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Guest Post: More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey & Decay
Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform
More Than 30 Blocks Of Grey & Decay
It happened again yesterday morning. There was an accident on the Schuykill Expressway so I had the pleasure of navigating through the 30 Blocks of Squalor, again. After having made at least 25 posts about the 30 Blocks of Squalor over the years, I keep thinking I’ve run out of things to say. But it seems to be a never ending treasure trove of insights about our society and the people who live in this country. It was a particularly grey day in Philadelphia with a dreary overcast and intermittent rain. It seemed fitting for this trek through the slowly decaying landscape leading to my workplace in West Philly. I’ve talked previously about the stretch of highway leading to the 30 Blocks of Squalor. It’s called West Chester Pike (Route 3) and it cuts through Delaware County where I grew up. It cuts through Havertown, Haverford, Drexel Hill, and Upper Darby and eventually spits you out at 69th Street, where I’ve previously detailed the flash mob of savages rampaging through the Sears stealing everything in sight (all caught on surveillance cameras to be shown on a future reality TV show). In a shocking turn of events, Sears decided to later close this retail establishment.
The 30 minute excursion along West Chester Pike and then the 30 Blocks of Squalor (Chestnut St from 69th St to 39th St) is like traveling through Dante’s nine circles of hell. Every mile leads you deeper and deeper into the abyss. My observations along this route are of a country in a slow methodical steady decline that has been underway for decades and shows no signs of abating.
The neighborhoods and towns along West Chester Pike were occupied by the rising middle class during the 1950?s, 60?s and 70?s. These towns were where blue collar middle class families built a life and raised their families. The fathers worked in factories, refineries, schools, power plants and thousands of other productive enterprises. Americans made stuff back then. Most wives stayed home and raised the three or four children in the small brick row homes or small detached singles that dotted the landscape. These neighborhoods were entirely white and most were church going. Most of the adults had not graduated college, but they were still able to move up the economic ladder through hard work, saving, and living within their means. Their children were guaranteed an even better life if they studied hard, went to college, and got an office job as an accountant, engineer, marketing executive, or in some other promising profession.
This progression began to transform into regression in the 1980s and the slow steady descent has picked up speed. There is now a grey pallor that seems to engulf this once thriving corridor. The houses that were built in the 1950s and 1960s and kept up by middle class families that took pride in their neighborhoods have been deteriorating for years. The homes are in disrepair. The bricks have grown dingy from years of pollution buildup and lack of power washing. Porches and awnings are sagging. The woodwork hasn’t seen a paint brush since the 1970s. Trash is strewn in the streets. Gardens are no longer tended to. Lawns are overgrown with weeds. The inhabitants of these neighborhoods either don’t care or don’t have the financial wherewithal to maintain their homes. On the current trajectory, these once proud neighborhoods will eventually resemble the 30 Blocks of Squalor.
I believe a country and a community will have a lot of what it values most. Our country has a lot of debt, a lot of vehicles, a lot of bombs, a lot of psychotic criminals running our economic and political systems and a lot of willfully ignorant drones – disguised as citizens. As I drove along West Chester Pike I tried to observe what it is we value today. This route is inundated with automobile repair shops, gas stations and auto dealerships. We cannot live without our cars. I can say without a doubt that I saw not one manufacturing facility along this entire route, but if you want your Japanese car fixed, detailed, or waxed, you’ve hit the jackpot.
We value our cars, purchased with debt or leased, but the roads are crumbling, filled with potholes, traffic lights aren’t timed, and the small towns are too bankrupt to do anything about it. The second most important thing to the zombies that inhabit this wasteland is mass quantities of food. You’ve got donut shops, fast food joints, pizza places, Chinese restaurants, Irish pubs every two blocks, and coffee houses on a mind numbing scale. It is easy to see why we’re the most obese people on earth. There are no farmers markets, produce stands, or even grocery stores. But there are at least six beer distributors. And of course there is one L.A. Fitness Center for the ten people out of ten thousand who want to keep in shape. I expect to see a Space Available sign in front of this place in the not too distant future.
Besides the general decay of the commercial properties, you can’t miss the fact that every block has at least one vacant commercial property. There are far more For Sale, Space Available, For Rent, and Leasing signs dotting the barren wasteland than there are wedding rings on fingers in West Philly. The vacant buildings are antiquated relics from the 1960s. It’s as if time stopped at the end of the 1970s and no one has invested a dime in this stretch of highway in 30 years. It’s like “The Land that Time Forgot”.
The only new buildings along this stretch of highway further emphasize what is seemingly important to our society. There are numerous architecturally grand bank branches dominating this highway. There is a beautiful new building housing the Social Security Administration for this area. This is where the obese, depressed and unemployable flock to sign up for the SSDI gravy train. And lastly there are a few medical facilities that are top notch. It seems that banks, government and medicine are doing just fine. But what do they produce?
I think this is a reflection of why this area has deteriorated over time. Industries that made things left this area and left this country. Small businesses were overwhelmed by mega-corporations who cared only about next quarter earnings. They met these earnings targets, set by Wall Street, by shipping the good paying blue collar jobs that supported these communities overseas. The middle class families living here saw their wages stagnate or decline. Wives were forced into the workforce to just keep their households afloat financially. The family unit suffered, with children raised by strangers or left to fend for themselves.
This is where the Wall Street maggots stepped in and sold these middle class families on the illusion of faux wealth built on a pyramid of credit card debt, auto loans, and mortgage debt. Who got wealthy? Not the families living in these fading neighborhoods. The bankers got rich and continue to flaunt their wealth by paying themselves obscene levels of compensation, buying off politicians, gutting our economy and opening fancy new outlets. An economy built upon manufacturing, production, and value added work results in rising wages and a thriving community. An economy built upon debt attracts consumer consumption outlets that add no value and result in declining wages, government dependency and a dying community.
These once thriving communities have rapidly aged. As the jobs and wages dried up, these communities have become dependent on the government to provide. Social Security payments are now a primary income source for many. The government controlled healthcare industry is thriving as Medicare and Medicaid pay for an increasing proportion of the care in these neighborhoods. After decades of pretending that debt could replace wages and savings, these communities are collapsing due to lack of income, decent paying jobs, capital investment, and common sense. West Chester Pike is well on its way to becoming a future 30 Blocks of Squalor.
Once you pass through the 69th Street death camp which resembles a scene from Night of the Living Dead, you spill out onto the 30 Blocks of Squalor.
This is where the circle of hell began. The rotting carcasses that pass for homes on this stretch of squalor were once occupied by the white families that moved to Delaware County along West Chester Pike in the 1950s and 1960s. It is now 90% black and 10% Hispanic. The real unemployment rate exceeds 50%, murder is the number one industry, with drugs a close second.
As you drive down the 30 Blocks of Squalor you meet the ghost of Squalor future for West Chester Pike. The population along this corridor is ignorant, dependent, and represents the dregs of our society. There is virtually no legal commerce along the squalor. The Asians, Koreans, and whites that attempted to open stores have all been shot down in cold blood. The once proud homes are in shambles. Bags of garbage dot the landscape. Most of the people who live here are parasites on society. Personal responsibility, work ethic, education and marriage are unknown concepts in this community. Even though more than 50% of the students in West Philly drop out of high school and the SAT scores of West Philly High students are lower than whale shit, the bankrupt school district spent $70 million to build a new high school/prison to babysit derelicts and future prison inmates. The windows do not have steel bars yet, as the architect was smart to put all windows at least eight feet above street level.
The Chestnut Plaza truly represents what is important to this community. This Squalor Center, as opposed to Power Center, includes a video porn store, cash checking/payday loan outlet, smoke shop, donut shop, Laundromat, and liquor store. No need for a wedding ring store or resume writing service. Evidently this community values gorging themselves on fast food, getting high, getting drunk, jerking off to porno, and then having their sheets washed. They wouldn’t want to invest a few hundred dollars of their welfare payments on a washer and dryer, when they can spend it on the Direct TV NBA package. They utilize their 8th grade level education to get payday loans from the check cashing store at 40% interest.
Our entire society is in a downward social and economic spiral. We are just at different levels of decay (Dante’s circles of hell). At the current pace it won’t be long before I’m writing about the 50 States of Squalor. It is virtually impossible to reverse a decline that has been underway for the last three decades. We sold our souls to Wall Street and chose a debt financed illusion of wealth over productive savings and investment which would have led to real wealth. Our choices are reflected in the continued deterioration and decay along West Chester Pike and the squalor that is West Philly. Grey and decay will carry the day.
The words on the Statue of Liberty should be revised from, ”Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, to “we have become your indebted, materialistic, obese, aging masses yearning for the government to protect and sustain us as our once great nation decays.”
As a nation, we have chosen this path. We made the choices and now we will suffer the consequences.
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I have many family in Germany and Austria. They have no intention of returning to visit the US every again after an "encounter" in NY with some 'urban youth'
Glad to hear it!
low entropy to high entropy...
' We sold our souls to Wall Street ' wasn't Wall St. bankrupt in 2008 ? then, let's take our souls back from Wall St. declare them bankrupt, wipe them out instead of wiping out the citizens & start over. yes, wipe them out & the government can do it if the government wants to; who is the government ? is it the citizens or the banks ? we're going into revolution; this isn't going to end well for one of us... it's them or us. it's the real people or the banks.
“The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is The People vs. The Banks.” - Lord Acton, Historian, 1834 - 1902 -
You sold (voted) yourslves a political "free" lunch too...
Who again voted for bank bailouts, and who for offshoring well paying jobs?
The elected officials you voted in to give you (by any means necessary) the free lunch, that's who. Turns out you can't have both but good luck unwinding that deal - Greece is about to slide back to the stone age and people still don't want to give up their perks.
soon it wont even be worth it to strip the copper out of these ghettos.
http://fiatflaws.blogspot.com/
Wow! Too much truthiness!!
The American post-war middle class was an historical abberation largely designed to be used as an ideological weapon against the Communism and the Soviet Union. Now that Communism has been discredited, the oligarchy of the West can return us to a more natural state of affairs, such as the iron heel of neo-feudalism under the impending New World Order.
And as for America, we have already imported 40 million 3rd world peasants from Mexico and Central America. They are used to living barefoot in the streets, being beheaded randomly, in a failed Cartel State. To them, a used car and fast food along with weekly trips to Wal-Mart is the land of milk and honey. Our new illegal alien brothers and sisters are well adapted to life in post-middle class and post-constitutional America.
They'll live better and have more rights than they ever could have enjoyed in Mexico. The only people that lose out are the children and grand children of the American Boomers. The Boomers enjoyed lives of opulent luxury and excess to such an extent that they have taken the most powerful, wealthy, and internationally respected nation in human history and driven it straight off a cliff over the course of a single generation. Now we are a nation in obvious decline, and the children and grand children of the Boomers have nothing to look forward to except increased taxes and transfer payments from young to old as even now, in their old age, the Boomers demand their frail and diseased bodies be supported by the lifeblood of the youth via Obamacare and its system of wealth redistribution (from young healthy people to sick old people).
Have you ever financed anything? Then you are part of the problem.
Yeah, I know, you always saved up and bought with cash, etc.
The "Boomers" surely share in the blame, as does the "greatest generation" and the X,Y, and Zers. What about the generation that put Wilson in power? Started the FED? What about THEIR parents? Didn't they instill values in their kids that they should not trust a banker to issue the public money?
Do you see where I am going here?
A line from the movie of my avatar that I particularly like sums up our problems well:
"But again, truth be told, if you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror."
We all played our part in this and until we all realize that WE are to blame, things will continue down this horrid path.
pods
If you don't want to go with the flow when you become an "adult" your life is harder. When you come into the world everything is already in motion and it takes generations to even get the clue that there is a problem and things might need to be changed. This clue comes faster to some more than others and many have a bigger stake in things staying like they are until they are the ones bankrupt. We will all be bankrupt soon and then there will be change.
I agree. I was in my early 30's when I started to figure out things. Went through hell dealing with it too.
Almost like the Matrix where they say they will not free a mind over a certain age because it is too difficult.
When your whole life is based on a lie, it is incredibly difficult to admit that, nevermind change. So all the scapegoats come out.
The old, young, blacks, whites, dems, reps.
Sounds familiar eh?
pods
habits re-create an individual's reality - every day one wakes up, re-minds themselves who "they are" and proceeds accordingly. . .
rinse repeat, multiply by billions.
but every so often, someone trips over their cord, and has to deal with the consequences of being un-plugged. . .
What's this we shit?
Do you have a mouse in your pocket?
No, the WE means me, you and almost every single person reading this.
Anyone who has bought on credit has blood on their hands. The expansion of the money supply faster than production of goods produces inflation.
Inflation hits the poorest the hardest. Why do you think that housewives had to go into the labor force? Equality? No, it was to try and maintain the standard of living that was being eroded by inflation. this started to accelerate after we went full fiat in 71.
If WE did not purchase anything on credit, this would be a thing of the past. The system would collapse on itself.
Of course, it is easier to blame others.
But to avoid tainting the pure, I will not speak for others.
It is MY fault, because I have purchased on credit.
No doubt there are many traits of racia and social groups/classes, but all of that pales in comparison to what our money system has done.
pods
Thanks for not tainting my pure soul.
I am not freaky enough to taint anything.
Well, unless there is money involved.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tainting
:)
pods
Nobody has any real power in this world until they are in their 40's. And with the Boomers refusing to step aside into their 70's so far (look at Hillary, I bet she runs for president when she's 71), it's much longer than that these days. So, no, none of this is my fault. The only thing I can do is flee this sinking ship before it drags me under with the rest of you.
Well, if you ever admit that it is YOUR fault, it is within YOUR power to right things.
But saying you don't have power, not my fault, etc only reinforces your impotence.
So, Godspeed.
pods
Truer words may not exist.
I always try to remember: Even the walk of a thousand miles begins with one step.
The world is always run by the Old(est) Guard, Hillary is no different than those before her. Only revolutions can insert "youth" at the top and then They become the Old Guard. Once you are at the top you want to stay there, Boomers or whoever.
I'm in my 40's, and have no power to change anything. I work just like any other labour slave. Vote just like any other serf. I keep informed, take action when and how I deem necessary, and still - no power. Maybe you can inform me where I get this magic power that other forty-somethings supposedly have???
The urban centres are cesspools largely because nobody has to do anything. Work, what's that? Many won't take jobs because they are "beneath them"! WTF! Since when is supporting yourself and your family, beneath someone!? Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
But why work when Uncle Sam will buy you food/ ipods, pay your rent, clothe your kids.
Too many people nowadays blame everyone for their predicament, instead of trying to improve their situation, they want pity money. Sorry to say, the pity (money) train has left the rails!!
Sure Wall Street is full of money hungry oligarchs, but when hasn't the top echelon NOT been full of power-hungry feudal lords??? They will eat their own soon enough...
I'm guessing you define power as accumulated fiat, yes?
Ron Paul's running at the age of 76/77 - weird you didn't think to mention him.
but, hey, having read your posts here, on you go sunshine! off to your new white nationstate enclave!
Wow their are alot of racists on ZH.
We didnot import 40mm 3rd world peasents. This country was built by us importing the smartest, hardest working and most entreprenurial people from around the world. From the minute the 1st pilgtims came we started with a stock of people that were willing to work hard and endure misery to have a chance at freedom and a better life.
Hardworking European imigrents helped fuel the industrial revolution. Chinease immigrents Built oir Railroads. Hispanic immigrants to this day do the backbreaking labor that makes the US the breadbasket of the world. And lets not forget all the Indian and Asian entrpreneurs that BUILT Silicon Valley.
In fact we should open our borders to anyone of any color from anynation that is smart and willing to work hard. We should export all of our lazy welfare queens and racist rednecks to the worst parts of Africa.
The illegals can't read or write the dominant language of our nation. They are as illiterate as a donkey. And we have accomodated them by putting everything into the Spanish they are half way literate in, Spanish.
It disgusts me.
I agree, deport all the welfare queen illegals.
Shit, dude, what about all the native-born who can't read or write the dominant language of our nation?
Some of 'em POST HERE DAILY.
Can we deport them off somewhere too?
Mr Roadkill seems to be an example of which you speak. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt regarding typos, but I don't think AnAnonymous would be happy to be called "Chinease."
Wow their are alot of racists on ZH.
____________________________________________
Correction: they are a lot of US citizens on ZH.
Racism is inherent to US citizenism.
That is so un-pc. The truth, it hurts.
Beautifully written story of the real america we are facing today.
It ain't pretty is it, realizing that many parts of the country are on par with third world.
It will get worse as there are more people, less opportunity for education, employment and the potential for upward mobility.
Are there any answers?
Probably, but the minds who may have the capability of coming up with a better way for all may be too immersed in looking for the God particle, inventing new weapons or trying to figure out how to scam the market.
I think the observation of the problem is correct but the diagnosis may be one that fits your previously considered beliefs. Could a problem with the functioning monetary system be more responsible than evil bankers?
Nope!
The problem is the heritability of (low) IQ - .6 to .8
It's here to stay folks!
Detroit = canary for the future.
Even in 1977 - 35 fucking years ago - the writing was on the wall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g09GtnWdBjc
That is one of my favorite themes.
I was born in Detroit in 64 and lived my youth in its hayday, muscle cars, 25¢ a gallon, production lines running 24/7.
Then OPEC, then Japanese imports, then graduating in 82 during the first big job crash for the auto industry.
It's been circling the bowl ever since. Now the city has been abandoned by everyone with the means to do so. Sure, a few business still exist to extract the little remaining value, but basically, the city has bottomed out.
So, do they somehow turn it around, do they tear down all the old rot and go agrarian? Do they slowly kill each other off? Watch Detroit. They are an experiment for the post financial world.
I thought this article was about Detroit 20 years ago. It's easier to count the rings of hell in the D because they're marked--starting at 8 mile.
+1 funny, poignant
(Grew up reading the Det Free Press in those days; loved the "Action Line" column which was discontinued some yrs back now.)
Wait a minute Jim ... are you telling me you actually drove through west Philly?! ... I hope your drive-by-shooting insurance was up to date ...
I drive through West Philly every damn day hoping no one has read this article and sees my Burning Platform bumper sticker. Not likely. The fine citizens of West Philly are too busy getting high and fornicating to be worried about the end of our civilization. Maybe after Obama gives them all free iPads in his 2013 stimulus package they'll be able to follow my ramblings about their community.
How is the area around UPenn doing?
We have our own police force of 140, including a SWAT Team. There are hundreds of surveillance cameras every 100 yards.
How does that sound?
So Burger King is still called Murder King and McDonald,s still called Mc Death?
Certain thinga don,t change. Wharton Alumn 1997.
I"m calling bullshit on that article. these people are responsible for their own fate and the condition of their neighborhoods. who would want to open a business there? How about taking it upon yourself to make your neighborhood a more hospitable place? How about not robbing or killing your local merchants? how about picking up your own crap? How about having some pride and not have 10 kids out of wedlock while gaming the welfare system? how about raising your kids to be respectible and not thugs and murderers? it's not the job of the gov't or the taxpayers to clean up your mess or to support people who are too fucking stupid and lazy to support themselves. A word of advice: get off you lazy fried chicken eating asses and help yourselves.
" How about not robbing or killing your local merchants? how about picking up your own crap? how about raising your own kids not to be thugs and murderers? "
In my experience, many do not fit the above line, just a few.
I live in a third world country. People try and raise their children the best they can. Most do not want children to be thugs, murderers or live in graffitti infested neighborhoods.
If you had a choice between buying food, paying rent or purchasing paint to make it nicer, knowing the 1% will cover it with grafitti again within 24 hours, what do you do?
In Today's America, that's a FALSE CHOICE.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pays your rent.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pasys for your food.
In today's inner-city, the GUGMENT pays all but $5 of your cell phone bill.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pays for all but $10 of your cable TV and Internet Service.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pays for your heat.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pays for your Air Conditioning.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pays you not to work.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pays, and pays, and pays.
In today's inner-city, the GUBMENT pays for your Patron and Crack on your biatches EBT/TANF card.
If you WORK, you are chump in today's inner-city.
Now ask yourself, who do we have to blame for THREE to FOUR GENERATIONS of the entitlement mentality?
"Now ask yourself, who do we have to blame for THREE to FOUR GENERATIONS of the entitlement mentality?"
Aaaahhhh.....the Rockefeller family, the Morgan family, the Koch family, the Mellon family, the Johnson family, the Harriman family .....
Those who have been most entitled, who masterminded the dismantling of the American economy over the past forty-some years, while establishing a Transnational Capitalist Class, more or less.
I keep looking everywhere for all these entitlements, but all I see is all that technology I, and others, created which was offshored along with our jobs, R&D work and investment.
Like the rant. But it's not "your" heat, etc......it's "ya'lls".
Learn to speak 'hood..........
Nice bubble you live in there sir. I am sure that attitude is what will fix everything.
Teach them to be lazy and feed them crap. Then blame them for being lazy and fat.
Because it's the responsibility of an abstract 'society', not the actual parents, to instill values in a child conducive to a healthy life for all. Riiiiiiiiight ....
so if the parents fail and are seen to be faling then do you just cast the child onto the scrap heap, for that is what your society does.
Does that make the society better in the long run?
What, no fix for that.
A funny society you have there, one that plants the seeds of it's own destruction in a haze of bullshit talking points lifted from some tv personalty 5 minute screed no doubt.
Self righteous bullcrap will not help you when the fail reaches the tipping point.
Nice keyboard rant.
Now go to the areas depicted with a bullhorn and repeat that.
Wear Kevlar...and a helmet......make sure the will is up to date.
in 'em every day, if you want I can give you the address for this weekend, but I doubt you have funds to get out of your basement.
Materialism and greed are values that are relentlessly promoted by the corporate media. I don't believe that they are normal conditions of human psyche American or otherwise, but the product of massive non-stop propoganda.
Dear God,
Kindly bring 2Pac and Gangstar back.
Thanks
Hey, Dont forget Notorous big. Old school yes, But Ready to die is one of the finest albums from Timbuktu to Portland Maine...Or Portland Oregon for that matter
YARD SALE USA!
The signs are there for all to see. China scoops the bargains as the Bernank lowers the price to seal the deal. I believe China's purchases are a tell. Think about the what, where, and when of their moves.
global equalising event in progress, fictional nationstate boundaries *dis* appearing right before your very eyes. . .
jim, dude, face it, its the 'hood, been like dat fohevah, aint gonna change....
Read the article. It wasn't always the 'hood. However, the inevitability of 3rd World people creating 3rd World landscapes wherever they go, is not subject to change.
The USSA has wasted trillions ostensibly fighting human nature (the heritability of certain traits), but they will still deny its existence.
great article, but, extremely depressing.
"Evidently this community values gorging themselves on fast food, getting high, getting drunk, jerking off to porno, and then having their sheets washed. They wouldn’t want to invest a few hundred dollars of their welfare payments on a washer and dryer, when they can spend it on the Direct TV NBA package. They utilize their 8th grade level education to get payday loans from the check cashing store at 40% interest..."
~~~
Didn't you get the memo? That's what "Hope & Change" is all about... What you describe is the new 'American Dream'...
"For the first time in my life, I'm proud of our country"
~Michele Obama
Well said. However, don't blame it all on the oligarchy. Who filled out those credit card apps? Who took out HELOCS on their homes? Who decided that keeping up with the Jones' was worth sending mom to work and the kids to the public indoctrination centers? Who long ago promoted and accepted that diversity was somehow better than unity?
Riiiiiggggghhhhttt --- arithmetically challenged dood!
A 4% foreclosure rate in America was responsible for the global economic meltdown.
Is there anyone left in the mindless super-rich who can do simple arithmetic?
One of the worst posts EVER on ZH.
If there is one good thing that came out of the last decade its that we have the newest nicest housing stock in the world. Come to Miami. Everthing is brand new and ultra highend.
Im sorry you are depressed, but this debt bubble will pop and we'll get back to being the greatest country on earth. With a Romney presidency removing burdensome regulations and shrinking government we are set up for a Reagan type revolution. The rebound from this 4 year catastrophe will be EPIC. Of course before that can happen Romney's going to have a rough 1st 2 years fixing everyhimg Commrade O broke
Reagan who took office the National debt was at $800 billion, when he left it was over $2 trillion.
Ever heard of the S+L Crisis, directly caused by Jimmy Carter's 'Bank Reforms"?
YES, WE CAN!!
it's really hard to pick a favourite pressydent to pin everything on. . . just write their name down, do a bit of research, and voila! another one is found to have contributed to the cycle. . .
it's been all puppetry, all the time, for. . . ever? trace the lineage? kennedy outlier? or???
Reagan delegated America to the ponzi criminals.
or Wilson. Corruption of the Republic has a looong history.
Miami will be right on Philly's heels down the shitter... Probably starting with your neighborhood... Romney has his boys working on it as we speak...
You shouldn't drink too many Mojitios before lunch...it totally f-cks up your reasoning skills and makes you go full-retard.
BTW, how's North Miami? Everytime I've been there, I've made sure to lock the doors and not linger after dusk.
Is that due to all those righteous international arms dealers who tend to live in N. Miami?
Or is there another reason?
Clearly you have not been using sun screen and are suffering some solar radiation induced hallucination.
RoadKill makes you think their serious, but nobody could ever be that ignorant and suggest anything positive about the lowest of the low, the lowlife ultra-thieving leveraged buyout sleazoid!
No, roadkill must be joking....
EVERYTHING is brand new in Miami? Everything?
You sir, need to trundle out of your gated community condo and open those peepers.
Say...oh....about 5 blocks west of (bankrupt) American Airlines Arena for openers......
...and about 50 other nifty spots.......Liberty City would be a (high) light.....
WARNING: Lock Zee Doors.
Let me say this about Florida. Get out. After Camden, the entire state of Florida is becoming a cesspool of violent crime. Its not even worth taking the chance to visit Disney with the family. I know. Some family got mugged in broad daylight right in Orlando...
Why do you have a "For Lease" sign from the "The Valley", Jim?
Yes, I understand exactly. I live in a much smaller community but we have the same problems. Much of the beautiful history of this city has been torn down ar has decayed from lack of maintenance. And we still don't tend buy and refurbish, we build new. For some reason this has saved money, but I can't really think of anything that's more wasteful or distressing to an urban area.
Maybe what is occurring was inevitable. I hope not.
Not to worry, the Chinese will (and have been) buying up everything according to VP Joey bin Biden's latest economic recovery plan (awhile back he claimed that only the Chinese could drive our recovery, etc., ad nauseum).
Having witnessed Japanese immigrants, who beautify their surroundings, and the Chinese immigrants who come after them, destroying and uglifying everything, expect things to get uglier and uglier and uglier.
This is pure observation.....
It's easy to piss and moan, but what are you going to do about it?
Maybe we just need a charismatic leader to get elected and explain to us that "those people" are inferior and must be expunged from our otherwise happy and productive society.
It worked great...er, wait...
Dennis and Dee go on welfare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5RYeMGXw58&feature=youtube_gdata_player
we have "chosen this path"?
Another B.S. attempt to blame everybody (aka nobody in particular) and implicitly exonerate the political and corporate leaders who have lied, deceived, swindled, and violated just about every Constitutional and international law.
The only "blame" for the victims is having been duped.
And those who turn attention away from the real criminals by fanciful deterministic explanations of "generational cycles" or platitudes like "you've nobody to blame but yourself" have contributed to the dumbing down and duping.
Yeah, this clown blogger sounds like one of those banksters which should be in jail, or dangling at the end of a noose about now.
Back in the aftermath of the minor S&L meltdown -- by comparison -- 869 banksters went to jail, out of a total of 1,001 successful convictions (should have been more, but limited resources, etc.).
No one has yet to go to jail, and the ones disobeying the laws, JP Morgan illegally doing proprietary trading, Goldman Sachs illegally doing naked short selling (these are supposed to be banks now, aren't they????), continue to be the chief lawbreakers.
yep - that's the solution, jim...just wipe out black people and all will be well with the world....you want to stoke up the furnaces to get started?
fuck you asshole....
The ignorant masses chime in.
Your mind is empty and full of Bullshit! Fuck you asshole! Now FOAD!!
Amy Goodman asks: “Where’s my vagina?”
Ms. Goodman was interviewing the honorable Peter Edelman, a law professor and gentleman who resigned from the Clinton administration in protest over Clinton’s so-called welfare reform (when Clinton appointed Rockefeller stooge, Peter G. Peterson, so Peterson could fulfill his lifetime fantasy of royally screwing poor people).
Amy asked the hard-hitting (moronic?) question: “Why is it so difficult to end poverty?” --- And then proceeded into an obfuscatory, unnecessarily convoluted and circuitous, rambling discussion.
It’s really rather simple, Amy, and millions are mystified why it’s always so difficult for you. (Mr. Edelman addresses it in a scholarly fashion, but still . . . .)
A job equals a revenue source ---- no job, no revenue source.
Offshore a colossal number of jobs over the past 40 years, and you have a dramatic increase in poverty.
It’s really that simple.
What’s the typical length of time in a job for the American worker during the past 40 years before a layoff and the next job search? Not very long, Amy!
No mystery, Ms. Goodman, so must you always obfuscate everything? Why is anything so very simple made to appear so complicated?
Edelman really doesn’t understand it all, after all, he’s an attorney, a law professor --- he really doesn’t understand fundamental arithmetic and finance.
The American economy is not consumer driven ---- regardless of what the misleading talking heads might tell us (the very same talking heads forever calling faux economists “Nobel Prize winners” --- and we should all realize by this late date there ain’t no such thing as a Nobel prize in economics --- old man Nobel never, ever established such a thing!).
It’s been dismantled over the past 30 years --- restructured down to a fantasy finance sector being the principal economic engine --- Wall Street’s peddling of junk paper: credit derivatives with their underlying securitizations.
Recap: No job, no income. Offshore the jobs, you offshore a piece of the GDP with each and every job.
Ain’t no mystery, Ms. Goodman – or Limbaugh – or Romney – or Obama – ain’t no mystery at all.
So, Amy, have you located your vagina yet?
(PS to the ignorant blog poster: cleaning materials cost money, dood!
And before you respond with the typical neocon bilge about the ease in offshore hiring --- all those jobs going to actual slave labor camps in China, Vietnam and elsewhere -- today some of them remain within the privatized American prison system, think about it for a moment!)
Last time anybody checked it was on Nouriel Roubini's apartment wall...
not really sure about the "where's my vagina?" question as applied to the rest of your post? but if this helps,
Republicans, get in my vagina! Kate Beckinsale video:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/40331_FunnyOrDie-_Republicans_Ge...!
Also author is a racist douche bag.
You idolize these neighborhoods from the 60s because they were 90% white. Now you are critical of them becausr they are 90% black and hispanic.
You also bemoan the lack of farmers markets - so not only are you a racist douche bag. YOU ARE A GAY RACIST DOUCHE BAG.
I agree... Let's NOT look at the devauled Dollar. Shitty Article
You GOT Junked FOOL!!! Now FOAD!!!
Go fuck yourself.
Your reading comprehension is a testament to our public school system.
It is amazing that dumbfucks like yourself are able to pass the addition test to make a post on ZH.
Roadkill ... if only you would live up to your moniker.
>>"YOU ARE A GAY RACIST DOUCHE BAG."<<
ROTFLMAO!! Isn't that rich!!
Nope. He is pointing out facts. Facts that are hard to swallow for your liberals...
"the flash mob of savages rampaging through the Sears"...
"These neighborhoods were entirely white and most were church going"...
The savages are Americans you AssHat. What's the difference between people stealing from Sears and Bankers stealing the American Dream?
Or US citizens stealing an entire continent?
When bigger than biggest is not big enough...
Or Chinese citizenism citizens stealing Easter Island?
Wooo, my, my, my. Not many roads to crap on there.
Need to find more blobbing up space, with roads.
Or Chinese citizenism citizens stealing Easter Island?
________________________________________________
That is a great laugh. US citizens definitively have boundary issues.
>>"What's the difference between people stealing from Sears and Bankers stealing the American Dream?"<<
You raise a VERY interesting topic I love to discuss. To answer your question, one act is performed by a simpled minded petty thief, the other act is performed by someone with obvious intelligence and cunning. However, most people see the "white collar criminals" as "less of a direct threat" and possibly "reconditionable" thus have less of an "emotional" response to that versus the petty thief. Think Thomas Crown versus Trayvon Martin. There is so much here to talk about.
That said, Jim was right using the word "savages," as those "people" were savages and it doesnt matter if they were black, Latino, Yakuza or an Irish gang from Boston. They all would deserve severe punishment and or deportation. The banksters are also savages and IMO, are more of a threat to society than these imbecile flash mobs.
As John Wayne would say, "see this here gun..."
Watch this video of those Americans you AssHat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBp5Tb0M7X0
Hmmm, just realised that the thing missing from the plaza is a temp agency... opportunity knockin' people! Bullish for sure!
Temp agency?
Who the hell wants to work when you have welfare, SNAP cards, & Sixers games? Welcome to Athens pal...
Yeah sure, that's why every job opening in places like these get inundated with cv's....because everyone is living high off the gubmit teat.
And people who read at an 8th grade level (or less) are qualified for what jobs exactly?
LMAO I was wondering who would say that! Well, I guess where I am things are ok... Temp agencys everywhere...
Woe, woe unto the inhabitants of these cities when the dollar loses its purchasing power.
I recently watched a video (below) where a naive sheep was being molested by the TSA. The poor sheep began to bleat for--of all things--a police officer to come and rescue her from the TSA agents.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81594585/
Mutiply that same cry by 300,000,000 unsuspecting Americans. The cry that is coming from this nation will be unlike any before it.
Such a shame, a $600 pair of sunglasses could buy two 10 oz bars of silver. But it's far better to look good I guess....
Shallow is the mind of a weak fool. Both he and his money are soon parted.
Fucking Baby Boomers...
Anyway, once we finally remove your sorry asses from power, we'll let you die off in your sacred government's nursing homes. The staff will be paid by what you haven't burned through yet of your Social Security. Oh yeah, right - that means no funding.
Douchebags. Oh wait - all of your unedumacated children are forced to LIVE off your sorry asses. So let them tend to you.
Seriously, if there was "The Greatest Generation", Boomers are by FAR the fucking worst... Fucking degenerates.
Just like your pathetic asses to claim ANY achievement as something YOU did, then - when the shit hits the fan, out comes the all-encompassing "WE".
The only way YOU ever PAY for your shit (if ever) will be in your old age. Fucking assholes.
Is there a mosquito in here?
Nah, I got infected by the parasites, so I'm buzzing off :)
I don't think this site is run by Boomers, though. I'd be surprised. ZH doesn't tend to buy into propaganda from either side.
Anyway, it was a generalization. Apologies to the outliers.
our parents & grandparents must have been horrified when NIXON took us off the gold standard. but, did they even realize what the consequences of that would be ? probably not, average people are not monetary historians. my Grandma Jo was always warning about another depression, so fearful she was when she saw credit cards come into existence & was not pleased about 30-year mortgages (remember, the norm in her day was a 15-year mortgage that was paid off in 10 years. ) now i understand why. most people are not smart & savy, they are just average people who want to raise families & be happy & left alone. that is why when people say, "you voted for them" , yea, we all voted for them, but, who knows the real story of what's going on ..... the internet is the sunshine now.
My grandparents struggled to live through the Great Depression. My dad literally worked until the day he DIED to provide for my mother. I run my own small biz (luckily) or I'd be f'd.
Boomers can continue as they wish (obviously) - but we'll provide them their proper accounting in history.
So they can "doom" all they want.
This country has infinite resources and we WILL carry on..
But in the mean time - PLEASE FUCK OFF AND DIE ALREADY.
And if you can't do that, for the FIRST TIME IN YOUR SORRY FUCKING GENERATION, work toward a resolution that leaves LESS of a shit heap for us to clean up.
Dicks.
"People who do not cultivate their minds have no conception of what they loose. They become eating and drinking and money-grabbing machines. And yet they seem happy! There is some merciful dispensation at work, no doubt." - Oliver Heaviside, Electromagnetic Theory Volume 1, 1893 (ch. I. p8)
Man.... that corndog in the picture sure looks yummy!
Great article. Summarizes the view of the silent minority in this country pretty well.
Michelle Bachmann? Is that you?
Pick most medium or large cities in America and you will find these conditions in some of its neighborhoods. The politicians on both sides of the isle will tell you that these examples are an anomaly. Maybe they are right that these conditions are an anomaly and that some only see the negativity by failing to sonsider the positives when looking at American cities.
You reap what you sow. If you create a system where peeps can do nothing and still survive a large number probably will do just that and they will tend to all gather in the same neighborhood. In todays world the solution will likely be to pour more money into the money hole so the peeps that are just starvin for the opportunity to get busy with a real job can get a hand up, and out, of the hood. My guess is that for each of the 10% that would get busy livin with a real job there will be 2 people to replace them so the hood will just get bigger. A better way might be to pull back on the benefits, incentivise the peeps to work for a living, and reduce the size of the money hole a little bit. Or, even better, have the peeps that remain on the dole work for it by cleaning up their heighborhoods 1 block at a time!
ahhhh, the money hole....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnX-D4kkPOQ
"If you love America, you throw money in its hole!"
This guy is right on, and shit ain't gonna change until the Baby Boomers die off. And due to the impatience of both the situation, and the people involved (minus our political leaders), we'll probably not have the 20+ years to wait for that to happen to finally get resolutions that don't implode the system.
Remember, America, as Churchill said, "Eventually does the right thing....when all other options have been exhausted."
But Philly is a bad example because really, in the end.....
Shitholes gonna shithole.
Go Celtics.
15 billion a year from us to these nice foks for 40+ years probably could have helped here a smidge, no?
But I'm sure glad to see all this money has been going to such a fine cause...
http://express.com.pk/images/NP_KHI/20100513/Sub_Images/1100939016-1.jpg
What is amazing to me is we are watching live on TV the failure of socialism in the EU region.....and we are doing nothing about it...we are actually encouraging it...The IMF speech yesterday that wanted Britain to spend more money by printing.......lol...more debt..the 30% that live in squaler now will soon be 60%...
And the European solution ... socialism and more of it!
I grew up in the Delaware County (Eddystone), know it very well. I was born in 1960 and lived in Delco until about 1987 then moved out to Montgomery County (Skippack). I lived through the demise of that area and still drive through it every time I go to the airport. Its disgraceful and your article captures the pain and frustration felt, I empathize with you. Eddystone, the borough I gew up in, is now almost completely destroyed by the unemployed and government tit-sucking sheep. Eddystone borders Chester which was/is one of the most repressed cities in the nation - needless to say that finally found its way into the surrounding communities.
The Industrial Highway (291) in the 50s and 60s had some of the largest employers in the world all within a few mile radius - Scott Paper, Baldwin, Boeing, PECO, the list goes on. Most are gone now with only the shells remaining. At this same time over 100,000 people were employed in the area, now it is less than 5,000. Delaware county is one of the best places in America to see what the decline has and is doing to our society.
Unfortunately it is too late to be fixed by this iteration of Government and industry, it is time for a complete tear down and rebuild from the constitution up, basically we need a revolution. As Jefferson said, you need to fertilize the tree of liberty with blood every so often - he was thinking every 20 years. We've let the gubment destroy everything that America was, we have to take the responsibility because we let it happen by being both lazy and naive.
Its time to start the revolution by using whatever tools we have, things like boycotts, picketing, public displays for change, whatever it takes. But, for this to work we need 100 million Americans to become active, if we can achieve that critical mass we can take the country back! We can force change by tearing down the walls of corruption and deceit, eliminating most of the powers of gubmint - we need Ron Paul frankly!
If we can have a global financial meltdown before the convention in August then we have a chance to take control through the chaos. We can force Ron to be the republican candidate by taking control of the party and forcing the appropriate adjustment allowing that to happen. BUT again, only if enough people want it and are willing to get off their ass and fight for it...
This is out last chance to make the right kind of change, by the next election the country will be in the same shape as Greece - having austerity shoved down our throats while the bankers get richer on our pain and suffering! This is such bullshit.
It seems certain that the old America of the 50s is gone forever unless we take action! We need to get to the 100th monkey fast. I wonder how much ZeroHedge has been growing over the last several years? The growth here is probably a good indication of how many people are waking up. Think I can check Alexis or Complete for those analytics.
Get ready to fight or as Thom hartman says: "Democracy starts with you, get out there and occupy something!" - I don't generally agree with Thom but he is right about this.
Tag your it!
The PROBLEM isn't the Constitution, but the people who IGNORE IT...
But you just keep on swallowing those loads from the poverty pimps, and rich Democrats who tell you to hate rich people, while they get even RICHER off of you hate, K?
Everything you say is true, but you have left out the most important thing of all: universal suffrage. As long as ANYBODY can vote, we'll only get more of the same. Nobody dares to say it or probably even think it, so here it is in black & white.
We just need this thing to collapse , have our balkanized war and get it over with.
Glad my Mom taught me to work hard, save my money, and be responsible. Thanks Mom!
No shit, right?
My wife grew up in Philly, and her parents still live there. First of all, all this "black" crap is just that. There are just as many poor state tit sucking parasite "whites." It isn't an ethnic issue AT ALL, and the entire city is full of all ethnic backgrounds that have similar financial situations. The problem is not a particular skin toned people. The problem is a welfare and socialist system. Philly is horribly corrupt from a political perspective too, and there's not much hope for a turn around. Between the government and the unions, who would bother trying to make a difference? You'd end up dead anyway. Speaking of dead, the police force is some 5,000 officers short. No one wants the job due to the risks of course.
When we go visit her parents, we have a contest. It's simple enough. The first person to spot a police car wins. On one trip it took THREE DAYS for us to find one. That should tell you something. Oh, but they do have telephone poles with blue flashing lights on them and loud speakers. When the camera sees a crime committed, the light flashes and you're commanded to stand still until police arrive. Now isn't that funny? It would be if tax dollars were not spent to make the unless system. As you might have guessed, those blue lights are flashing quite often. We still rarely ever see a police car. I have however seen numerous people racing down Route 1 and completely ignoring stop lights. I've seen fist fights on buses as they continue to drive past. My wife has seen dead bodies sit on the curb for many days too.
For those of you still living in urban areas, I ask a simple question. Are you effing stupid? Get out now while the EBT cards, welfare checks, and SS checks still buy something. Once those services shut off, what do you think is going to happen? All of those zombies, black, white, asian, hispanic, and all will turn into a violent horde rather quickly. Don't expect the pathetically understaffed police force to assist you either.
I ask a simple question. Are you effing stupid?
Nah, I just like action. I prefer to be at the party, even knowing shots could be fired at any moment.
My wife's brother died in Philly from a heroin OD. Drugs are out of control there of course, but it was his fault and no one else's. Her father was knocked down walking into a diner, and the guy knocking him over had a ski mask on and a gun in his hand. The place had just been robbed. Her mother and nephew were pinned down in a CVS while the robbers and police had a shoot out over their heads. The nephew still sees a shrink because of it, and he basically has PTSD as an 11 year old. We asked to take the nephew from them and bring him to VA, but they refused. You know why of course. Since his father is dead, he gets SS. They use that money to "survive." Child's safety be damned. We need our pot and hookers! I try not to think about the situation because of how angry it makes me.
There are just as many poor state tit sucking parasite "whites."
No way, there are some but not just as many.
Take the population of America, and tell me the current percent that are "white." Then tell me the percent that are "black." Don't forget hispanics too. Trying to suggest that this is a "black" issue is insanely ignorant. Haven't you been to West Virginia for example? I grew up in IL, and poor "white" people were all over. Those poor whites are sucking the government tit too.
West Virginia is mostly white so of course there are going to be mostly poor whites on the dole but the guy was talking about Philly.
There are actually a shit-ton MORE poor state-tit sucking parasite "whites." They mostly live in more rural areas, and they live in the same squalor you seem to associate with the urban negroes.
The thing you've got to remember is that blacks are only 13% of the population or so, but the poor are the bottom 40%.
Those poor? Far more white than black EVEN THOUGH blacks on average are significantly poorer than whites on average.
Beliefs die hard, tho, and have no concern with facts.
Newsflash to everyone here - this is not new - since when did America not have such destitute areas? It's also a well established phenomenon around the world / history. Drive through Shanghai, and you'll be cuising along among extreme wealth and then hit extreme poverty.
America has a long well established history of exploiting the poor for the profit of the rich, both within America's borders and around the world.
This is how a corportist / feudalist / class system works.
It's basically how every society in history has ever worked. Agriculture, property, states, heirarchy, ruling classes, trade, and law all arose pretty much simultaneously. There's little reason to think we can get one without the rest.
Never mind :) Driving myself insane expecting a different result.
Patience right?
Jim:
Thanks for simulcasting this pre-market open today to the floor of the NYSE, CBOE, and blasting it over via the web to Europe.
They thought we were the shining example...........fools!
Explains a lot of the action we're seeing.
Damn
Good essay. Just one thing to nitpick. Saab's are made in Sweden, not Japan.
This will be gone after the SHTF. Burned away. That which is unsustainable will cease.
Your life (and theirs, whoever thet are) is all about choices.
You choose your friends.
You choose what to eat.
You choose to read books, or not read books.
You choose to exercise or not exercise.
You choose where to buy your food.
You choose to watch to do in your spare time.
You choose what to do for entertainment.
You can't choose your parents, but you can choose to be like them, or not be like them, later in life.
And you can choose to be a US citizen or not.
When did you choose to be a US citizen?
Ah, well, trying to keep up the charity work, so
is it compatible with being a Chinese citizen or something in your fantasy land?
Or does it work?
I dont expect an inventive answer but hey, one helps US citizens in need as one can.
Made me laugh.
Now you're just engaging in French citizenism.
Your fantasy world of French Indo-Chinese US citizenism must be a fascinating and perplexing journey along a Möbius strip immersed in insanitation. But hey, at least you're enjoying the trip without having to spend lots of money on LSD.
It's your fantasy adventure, friend, not mine. You tell me if it works.
How very kind of you to offer alms of your wisdom. Your unparalleled generosity is lusciously appreciated. And you're absolutely right, no answer I could provide would ever be as inventive as your historical regalements on US citizenism through the ages prior to 1776,July,4th such as the sinking of Easter Island and the sinister role of US citizenism behind the Treaties of Westphalia.
As Confucius once said to Ben Franklin, "US citizenism has time travel, but Chinese citizenism is eternal." A statement of such profound profundity cannot be reckoned with.