Posted on 02/14/2012 10:48:35 AM PST by equaviator
Do you want to know what the future of America is going to look like? Just check out what is happening to Detroit. The city of Detroit was once one of the greatest industrial cities in the history of the world, but today it is a rotting, decaying, post-apocalyptic hellhole. Nearly half the men are unemployed, nearly half the population is functionally illiterate, more than half of the children are living in poverty and the city government is drowning in debt. As economic conditions have gotten worse, crime has absolutely exploded. Every single night in Detroit there are frightening confrontations between desperate criminals and exasperated homeowners. Unfortunately, the police force in Detroit has been dramatically reduced in size. When the police in Detroit are called, they often show up very late if they even show up at all. Detroit has become a lawless hellhole where violence is the currency of the streets. If you want to survive in Detroit, you better be ready to fight because there are hordes of desperate criminals that are quite eager to take literally everything that you have got. But don't look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will soon be happening all over America.
The following are 20 things we can learn about the future of America from the death of Detroit....
#1 People don't want to live where the stench of failure and decay is constantly in the air. Back in the 1950s, Detroit was a teeming metropolis of approximately 2 million people. According to the 2010 census, only 713,000 people live in Detroit today. The U.S. Census Bureau says that Detroit lost a resident every 22 minutes during the first decade of this century.
#2 When the economy falls apart, desperate people will do desperate things and many homeowners will fight back. Justifiable homicide in Detroit rose by a staggering 79 percent during 2011.
#3 In major cities where people are scrambling just to survive, any confrontation can quickly escalate into a life or death affair. The rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is currently 2200% above the national average.
#4 When there is not enough money to go around, a lot of local governments will choose to cut back on police protection. Ten years ago, there were approximately 5,000 police for the city of Detroit. Today, there are less than 3,000.
#5 The essential social services that you are enjoying today will not always be there in the future. Officials in Detroit recently announced that due to budget constraints, all police stations will be closed to the public for 16 hours a day.
#6 Economic decay is a breeding ground for chaos and violence. Last Friday and Saturday, a total of nine shootings were reported in the city of Detroit.
#7 More Americans than ever are realizing the benefits of self-defense. The following is what 73-year-old Julia Brown recently told the Daily....
The last time Brown, 73, called the Detroit police, they didn’t show up until the next day. So she applied for a permit to carry a handgun and says she’s prepared to use it against the young thugs who have taken over her neighborhood, burglarizing entire blocks, opening fire at will and terrorizing the elderly with impunity.
#8 When crime gets go bad that the police are powerless to stop it, vigilante groups begin to form....
In fact, crime has gotten so bad and the citizens are so frustrated by the lack of police assistance that they have resorted to forming their own organizations to fight back. One group, known as "Detroit 300", was formed after a 90-year-old woman on Detroit's northwest side was brutally raped in August.
#9 When criminals become desperate, they will steal literally anything that is not bolted down. In Detroit today, thieves have stripped so much copper wiring out of the street lights that half of all the lights in some neighborhoods no longer work.
#10 As things fall apart, eventually a time comes when it is not even safe to drive down the road in the middle of the day. 100 bus drivers in Detroit recently refused to drive their routes out of fear of being attacked on the streets. The head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, said that the drivers were literally "scared for their lives"....
“Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to get there, in downtown Detroit,” said Gaffney.
#11 One of the clearest signs of decline in America is the state of our education system. Only 25 percent of all students in Detroit end up graduating from high school. Many other major cities will soon have graduation rates similar to Detroit.
#12 When local governments run out of money they are forced to make tough choices. After already shutting down dozens of schools, officials in Detroit have announced plans to close down 16 more schools.
#13 A growing percentage of Americans cannot even read or write. This is a very frightening indication of what the future of America could look like. According to one stunning report, 47 percent of all people living in the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
#14 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over the United States. Today, 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living below the poverty line.
#15 The employment situation in America is a lot worse than the government is telling us. An analysis of census figures found that 48.5% of all men living in Detroit from age 20 to age 64 did not have a job in 2008.
#16 When a major city becomes a hellhole, home prices fall like a rock. The median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.
#17 When crime and looting become commonplace, homes in an area can become absolutely worthless. Some homes in Detroit have been sold for a single dollar.
#18 When depression-like conditions exist in an area for a number of years, large numbers of people will move on to greener pastures. As of a few years ago, there were more than 40,000 vacant properties in the city of Detroit.
#19 Just because we have a high standard of living today does not mean that will always be the case. Detroit is just a rotting shell of what it once was, and what is happening to Detroit will happen to much of the rest of America very soon. The following is what one British reporter found during his visit to Detroit....
Much of Detroit is horribly dangerous for its own residents, who in many cases only stay because they have nowhere else to go. Property crime is double the American average, violent crime triple. The isolated, peeling homes, the flooded roads, the clunky, rusted old cars and the neglected front yards amid trees and groin-high grassland make you think you are in rural Alabama, not in one of the greatest industrial cities that ever existed.
#20 When government finances collapse, politicians look for things to sell off and "privatize". Unfortunately, the Detroit city government is so broke that it is now considering selling off some of its most famous assets....
Now, the city of Detroit's most venerable assets — from Belle Isle to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel — could end up on the auction block as the city fights for its financial life.
Facing mounting debt and the prospect of a state-appointed emergency manager, the city is looking at all options to shed expenses and raise revenue. If city officials can't come up with a viable budget plan, an emergency manager would have the power to sell assets as part of a financial takeover of Detroit.
But Detroit is not alone.
Lots of other cities all over America are flat broke and out of options. For example, just check out what is happening in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Mayor Christopher Doherty is blunt when asked about a court order forcing his Pennsylvania city to pay about $30 million in wages withheld from police and firefighters under a state-approved fiscal recovery plan.
“I don’t have the money,” said Doherty, 53. As for the chance of borrowing the cash, more than half of the city’s projected general-fund revenue, he added, “there’s no financial institution that’s going to give me $30 million to pay it.”
The U.S. economy never recovered from the last major financial crisis, and now another one is on the way. As the economy crumbles, so will the fabric of our society.
The American people are terribly spoiled and they do not possess the character to handle depression-like conditions with grace and dignity.
In the years ahead, we are going to see rampant rioting and looting in our major cities. The crime sprees that we will witness in future years will be absolutely unprecedented.
Things did not have to turn out this way, but unfortunately the consequences of decades of really bad decisions are starting to catch up with us.
-1. Real estate is CHEAP there.
-2. Proximity to major resources and infrastructure remain.
-3. Opportunities abound for the motivated & financed.
To wit: an area of reconstruction could be carved out and defended, given enough willing to make it happen & defend the effort.
Your optimism is galla nt but misplaced -
All trends point to Detroit being a leader in a long term trend.
If not - argue it - point to some trends that support Detroit as an anomoly.
You can’t.
That does not mean is it inevitable - just that - if current trends do not change - it IS the destination.
Perfect building for the UN to move into. They don’t deserve better.
#22 (#21 has been taken twice :)
Never, never, EVER let liberals take over and dominate your local politics. Or your national politics for that matter.
Every city and state in financial trouble has had liberals running it for some time. A lesson to be learned.
the causes?
Democrats, growing government, and “free trade” especially with China.
China is growing at 25% economic growth . Detroit used to be the Industrial capital of the world now because of free trade with china detroit is this decaying hell hole .China manufactures things detroit doesn't.
The solution: Stop all trade with other countries. make things In the U.S.A again. Reduce government size ,reduce government regulations, repeal pro union laws, deport illegals and stop this free trade insanity especially with china.
It's amazing the number of so called conservatives on this site that have debated me on this : they are in favor of trade with china. Amazing.
We'll survive!
Simply put, Detroit is so-called Black Pride’s model city. Yes, that is racial, but it is not racist. What blacks did to Detroit was a matter of mindset, not pigmentation.
They could have chosen to go the route of blacks as depicted in the great movie, “The Temptations.” But, instead, they chose to go the route of welfare, anger, and victimization.
We all make our choices and take our chances.
If you invest in RE in Detroit, you make yourself a target of the taxing authorities.
No thanks - plenty of empty land elsewhere.
And OBTW, much of the infrastructure is gone - either decayed or stolen.
Benito Obamalini, I like that. Got a good chuckle out of it.
I took a look at the population of Detroit.
It is 82.7%black
It is 6.8% Hispanic
A high crime rate?
Reached the tipping point? Yeah!!! A long time ago.
2,000,000 residents - 5,000 cops = .0025%
713,000 residents - 3,000 cops = .0042%
60% more cops per person yet crime is worse than ever without enough cops to answer calls.
I believe even if the car makers were going full guns most of the people there couldn’t get hired. They can’t read! That’s the education system’s fault. Look at the teachers. When congress is filled with Cynthia McKinney and Sheila Jackson-Lee and Maxine Waters types, and the guy from Georgia who worried that Guam would tip over if too many Marines were sent there, what quality of teachers can we expect to get?
see my tagline
Too much of Detroit now shows no evidence of the vital city it once was, world-famous for its innovation and spirit. Large portions of the land that sustained us for generations are devastated and sterile.
We can, and must, do better, for our children’s sake. It’s our dream to rejuvenate our city by returning to our agrarian roots.” http://www.hantzfarmsdetroit.com/introduction.html
Leave it as a stark reminder. “Detroit can serve as a valuable lesson to the rest of the country. It has been the perfect laboratory for leftist policies at work. The more you examine the policies of Detroit’s politicians, the more strikingly similar to this administration they become.” http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/scrowder/2009/12/21/is-this-the-future-of-america-detroit/
“2,000,000 residents - 5,000 cops = .0025%
713,000 residents - 3,000 cops = .0042%”
It’s a quality control issue all the way around.
They've touched on a solution: make Detroit a nation along the lines of an Indian reservation. Let them tax certain imports to create jobs. They can put their tribe back to work this way.
This is not just Detroit, it is virtually every US major city, and even some minor ones.
The city where I was born, Bridgeport, Connecticut is in similar straits. While it’s peak population was only some 130,000, Bridgeport could proudly boast of all the problems of a major ghetto.
This once proud city is now a sewer.
Some clueless locals - like everywhere - have been saying that “Bridgeport is coming back...” They have been saying this since the 1970’s, and some suckers always come along and try to invest there, but they soon lose everything.
Bridgeport, Connecticut was once a mighty powerhouse of a Northeast industrial manufacturing center...
- Bridgeport Brass
- Bridgeport Machines
- Carpenter Steel
- Acme United (Acme Shear)
- Remington Arms
- Singer
- Textron Lycoming
- AVCO
- Sikorsky
- Raybestos
...all gone.
Bridgeport was also the home of P.T. Barnum and his circus.
Connecticut Magazine scored Bridgeport in 2003 as the lowest of 17 major cities within the state in terms of education, crime, and economic condition.
I worked as draftsman for a machine tool industry leader in ballscrew manufacturing between ‘78 and ‘81. Not only was the plant full of Bridgeport and other New England-based machine tool brands, we were making ballscrew assemblies for many of their new products. The market for American-made machine tool products began to disappear soon after I jumped over to work as a nomadic “jobbie” in the automotive industry. Plant robotics were the latest big thing at that time. Looking back on it, we seem to have failed to capitalize on it without sacrificing our own machine tool industry.
If the ground remained fertile, seeds would continue to flourish and grow.
The politicians made the ground infertile.
Regulations, taxation, unions and other pressures made the once fertile fields unprofitable. That is the only thing that changed.
A better idea is to cede Detroit over to Canada. Not that Canada would take it, but we could try.
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