" We stand today on the brink of economic destruction. The housing
market remains stagnant. Unemployment is obviously far higher than
the officially reported figures of 6 to 7 percent, which factor in only those
filing for unemployment benefits. As I was completing this book, there
were alarming reports disseminated by the media that a hundred million
Americans of working age were without jobs. This amounts to a staggering
true unemployment rate of 36.3 percent. While some of those are willfully
unemployed, such as stay-at-home parents, retirees, and high school students,
there is no question that the real rate must still be at least somewhere in the
HIDDEN HISTORY
4
25-percent range. Student loan debt is quickly surpassing credit card debt
in volume. The cost of living continues to surge, while the vast majority of
American workers receive little or no yearly wage increase. Our industry has
practically left our shores, leaving us incapable of manufacturing anything of
substance. Although the US population increased by 10 percent during the
first decade of the twenty-first century, 5,500,000 manufacturing jobs were lost
during the same time period. The sad reality is America doesn’t make much of
anything anymore. The income disparity has grown to such an extent that the
richest four hundred citizens presently possess more aggregate wealth than
the bottom fifty percent of all Americans combined. If present trends continue,
the United States is rapidly on the way to Third World nation status. "

― Donald Jeffries , Hidden History: An Exposé of Modern Crimes, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups in American Politics