IanGould

  Consumption statistics totally disprove the myth of the declining US middle class. The average US house size has more than doubled since 1960 while the average US household size has fallen from 3.3 people to 2.5. The US home ownership rate has gone up over the same period: https://dqydj.com/historical-homeownership-rate-united-states/?fbclid=IwAR0sADiMMgWTqm1Bt6rQbOF4-_GmH_lKBVX7HLJFmeThfumm2ae35Uf3tVk When considering increases in home prices, we should probably adjust for changes in house size which would explain much of the increase. Additionally, Housing affordability isn't just determined by house prices. It's also determined by interest rates and deposit requirements. In inflation-adjusted terms, the median monthly mortgage payment is roughly half of what it was in the 1980's when US mortgage rates peaked at around 18%. Over the same period, the percentage of US households without at least one motor vehicle declined from 22% to 9%. These changes h...

The Shaver Mystery stories have largely been forgotten today. Briefly, in the late 1940's, Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer started publishing stories and articles written by Richard Shaver (sometimes co-written by Palmer.) These stories purported to be based in fact and described a fantastic history of a lost ancient civilization and evil survivors of that civilization who were still alive underground today and who were responsible for all the evil in the world. Thousands of people (at least according to Palmer) believed the stories were true. Palmer would later publish numerous books about UFOs and these stories of bizarre creatures abducting people prefigure much of later UFO myths. At the same time, the claims that these "deroes" tortured, raped and cannibalized their victims fall into a larger pattern that was preceded by antisemitic blood libels; the anti-Masonic and anti-Catholic conspiracy theories of the 19th century and succeeded by stuff like the Satanic ritua...