The follow article has been generously contributed by long-time SHTFplan contributor Patriot One.

Hidden In Plain Sight – The Greatest Depression Is Upon Us Now, Today, It’s Here

by Patriot One
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According to the main stream media and the Obama Administration the summer of 2010 was the summer of recovery. A funny thing happened to the recovery on its way to your town. It never happened and it never will until the excessive debt is flushed out of the system and America actually starts to produce and make things again.

I want to warn you, though, that I’m not a writer, reporter, economist or politician. I’m just a small business man. I think I’m smart and intelligent, but by the elite standard, I’m uneducated. So if you are going to judge this article by my spelling, grammar and sentence structure you might as well hit the delete key now.

What I want to do is open your eyes to the cold hard facts of life in America today. Our Federal and State Governments have kicked the entitlement can down the road for so long that we now have about 133 trillion dollars in debt and unfunded liabilities. Simply put we will never be able to fund the liabilities or repay the debt. It’s just mathematically impossible given the current status quo.

By now your asking; What is hidden in plain sight? Well it’s the soup lines and the wondering masses of people looking for work. You see the soup lines are now mixed right in with you at the grocery store with government debit cards, food stamps and other programs like WIC. We are approaching 42 million people just on food stamps – all hidden among us. That’s a whooping 14% of the US population just on food stamps.

US labor migration is also hidden in plain sight at your local unemployment office. No wandering masses of men looking for work. In fact now they don’t even want to see you at the unemployment office and have you file online. Again hiding the long lines and further isolating the unemployed person.

According to a report by the AP, US Census data for 2009 shows approximately 45 million Americans were living below the poverty line. We also saw the largest single year increase in the poverty rate since 1959 and are now the third worst among developed nations. The US Department of Agriculture reports, on a year-over-year basis, household participation in food stamps has increased 20.28%. The food stamp program has set new all time highs for 19 consecutive months.

As of June one out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program and Medicaid now serves more then 50 million Americans.

On the financial side of the house, one out of every seven mortgages in the US was either delinquent or in foreclosure during the first quarter 2010. Nationwide, bankruptcy filings rose 20% in the 12 month period ending June 30 th 2010 and 25% of all Americans now have a credit score below 599. Meanwhile America now has fewer manufacturing jobs than we had in 1950 and customer service call centers are being sent overseas at an alarming rate.

Simply put, the cost of every government anti-poverty is absolutely soaring. Meanwhile the US government is already running a budget deficit that is approaching 1.5 trillion every year. The US economy is dying and without a major change in course we will be ship wreaked on the iceberg called collapse.

Much like Rome our elected officials have spent us into oblivion and are now wholesale printing money. The Roman Empire, in my opinion, collapsed due to large government, debt, over taxation and inflation due to the stamping of coins. Do you see any similarities?

Because I don’t want to be just a doom and gloomer, I will off some common sense ways to repair our country.

Repeal NAFTA. If 60% of your company manufacturing and or service is not done in America, you’re not an American Company. Currently under NAFTA 90% can be overseas and you are still an American company.

1. Federal, State and Local Governments need to deregulate and decriminalize. We have so many laws on the books that the average Citizen likely breaks 5 laws per day.
2. If a company is too big to fail, the company is too big. This would include banks, financial firms, insurance companies and to some extent manufacturing. No company should be larger then 4 or 5% of a given market and or GDP.
3. Reduce government employee pay and benefits. No government worker I have ever seen is worth more in pay and benefits then his private sector counterpart.
4. Term limits on all elected officials. The elected office was never meant to be a career position.
5. Mandatory retirement of Supreme Court Justices at age 68.
6. Abolish the Federal Reserve. Neither the President nor Congress has any clue what has been going on at the Federal Reserve for its entire 97 year history.
7. Return the currency to the gold standard.
8. Repeal and eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare and all other entitlement programs.
9. Outlaw any type of wealth redistribution.
10. Abolish the IRS and EPA.
11. Institute a Fair Tax.
12. Start all out production of domestic Oil, Gas and Minerals.
13. Upgrade all Military major weapons systems, Aircraft and Ships.
14. Increase pay and benefits to the military.
15. Outlaw student loans.
16. Tort reform.
17. Outlaw Unions.
18. Outlaw the NEA.
19. Suspend all immigration for 5 years.
20. Secure our boarders and deport all illegals.
21. Institute real immigration reform.
22. Institute a healthcare policy national standard.
23. Withdraw from the UN and get the UN out of America.
24. Get back to the Constitutional basics.

While these 25 items may seem very basic, it will bring us back to a foundation, upon which we can rebuild. The size and scope of government will be dramatically reduced in both cost and number of employees. And finally the power will be put back into the hands of the Citizens, where it belongs.

As Ronald W. Reagan stated: Government is not the answer to our problems, Government is the problem.

This article has been generously contributed by long-time SHTFplan contributor Patriot One.