This piece was originally published on April 24, 2010 by AmpedStatus.com.

David DeGraw recently gave a speech to World War II veterans and their families summing up his recent reporting on the severe economic attacks that are being carried out against the US public. Below is the introduction and part one of the speech.

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Introduction: Listen here ))

Part I: Listen here ))

Download full transcript in a printer-friendly document here.

Transcript: INTRODUCTION

Thank you, thank you for all being here today, taking time out of your busy schedule, I appreciate it. It is obviously a beautiful Sunday and I’m sure that you, much like myself, would rather be outside right now having fun with family and friends. So it’s unfortunate that we have to be here today, on many levels.

As you will soon see, I am not a public speaker in any way, I have never given an extended speech like this, and I don’t enjoy standing in front of people, behind a microphone and talking like this. I’m also battling against a cold right now, as you can probably already tell, and I certainly don’t have a nice sounding voice to begin with, and to be giving a speech right now with a cold, I apologize for that.

I do, however, feel an incredible sense of obligation to do this. Just to give you a little background, I’ve spent the last ten years of my life dedicated to researching power politics, and I’ve been investigating this economic crisis since before it was known as a crisis. I consulted on a documentary film back in 2006, which was subtitled, America Before the Bubble Bursts. It was director by a colleague of mine named Danny Schechter, at the time of the documentary’s release the economy was soaring along, home values were at all-time highs, so the few critics who actually reviewed the film, they dismissed it as an “alarmists view.” Of course, a year after the release of the film, the economy did crash and the bubble did burst. So I’ve watched this crisis unfold very closely, and I have reported extensively on it, As most of you are already aware I have a book out now called The Economic Elite Vs. the People of the United States. Which I will give free copies to anyone here today who would like one.

So, it has been requested, mostly by older people, like yourselves that I record an audio version of my recent reports, because at the later stages of life you have a hard time reading the long written reports that I’ve been putting out on the severe economic attacks that are being carried out against us.

So this speech is primarily put together for you, the World War II generation, which is my Grandparent’s generation. What you’ve all been through in your lifetime is, unfortunately, a great guide to what we are beginning to go through now. Your generation of was born into the Great Depression and fought through poverty and massive wealth inequalities in your early life, and then of course you fought and won WWII, and then after that you came home and created the most prosperous middle class in the history of civilization. Thus earning yourselves the title of “the greatest generation.” And deservedly so.

So it is the least that I can do to present to you this speech and a audio recording of it. It is, sadly, one of the many tragic things about our current crisis, that at this later stage of your life, you are witnessing the collapse of the middle class that you created.

So obviously that gives me zero enjoyment in saying that, and I hate the circumstances in which I am here right now, but I am doing everything I possibly can to explain the current situation to as many people as possible. I’ve dedicated my life now to working around the clock to get this very urgent message out about what is now unfolding. After my analysis, I now realize that I have no other choice. So I’m here doing my best imitation of Paul Revere. Now I know that sounds a bit silly, but I am here to sound the alarm. Obviously it’s not the British who are coming, it is the Economic Elite who are coming, in fact, they are most definitely already here and making themselves at home. So, I’ve come to the very unfortunate conclusion, after much research and analysis, that as bad as things have been over the past two years, things are about to get much worse.

So the presentation I’m about to give is very intense in nature, I understand that. It will sound very extreme, especially to people who get their news from television. Much of what I discuss, you will most likely have never have heard on your television.

Ok, so, I only have limited time here, this is the first part of this speech, and I’m rambling on with this introduction, and want to cover many vital points with you. So let me just get right down to the point.

PART ONE: The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States

As I said this is going to sound very extreme to you, and it is extreme. However, it is the very unfortunate reality of our current crisis…

The United States has been attacked by a well-organized Economic Elite who are tactically destroying our way of life. They have paid-off leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties, they have seized control of the US Government, the US Treasury, our tax system, the Federal Reserve, the stock market and US and global economy.

We no longer live in a society with a functioning free market, what we have now is a rigged market, and with that, a rigged government.

The harsh truth is that the United States government has facilitated the theft of trillions of dollars of national wealth and 99% of the US population no longer has political representation.

This sounds extreme, but I assure you that the evidence is now overwhelming.

Current statistical societal indicators clearly demonstrate that a strategic attack has been launched and an analysis of current governmental policies, prove that conditions for 99% of the American population will continue to deteriorate.

The Economic Elite have engineered a financial coup d’etat and have brought war to our doorstep… and make no mistake, they have launched an all-out economic war to eliminate the very existence of a US economic middle class.

Unless we all urgently unite and organize on common ground, and form a massive non-violent movement, our very way of life and the ideals that our country was founded upon will continue to unravel at an increasing rate.

I am not exaggerating in any way when I say, in the history of the United States, the stakes have never been higher.

The unprecedented transfer of wealth and staggering level of theft continues unabated. As I am watching this unfold, I am horrified thinking about the severe consequences that have only just begun to reap their toll. Our nation is being raped and pillaged before our eyes. Our future is going up in flames, and sadly, our government isn’t even making the slightest effort to put out the fire. In fact, as I will demonstrate to you, they are purposely pouring gasoline all over it.

Before explaining to you who is responsible for these attacks, and we know exactly who is responsible for these attacks. And before explaining to you how these attacks are being carried out, because again, we know exactly how they are being carried out. I want to first present to you a clear picture, a statistical analysis of the devastation that has already occurred, because you are not getting this information through the US television, you have not been told about the utter devastation that has already been inflicted upon the US during the initial phase of what I call an Economic Shock and Awe campaign carried out against the American public.

The first thing that people need to understand is that the economic crash wasn’t a crash for the people who caused it. In fact, these people, these financial terrorists are now doing better than they ever have.

In 2009, the number of billionaires increased from 793 to 1,011, and their aggregate wealth increased by a stunning 50% – their aggregate wealth increased by 50% during the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression. Their aggregate wealth increased from $2.4 trillion, to $3.6 trillion, during the most devastating economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economic top 1% of the population now controls an all time record 70% of all financial assets.

The inequality of wealth in the United States between the economic top half of one percent and the remaining 99.5% of the US population is now at an all-time high.

The point here, is that while the economic crisis has been devastating for the majority of America, the Wall Street Economic Elite are awash in record breaking profits. The most profitable firm in Wall Street history, Goldman Sachs, just had their most profitable quarter in their 140-year history, and Wall Street firms issued an all-time record breaking amount in compensation and bonuses. These are profits and bonuses that would not even exist, had working class US taxpayers not bailed them out. 100% of these record breaking profits and bonuses are a direct result of our tax money.

These obscene profits and bonuses are being handed out while American families are struggling to make ends meet and living in dire straits.

Economic Terrorism, Surveying the Damage

The economic statistics are staggering across the board.

I’m going to go through some of them here and I’m going to present to you a lot of statistics, but I want you to think about these massive numbers I am going to present to you, think about the people behind these numbers, think about the American families behind each of these numbers.

We currently have 50 million US citizens living in poverty. The United States now has the highest poverty rate in the industrialized world.

50% of US children, one out of every two American children, will use a food stamp to eat during their childhood. 50% of US children will use a food stamp to eat during their childhood.

In the past two years, Americans have lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings. They have also lost $13 trillion in the value of their homes.

Personal Bankruptcies are skyrocketing, and 60% of the bankruptcies are due to medical bills. And 75% of the medical bankruptcies that are filed, are filed by people who have health care insurance. And the new health bill just passed will do little, if anything at all, to help these people. Analysis of the new bill shows it will do little to reduce costs, as insurance rates continue to rise.

In fact, 45,000 Americans die preventable deaths every single year simply because they cannot afford medical care. That is equivalent to 15 9/11 attacks every single year. 45,000 Americans die preventable deaths every year simply because they cannot afford medical care. This is equivalent to 15 9/11 attacks each year.

What’s being done for these people? Nothing.

30 million Americans are currently in need of employment. You heard me right, 30 million Americans are in need of employment. That may sound odd to you, given the massive understating that the Bureau of Labor statistics and the mainstream media keeps reporting on. When you hear that the unemployment rate is leveling off at 9.7%, you are being deceived as to the true total

The government unemployment rate is deceptive on several levels. It does not count people who are “involuntary part-time workers,” meaning workers who are working part-time but need to find full-time work. It also doesn’t count “discouraged workers,” meaning long-term unemployed people who have lost hope and don’t consistently look for work. As time goes by, more and more people are discounted from the official unemployment rate.

For instance, the last time I did an analysis of this was in mid-February, so in January, 1.1 million workers were eliminated from the unemployment total because they were “officially” labeled “discouraged workers.” So instead of the unemployment rate rising, we hear deceptive reports about unemployment leveling off.

On top of this, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently discovered that they missed 824,000 job losses. They never accounted for them due to a “modeling error” in their data, is what they say. Even in their initial January data, they reported that the economy lost 20,000 jobs. Now losing 20,000 jobs in one month is a lot. However, TrimTabs employment analysis, which has consistently provided more accurate data. TrimTabs uses real-time corporate income tax deposits to monitor the loss of jobs, and this has consistently provided better, more accurate data. So, the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out and says 20,000 jobs were lost in January, TrimTabs comes out and says “over 100,000 jobs were lost in January.”

So when you factor in all these uncounted workers — “involuntary part-time” workers and these “discouraged workers” — the unemployment rate rises from 9.7% to over 20%. And this is data that has repeatedly been backed up by Gallup polling, which clearly states that over 20% of Americans are in need of employment.

A record 20 million Americans qualified for unemployment insurance benefits last year, this has now caused 33 states to already run out of unemployment funds. In total, 40 state programs are expected to go broke within the next few months. More workers have already been out of work longer than at any point since statistics have been recorded, with over six million Americans now unemployed for over six months.

We currently Five million people are on the verge of losing the unemployment benefits, which they have been surviving off of. And there are no job prospects for these people.

To put our unemployment crisis in perspective to what is happening on Wall Street right now, if you were to take the amount of money given out in compensations and bonuses on Wall Street just this year, money that is a direct result of our tax dollars. If you were to take that amount of money, we could pay all five million long-term unemployed people the average median annual wage. We could put all 5 million long-term unemployed people back to work and pay them the average annual wage. Now tell me, what is a better use of our tax dollars? Using them to give billionaires billions more, or using them to put five million Americans back to work?

And If you think the employment picture is bad now, and obviously it is a disaster, but you need to realize that US corporations already have plans to ship 25% of remaining jobs overseas as well. That’s one out of four remaining jobs earmarked for elimination.

This is about to occur when we already have a record high 6 workers for every 1 job opening. Even though Americans were already the most productive workers in the world before the economic crisis, in the third quarter of 2009, average worker productivity increased by an annualized rate of 9.5%. At the same time, unit labor cost decreased by 5.2%. So with productivity going up, and the cost of labor going down, this has led, obviously, to record profits for many companies. However, the average worker’s wage is declining at a 5% rate, and benefits are being cut.

There are also a growing number of full-time employed people, who despite having this full-time job, are still living in poverty. There are at least 15 million full-time US workers who now fall into this rapidly growing category of working poor.

Again, let’s put it in perspective, record profits, record bonuses, 30 million Americans in need of work, 15 million Americans working poor.

Over five million US families have already lost their homes to foreclosure since this crisis started. In total, 15 million US families are expected to lose their home by 2014. There are even grimmer predictions suggesting that 25 million American families will lose their home by 2014. The pace of foreclosures is even accelerating, a record number of homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year. In fact, every single day 10,000 US homes enter foreclosure. Every single day 10,000 new US families are facing foreclosure.

There are now over 3 million homeless Americans, the fastest growing segment of the homeless population is single parents with children.

However, one place more and more Americans are actually finding a home is in prison. With a prison population of 2.3 million people, we now have more citizens incarcerated than any other nation in the world – the per capita statistics are far and away the highest on the planet. The United States imprisons 700 per 100,000 citizens. In comparison, China, the horrible human rights abuser China, imprisons 110 per 100,000. So the United States imprisons 700 per 100,000, China imprisons 110 per 100,000. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

Let’s take a historical perspective on this. There are currently more people in work programs in prison today, then there were slaves in 1850, prior to the civil war. And the majority of these people are in prison for non-violent crimes. In fact, there are more African-Americans incarcerated today, then there were slaves in 1850.

The sale of prison goods and services has now grown into a $234 million annual industry. The prison industry is thriving and expecting major growth over the next few years. Once again, instead of our tax money being used for education and to create jobs, billions are being poured into building prisons. A recent report from the Hartford Advocate titled “Incarceration Nation” revealed that a new prison is now opening every single week somewhere in America. A new prison is now opening every single week somewhere in America, and we already imprison far and away more citizens than any nation on this planet.

Food and homeless shelters are already overwhelmed, and there will be millions more in need of these life-sustaining services within the next few years. 50 million Americans are currently in need of food stamps and struggled last year to get enough to eat. Approximately 20,000 new people are added to this total every single day. 50 million Americans struggling to get enough to eat, 20,000 new people added to that total every single day.

Due to economic hardship, the number of people suffering from psychological depression has hit an all-time high, not surprising. As American families are unraveling, suicide rates have also hit an all time high. Not surprising, is it?

The mainstream news media, filled with highly paid pundits and talking heads, whose job it is to numb us to this horrifying reality and keep us consuming and spending our money, these people haphazardly talk about some of these statistics and numbers, which they consistently drastically understate and downplay, but the mainstream “news media,” they never pieces these numbers together to show you the whole devastating picture, and they rarely show you all the immense individual suffering behind each one of these numbers. This is how they “normalize the unthinkable” and make us become passive in the face of such a high casualty count.

Behind each of these statistics and numbers, is a tremendous amount of misery, the physical toll is only outdone by the severe psychological toll. Anyone who has had to put off medical care, or who couldn’t get medical care for one of their family members due to financial circumstances, they can tell you about the psychological toll that is on top of the physical suffering. Anyone who has felt the stress of wondering how they were going to get their child’s next meal or their own, or anyone here who has felt the stress of not knowing how you are going to pay the mortgage, how are you going to pay your rent, your electricity, your heat bill, let alone the stress of the car payment, the gas bill, the phone, the cable or internet bill.

These are all basic things that every person should be able to easily afford in a technologically advanced society such as ours. These are basic things that we should be able to easily afford in a technologically advanced society such as ours. This amount of suffering in the United States of America, in 2010, this amount of suffering is literally a crime against humanity.

Nearly 200 million Americans, 2 out of 3 Americans, are now living paycheck to paycheck. And as I said over 50 million are already living in poverty, and as this prolonged crisis enters it’s third year, these people are quickly running out of options. The clock is ticking loudly for them, and time delayed is time closer to death.

The reason why this situation exists. The reason why we struggle to make ends meet and acquire basic necessities, is because the Economic Elite have robbed us all.

Thanks to our hard work, our productivity and our tax dollars, the Economic Elite have never had it better. As the American poverty rate soars, and as the middle class collapses, the Economic Elite have never had it better.

The Robber Barons of the Gilded Age have now been displaced as America’s most despotic and depraved ruling class.

The Road Ahead

However, if you think this is as bad as it can get, and obviously it is really bad, but you better get ready, because the past two years and all the devastating statistics I just mentioned, will be remembered as only the initial phase to what we have coming our way.

When trillions of dollars are looted from the economy, we cannot continue to go about life business as usual. All the money that was handed over to the Wall Street elite in the bailout and through tax breaks was money that was supposed to keep our society functioning and our social infrastructure in place. On a federal level and in state after state after state across the United States we are now facing massive budget deficits and draconian cuts in spending on vital social programs are just beginning to be implemented.

Think about all the statistics I just gave you, think about how many millions of Americans are suffering and how many millions more will be added to this total. And then think of all the social programs that will be drastically cut and eliminated.

Austerity measures will be taken, as hundreds of schools are already scheduled to be closed down at the end of this year, as thousands of teachers have already been told that they will no longer have a job at the end of this year. Medicaid is being drastically cut. Pensions are being slashed, social security funds have been looted by Wall Street and wars and have already gone into the red.

So all of you Baby Boomers who are expecting to retire soon, get ready for a rude awakening, your retirement funds have been looted by the Economic Elite. The money you spent your whole working life putting aside for your retirement has been handed over to Wall Street criminals.

So while they pull out our social infrastructure from below us, they will increase taxes on top of us. If you thought the current tax system was unfair, get ready for higher taxes and even less in return.

This is a double-edged sword that devastate 99% of the US population and cause a major reduction in our standard of living.

This is what is coming our way.

And this is all happening because trillions of dollars of national wealth have been stolen, and are still being stolen as I speak before you right now.

Are you now beginning to understand, what I mean when I say to you that an all-out economic war has been launched against us?

– We will post part two within the next few days. Part two explains who the Economic Elite are, how they are carrying out their attacks and what we can do to fight back.

If you would like to support our work by getting this full speech on CD, please order here.

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