Beer and Cheap Hookers Losing Business, High End Vices Remain Strong

If I was to come out and say that the rich are getting richer and middle class are continuing to get crushed, you probably would respond that you already knew that. However, South Bay Research’s Andrew Zatlin has compiled some very interesting statistics that are further illustrating this very fact, but indirectly and in a much more interesting way. They do this by keeping track of spending on gambling, liquor sales, and prostitution through what it called the “Vice Index.” In fact, data from the “Vice Index” indicated that consumer spending was down because spending on these vices were also down.
 
So basically, the vice index fell from 105 in November to 101 in December, which was the largest drop in the index in over a year. With this data, Mr. Zatlin was able to predict a drop in consumer spending just with the selected data he observes on vices. What Mr. Zatlin was also able to uncover was that he is noticing a split between the rich and the poor based on the data he is collecting through this research. His comment regarding this suggests that it is the middle class that needs to have money to fuel the economy and they are the ones getting hurt the most.
 
How are the 1% doing you might ask? According to Zatlin in his report, “high-end escorts successfully raised prices and lower-end escorts did not.” This is very much a 3rd world trend that is made clear through these facts.

My comments on this…  

It makes me sad when I consider the direction everything is going. I was watching TV the other day and a Covered California commercial (California’s version of Obamacare) comes parading on the TV glorifying the program and all I could think about was how this country is going to hell in a hand basket. It is such a change now that health insurance is government ran now. The tendency now is to continue to provide more and more safety nets for the poor which crushes the middle class since it costs them more than it provides them benefits. Overall it drags everyone down in the process. The 1% obviously aren’t going to feel the pain if their health insurance goes up 200 or 300 dollars per month. Truthfully, the system is setup for the 1% (who own the majority of assets) and will actually thrive since inflation will cause their investments to continue to increase. This continues to spread the wealth gap between the rich and the poor.
 
We saw it happen in this last election as Ron Paul had a great deal of support and attention. His unconventional mindset opposed the progressive agendas of the mainstream more than we have ever seen in history. Expect the political arena to get more and more polarized as the country becomes more divided between state-ists and libertarians (the real two parties of modern politics). There are going to be those who want to be taken care of by the system and then those who are unfortunately going to have to pay for these people and then come up with their own private funds to pay for their own needs. This will continue to be a problem in this country and Americans will experience an ongoing struggle to prosper and succeed in a hostile environment for business.  
 
Don’t get crushed by the system, but fight to be on top!
 
Kenneth Ameduri
Chief Editor at CrushTheStreet.com