24 Signs That All Of America Is Becoming Just Like Detroit

The American Dream ^ | 12/06/2010 | Michael Snyder

[SeekAndFind]

For years, people have been laughing at the horrific economic decline of Detroit. Well, guess what? The same thing that happened to Detroit is now happening to dozens of other communities across the United States. From coast to coast there are formerly great manufacturing cities that have turned into rotting, post-industrial war zones. In particular, in America's "rust belt" you can drive through town after town after town that resemble little more than post-apocalyptic wastelands. In many U.S. cities, the "real" rate of unemployment is over 30 percent. There are some communities that will start depressing you almost the moment you drive into them. It is almost as if all of the hope has been sucked right out of those communities.

Meanwhile, the economic downturn has been incredibly hard on the finances of state and local governments across the United States. Unlike the federal government, state and local governments cannot use the Federal Reserve to play games with their exploding debt burdens. Facing horrific budget deficits, many communities have begun adopting "austerity measures" in an attempt to slow the flow of red ink. All over the nation, deep budget cuts are slashing police departments, fire departments and other basic social services, but it seems like no matter what many of these communities try the debt just keeps growing.

So when you combine economic hopelessness with drastic budget cuts, what you get are hordes of communities from coast to coast that are becoming just like Detroit. In the city of Detroit today, there are over 33,000 abandoned houses, 44 schools have been permanently closed down, the mayor wants to bulldoze one-fourth of the city and you can literally buy a house for one dollar in the worst areas. Many Americans thought that it was funny to make fun of Detroit, but little did they know that what happened there would soon start happening everywhere.

The following are 24 signs that all of America is becoming a rotting, post-industrial, post-apocalyptic wasteland just like Detroit....

#1 The second most dangerous city in the United States - Camden, New Jersey - is about to lay off about half its police.

#2 In the city of Camden, about the only "industries" that are truly thriving are drug-dealing and prostitution. It is estimated that there are literally dozens of open-air drug markets in Camden.

#3 The city of Newark, New Jersey laid off 13 percent of its police force just last week.

#4 Of 315 municipalities the New Jersey State Policemen's union recently surveyed, more than half indicated that they were planning to lay off police officers.

#5 At least 1000 people now live in the 200 miles of flood tunnels that exist under the city of Las Vegas.

#6 All over America, asphalt roads are being ground up and are being replaced with gravel because it is cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt road into gravel over the past year, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have transformed at least some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.

#7 The number of Americans on food stamps has hit yet another new all-time record. 42.9 million Americans are now enrolled and federal authorities fully expect that number to continue to skyrocket.

#8 The city of San Jose, California recently laid off 49 firefighters.

#9 Over the past year, approximately 100 of New York's state parks and historic sites have had to cut services and reduce hours.

#10 In 2009 alone, approximately 4 million more Americans joined the ranks of the poor.

#11 The state of Arizona recently decided to stop paying for many types of organ transplants for people enrolled in its Medicaid program.

#12 Many of the police in Arizona that patrol communities near the border with Mexico say that they are "outmanned" and "outgunned" and now live in fear of being taken out by drug cartel assassins.

#13 Gang violence in America is getting totally out of control. According to authorities, there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs operating inside the country, and those gangs are responsible for up to 80% of the violent crimes committed in the U.S. each year.

#14 Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts has announced that due to severe budget cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism.

#15 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

#16 The state of Illinois is so far behind on its bills that not even schools and essential social services are getting their money on time.

#17 The sheriff's department in Ashtabula County, Ohio has been slashed from 112 to 49 deputies, and there is now just one vehicle remaining to patrol all 720 square miles of the county.

#18 As our local communities degenerate economically, it appears that they are falling apart morally as well. There are approximately 400,00 registered sex offenders in the United States as you read this.

#19 In a desperate attempt to save money, the city of Colorado Springs turned off a third of its streetlights and put its police helicopters up for auction.

#20 According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.

#21 According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, more than 25 percent of America's nearly 600,000 bridges need significant repairs or are burdened with more traffic than they were designed to carry.

#22 In Georgia, the county of Clayton recently eliminated its entire public bus system in order to save 8 million dollars.

#23 Things have gotten so bad in Stockton, California that the police union put up a billboard with the following message: "Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California. Stop laying off cops."

#24 Major cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore and Sacramento have instituted "rolling brownouts" in which various city fire stations are shut down on a rotating basis. So if you live in one of those cities and you have a fire, you had better hope that your local fire station is not scheduled for a "brownout" that day.

As I have documented in article after article, the "American Dream" is rapidly becoming the American Nightmare. We were once a nation that was endlessly expanding, endlessly growing and endlessly becoming more powerful, but now just the opposite is happening.

All of this didn't happen overnight. Back in 1982, Billy Joel could see what was starting to happen and he released a song entitled "Allentown" which captured the depression that many residents of once great steel cities were experiencing. The song started out with these two lines....

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down

Well, the United States has lost over 42,000 factories since 2001 and now all of America is turning into "Allentown".

Unfortunately, things are going to get even worse. Thousands more factories and millions more jobs will be sent overseas. The debt loads of our state and local governments will continue to skyrocket. The truth is that city after city after city is going to start looking like something out of a third world country.

But perhaps you disagree. Perhaps you believe that America's greatest days are just around the corner. Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....

[RobRoy]

I find it interesting that the governor of KY is trying to abolish the state income tax. It would save me over $600 a month. when I move there.

[Conservative Tsunami]

We’ve only just begun to degenerate. Wait until China and India ramps up their hi tech white collar sector....

No problem. We own the printing presses and can produce as much "wealth" as we need.

*eyeball roll*

[hoyt-clagwell]

Combine the loss of millions of low-skill factory jobs near US cities along with urban Dem Welfare Plantations, and you have a recipe for disaster.

UPMC Hospital( a world class facility) in Pittsburgh just inked a deal with China and gave them a ton of proprietary information...and then on another thread it talked about doctors in other countries will be able to do operations via robotics on a patient in another country within a decade...

I'm in the health insurance biz. Large carriers are already working on plans to send patients enmass to India for treatment..and it is already being done. Some Fortune 500 firms are already doing it. A hip transplant in the US is 28K while in India it 5K.

No sector of American society is safe unless you are a plumber or electrician...something that cannot be outsourced.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Re: #1 and #23. Okay, they BOTH can’t be the 2nd most dangerous city in the US.

[FrankR]

...because it has the same class of people running it?

[jimpick]

Boho. For years I worked hard to maintain a income, all the while the value of the dollar went down. At the same time the dollar was being devalued you let a bunch of criminals ie. illegal aliens come into the country and compete against me with out the restrictions I had. Some how I am suppose to feel sorry that a bunch of government employees are losing their jobs.

The paper work alone made my income decrease buy a significant amount just to comply. Every time I worked with the government it seemed like they lost the documents and it cost me more. Screw these incompetent morons. Good riddance. This seems like the best way to clear out a bunch of dead weight in our government
.

[truthguy]

Stop importing poverty. Completely change our immigration policy so that we are not importing half the third world and conditions will stabilize if not improve. Move back to a manufacturing economy instead of the madness of a service economy.

[RobRoy]

I was headed east to Newark in a rental car and decided to get off the freeway to top off the ol’ tank before I turned the rental car in. It was the first time in my life I literally feared for my life to even get out of the car at a gas station. And I have ridden my bicycle through VERY seedy areas of Seattle.

I just drove through Gary a couple weeks ago. Yeah, it’s a pit. I’ve been to Detroit and marveled at the street people going through garbage cans on the street in front of a bunch of closed down businesses. I marveled because the only people on the street were the sparse street people. What exactly did they expect to find?

[SeekAndFind]

Re: #1 and #23. Okay, they BOTH can’t be the 2nd most dangerous city in the US.

---

Well, one of them is trying to get to #1 :)

[RobRoy]

Good catch. And in some places the residents take care of business well enough that you don’t need a lot of cops.

[caww]

This problem we have goes way beyond libs causing the offshoring of jobs. It is about competing with developing countries whose cost is a 1/10 of your own. It can't be done.

Yep, and unions make certain it stays that way. Gov. will never "create" jobs except enlarging Gov. so they can say jobs increased. If people think their standard of living will remain...heads in sand...our once powerful nation is falling into ruin at all levels...crime will esculate more and more.

[Conservative Tsunami]

UPMC Hospital( a world class facility) in Pittsburgh just inked a deal with China and gave them a ton of proprietary information...I'm in the health insurance biz. Large carriers are already working on plans to send patients enmass to India for treatment..

This is madness.

No sector of American society is safe unless you are a plumber or electrician...something that cannot be outsourced.

You've heard of "bedroom communities"? The US is to be a "bedroom nation." Except that a country of electricians, plumbers, and government pencil-pushers can't support social services for 350 million people.

Btw - how long will it be before the US Mints are outsourced to China or Mexico?

[Fresh Wind]

We need to let millions and millions of new immigrants into the country, and hand them welfare checks and voter registration cards as they cross the border.

That will fix the problem.

[RobRoy]

WOW! I just went into Google maps and went to street view for Camden. Yikes!

[FightThePower!]

I read Atlas Shrugged recently as well. Its a must read.

[Fresh Wind]

Apparently, North Korea is now doing a better job of printing our money than we are.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2638689/posts

[RobRoy]

>>A hip transplant in the US is 28K while in India it 5K. <<

One may reasonably ask why it is $28k.

[Conservative Tsunami]

The [government] paper work alone made my income decrease buy a significant amount just to comply. Every time I worked with the government it seemed like they lost the documents and it cost me more. Screw these incompetent morons. Good riddance. This seems like the best way to clear out a bunch of dead weight in our government

You're preaching to the choir, brother.

Fedgov bureaucracy is one bloated RAT that needs exterminating. It actually destroys US business and commerce.

In the last 10 years under GW and Hussein it's exploded like the deadly virus it is.

[RobRoy]

For many years I’ve considered Detroit to be a microcosm of Atlas Shrugged. I do believe the nation will follow because the required changes will not be made - voluntarily.

The nation is like the gunner, on a disabled B-17 as it spirals to the ground, that is afraid to jump. He must be pushed. And if he has a tight grip on the plane, he must be pushed hard.

The necessary change will come in this country when the people and politicians are pushed hard enough to exit the plane, i.e. status quo. But that push could be something along the lines of what Fred talked of about 10 years ago:

Fred articles on race and potential future civil war:

http://www.fredoneverything.net/Blowup.shtml
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Stability.shtml
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Underclass.shtml
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Opportunity.shtml
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Assimilation.shtml

[Conservative Tsunami]

One may reasonably ask why it is $28k.

The usual reasons: corruption, fraud, graft, defraying the cost of free medical for illegals and deadbeats.