Posted on 01/01/2012 9:45:00 PM PST by blam
Formerly Great Cities All Over America Are Turning Into Open, Festering Sores
January 1, 2012
Once upon a time, the people of the United States constructed beautiful, shiny cities from coast to coast that were the envy of the entire globe. We had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen and life was quite good in America. But now all of our prosperity is coming crashing down and many of our formerly great cities are turning into open, festering sores. Unfortunately, we are drowning in so much debt that we can barely even slow down the shocking decline of our cities.
Over the past decade, tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of good jobs have been shipped out of the United States. As our economic infrastructure has been ripped out right in front of our eyes, an atmosphere of unemployment, poverty and despair has descended on many of our major cities like a soaking wet blanket. Today, many of our cities that once were considered to be some of the greatest in the world have been transformed into rotting, post-apocalyptic hellholes. When you visit many of these cities and look into the sunken eyes of the residents, you almost get the feeling that something has sucked all of the hope and all of the life right out of them.
For a while, large numbers of Americans still believed that the right politician would bring them "hope" and "change", but now crushing despair is giving way to absolute desperation for millions of people. Desperate people do desperate things, and as our major cities continue to decay they are going to become very dangerous places to be.
Even in some of our most "prosperous cities" there are areas that closely resemble third world conditions. For example, in San Francisco there is an area known as "Hunter's Point" that is a complete and utter nightmare. In Hunter's Point, more than half of the population lives in poverty and more than half of all children live in a home where there is no father present. The following is what one reporter found on a visit to Hunter's Point....
Abernathy and I cut through the complex, tromping over an expanse of dirt and concrete toward the northeast end of the development, where a row of apartments looked down from a grassy hill. We paused next to a vacant, boarded-over unit to take in the scene: A stream of ****, piss, tampons, and toilet paper spewed from a dark hole in the sidewalk, poured down the hill, and formed a sort of **** lagoon next to the street. Weeds, about six inches tall, were growing in the little lagoon.
Raw ****, obviously, is not cool. Beyond the fact that it smells and looks nasty, fecal matter provides a haven for dangerous bacteria, most notably E. coli, a virulent pathogen that can sicken and even kill humans, especially infants. In the so-called developing world, according to the World Health Organization, water tainted by feces is a major killer, a prime cause of severe diarrhea, which takes the lives of an estimated 1.8 million people annually.
But in general, San Francisco is doing better than the rest of California is. Down the coast, Los Angeles continues to come apart at the seams. Approximately 40 arson fires were started in Los Angeles in just the last three days alone. That is the highest number of arson fires that Los Angeles has seen since the 1992 riots.
Unfortunately, as economic conditions worsen, we are going to see a lot more arson all over the nation.
Once upon a time, people all over the country wanted to move to California. But today, millions of people have been pouring out of the state as it continues its shocking decline. If you can believe it, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California increased by a whopping 30 percent between 2007 and 2010.
That isn't just a decline, that is a free fall.
But it isn't like there are too many areas of the country that are doing that much better. All over the country, our major cities are becoming open, festering sores and child poverty is absolutely exploding.
According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.
Speaking of Detroit, it is almost unbelievable what has happened to "the motor city"....
*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.
*If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.
*Only 25 percent of all students in Detroit graduate from high school at this point.
Today, Detroit has become a very frightening place to live. 100 bus drivers in Detroit recently refused to drive their routes out of fear for their own personal safety. The head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, said that the drivers were "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.
Right now, Detroit is a city that is being torn apart by thieves and vandals. Buildings are being literally dismantled as people scramble to find things to sell to keep themselves afloat. The following is from a recent article in the Detroit News about this crisis....
The war to keep the lights on in Detroit is a serious one. Thieves, antiquated equipment and a lack of funding have made it impossible for city officials to catch up to the problem.
City officials estimate 15-20 percent of the 88,000 lights in the Motor City are not working, and they acknowledge that figure could be as high as 50 percent in some neighborhoods.
But it is not just Detroit that is having a major problem keeping the lights on. Over in Highland Park, Michigan the majority of the street lights have been repossessed because the city was not keeping up with the electricity bill.
All over the country, cities are going dark and fixtures are being torn out of homes and businesses as thieves search for something to sell. As one of my readers shared recently, there are some parts of California that are literally being transformed into hellholes by hordes of desperate people....
Here, in the California desert, many vacant houses are being taken over. Fixtures are being ripped out and sold as scrap. Trench latrines are being dug in backyards and water is being pilfered from neighboring pools and hoses. While most of these folks are simply trying to keep a roof over their heads (while they keep their heads down), many are also setting up meth labs and in-door marijuana grows.
I can see the eventual day when the total breakdown of the economy and our society will drive thousands from the cities. A lot of those will be looking for ‘opportunities’.
As sad as it is, if you’re not one of the most unfortunate, it’s time to prepare a defense for your goods, family and self. You are going to be viewed as wealthy, no matter how poor you feel, by someone with nothing left to lose.
Do not rely on police or government authorities. We all saw how that went in New Orleans. Be ready as an individual family unit.
In Fresno, California the theft of copper wire from street lights has become a major crisis. At this point, the loss of copper wire and the cost of repairing street lights is costing Fresno about $50,000 a month. So far, approximately 2,500 street lights have been stripped of their wiring.
Over on the east coast, there are some cities that have lost so much industry that many young people feel as though there are not many viable options left other than selling drugs or selling their bodies.
In an extraordinary article entitled "City of Ruins", Chris Hedges did an amazing job of documenting the nightmarish decline of Camden, New Jersey. Today, it is estimated that the actual rate of unemployment in Camden is somewhere around 30 or 40 percent. For most young people in Camden, there are very few legitimate opportunities for a better life at this point. The following is a brief excerpt from "City of Ruins"....
There are perhaps a hundred open-air drug markets, most run by gangs like the Bloods, the Latin Kings, Los Nietos and MS-13. Knots of young men in black leather jackets and baggy sweatshirts sell weed and crack to clients, many of whom drive in from the suburbs. The drug trade is one of the city's few thriving businesses. A weapon, police say, is never more than a few feet away, usually stashed behind a trash can, in the grass or on a porch.
If the area where you live has not gotten that bad yet, you should be thankful. But the reality is that these economic conditions are spreading and they will get to where you live soon enough.
Disease is also becoming a huge problem in many of our major cities. The combination of poverty and moral decay has created some very frightening conditions in many areas of the country.
This is even happening in some of our most prosperous cities. For example, the rate of HIV infection in Washington D.C. is actually higher than it is in West Africa according to the director of the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration....
"Our rates are higher than West Africa," said Shannon Hader, the administration's director, who used to spearhead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work in Zimbabwe. "They're on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."
Up in Canada, they have come up with some very "unusual" methods for preventing the spread of health problems. For example, in Vancouver, British Columbia authorities are actually handing out free crack pipes to addicts in an attempt to slow down the spread of diseases. But there is a limit - only one free crack pipe per day is allowed.
Crazy stuff.
What is happening to this world?
But perhaps we should all be thankful to at least have some place to lay our heads at night. Today, there are more than 700,000 homeless people in America, and that number has grown by about 20 percent since 2007.
After the next major financial crisis, that number is going to go even higher.
The truth is that the economy is in much worse shape than most people think, and the poor in America are rapidly getting poorer.
As Gerald Celente has said many times, when the poor lose everything that they have they tend to lose it.
Desperate people do desperate things, and we are already starting to see signs of this all over the nation. For example, you can watch one homeowner defend his home against four armed invaders right here.
So what are our leaders doing to fix this?
Well, unfortunately there is not a whole lot they can do.
Our federal government is absolutely drowning in debt.
During the first three years of Barack Obama, the U.S. government accumulated more debt than it did from the inauguration of George Washington to the inauguration of Bill Clinton.
Of course it would help if the Obama administration would stop wasting money on stupid things and would start spending it to rebuild this country.
For example, did you know that the Obama administration gave a $529 million loan to a U.S. electric car company so that they could manufacture electric cars in Finland?
Talk about stupid.
Is it any wonder that there is such a lack of confidence in the government at this point?
According to one recent survey, 77% of all Americans now believe that there is a leadership crisis in America.
Our economy is dying and formerly great cities all over America are being turned into open, festering sores. This country is in so much trouble that it is hard to find words that can adequately describe it.
2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country. If we do not get enough Americans to wake up now, we might not get another chance.
If you love America, please make this a year when you take more action than ever before.
Working together, we can make a huge difference.
A friend and I went up to Green Bay to see a concert. What a disaster. We were not used to the decay the liberal governments up there have wrought being from further south.
Lincoln and Roosevelt both lived in times when wage slaves were brought to America to do the work here
The Great Depression was originally caused by the Federal Reserve tightening up the monetary policy. This caused the economy to contract. The Great Depression was sustained for 10 years by the policies of the Roosevelt Administration which created an economic climate that was hostile to investment and productivity.
The Great Depression was ended by the demand for U.S. goods that occurred because of WWII.
Manufacturing jobs are decreasing in the U.S. for several reasons. The first is productivity. Only high value added jobs can survive in the U.S. The second is that there are simply too many costs, risks and headaches involved in making anything in the U.S.
When someone invests in plant and equipment in the U.S. they have a target on their back. They are subject to lawsuits, regulations taxes, etc. The U.S. worker has been so poisoned with the victim mentality (”I feel sorry for myself”) that the work ethic is dead.
By the way the average company in the South was facing approximately 1,000 lawsuits at any given point in time. There are a swarm of trial lawyers who prey on U.S. businesses especially manufacturers.
If you want to sell something in the U.S. subcontract and or outsource the manufacturing. That is the only way to survive.
Why can’t my state look out for it’s own interests and enact a 50% tariff on every imported item from other states? My state is being destroyed by cheap imports from other states in the US.
I look forward to your answer.
Umm, many in our gov have gotten dirty money and allowed our manufacturing base to go to China.
China is pure, unadulterated evil and their “products” suck.
I completely agree. We do not owe developing countries our own suicide
Show me where US manufacturing has declined (other than short term recession related).
If you want to hate China, go ahead. There is plenty wrong with them, but, they are not the reason for our current economic woes.
So you are suggesting a Smoot-Hawley tariff regime to solve the problem?
For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, easy to understand, and WRONG.
Taxes do not solve any problems, just create new ones.
Ronald Reagan once famously said, the problem is not that Government doesn't tax people enough, but that it spends too much.
I also believe that it regulates too much.
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There is no simple fix for the numerous problems our nation faces that cannot be fixed during a single election cycle, nor even a decade. Some of these problems are around for decades, but the effects have been so long-term, that only now is it being noticed.
The hollowing out of industry was somewhat hidden by the 'fix' of pumping money into housing... old factories were converted into residential condominiums in many choice locations... so the decay was limited to the worst places... this is no longer feasible. Housing booms will no longer be the salve on de-industrialization.
We have a brewing perfect storm with a variety of problems, any one of which could be fixed... but as a coctail of ills are impossible to remedy without some sort of revolution.
1.) Social Security Ponzi Scheme
2.) The Federal Reserve System
3.) A Fiat Currency
4.) Sovereign Debt of more than the nation's GDP
5.) A union-run, failing education system
6.) Excess litigation
7.) 3 levels of taxation (Local, State, Federal) as well as hidden taxes in every imaginable area
8.) The switch from HTM to MTM accounting (2007)
9.) 13% welfare-dependent minority 'workforce' which is resistant to education, prone to violence and criminality and devoid of familial responsibility and decency
10.) "War" on everything with seizing assets the main focus
11.) Eminent Domain
12.) A fast emergin Police State and the institutionalization of society.
13.) More than 2 million Americans on a government payroll
14.) More than 50% of the population gets money from the government.
15.) More than 45 million collect food stamps (that's a hidden 'bread line')
You could write a chapter on each of the above, see Daniel Ryan's post to me in this thread...
When is the last time you saw a new shining factory go up in the big de-industrialized city near you?
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I had no close kin in the Klan, my rich paternal grandfather refused to join the Citizen's Council and I was spanked for using the word “nigger”.
We had black help both at home and did not treat that like that horrid movie about our friends the Stocketts called The Help and in our large family contracting and pipeline business. My father promoted blacks to supervisory positions and the Klan burned down our office trailers as a gesture. Some of our friends who were more liberal on black rights had their homes burned actually.
My dad was friends with Charlie Evers and Aaron Henry and I grew up around the Derians and Greenville Hodding Carter clan.
First funeral I attended was our black handyman killed after too much Dr Tichenors one night and slammed into a guardrail and died a week later at University. A long funeral. He had taught me how to hunt at our swamp camp..deer..ducks..squirrel. he had showed up orphaned as a 15 year old lost on my grandfather's estate and they had put him up and employed him...that was in 1939. He died in 1968 with a large brood some of whom went to Alcorn with our family help....I wept like a baby...still can if I think about it much
So even though my dad and grandpa were open minded on black voting rights that was where it ended. They were Goldwater GOP types and wanted nothing to do with all that legislation GOP folks then and now clamor over about how proud they are about it and they knew it would make blacks dependent.
They lived in a culture of generations of large black populations and were under no illusion about the shortfalls in a general sense even though they helped the exceptions climb out of it when they could
It was admittedly a paternalistic relationship...very southern...something northerners never fostered...they just freed them...and tried to make them a dependable voting block and eschewed mixing with them. We took care of them. I think history can now judge which way worked better insofar as how better off the black family and crime culture was.
Now...it's all muddied up. White guilt basically trumps everything but the fear now weak whites have over being called bigot over anything minority..not just blacks...homosexuals, women, religious minorities, latinos...and so forth
But on black culture. I know it as well as anyone here who isn't black and have lived immersed in it worldwide.
There is literally no topic here which freepers are as a rule more ignorant of, more wrongheaded about and preen about completely unaware of how much of the problem they actually are. And I wa flabbergasted to find so much of this here my first day 11 years ago and to see this dripping hatred here by some of my culture...the culture that is one of the last stands for traditional America.
I am not easily offended but I am offended by folks with no experience in black culture lecturing me about how it works from the comfort of Iowa or central Nebraska and who feel that the fortunes of blacks rise and fall like tides dependent upon how whites treat them. That is racist actually but they never get that...it completely escapes them.
Instead they blame slavery, the South (never the north), Jim Crow, or Colonialism as though what explains black cultural shortfall worldwide is white contact.
How does that explain places where there was no white contact to mention..never white rule?
and do they think tropical Africa would now be civilized all by itself had white never touched that region?
that geographical isolation has always been my own explanation of why things are as they are ...with any isolated culture there is often a lag and yes exceptions rise above it but still there it is...
we ignore that because we can't handle the truth...or we fear it...so instead we just lower everyone else...and this is not just about black culture...we will do the same over amerindian illegals culture as well...mark my words
our ancestors both here and in Britannia were under no such illusions and they made as big a mark on the advancement of civilization the world has ever known
we are...due to our own inner weakness...running as fast as we can back in the cave
the past 50 years have produced Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell and a few others for our side...but at what a cost
cultural evolution is inevitable but we applaud collapse as progress?
rant off...I expect to be treated as the ghost of Sam Francis any second
PS...I miss puroresu
“If you want to sell something in the U.S. subcontract and or outsource the manufacturing. That is the only way to survive.”
My point is we need to change the regulatory and legal environment to make investment manufacturing in the US attractive again. Otherwise we will continue to see our standard of living decline. Trade policy needs to be revised as well as government regulation. Tort reform is also needed to reinstate barriers to frivilous lawsuits. A “loser pays” requirement would go a long way toward making attorneys and plaintiffs think twice before going to court. In addition limitations on legal fees in class action suits improve the system. Finally, judges should not permit attorney fees to be paid in cash to “winning” attorneys in class action lawsuits when the members of the class they supposedly represent receive no tangible economic benefits.
I agree the Federal Reserve in the 1930’s did shrink the money supply which compounded the effects of the Depression and the policies of Roosevelt may have prolonged the crisis. The ramp of factories to support the war effort and the conversion of those factories to consumer goods production after the war ended the Great Depression. My other point is there were idle factories in the US to convert to war production and later consumer goods production. When the factories were shut down and sent overseas in the 1990’s and first decade of the 21st century the equipment was sold and scrapped and many of the buildings razed. There is no idle capacity to put people back to work and end the current depression. Major changes to trade policy, regulatory policy, tax policy, and the legal system will be required to make investment in US manufacturing attractive again.
Without high paying manufacturing jobs, at all levels (production floor, product design, engineering, planning, logistics), I don’t see this country as able to sustain the large educated middle class required for a free society to flourish. History shows that societies consisting of a small group of elites lording over poor masses tend to be totalitarian.
The RNC, is it had a brain and the desire for victory for bigger reasons than its own perks, would run a series of tv ads. The ads would be simple, videoscapes of American Cities. The taglines would be “The Democrat Party Plan for America”. Then [name of city}, run by Democrats since [year], the percentage vote for Democrats [%]. Democrats want to control everything, this is how they go about for success. Democrat Party success = America’s failure. Vote Republican everywhere.
The mess in Detroit by politicians, unions, lawyers and taxation/regulation of business.
He is God. His promises are true. The example of Jonah and the city of Nineveh is an example of His mercy to wicked nations that repent and turn to Him. He would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of 10 righteous men.
However, if people and nations do no turn to Him, they face the consequences of His justice.
I don’t need to show the blind anything. China is part of the problem as it is corrupt to the very core, and corrupt US politicians and corrupt coporations are the other parts of the problem.
Profit isn’t god and destroying the environment as has happened in China are also in the mix. High taxes also drive manufacturing elsewhere. There is “plenty” wrong with China is putting it so mildly it makes me wonder if you are Chinese or are paid by them to post.
Pat Buchanan wrote about it in one of his books. It’s going to become a major political issue, maybe next election cycle as unemployment remains high and the economy continues to fail for four more years.
“You are proposing to return to a bygone, idyllic world dominated by high tariffs. This bygone world does not exist anymore.”
You’re correct in your assertions.
The only problem with this reality is the [modern] “world” (at least within the borders of this country) that has been created as a _result_ of “free trade” has resulted in a system that may be socially and economically unsustainable and one that will inevitably collapse around us.
Total “free trade” dictates that the essential underpinnings of an economy — that being, it’s ability to manufacture the things with which to sustain itself — will be “offshored” to those places were it is cheapest to do so. An example: steel production.
Remember the explosion within the gun turret on the USS Iowa years ago? I recall reading back then that the technology to repair the ship no longer existed in America, and that they might actually have to send it to Japan to rebuild it. (Aside: I don’t think this was ever done; the damaged gun turret was simply ‘retired from service” afterwards.)
To me, that incident speaks volumes as to where we are headed.
Sorry, I have no solutions to offer. I’m a working-class stiff, not a professor.
But the paradigm of “free trade” ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Indeed, too late we may find that, rightly or wrongly, it became a major step in our undoing....
The RNC, is it had a brain and the desire for victory for bigger reasons than its own perks, would run a series of tv ads.
I wish it were as simple as Democrats - bad, Republicans - good. Unfortunately, the outsourcing of American jobs has been going on under both parties, since the early 90s.
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