BeeLine is rooted in facts and data. It is the foundation from which everything I write is based.
Five facts from BeeLine posts in March and in my research during the past month that I thought were particularly salient, surprising, or stupefying.
In a world in which opinions seem to be based more on feelings, emotions and prevailing narratives it might make sense to put more focus on straightforward facts, data and truths.
Consider these facts and data and consider the context they provide to the larger issues of our world today.
Stock Market Values
The U.S. stock market in 1994 (right at the beginning of the internet revolution) was valued at 66% of U.S. GDP.
It is now valued at 193% of GDP---nearly 3 times more.
How has all of this been possible?
One reason is that all of those big technology names (Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla etc,) have been created and founded in the United States.
Is it just a coincidence that with all of the talent and intelligence in the world that it just so happened that it occurred in the United States?
The other reason is the incredible amount of money that has been created by the Federal Reserve over the last 15 years.
That money had to flow somewhere.
Overvalued? You can decide.
What Is A Fair Share of Income Taxes?
The Internal Revenue Service recently released taxpayer data for the 2021 tax year.
The data indicates that the top 1% of income earners paid 46% of all income taxes in 2021.
The top 5% paid 66%.
The top 10% paid 76%.
The top 50% paid 98%.
The bottom 50% paid 2%.
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| Income Tax Distribution By Income Level IRS Statistics of Income (2021 Returns) |
How much is a fair share for the rich?
How much should your fair share be?
Consider all of this and then reflect on the fact that just the interest on the federal debt this year will consume an estimated 43% of all individual income taxes.
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| Source Data: https://twitter.com/RealEJAntoni/status/1767622355294048486 |
If you have to pay the interest on the federal debt first, and it is consuming almost half of your income tax revenue, that does not leave much room for anything else (Defense, Medicaid, Welfare, Federal Worker Pay and Benefits, National Parks, FBI, CIA, etc).
Foreign-born Residing in the United States
Foreign-borns residing in the United States is at the highest percent of the population in history according to recent Census Bureau data.
Bear in mind that the Census Bureau data almost certainly undercounts the number of illegal immigrants in the country. This estimate does not take into account all of the recent flood of illegals including the large number of get-aways that were never encountered by the Border Patrol.
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| Source: https://cis.org/Report/ForeignBorn-Share-and-Number-Record-Highs-February-2024?&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=addtoany |
What I find astounding is that the current share of foreign born in the United States exceeds what we experienced in the 1870-1910 Ellis Island period of immigrants that came from Ireland, Italy, Germany and Eastern Europe and the period just after the nation's founding when were just recently a colony of Great Britain.
Let's put this in context.
More illegals will have entered the United States during the four years of the Biden administration than in the 40 peak years of immigration (1870-1910) through Ellis Island!
It is unprecedented and unless it is stopped it will have profound, long-lasting and compounding effects on the nation that very few can comprehend right now.
It is sure to put enormous pressure on the job market, social services, school systems. medical services, the housing and rental market and basic infrastructure for years to come. Quite simply, there was no planning involved in assimilating anything close to this population infusion in such a short period of time.
US National Debt
U.S. national debt is now higher than it was right after World War II when it had to borrow heavily to finance the war effort.
The United States was able to work its way out of that debt load due to the fact that a good portion of the rest of the industrialized world had been destroyed in the war which created tremendous economic opportunities for the United States in the post-war period.
U.S. debt currently stands at about 124% of GDP which is down slightly from what it was at the height of the heavy deficit spending during the Covid pandemic.
Current Congressional Budget Office projections are that the United States will pass a debt to GDP threshold of 130% within the next 10 years.
Why is that significant?
An analysis done by Hirschman Capital several years ago based on International Monetary Fund data found that, out of 52 countries since the year 1800 where the debt to GDP had surpassed 130%, 51 had defaulted, either through restructuring, devaluation, high inflation, or outright default.
The only exception was Japan.
Can we trust that it will be different for the U.S.?
Bear in mind that all of this needs to be solved at the same time there are 10 million or so undereducated illegals who have taken residence in the country in the last four years.
What could go wrong?
Trust in the Media
The number and share of foreign-born people in the United States may be at the highest levels in history, but the share that say they trust mass media is at all-time lows.
Only 32% of Americans say they have any level trust in mainstream media.
Among Republicans it is just 11%. Independents are at 29%.
Democrats are at only 58% trust despite the fact that the mass media is carrying their water every day.
We are a long way from the days of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow.
excellent article, especially cause like all your articles their based on FACTS. Too bad the left has never grasped these Truths. They can only cry , " pay you fair share". but they have never defined "your Fair share".
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