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You Know That Your City Has Become A Hellhole When….
Did Michael Snyder overlook any examples of Life in the Big Hellhole? I get the feeling this list is only the beginning. ~ Ilene
You Know That Your City Has Become A Hellhole When….
Courtesy of Michael Snyder of Economic Collapse
All across America there are cities and towns that were once prosperous and beautiful that are being transformed into absolute hellholes. The scars left by the long-term economic decline of the United States are getting deeper and more gruesome. The tax base in many areas of the nation has been absolutely devastated as millions of jobs have left this country. Hundreds of cities are drowning in debt and are desperately trying to survive.
Last year, city government revenues in the United States fell by another 2.3 percent. That was the fifth year in a row that we have seen a decline. Meanwhile, costs associated with health care, pensions and virtually everything else continue to explode. So what are cities doing to make ends meet? Well, one big trend that we are now witnessing is that many U.S. cities have been getting rid of huge numbers of employees. If you can believe it, 72 percent of all U.S. cities are laying workers off this year. Social services and essential infrastructure programs are also being savagely cut back in many areas of the country. The cold, hard truth is that most of our cities are flat broke and things are going to get even worse in the years ahead.
So how do you know if your own city has become a hellhole?
Well, a few potential "red flags" are posted below....
You know that your city has become a hellhole when most of the street lights get repossessed because of unpaid electric bills.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when it announces that it will no longer prosecute domestic violence cases in order to save money.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when it simply stops sending out pension checks to retired workers.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when it rips up asphalt roads and replaces them with gravel because gravel is cheaper to maintain.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when nearly half of all the people living there can't read.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when one out of every ten homes sells for under $10,000.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when you can literally buy a house for one dollar.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when you have hundreds of people living in the tunnels underneath your streets.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when three of your past five mayors have been sent to prison for corruption.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when nearly half of the public schools in the city get shut down because of a lack of money.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when you have dozens of young people rampaging in the streets that are thirsty for revenge and that are armed with bats, pipes and guns.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when it is considered to be one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the world. [Note: Capetown came in first, Detroit came in third, and New Orleans came in ninth. - ed.]
You know that your city has become a hellhole when thieves defecate in the back seat after they have broken into your car and taken your things.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when prostitution and drug dealing are two of the only viable businesses that remain in the city.
You know that your city has become a hellhole when the police chief announces that the police department will no longer respond to calls about burglary and identity theft due to very deep budget cuts.
Many of the examples above may seem humorous at first glance, but the truth is that they reveal just how deeply tragic our economic decline really is.
This is one of the reasons why I write about our trade deficit over and over and over. Every single month, tens of billions of dollars more wealth goes out of the United States than enters it. Every single month, we are getting poorer as a nation. Every single month, we lose more jobs and businesses.
Any politician that tells you that he or she can solve our economic problems without fundamentally addressing our horrific trade imbalance is lying to you. That means that there are a whole lot of liars in both political parties.
If the number of good jobs continues to decline, the plight of the average American family is going to continue to get worse. Home sales will continue to hover around record lows. The American people will continue to become increasingly frustrated with the economy.
The signs of decline are all around us.
Quit listening to the politicians and just open up your eyes and look.
So do any of you have any additional signs that a city has become a hellhole to add to the list above? Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....
Second picture credit: Jak's View From Vancouver
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The firemen in Miami get paid so much, because they have critical job (EMS), and a very strong union. Every one else, like teachers and police are expendable. Don't even look at what the firemen get for retirement (it pays them to retire after 20 years).
Great retirement benefits for firemen are nothing new. My father retired as a captain in a NJ town in 1964. When he died in 1997 his pension surpassed his highest yearly earnings in the fire department. Great for him, not so great for the taxpayers.
I walked by the local fire dept and looked inside what looked like a pretty fancy building. State-of-the-art exercise equipment only found in Bankers homes or high end exercise clubs, dining room and cafeteria 3-4 star restaurant quality. Individual bedrooms for the fireman. Pensions hell. I'd like to have the living accommodations they do. 50% of my property tax goes for that.
glad you are ok with Bankers luxury - that God's work is so much more important than firemen - in fact our taxes should go right to the Bankers.. oh wait..
Yet thousands of utterly useless bureaucracies still exist. The looters are in it for themselves and their pets.
Ironic that the picture illustrating the decline of the US was taken in Canada.
That aside, selecting the worst bad news doesn't really mean much - You could make any place look good (or bad) that way
And yet home sellers hang on to those "wishing prices"....
Yeah, those idiot house debtors who were expecting to privatize the profits but want YOU to bail them out of their losses. lol
tl;dr
You Know That Your City Has Become A Hellhole When It's in the USA.
Theyre all hellholes these days; don't matter where they are. The whole housing market sucks anyway
Are you one of those idiots who expected the price of houses to hyperinflate for another decade? Were you really going to retire on that spider and vermin infested rotted wall of sticks? That dirty used house? How much did you expect to gain every day. You were a flipper waitress who sucked it up eh?
uh... because England, France and Spain have no problems like the above???
uh... because England, France and Spain have no problems like the above???
.........................................................................
It is strongly doubted that even a country like Spain that has followed the US path to rob the rest of the world blind to increase his housing inventory and ease the social climate in the process has houses selling for less than 7,000 euros.
It is a combinaison of blind theft, resources poorly spread and a few other factors that are not likely to exist in much denser European countries.
This price is best explained by the abundant use of Smithian economics over the US territory which leads to built houses in the middle of nowhere, leaving people with much limited access to society benefits.
I dont even think that a shepherd cabin lost in the italian, french or spain mountains with no conveniences sell for less than 7,000 euros.
"It is strongly doubted that even a country like Spain that has followed the US path to rob the rest of the world blind to increase his housing inventory and ease the social climate in the process has houses selling for less than 7,000 euros."
Spain's housing market is a mess. And, Spain already spent its empire wad centuries ago: and now much of the world has had Christianity jammed down its throats as a result.
To ALL empires: BIG = FAIL!
Finally, welcome to the club! We hate fiat money too. It distorts everyone's decisions, including home buyers. The people who run the system don't care any more about US homeowners than they care about the people in your country, where lots of homes were probably also built and sold with easy credit from fiat. The system set up in this country in 1913, by control freaks, is reaching is logical conclusion, and we don't much like it either, brother. The average American had no idea what was really happening to their country when all these houses were being built, but we're starting to catch on. Thanks for your help.
Precis: You know your city has become a hellhole when its government can no longer afford to provide all the services it shouldn't have taken over in the first place.
(and before you accuse me of being an anarchist, no, I'm not talking about the police)
I wish that people would become a little less ignorant as to what anarchism is about. No, it's not about throwing fucking bricks. It's primary, purists would say ONLY, tenet is NO CENTRALIZED POWER (and especially not via coercion). People are totally free to make whatever associations they want: yeah, the sticky part is in "enforcement," but this is also the sticky part for libertarians- "enforcement" also means power over others, so demanding that the State provides you with protection of property means that they have the power to also take it from you- (big) sigh.
Look back in history. Seems that nearly every city of significant size has had trouble. BIG amplifies problems, which is why I state that BIG=FAIL (big always is about expansion, not something that CAN continue)
If you were an anarachist, government shutting down would make your city heaven on Earth.
I tend to side with anarchism because it more closely recognizes natural reality. I do not pretend to speak for any anarchist, but I'd hardly find a reason to rejoice in seeing any pain (though it is likely a "gain" by someone else- all is pretty much a wash). It is what it is/will be, a natural outcome...
Its sister cities' citizens shop for city blocks.
When the cops start jailing drivers with expired vehicle registration (DC October 2011)
yea, but look on the bright side,... they get three squares, a roof over their head, and a shower on the house
plus they get paid a chinaman's salary
c'mon,... if ya can't beat em, join em ( all the while helping out the private penal system? )
thankyou ilene
Do yourself a favor. Go to your local Radio Shack and tell them you want to buy a police scanner.
The fun action happens on the first of the month when the government checks get cashed. But during the rest of the month, you will be amazed at the number of revenue generating activities that are taking place (traffic stops).
As an added benefit, you will be able to monitor the activities of law enforcement when the SHTF.
Cops are nothing but armed revenue agents.
... and it's easy duty ... pull over soccer moms and hand out tickets ... "revenue enhancement operations"
I'm in the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's department. Not a lot of revenue collection going on. That stated, I'm still interested in how we can reconcile the demand that we be afforded property rights (protection) on one hand and then bash police (and taxes) on the other? Saying something is too big (and most here would know that I'm no fan of BIG) isn't sufficient, we need to be able to say how much is enough!
Because none of this is sustainable I tend to not count on any of it in the future (and live/act accordingly).
All too often police departments seem to be acting as profit centers nowadays. It is almost as if all those legendary Southern small-town speed traps have gone viral. It's easier to fleece sheep than take pursue and down wolves.
"It's easier to fleece sheep than take pursue and down wolves."
This gets close to the heart of the matter. I'd guess that prosecutors' offices just aren't all that capable of keeping up with the wolves; we see the exact same thing at the Federal level (though many decisions are based on whether the tracks lead to campaign contributors or not).
We've got WAY too many laws on the books, laws that cannot be enforced. It all works well for the INDUSTRY though: read all about it from Catherine Austin Fitts (shows that there's a large benefit to developers*) and Gary Webb ("Dark Alliance"). * In a small city that I used to live in they used crime as a reason to build a fucking arena (now they have MORE cops running around after folks drink and watch people bash themselves with hockey sticks).
Why bother with catch & release? The jails are so full, almost any non-violent crime can get a no time sentence. Check out how many failures to appear are at your local county court house. As so few are ever ever actually held to account, lawlessness will be taking further hold and vigilantism will be the antidote of last resort. Its going to get violent.
Profit center? hell yes. A self financing career.