themselves paying a much, much higher percentage of their incomes to the government than many of the wealthiest Americans do. Our income tax system is fundamentally unjust and needs to be completely discarded.

#6 The "Little Guy" Is Being Abused By Local Government

Local governments in the United States love to sink their teeth into small businesses. Since they don't have the same flexibility to just pick up and move like large corporations do, local governments often see small businesses as "captive" sources of income. In a recent article, Charles Hugh Smith commented on this phenomenon....

Local government sees small business as one thing and one thing only: a captive source of extra revenue via higher licensing fees, junk fees, permits, surcharges, etc. Local government thinks small business is captive, but the local politicos and fiefdoms are forgetting every small business owner has an option: it's called closing down, and opting out of the rat-race of higher taxes and costs.

#7 The "Little Guy" Is Being Absolutely Hammered With Ridiculous Regulations

The number of nightmarish regulations that "the little guy" has to deal with today just continues to increase. For example, a reader named Mark recently left the following comment on one of my recent articles....

Many of the rules created and enforced by the government are over the top. For example: as a farmer (farming my own land) the government wants to require me to have a CDL to operate my own tractor. This is not needed. These type of regulations just bring more money to the government and then we get more bureaucrats. The family farms will go away and you end up with big corporate farms in their place that can afford to pay the fees. In my state the government claims ownership of all the underground water. They do not think it is fair that we in the country do not pay for the use of it. The folks in the city pay for water, so we should too. When the people in the city pay their bill it covers the water, treatment costs, installation of pipes, power costs,etc. They fail to consider that we pay for our own costs such as drilling the well, buying and installing the pump, the pressure tanks, the piping, no water treatment, the cost of power to run the pump, the cost to repair the system, etc. This is just another way for government too take more money without providing a service. Let’s see, under the new food safty regulations, the government will have the power to come and inspect my garden. What comes next? Will I need to buy a permit to have my garden in order to cover the cost of the government inspector? Another one is the government wants to erect a fence 60 feet from the center of each side our creek. These would be for wildlife corridors to bring on more of UN agenda 21.

#8 The "Little Guy" Has To Pay The Bill For The Mistakes Of The "Big Guy"

During the financial crisis, the big banks got hundreds of billions in bailouts and trillions in secret loans from the Federal Reserve. Most average Americans that found themselves deeply suffering got next to no help from the federal government. Instead, all we got was a big debt bill that our descendants are going to be expected to pay off for generations to come.

#9 The "Big Guy" Will Mercilessly Come After The "Little Guy" If Payments Are Missed

Because they don't think that you have any power, the big financial institutions will treat you like garbage if you don't pay them on time. For example, Bank of America recently called one grieving widow up to 48 times a day to remind her that her husband's debts needed to be paid. The following is an excerpt from a recent article in the Daily Mail....

The bank told the widow that it was unable to stop the calls until the debt was paid as they were computer generated.

Mrs Crabtree claimed that the calls began the day after her husband died of cancer.

She told the bank that she only had $5,000 cash to hand, which was needed for food and to bury her husband, but debt collectors told her that she must use it to pay them.

Mrs Crabtree said she and her family spent her husband's wake repeatedly hanging up the phone on calls from the bank.

#10 The "Little Guy" Is Struggling To Stay Out Of Poverty

The middle class in America continues to rapidly shrink. According to a new report produced by Pew Charitable Trusts, approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder.

#11 The "Little Guy" Has A Smaller Share Of The Pie Than Ever

If the United States is still "the land of opportunity", a whole lot of people are being left out. At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans now control just 2.5% of all of the wealth in this country.

#12 The "Little Guy" Is Watching The Federal Government Destroy Our Jobs

We are experiencing the worst stretch of unemployment since the Great Depression and yet Barack Obama keeps pushing for more "free trade" agreements which will allow even more of our jobs to be shipped overseas and he keeps making it easier for illegal immigrants to come in to the U.S. and steal our jobs.

#13 The "Little Guy" Is Expected To Pay Through The Nose For Education That Has Little Value

They keep telling us that we need "an education" if we are to better ourselves. Well, the cost of college tuition in the United States has gone up by over 900 percent since 1978, and most college graduates are not able to find decent jobs in this economy. So we are all expected to go into debt for the next 30 years to pay for college, but then the system fails us by not providing nearly enough good jobs. Is there any wonder why more people than ever are asking if college is really worth it? In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors and more than 317,000 waiters and waitresses that have college degrees.

#14 The "Little Guy" Is Now Treated Like "Human Cattle" In The Name Of "National Security"

It just isn't just at airports where Americans are being searched like prisoners and treated like dehumanized cattle. Now, TSA "VIPR teams" are conducting about 8000 "unannounced security screenings" a year at subway stations, bus terminals, seaports and highway rest stops.

#15 The "Little Guy" Is Seen As A Major Threat While The "Big Guy" Seems To Get A Free Pass Almost Every Single Time

The federal government has no problem with brutally going after the little guy, but extends every courtesy to the big banks and to the big corporations. For example, the FDA conducted an armed raid on an Amish farm that was selling raw milk at 5 AM in the morning, but not a single Wall Street executive has gone to jail for the mass financial fraud that helped precipitate the horrific financial crisis of 2008.

What in the world has happened to this country?

Please say a prayer for America – we definitely need it.

Reprinted with permission from End of the American Dream.

September 10, 2011

Copyright © 2011 End of the American Dream