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America The Fallen: 24 Signs That Our Once Proud Cities Are Turning Into Poverty-Stricken Hellholes
Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
What is happening to you America? Once upon a time, the United States was a place where free enterprise thrived and the greatest cities that the world had ever seen sprouted up from coast to coast. Good jobs were plentiful and a manufacturing boom helped fuel the rise of the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the planet. Cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore were all teeming with economic activity and the rest of the globe looked on our economic miracle with a mixture of wonder and envy. But now look at us. Our once proud cities are being transformed into poverty-stricken hellholes.
Did you know that the city of Detroit once actually had the highest per-capita income in the United States? Looking at Detroit today, it is hard to imagine that it was once one of the most prosperous cities in the world. In fact, as you will read about later in this article, tourists now travel to Detroit from all over the globe just to see the ruins of Detroit. Sadly, the exact same thing that is happening to Detroit is happening to cities all over America. Detroit is just ahead of the curve.
We are in the midst of a long-term economic collapse that is eating away at us like cancer, and things are going to get a lot worse than this. So if you still live in a prosperous area of the country, don't laugh at what is happening to others. What is happening to them will be coming to your area soon enough.
The following are 24 signs that our once proud cities are turning into poverty-stricken hellholes...
#1 According to the New York Times, there are now approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit.
#2 At this point, approximately one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.
#3 Back during the housing bubble, an acre of land in downtown Phoenix, Arizona sold for about $90 a square foot. Today, an acre in downtown Phoenix sells for about $9 a square foot.
#4 The city of Chicago is so strapped for cash that it is planning to close 54 public schools. It is being estimated that Chicago schools will run a budget deficit of about a billion dollars in 2013.
#5 The city of Baltimore is already facing unfunded liabilities of more than 3.2 billion dollars, but the city government continues to pile up more debt as if it was going out of style.
#6 Today, the murder rate in East St. Louis is 17 times higher than the national average.
#7 According to USA Today, the "share of jobs located in or near a downtown declined in 91 of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas" between 2000 and 2010.
#8 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.
#9 There are more than 85,000 streetlights in Detroit, but thieves have stripped so much copper wiring out of the lights that more than half of them are not working.
#10 The unemployment rate in El Centro, California is 24.2 percent, and the unemployment rate in Yuma, Arizona is an astounding 25.6 percent.
#11 It has been estimated that there are more than 1,000 homeless people living in the massive network of flood tunnels under the city of Las Vegas.
#12 Violent crime in the city of Oakland increased by 23 percent during 2012.
#13 If you can believe it, more than 11,000 homes, cars and businesses were burglarized in Oakland during 2012. That breaks down to approximately 33 burglaries a day.
#14 As I have written about previously, there are only about 200 police officers assigned to Chicago's Gang Enforcement Unit to handle the estimated 100,000 gang members living in the city.
#15 The number of murders in Chicago last year was roughly equivalent to the number of murders in the entire country of Japan during 2012.
#16 The murder rate in Flint, Michigan is higher than the murder rate in Baghdad.
#17 If New Orleans was considered to be a separate nation, it would have the 2nd highest murder rate on the entire planet.
#18 According to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center, Mexican drug cartels were actively operating in 50 different U.S. cities in 2006. By 2010, that number had skyrocketed to 1,286.
#19 Back in 2007, the number of New York City residents on food stamps was about 1 million. It is now being projected that the number of New York City residents on food stamps will pass the 2 million mark this summer.
#20 The number of homeless people sleeping in the homeless shelters of New York City has increased by a whopping 19 percent over the past year.
#21 As I noted yesterday, approximately one out of every three children in the United States currently lives in a home without a father.
#22 In Miami, 45 percent of the children are living in poverty.
#23 In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of the children are living in poverty.
#24 According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
As I mentioned at the top of this article, the decline of the city of Detroit has become so famous that it has actually become a tourist attraction. The following is a short excerpt from an article in the New York Times...
But in Detroit, the tours go on, in an unofficial capacity. One afternoon at the ruins of the 3.5-million-square-foot Packard Plant, I ran into a family from Paris. The daughter said she read about the building in Lonely Planet; her father had a camcorder hanging around his neck. Another time, while conducting my own tour for a guest, a group of German college students drove up. When queried as to the appeal of Detroit, one of them gleefully exclaimed, “I came to see the end of the world!”
For much more on the shocking decline of one of America's greatest cities, please see my previous article entitled "Bankrupt, Decaying And Nearly Dead: 24 Facts About The City Of Detroit That Will Shock You".
So are there any areas of the country that are still thriving?
Well, yes, there are a few. In particular, those areas that are sitting on top of energy resources tend to be doing quite well for now.
One example is Texas. In recent years people have been absolutely flocking to the state. There are lots of energy jobs, the cost of living is low and there is no state income tax.
But overall, things are really tough out there. Over the past decade America has lost millions of good jobs to offshoring, advancements in technology and a declining economy.
Last year, the United States had a trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than half a trillion dollars. Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than 8 trillion dollars since 1975.
All of that money could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers. In turn, taxes would have been paid on all of that income which could have helped keep our cities great.
But instead, our politicians have stood idly by as we have lost tens of thousands of businesses and millions of jobs. If you can believe it, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities have closed down permanently in the United States since 2001.
We have allowed our economic infrastructure to be absolutely gutted, and so we should not be surprised that our once proud cities are turning into poverty-stricken hellholes.
And this is just the beginning. The next wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching, and when it strikes unemployment in this country will eventually rise to a level that is more than double what it is now.
When that happens, I wouldn't want to be anywhere near our rotting, decaying cities.
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They aren't the answer.....
Maybe they are the problem..... No. That's just racist............
It might be time to look at other alternatives. For example, Lima, Peru is a hellhole, but on the way up.
There are no perfect places. Every city I have been to (lots) all have had their bad places and are dangerous. But, the author does seem to be right. Our cities continue to get worse, tracking morality...
"Plan B", everyone...
When the shit finally hits the fan, it'll make events like the LA riots and Katrina look like goddamn Girl Scout parades. There's tinder everywhere, and once there's a spark in the right place, it'll all go up in flames.
Yup. Gun and ammo sales were booming long before the Newtown shootings. You have to be able to protect your family when the SHTF.
223 is $1.33 now per round if you buy a 900 round box. .Gov is just buying it all up and driving the price up so no one can afford it. Its still legal, you just won't be able to find it. You would think the ammo producers would have ramped up production by now to meet the increased demand.
At that price the CIA will start smuggling it into the country from the overseas distribution centers.
Obummer may sign an exec order banning any ammo, clip or other gun stuff importation very soon. kiss the cheap Russki ammo goodbye. The plan has always been to go after ammo.
Yep,and the brass ammo(Yugo) etc are reloadable AND are for combat as opposed to the Laquer stuff for sport shooting.Whats left is commanding more of a premium,esp 7.62x39.
I'm about ready to get something in 7.62 x 54R just because that's the only ammo I can find for any kind of decent price.
Actually look at 5.45.x39 as well.
If you want a REAL battle rifle, pick up a Garand or a Noreen firearms BN-36 in 30-06. Why? Because 308 is for pussies. (It's also well over a dollar a round so fuck that too)
Ahem. My all USGI M14SA begs to differ. Damn thing'll make a real man out of anyone who tries to actually carry that pig for any amount of time. . . (if you don't wreck your back first, that is).
=]
I do love the Garand though. If I still lived in a commie state - I'd build up an 18" tanker.
I'm in the middle of a 14.5" middy AR build right now. Gonna have to figure out I'm going to feed it though. . .
At least the M14 (or any M1A) can be used as a club when the ammo runs out. Try hitting someone with the stock of an AR. Then be prepared to run.
Yeah - I'm thinking of getting a Sully stock for the AR if the LOP works out.
Fuck that. Then I'll buy my own press and start making my own 5.56 ammo.
Good idea but watch out they don't try and come after you for 'terrerismmmmmmmmmm' and taking American ammo makers jobs.
Primers are not in stock any where.
Mil 5.56 and 7.62 brass that was selling for selling for $1-2 a pound in ton lots is now about $6 a pound. I let everyone come up here to shoot, price is I keep all the brass. ;)
A ban on, or increased taxes on imported ammo is what I've been expecting. Some of it is still cheap. The Russian 5.45x39 is around $225 per 1080rd tin. I can shoot 4-5rds from my AK74 for the same price as 1rd from my AR. It's a pretty easy choice.
I bought a 1k rnd box of M193 for about $350 just prior to Newtown. Now I feel like even opening the damn thing would be like breaking the seal on a Monster Box.
The price on everything else right now is f'n insane too - even 22LR. I've stopped even pricing .308Win.
I almost cried when I had to sell my M1 a few years ago to pay bills ... but it did force me to consolidate on a few rounds.
I regret getting rid of every single gun I've ever sold.
Over the past three months I've been picking up quantity of .308/7.62x51 locally on Armslist.com for $0.85 - $1.10/rnd. Still a lot of cash hungry ammo sellers, and there's nothing more American than exchanging FRNs for ammo at a Starbucks...
Four years ago I bought a couple cases of South African .308 Brass/nonmagnetic ammo/Berdan and I didn't even have a rifle to shoot it. I still don't have a rifle. It went up more than gold.
Damned speculators!
i SPECULATED IN OTHER STUFF THAT i NEVER BOUGHT A RIFLE TO EXPEND IT. Oops, was programming.
I bought four cases of Swiss 7.5x55 match grade military ammo, but was stupid enough to not buy super nice rifles when they were silly cheap.
The ammo boys are at the mercy of the primer boys. 12 billion primers/yr is max output. Reloaders are on the bottom of the pile.
Yep, same thing happened in 2008/2009... All the big boys used all the primers for their own production and the reloaders market dried. (even though everyone cursed the batfe for buying all the primers, yadayadayada).
Ha. The ammo and rifle producers all think they have to pack up and move to TX. No shit. If you owned one of those companies would you expand when you think you are about to move?
"223 is $1.33 now per round if you buy a 900 round box. "
You're not looking in the right place:
http://www.gunbot.net/
Prvi Partizan Ammunition 5.56x45mm M193 55 Grain Full Metal Jacket Box of 20
Selling for $10.99/box.
Goddamn - that still makes my ass hurt!
paper trail
I had a site on bookmarks that scoured the net for the best deals and found that it worked very well. I will try to find it in my mess and will post it either here or as OT on another later thread.
Double post.
Party on Wayne ;)
McMolotov - For a young cat you make some very good points. Funny stuff along the way as well.
Keep it up I really enjoy your line of thought.
Who needs an economy? Who needs reality? We have PRINTED prosperity now?
Why do I always have to go to CNBC for the good news?
Because they are "First in Bullshit, Worldwide!"
Because retards like to watch TV and Hollywood's shit. If you watch - you support the ****ing of America and you are a dumba*s serf.
CNBC is all "good news" because they've cornered the boiler room market ,, that's what they play on the TV in those places to give some background noise to their outbound calls and keep their people upbeat.
Liberalism Happened.
Yes, and Keynesianism. Too many people worship at the altar of Paul Krugman and Ben Bernanke. And their excuse when things continue to get worse? We didn't print enough!! If only we had printed MOAR everything would have been fine!
Why do we pay taxes, if the government can just print prosperity?
There are a few dangerous gangs operating out of the Univeristy of Chicago. Please use caution when approaching. One of them is highly dangerous and will convince you that markets are efficient...
OT: Just a heads up for a free read of an excerpt from David Stockman's new book, "The Great Deformation...". Chapter 17 can be found at http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/corruption-capitalism-america
via Doug Casey. I get a daily email from him (free) and just thought I'd share.
On Topic: American cities are shitholes. Duh! Tell me something I don't already know.
You're a fucking moron if you think offshoring jobs didn't have bipartisan support.
bipartisan. yeah, that. You mean politician, I think.
They ALL need to swing.
The real fuck up was raising minimum wage for the masses while at the same time encouraging offshoring.
Otherwise the ebb and flow of jobs would have been self correcting.
"But instead, our politicians have stood idly by as we have lost tens of thousands of businesses and millions of jobs."
I don't think it was standing idly by that was the problem. A tiny percentage of the U.S. population, e.g., those at the top of the big business pyramid got VERY rich offshoring. They even paid themselves gigantic bonuses with all of the money they saved their companies. The politicians know who butters their bread.
The politicians passed the NAFTA trade bills and the rest of the bs that made it properous to go offshore. Bring on the gallows.
Everything is made in China. How can you compete with an artificially low currency and slave wages. This is how the US slowly became de-industrialized.
And high taxes, don't forget that the Gov always wants taxes, so it forces companies to move.
And high federal regulations like, EPA, OSHA Etc. Wait till Obamacare puts the final nail in our coffin.
Ok, first off, there is a reason America has regulatory agencies like that, to keep products, the enviroment, and most importantly people/laborers safe from the greed of crony capitalists who don't give a shit. I compare the CEOs of today to John D. Rockefeller in the careless greed that exists within them all. They don't give a shit if you die from high amounts of aspartame or fracking fluid!
The real problem is with application and the irrationalism within these agencies. Excessive regulations are putting mom and pop out of business, while big Natural Gas Corps. keep fracking along, destroying the enviroment and water supply. - Comes down to one thing: Crony Capitalism compromising REGULATION.
We need more RATIONAL regulation if anything!
rebel, what congressional seat do you hold? Really? "more rational regulation" and what do we do with the tens of thousands of irrational regulation? Your master the state needs another blow job, in the words of Chuck Shummer, "get busy".
I get it, ok. Governent doesn't give a shit about you right now.
In order to have this rational regulation in the right order, we need a revolution first!
I suggest giving "Ouroboros: The Mechanical Extension of Mankind" a read.
You can find it for free on the Mises site.
You can compete. Pass a law saying your country won't allows imports from any country using slave/child labor. China would be fucked.
Actually at this point, if China stopped sending us stuff, WE would be fucked. Even my damn fishing rod is made in China. We just don't manufacture most of the products we use anymore. We've become dependent on imports, most of those US companies simply don't exist.
Bring it. NEEDS is the engine of creativity and entrepreneurship. It would create MASSIVE growth in businesses and jobs all across the US...
Well, "socialist" Germany exports more than the US, and has better-paid workers and stronger unions. Maybe it's because Germans have an ounce of true economic patriotism. Americans just want to buy mountains of cheap shit on credit, and they don't like them pesky unions. It's a massive race to the bottom not just economically, but socioculturally. Mission accomplished, dickheads.
Your socialist Europe has 50% of of the Worlds social entitlement spending and only 7% of the Worlds population. Good luck keeping that dream alive. Check your facts, Germany does not export more than the US. Besides you guys are the puppets of our Fed who continues to bail out your banks, you should know that. And good luck getting your barbarous relics returned, dickheads.
Kicked his ass through the uprights and out of the stadium.
Yep, we fought a war to end slavery and NAFTA legalized it.
Let Ross have the first pull.
Reminds me of the Flaming Lips song, "The W.A.N.D.":
"Why can't they see that's not power that's greed to just want more and more?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj5r8fB8W3M
I've always thought of this as the unofficial theme song for ZH. We've got the power now, motherfuckers, it's where it belongs.
Stood idly by my ass!! They consciously created a business environment that nobody in their right mind would put up with if they had an alternative. Anybody that has been through an OSHA inspection, or an EPA inspection, or a work comp inspection, or had to deal with unions or the IRS, knows what I am talking about.
We were forced to buy new harnesses for our fork truck operators because the warning labels were worn and difficult to read. Nothing wrong with the harnesses. Thanks OSHA.
I WANT TO KNOW THE TRAITOR'S NAME HERE WHO WORKS FOR OSHA AND IS GIVING THIS A MINUS ONE.... SHOW YOURSELF... you piece of shit.
Is it really that hard to put a new label on?
#ExessiveRegulation?
So what you are saying is that business would be better if the government allowed you to endanger employees and the environment. Safety first!(as long as it doesn't cost anything). And those fucks won't let you pay an adult $4 an hour. Bastards! GO TO CHINA AND DON'T COME BACK!
maybe if the federal .gov didn't spend money like little children and replace it with worthless fiat, our money would have more purchasing power and we wouldn't have to clamor for minimum wage increases
They were taking advantage of labor arbitrage due to the over-value of the US dollar courtesy of reserve currency status. The US after WW2 was the manufacturing place to be. We had developed technology in WW2 that was the envy of the world. Now thanks to Triffin Dilemma, as crappy as the dollar is, it is still overvalued in world trade. As countries cut loose from the Bernank/Obama screw job, we'll get more competitive on labor rates even as our standard of living collapses.
+100000000
Best comment Ive read in quite awhile........
We were also the only civilized Country that hadn't been bombed to mulch.
the left is reducing us to mulch, without many bombs. They call that stimulative.
Still buying the left/right diversion, are you? NAFTA was pappa bush's handywork, signed by Clinton. Its much better to have citizens blaming each other instead of the government. Makes it easier to give the people the shaft while the politicians get rich.
That's naive, of course there is a left/right difference in ideology. What there isn't, is a difference between the Democrats/Republicans. 100% of one team and 80% of the other are both big Govt. statists.
The US has been transitioning into third world economics and demographics, a banana republic cesspool. Good luck.
Sad, and yet droning a good portion of the world is still affordable.
Most people don't get this, but the point of the entire "drone" thing going on now is largely to save money. Just like we've seen in the industry, we are now seeing the beginning of robotization of the military.
Also drones don't have feelings. They will slaughter anyone they are ordered to. Kids. Pregnant women. Everyone.
How is that different than the LAPD or DHS?
pittsburgh was totally decaying up until about 2000, since then the huge influx of college money and healthcare money has really started to revamp things quickly. Its sad that it won't last and the news keeps telling us we are one of the greatest places to live, all the new people who move in quickly take up the bandwagon of how great pittsburgh is. Gotta love the johnny come latelys
pitt was "ketching up"
Seig Hienz! Nice play on words. Milestones
Its all great until the college loan payment needs to be made. When you got the $200,000 education, that only pays you $30k/year if you are lucky. Our federal government spends almost 4 trillion a year. Add on all of the states and their spending and spending is enourmous. How come no one ever asks about government waste? The answer is lets never get rid of the waste, its always lets just spend more and tax more (or print more)!
Pittsburgh had the balls to kick the drifters and black beggars off the streets.
The terrain of Pittsburgh also makes it hard for the ghetto to expand. kind of hard for Jerome to walk over to pick up Tyrone to tag team Miesha when there is a mountain in the way.
The Hill district is still a rotting hell hole. I remember the bus used to not have straight through service on Sunday and you'd have to get off in The Hill and walk to a different stop to pick up another bus. We learned to not try and go anywhere on Sunday.
I walked with my friend past a park where at least twenty black kids were playing football. Every single one of them stopped playing and moved to the nearby fence to stare at us. It was like we were aliens. I think some college kid with rich NY parents got mugged and then they started the pass through service seven days of the week. It was also fun when you entered the Hill and picked up two police escorts until the bus made it through.
You're not supposed to notice the color of crime and social decay. Michael Snyder writes an entire article on America's race problem, and doesn't dare to say the word.
.
when there is a mountain in the way.
City stepz, bitchez!
Only 403 stairs to climb from the flats to Arlington Heights! Used to run up and down those all the time.
Thank god we built console energy center to stimulate that area sarc/off. Oh and the casino is def an economic boost. I've grown up here and remember what it was like driving down butler street in the 90's and my dad telling me it was an up and coming hood, only took another 20 years and thats only because some of the people who got jobs at the new childrens hospital decided to live in the area. Once higher ed pops pitt will go back to being a commuter school, Ai will go out of biz along with some of the others. Then healthcare will shrink and that shineing becon of truth justic and the american way UPMC will fall from its state sanctioned monoplistic perch. Oh and not to mention the city is still offically bankrupt and on the state dole, and the port authority and the city school system...... but at least we've got some new fancy places to eat that'll bail once the shit hits the fan and snobby corporate types moving into Lville
ha and not to mention when uncle warren starts cutting staff at heinz......
I recently spent about 5 years in Pittsburgh. Mount Washington wasn't too bad. Lawrenceville was sorta OK. No avoiding the thugs coming in from Garfield, The Hill, Mt. Oliver, etc. Neb-shits everywhere, n'at. PAT's 86A/86B/91A bus rides were...stimulating.
I walked around downtown at night all the time, though, and no one ever messed with me so I'll give the Burgh that. Too many Duquesne, Point Park, and Art Institute students milling about to put up with troublemakers downtown.
Pgh is probably doing better than most, but I think I'll stay in my cornfield.
Pittsburgh is nirvana compared to Philly. Compared to the cities mentioned in the artcle - Pitts is heaven.
And they are all "Blue" cities.
Yeah but sorry to say that republicans are just watered down liberals.
What city isn't "Blue"? The productive members of society live outside the city limits(unless they are incredibly wealthy). The degenerates live in the cities. The degenerates live off the government, and the Dems are happy to keep handing out freebies for votes.
No I think you'll find they are all Black cities. Portland and Pittsburgh are doing fine.
Pittsburgh has a lot of blacks. They are just compartmentalized.
Too many kids of very wealthy people go to Carnegie Mellon for blacks to even think of wandering around Shadyside and Squirrel Hill. Also helps that Squirrel Hill is filled with Jews.
not BLUE not RED not Republican NOT Democrat.
they are all COLLECTIVIST.
why cannot we be American with a constitution?
Dumb people should stop fucking.
Or at least not incentivised. Have another kid? Here, have more money for food, rent, transportation, prescriptions, healthcare, etc...
Or, Maybe make sterilization a requirement for government handouts.
Sterilization? Ugh. Come on.
Just don't feed them with EBT - lower the benefits.
I love going into Walmart and see the EBT being used. Then they buy their LIQUOR with $100 bills.
FORWARD.
OBAMAJUICE!
that's eugenics and very globalist of you....
If you want more children pay for their food, clothing medicine and school. I have no problem with your children as long as I'm not paying for them.
Amen. End the Cash for Bastards program, and take a huge load off the schools, prisons, and social infrastructure.
Every despotic empire needs cannon fodder.
and posting on message boards.
What happened? You ran out of energy and have had to import it via a trade deficit since 1970 or so. Your military enforced said trade deficit for 40 years to extend and pretend America's phony empire. This artifical propping up of the dollar led to outsourcing of most manufacturing jobs and a gutting of the economy. You have a monetary system that requires perpetual exponential growth to funtion, in a real economy that must in fact contract due to shrinking energy supply. You deregulated your financial sector and allowed parasites to take over your government.
And then, to add insult to injury, you blame the little people collecting welfare for most of this, as supposedly, "government spending its out of control", when in fact, on a Shadowstats-adjusted basis it's being going down continuously since 1971 when the US hit Peak Oil. On a percentage-of-GDP basis, governement spending remained constant at 35% for 30 years up to 2008, after whcih it jumped to 43% to prevent a total implosion, which it's maintained since.
Yes - reduce size of government by 1/2. No more American being world's policemen.
If countries want to go to war and invade their neighbors (IRAQ KUWAIT) or want to ethic cleanse their neighbors (Bosnia, Kosovo), let them. Why do we care if a couple of million of foreigners die?
Reduce the size of government, ha. Cut down on bridges, hiways, schools, hospitals. but spend unlimited amounts on the latest weapons and sending your kids to foreign countries to kill brown people.
You have a reading comprehension problem. Stop the stupid defense spending too. Is that clear enough for you?
Peaceful areas are usually where conflict and wars have led to some kind of homogenization of culture, religion and race. Usually.
But we're not allowed to talk about that, much less admit it.
Fantastic post! Spot on and avoids the usual left-right cesspool and heads straight to the issue.
Keep them coming!
pods
Nothing a little CTRL-P couldn't fix.
[dig my hotkey]
What a joke!
The only "great city" in America is New York.
All the others are shite. Great my ass!
In my opinion the greatest city in the US is Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico. Only because of its name.
Then it may grieve you to know that the New Mexico town was named in honor of the television game show.
Alas.
What about Wheel of Fortune, Idaho, and The Gong Show, Minnesota?
The welfare state is killing all of the developed countries.
Unwinding the welfare state would loose the starving mobs.
Ergo, the welfare state will continue until central governments in the "advanced" economies collapse.
there's always another election to win, you know. so we'll keep the goodies flowing - temporarily of course - and then we'll balance the budget once times are better. rinse, repeat.
Or there is a 'great' war and the starving mobs are conscripted to die to preserve the status quo..
What happened was more regulation, more subsidies, and an activist Fed. And lots of asinine wars.
According to Paul Craig Roberts on King World News, regulations have been slashed.
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/24_Former_US_Treasury_Official_-_Fed_Desperate_To_Stop_Collapse.html
I don't see any of those as the reason(s) for moral decay, unless you want to argue that the susidies encouraged a degraded lifestyle. Look at any of these cities. They're populated with the dregs of society. Get rid of the degenerates, and they would thrive.
The moral decay came courtesy of the campaigns to create more dependant peoples. Destroy marriage with no-fault divorce. Destroy morals with Hollywood rot and sexualization. Now 75% of black, 50% of hispanic, and 25% of white kids are out-of-wedlock. Those are kids that won't even know who they daddy is! Try building a prosperous society on that foundation! Since LBJ's Great Society, Democrats have created the conditions to hook people on government dependency and eviscerate the middle class. The effort is insidious and fully intentional. Democrats just protecting/expanding their plantation. The new slaves are the dwindling middle class. Massa says back to work....
You have articulated the social decay well. The "it takes a village" syndome has taken over and America has never looked back to what it was prior to LBJ. Add open borders immigration, racial preferences, vast demographic changes and we are on an unreversable path to decay.
What we have done to ourselves - Is it accidental or intentional?
Think those kids belong to the 80% of the population that has SEVEN FUCKING PERCENT of the national wealth to split between themselves...?
I think that probably has more to do with not being able to build a prosperous nation than whatever your ideal family life is imagined as.
The moral decay is a result of loss of faith in socity due to the juxtaposition of "I LIVE IN THE GREATEST FUCKING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD" against their reality of "I'm poor, with very little opportunity to advance in a racist/classist society, the cops are itching to add me to the prison industrial complex, I may stand a chance if I sacrifice any sense of self identity and join the murder squads to roam the earth killing other disparate people for their natural resources to be delivered to my corporate overlords".
So let's give them money for education, housing, health care, welfare, child care, OH WAIT WE DID.
Or we could try giving them jobs and hope but that would be hard.
You really fail to grasp the severity of the problem. Not to mention the emotional/psychological effects of poverty and discrimination. OH WAIT YOUR PROBABLY WHITE.
Let's see... money for education: the first round was the GI Bill, which most minorities were fucked out of because either schools didn't take them, or the gov't just said fuck you.
Housing... banks played little games like "red lining", sticking minorities into groups and ensuring they couldn't get loans for home improvements or refinancing. And this is of course before those practices were exposed and they started loading minorities up with sub-prime loans HOORAY FOR HOUSING HELP! And most recently, wells fargo found to be discriminating again.... hmmmm I think I'm starting to see a trend here...
Try not being the privileged one for once, you may find things aren't quite as easy as you believe them to be.
Try not buying into the left wing racsist facist policies that have existed since 1965, dedicated toward keeping minorties on the plantation.
They have been successful.
So you are not white ? Get over it and get to feckin work making something out of yourself. Affirmatice Action has had innumeral benefits for non white people who were serious about their education and careers.
Stop with the privelege bullshit, that you probaly learned while on scholarship at UC Berkeley or some place similar.
you seem to think that the entire system is rigged against minorities...it's not.....upward mobility is real...it's not hard to get into a good state college or to get fin aid what with all the federal grants that are out there...and the problem is not so simple as "oh, we have wealth disparity bc of white privilege" or "oh, we have wealth disparity bc of lazy, degenerate minorities"...not everyone is racist...is the world fair? no, but it never will be no matter how much you moralize about it
No worries child. Soon enough the Hispanics will run the show, and then we'll see how much they value equal opportunity, fairness, diversity and all the rest.
One of the LAST things I'd want to be in modern American is a white male of a middle to lower class parents (or parent as more apros). They are f-cked as the upper class whites sacrifice them to the diversity gods in the belief their kids will still retain power once the minorities voting numbers tip the scales enough. Maybe the only thing worse would be an African-American male 10-29 yrs old from Section 8 housing with only una madre and no pappi and a choice of Gang A, B or prison for a stupid drug charge.
You're right. We need an alternative to the family model. The real reason why people aren't waiting till marriage to raise childern is because of more appreciation towards sex, and less towards reglious "morals". I see this as somewhat of a good thing, because the majority now doesn't give a shit about "fearing god!" Good! Fuck off with the brainwashing.
Though, growing up unconnected, without the other parent, and on a low income is a shitty childhood.
If only our government was compassionate and willing to provide a proper societical system of forstering our childern ... oh wait, our government actually hates us because they are one with the crony capitalists.
We already are in hell.
We already have an alternative to the family model. It's been in operation since 1965. It's "a proper societal system of fostering our children" and it is, as you requested, run by the government. In case you didn't notice, it's not working as well as the Family Model did.
Nature and society provided a model that worked for several millenia--the family model. Critical theorists thought they could improve on that. "Smash the patriarchy!" "End the oppression of the home!" They cried. Now we have less families and less homes, and more dependency and societal decay. Thanks progressives. Now fuck off.
I completely agree and understand that today's foster system is shit. Failed families and bad foster systems create both neurosis and pychosis in many people. Hence why I made the comment: "If only our government was compassionate and willing to provide a proper societical system of forstering our childern ... oh wait, our government actually hates us because they are one with the crony capitalists."
We will eventually have a good foster system once compassionate rationalists make up the majority of government.
Youtube: Steven Crowder "Detroit in Ruins" is simply "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" to all my liberal relatives, choosing to blame it on the "greedy leverage buy-out financiers of the 1980's".
Ummm El Centro Ca has always been a hellhole.
I just got two gold eagles. That's all I could afford. It is beginning to sound like they won't be any good for barter. I might just get murdered for them instead. I could have just left the money in the bank so the govt. could take it and use it to put handicap accessible curbs in a hell hole somehwere. They are doing those all over the small town I live in this week. We don't have many sidewalks though, so the hoverrounds still can't get anywhere.
They are ripping up every street corner up in the industrial town of Texas City. They are blowing millions of dollars putting wheel chair ramps on all the street corners where nobody walks and through the parts of the city that are basically crack houses. I just shake my head and roll on. Welcome to Obamaville.
we have ramps w/o sidewalks
The Author didn't mention Alexandria, Reston, Chantilly, Falls Church, Manhattan, or the Hamptons for some reason. Oh, wait. Those places live off of the government.
In 1986 Chantilly was a rural cross roads with a gas station at the intersection. Now its part of the Washintonian sprall. How is that for a Gov't that continues to expand allways consuming and always hungary for more.
The last time I was in Detroit was 1986. Went to a Tiger's baseball game with a date. We sat in our seats after the game ended and were enjoying the view and sunshine. Next, a group of minorities sweeping the stadium began to repeatdly yell at use "Go back the suburbs where your belong!" Never been back.
Let them have their hell holes.
Oh, it's awesome now. I had to go to Detroit for a trade show at a convention center attached to one of the casinos.
There were police stationed at the doors on the inside. They were there telling you not to go outside after dark. If you wished to venture out they said that you would not be protected and you would be walking around at your own risk.
I'm surprised the cops weren't handing out guns to anyone walking out the door.
"Hello sir, welcome to the MGM Grand. Here is your room key, complimentary water, and AR-15. We hope you enjoy your stay in Downtown Detroit."
Sounds like Johannesburg, Harare, Nairobi, Montego Bay, Dominican Republic, etc...
There is a reason the Federation of Planets has the Prime Directive: Whenever advanced and primitive cultures or otherwise incompatible cultures mix, trouble follows.
Trouble happens when primitive cultures are 'imported' and not assimilated, or when an advanced cultures colonizes a more primitive one. If you add things like substance abuse and promiscuity to the mix, you have disaster brewing. The incompatible cultures need to resolve their tension differences. If this cannot be done in a timely manner or they cannot assimilate, they must separate, to prevent the stronger from destroying the weaker.
The strong one will not eliminate the weaker one when its social code (religion) prevents it from doing so. In the case of humans on planet earth, this got sometimes resolved by having the religious Primate of a group or tribe declares that "God wills it." Such examples of religious and ethnic 'cleansing' i.e. destruction is not a modern phenomenon. Their renowned religious book called the Bible, records such acts thousands of years earlier, where their religious Primate or prophet simply invoked the Will of their Divine Deity as granting a tribal group a certain territory -- in exchange for perpetual worship. "God said unto... the land of ... shall be yours". All bloodshed was thus 'divinely sanctioned' and any natural guilt was washed away in a religious and social cleansing ritual.
These things are not new to Earth. But they are examples of why the Prime Directive exists. This Directive can also be useful in avoiding areas of a planet (Earth!) that have incompatible cultures. Unfortunately this is easier said than done, when an abundance of valuable natural resources are found in a 'primitive' area.
This is wonderfully depicted as a metaphor in the movie Avatar.
Kirk out.
looks like the only people in detroit hiring are the professional crime gangs and local mafia.
Q.Q
and now you tell us to buy gold to be safe??? the least you want to carry around in this areas is large amounts of gold LOL omg
Nothing lasts forever.