Consumers Aren't Feeling the Love

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Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition
Issue #1112
9/27/2024 – 9/29/2024
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1) Consumers Aren't Feeling the Love
You may have seen earlier this week that consumer confidence fell again in September.

We looked at the longer-term trends and found that confidence soared during the Trump presidency, crashed during the lockdowns, rallied during the post-pandemic recovery, and has drifted steadily downward since August 2021. The index was at 130 throughout most of the Trump presidency and is now down to below 100.

Even with inflation down to 3%, families are still stressed out over the cost of nearly everything.

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2) But the US Stock Market Still Dominates Globally
This Fortune chart shows the performance of the U.S. stock market measured against the world's other major markets. America's share of the total world market cap is shown in blue. This reinforces a point we continually make in the HOTLINE: U.S. companies are so completely dominant that their market valuation is more than the value of every other nation in the world – combined.

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Here are the numbers on each country's contribution to global market capacity and notice the meteoric rise in wealth in the U.S. versus other nations.

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What's amazing is that at one point in the late 1980s, Japanese companies were worth more than all the publicly traded companies in the U.S.

That was when American economists like Lester Thurow, declared that the U.S. had to adopt a national industrial policy (NIP) to keep up with the Japanese. Thankfully under Reagan, we cut tax rates and deregulated.

Today, USA Inc. is worth many multiples more than Japan Inc.

Meanwhile, China adopted some free market principles in the 1990s and early 2000s and was rapidly catching up with the U.S. But in the last 15 years, China Inc. has flatlined. Sorry, President Xi. That's the price you pay for going socialist/communist.

Much of the rise here at home, is due to the complete American global dominance in the tech industries (So naturally, fools like Lina Khan of the FTC and some politicians on the right and the left want to slice them up and slow them down for being TOO profitable). But the U.S. is also blowing away the competition in retail, financial services, and entertainment.

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3) So Much for Free Speech – Americans Afraid to Say Out Loud What They Really Think

Efforts to muzzle the free speech of Americans have spread relentlessly from college campuses into the wider world.

A new poll of nearly 20,000 adults by YouGov and sponsored by the think tank Populace, found that a majority of Americans (58%) think that most people cannot share their honest opinions about sensitive topics. More than six of 10 respondents said they have avoided saying things that they believe because others might find them offensive.

While 36% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans publicly say they trust the government to tell the truth, just 5% and 2% agree with this statement privately.

59% of Americans think there is too much government control in America, but only 50% say so publicly – with Democrats far more likely to conceal that view:

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Defunding the police is a good example of an issue where Americans are afraid to say what they believe. While 28% of Gen Zers and 27% of Democrats say they support the movement, in reality just 2% and 3% privately agree.

Most of the apparent partisan gap on school choice is a result of liberals and independents concealing their support for it:

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It's another example of the hypocrisy of the left who say they support "tolerance of other people's opinions," but they have created an environment in which many Americans feel a need to self-censor their views.

The full report is here. ([link removed])

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4) "Free" Child Care for Just $100 Billion Per Year

Here's the latest plan from the Left to bankrupt America: cap the cost of childcare at 10 bucks a day for everybody making under $250,000, with taxpayers picking up the rest of the tab:

Khanna's plan comes with a hefty price tag--approximately $100 billion annually, which is more than double what the U.S. currently spends on childcare programs and about an eighth of the federal budget allocated for national defense. Critics are sure to target the cost, as the bill does not explicitly outline its financial sources. Khanna, who calls himself a progressive capitalist and represents the wealthiest district in Congress (Silicon Valley), suggests several potential funding mechanisms, including raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, increasing inheritance taxes, and creating a financial transaction tax.

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And if proponents of a new entitlement say it will cost $100 billion per year, you can count on it being double or triple that once providers figure out that they can raise tuition to the moon without losing their customers.

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5) More Mail-In Ballot Mayhem

Voting by mail is still fraught with problems. The two leading national organizations of election officials have just written the U.S. Postal Service demanding immediate action to avoid confusion and chaos with mail-in ballots.

"We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues with USPS election mail service," wrote the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State. Mail-in ballots accounted for 43% of the electorate in 2020, a 20-percentage point increase from 2016.

This letter follows a July report from the USPS's own Inspector General, which warned that its audit of primaries in 13 states found that 2.99% of mail-in ballots reached voters too late and 1.83% were returned to election offices after their legal deadlines. Its list of horror stories included the discovery that "local management at one facility stated they were not aware primary Election Day was that week."

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab is "extremely concerned" that in the August primary, 2% of ballots sent by mail were not counted. "The Pony Express is more efficient at this point," said Schwab.

Registration lists are notoriously chock full of ineligible, duplicate, fictional, and deceased voters, a fact easily exploited to commit fraud. Ballots cast by mail can become the object of intimidation and vote-buying schemes.

Even a 1 or 2% mail-in error rate due to fraud or mishandling of ballots could easily swing the election one way or the other.

Scary that the fate of our country could rest on the competence of the Postal Service.

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6) Mail-in Voting. What Could Go Wrong?

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