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Is Now The Time To Move Away From Major U.S. Cities?
The American Dream ^ | 1-26-2012 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 01/26/2012 4:44:50 PM PST by blam

Is Now The Time To Move Away From Major U.S. Cities?

January 26, 2011

As the U.S. economy falls apart and as the world becomes increasingly unstable, more Americans than ever are becoming "preppers". It is estimated that there are at least two million preppers in the United States today, but nobody really knows. The truth is that it is hard to take a poll because a lot of preppers simply do not talk about their preparations.
Your neighbor could be storing up food in the garage or in an extra bedroom and you might never even know it. An increasing number of Americans are convinced that we are on the verge of some really bad things happening.
But will just storing up some extra food and supplies be enough? What is going to happen if we see widespread rioting in major U.S. cities like George Soros is predicting? What is going to happen if the economy totally falls to pieces and our city centers descend into anarchy like we saw in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? In some major U.S. cities such as Detroit, looting is already rampant.
There are some sections of Detroit where entire blocks of houses are being slowly dismantled by thieves and stripped of anything valuable. Sadly, the economy is going to get a lot worse than it is at the moment. So is now the time to move away from major U.S. cities? Should preppers be seeking safer locations for themselves and their families? Those are legitimate questions.

According to a recent Gallup poll, satisfaction with the government is now at an all-time low. Americans are rapidly losing faith in virtually every major institution in society.

Anger and frustration are rising to very dangerous levels, and we are rapidly approaching a boiling point.

When people feel as though they have lost everything, they get desperate.

And desperate people do desperate things.

In many communities in the United States today, crime has become so terrifying that people are literally sleeping with their guns.

The following is a story from Rancho Cordova, California that one of my readers recently sent me....

When I first moved here, it was not a bad place, it was quiet and clean.

However, over the past three years this place has gone to the dumps there are thugs and unruly people everywhere.

I have prevented two car break-ins by scaring these thugs away.

While I was home on thanksgiving weekend, someone decided to break into my apartment.

They trashed my place stole all my items and even took my law enforcement (LE) vehicle to include my equipment.

I m sure they had been watching me for a while because they did not take items that contained my identification.

Thank god, I had my weapon with me.

In many areas of the country, law enforcement resources are being dramatically cut back due to budget problems at the same time that crime is rapidly rising.

Right now, the city of Detroit is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Officials there recently announced that due to budget constraints, all police stations will be closed to the public for 16 hours a day. From now on, they will only be open to the public from 8 AM to 4 PM.

But in Detroit the police are needed now more than ever. 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.

The population of Detroit is less than half of what it used to be. Over the past few decades people have left in droves, and large sections of the city are in an advanced state of decay.

Not too many people want to buy homes in Detroit now. At this point, the median price of a home in Detroit is just $6000.

The following video contains some video footage of the "ruins of Detroit" that is hard to believe.....

(Go to the site to see a video)

Detroit has become a very scary place. 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.

But it is not just Detroit that is having these kinds of problems.

In Cleveland, over 50 percent of all children are living in poverty and abandoned houses are everywhere.

The city has already demolished about 1,000 homes, and there is a plan to demolish 20,000 more homes. The following comes from a recent CBS News report by Scott Pelley....

Perfectly good homes, worth 75, 100 thousand dollars or more a couple of years ago, are being ripped to splinters in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Here, the great recession left one fifth of all houses vacant. The owners walked away because they couldn't or wouldn't keep paying on a mortgage debt that can be twice the value of the home. Cleveland waited four years for home values to recover and now they've decided to face facts and bury the dead.

Down in St. Louis they have a different problem. In some of the worst areas of the city, roving packs of wild dogs are a serious threat to children that are walking to school. A recent report by the local CBS affiliate in St. Louis described the situation this way....

...Lewis Reed is sounding the alarm. "I’ve witnessed packs of dogs, 10 and 15 dogs running together, and I’ve seen all these dogs I’m talking about they don’t have collars, they don’t have tags, these are truly wild dogs," he said.

Reed says stray dogs are terrorizing the north side. "It’s obscene that parents have to walk their kids to school, in some parts of the city, with a golf club to fend off wild dogs."

How would you feel if you had to fend off wild packs of dogs as you walked your child to school?

These kinds of conditions can be found out on the west coast as well.

For example, there is an area of San Francisco that is known as "Hunter's Point" that is an absolute nightmare. In Hunter's Point, over 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 discovered 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.

When conditions like this reign, it is a prime breeding ground for crime.

In major U.S. cities all over the United States, drug dealing, gang activity and prostitution are on the rise. The following comes from a recent article in the New York Times....

In November, a terrified 13-year-old girl pounded on an apartment door in Brooklyn. When a surprised woman answered, the girl pleaded for a phone. She called her mother, and then dialed 911.

The girl, whom I’ll call Baby Face because of her looks, frantically told police that a violent pimp was selling her for sex. He had taken her to the building and ordered her to go to an apartment where a customer was waiting, she said, and now he was waiting downstairs to make sure she did not escape. She had followed the pimp’s directions and gone upstairs, but then had pounded randomly on this door in hopes of getting help.

In some major U.S. cities, the gangs have virtually taken over. In an article entitled "City of Ruins", Chris Hedges described what life is like today in Camden, New Jersey....

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.

As I wrote about the other day, the FBI says that there are now 1.4 million gang members inside this country. That number has increased by 40 percent since 2009.

Organized criminal behavior by groups of young people is on the rise all over the nation. Just check out this video which shows a flash mob robbery happening in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

This country is still enjoying a tremendous amount of prosperity. We still have a very high standard of living compared to most of the rest of the world.

So how nightmarish are things going to get when the economy gets really bad?

The most frightening thing is when these criminals start invading private homes.

The following home invasion story from Sacramento, California was sent to me by one of my readers a while back....

Somebody got into my sister's house last night while she was out. My mom was upstairs, but didn't hear anything. Whoever it was, they ate some chips and sorted through a stack of maternity clothes my sister had ready for selling on ebay. He left a dirty pair of boxer shorts and a bottom dentures on the dining room table. Fortunately, he was gone when she got home. I'm amazed, but the police actually came out and collected fingerprints and his boxers and false teeth. Probably a homeless guy. He may have switched his dirty boxers for a clean pair of maternity jeans, so the police just have to look for a guy wearing women's maternity pants with no lower teeth.

Because of stuff like this, an increasing number of Americans have decided that it is better to be armed.

The truth is that you never know when you will get jumped.

For example, in Pennsylvania the other day one 65-year-old man was suddenly knocked off his bicycle by three teen thugs.

The 65-year-old man responded by pulling out his gun and shooting two of them. One of the teens was killed.

Down along the border with Mexico, many ranchers have discovered that a gun battle could potentially erupt on any night. The federal government has refused to protect the border, and so millions of illegals just keep streaming on in. The following was recently posted on standwitharizona.com....

Barbed wire fencing doesn’t keep illegal aliens off the property anymore. One Starr County, TX rancher doesn’t have time to worry about the illegals these days. He now worries about the smugglers protecting their loads.

“I don’t think they would have any conscience of taking someone’s life,” the rancher says.

He saw that will to kill firsthand. A smuggler shot at him on his own land.

“One round was fired at me, and it missed my head by about two feet,” says the rancher.

He says there’s only way to react.

“Fire all the rounds you have, reload, and do it again,” says the rancher.

The more stories like this you read, the easier it is to understand why more than 10 million guns were sold in the United States during 2011.

The truth is that you never know when you may need to defend yourself.

This past New Year's Eve, a single mother named Sarah McKinley was home alone with her three-month old son when she discovered that two armed men were trying to invade her home. If she had not had a gun, there is no telling what might have happened. The following is from a news story about that incident....

An Oklahoma woman was recently home with her 3 month old son when two men tried to break in. Armed with a shot gun and a pistol she called 9-1-1.

Operator: "Are your doors locked?"

Caller: "Yes, I've got two guns in my hand. Is it ok to shoot him if he comes in this door?"

Operator: "I can't tell you what you can do but you do what you have to do to protect your baby."

The mother did shoot killing one of the intruders. Oklahoma police called the shooting justified.

What would you have done in that situation?

America is rapidly changing, and we all need to adapt to the new reality all around us.

The truth is that America is not the same place it used to be. In some U.S. cities, authorities are actually dumping dead bodies into mass graves.

Just check out what the Daily Mail says has been going on in Chicago....

It's a practice more closely associated with third world countries, but in bleak times in a Chicago-area suburb, 30 people were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday.

The pauper's burial section at Homewood Memorial Gardens was established for those who could not afford to pay for a burial plot.

And it is a problem that's sweeping America as tough economic times have led to an increase in the number of indigent burials the morgue must perform.

All over the country, major U.S. cities are flat broke and are rapidly decaying. They are filled with impoverished people that are rapidly becoming angrier and more frustrated.

There simply are not enough jobs for everyone. Millions of ordinary Americans spend their days agonizing over the fact that they cannot provide even a basic living for themselves and their families.

And as the economy gets even worse, the economic despair in this country is going to grow to unprecedented levels.

So is now the time to move away from major U.S. cities?

In the end, each of us is going to have to answer that question for ourselves.

Jobs are scarce, so if you have a good job right now it may not be wise to give it up. It can be incredibly challenging to move to a new area when you don't have a job.

One solution may be to move farther away from your current job so that you are in a more rural setting. But the rising cost of gasoline can make that a very expensive proposition.

Some families are purchasing second homes that they can "bug out" to in the event of a major disaster or emergency. But if your financial resources are limited that may not be an option for you.

In the final analysis, you have just got to do the best you can with what you have.

But if you are able to move, it is better to do it while times are relatively stable (like now) than when times are very unstable.

So what do all of you think?

Do you think that now is the time to move away from major U.S. cities?


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: collapse; corruption; crime; cwii; doommonger; economy; getreadyhereitcomes; kookstuff; prepperping; selfreliance; survivalping
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To: Salamander

Regulating the oven temp must have been an art.


221 posted on 01/28/2012 7:49:53 AM PST by patton ("Je pense donc je suis," - My Horse.)
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To: little jeremiah

“.Few or no neighbors, few witnesses, few or no prying eyes or cameras...People leave their doors unlocked, everyone is trusting, etc...All the things criminals like.”

Not sure which ‘rural area’ he’s talking about.
Here in Hillbilly Heaven, everybody knows everybody else and also knows who everybody else knows so ‘suspicious strangers’ don’t slip through often.

The doors may or may not be unlocked but you have to run a gauntlet of ‘yard and porch dogs’ to find out.

As far as ‘no witnesses’, well, hell, we just consider that a bonafide plus...;D

The few times I *have* seen strangers wandering around the neighbors’ property, I “just happened to be going out right then” with a 30.30 slung over my shoulder and stopped to chat with them, real neighborly-like.

They all took off and never came back.

None of the neighbors knew the people based on the description I gave, later.

Don’t know what those folks were ‘up to’ but they didn’t succeed at it.

We take “neighborhood watch” to a whole new level.

Since Gov. O’Malice gave us a great castle doctrine we don’t see ‘strangers’ at all, any more.

The funniest incident was when a bunch of granola punks thought they’d ignore all the no trespassing signs on dad’s mountain and “go hiking” up there.

When they tried to get back out, hubby had pulled the Yukon across the lane, blocking their exit and was waiting with a shotgun for them.

My dad came down and went ballistic on them about the “possible consequences of trespassing” and by the time he was done they were crying and begging to go home.

That was pretty funny.


222 posted on 01/28/2012 8:06:13 AM PST by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Grunthor

“My “Farm” is way too small to blip on the beaurocrats’ radar.”

Type your address into Google maps and get back to us on that.

There’s no such thing as “the middle of nowhere” or “off the radar”, any more.


223 posted on 01/28/2012 8:08:03 AM PST by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Domestic Church

We’ve gotten a *lot* of mileage out of that movie where I live.

I remember my family going to see it at the Maryland Theatre when it was a movie house instead of a snooty concert hall like it is, now.

We were sitting there surrounded by city folk, cheering for the hillbillies.

[it -did- all start when a smart ass flatlander shot at one of them...we had no pity for *that* yuppie party]

Next up was “Southern Comfort”.

Those were two great movies.

:)


224 posted on 01/28/2012 8:19:21 AM PST by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Salamander

I’m sorry, I just haven’t reached quite that level of paranoia. Yet.


225 posted on 01/28/2012 8:25:59 AM PST by Grunthor (I don't vote for Democrats, this includes Mitt Romney.)
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To: Grunthor

The I suggest you forgo the Google search and definitely don’t subscribe to Intelius.

Personally, I gave up giving a damn a long time ago.

I know they know who/where I am and have settled upon simply “dying well” when the time comes.


226 posted on 01/28/2012 8:31:27 AM PST by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: netmilsmom
Sometimes it’s actually better to hunker down where you are and look deserted. Break a few windows and throw some trash around your house, ...

Certainly you're familiar with the concept of "Devil's Night".

Even if your house looks like it contains nothing of value, there are those who will burn it "just for fun".

227 posted on 01/28/2012 8:37:06 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Ditter
Best sign combo ever:

We haven't even had any of those infamously pesky Jehovah's Witnesses in years.

[even the Census scum leaves us be]

228 posted on 01/28/2012 8:40:00 AM PST by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: patton

More like a razor’s edge dance with psychoses...you *couldn’t* really ever “regulate” it.

It just so happened that the ‘normal temps’ were great for baking bread and pies.

Everything else was left up to prayer and luck....;D


229 posted on 01/28/2012 8:43:05 AM PST by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: Ditter

I’m with you.

We live in suburbia and I have no intention of going anywhere. We don’t have a “Beware of Dog” sign. We have a dog. Every member of the family shoots and shoots well.

They may eventually overrun us, but they’re going to have to stumble through and over the piles of bloody rotting corpses in the street and yard to get to us.


230 posted on 01/28/2012 8:52:12 AM PST by 2111USMC (Not a hard man to track. Leaves dead men wherever he goes.)
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To: DuncanWaring

Holy CRAP!!! You’re absolutely correct and you’re right, I should have known of Devil’s Night, being from Detroit and all.

Time to make a plan B.


231 posted on 01/28/2012 8:53:49 AM PST by netmilsmom (Happiness is a choice)
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To: Salamander

What did you do with the thing?

Is it ... perhaps ... for sale?


232 posted on 01/28/2012 9:01:30 AM PST by patton ("Je pense donc je suis," - My Horse.)
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To: 2111USMC
LOL! Just the way I feel. But seriously, if you have a sign you don't even need a dog (not that I would EVER be without one or 4). We had 2 big guys delivering a new dishwasher ring the bell and run back to the safety of their truck because of the SECURITY DOG sign. They yelled “is de security dawg chained up?”. My husband yelled back “yes, both of them”. We have 3 Jack Russel Terrorist and a big fat hound dog. Not a danger to anybody but they let me know if anyone is around.
233 posted on 01/28/2012 9:08:06 AM PST by Ditter
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To: Salamander
I love your signs, especially this first one. We don't have many (or any) Jehovah's Witnesses bothering us but we do have people who pretend to be selling magazines but they are really casing your house to come back later and rob you.

They see my dog signs and go next door. When they get to my neighbors house, who don't have a sign but they have 2 English Mastiffs who come to the door, the scumbags beat a hasty retreat. Dogs are wonderful!

234 posted on 01/28/2012 9:14:32 AM PST by Ditter
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To: Wild Berry

Small towns are stifling
___________________________
Your opinion does not make it fact.


235 posted on 01/28/2012 9:22:09 AM PST by mojitojoe (SCOTUS.... think about that when you decide to sit home and pout because your candidate didn't win)
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To: Wild Berry

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2838506/posts?page=33#33


236 posted on 01/28/2012 9:23:13 AM PST by mojitojoe (SCOTUS.... think about that when you decide to sit home and pout because your candidate didn't win)
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To: tony549

I think he’s serious!


237 posted on 01/28/2012 9:24:01 AM PST by mojitojoe (SCOTUS.... think about that when you decide to sit home and pout because your candidate didn't win)
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To: little jeremiah

LOL!!! I got a good laugh out of that too.


238 posted on 01/28/2012 9:30:01 AM PST by mojitojoe (SCOTUS.... think about that when you decide to sit home and pout because your candidate didn't win)
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To: patton

The old Monarch?

Went to MD metals for scrap.

Iron rusts, especially the thinner bits like the water tank, chimney pipe and back wall.

It was totally unusable any more.

You can, however, find them cheap from people trying to unload them.

They weigh a ton and ‘free for hauling away’ is not uncommon, here.


239 posted on 01/28/2012 9:32:27 AM PST by Salamander (If I'm too rough, tell me.....I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.)
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To: little jeremiah

The ocean is a marvelous thing. You can bathe in it, wash clothes in it and always find food in it. You can’t drink it but you can if you have have a desalination system. It’s also nice to be somewhere that you can’t freeze to death. You might get hot in the summer but you can always cool off in the ocean and find a spot in the shade. Plus it’s warn enough to grow vegetable and fruits year round. I’ll take warm over bitter cold any day of the week.


240 posted on 01/28/2012 9:34:45 AM PST by mojitojoe (SCOTUS.... think about that when you decide to sit home and pout because your candidate didn't win)
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