Photo: iStockPhoto.com The clock is ticking – get prepared now

In 2012, the change coming for Americans is going to be a huge wake-up call. A lot of the dominoes are in place and will most likely fall in 2012. As we are told the economy is getting better, it is actually getting worse. Each new law and regulation is promised to be the “fix” for the economy’s problems. But with each new law and regulation, it just gets worse.

We have gone far past the point where we can just “tweak” things and fix the economy. We need a fundamental change in direction. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Some economists say it is already inevitable where it’s not a question of “if” but a question of “when” the global economy will crash.

Here are some startling economic numbers that are almost too crazy to believe:

1. 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty./li>
2. According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of US adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
3. A recent survey found that 77 percent of all US small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.
4. Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.
5. The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.
6. The median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.
7. The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of US households has declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.
8. Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were when the housing market peaked.
9. A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that one out of every five Americans who have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.
10. The US Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.
11. Today, the “too big to fail” banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
12. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the U.S. are living in homes considered to be low income or impoverished.
13. New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.
14. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.
15. 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.
16. One out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.
17. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
18. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.
19. Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.
20. One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.
21. A higher percentage of Americans are living in extreme poverty than has ever been measured before.
22. Child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
23. Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.
24. The Federal Reserve, being a perpetual debt machine, has almost completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and has a nightmarish record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape.
25. The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.
26. According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America’s biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.
27. Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.
28. If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.
29. U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.
30. The U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.
31. A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits.
32. During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

You can’t control the economy. You can only control your family’s future. If you feel the need to prepare, you are being wise. Do it while you still have time.