Posted on 11/29/2011 9:19:41 PM PST by JohnKinAK
The following must-see 60 Minutes segment further highlights the deteriorating economic conditions across the United States. It turns out some families are losing their grip on the motels and discovering that the homesless shelters are full. Where do they go then? They try to keep up appearances by day and try to stay out of sight at night – holding on to one another in a hidden America, a place you wouldn’t notice unless you ran into the people we met in the moments before dawn.
There are millions of Americans right now that are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Inevitably, as things get worse, many more will join those who have already been forced to abandon their old lifestyles to live in short-term low cost motels, homeless shelters, tent cities or in their cars. To be sure, some of those living on the streets made mistakes and poor decisions that have brought them where they are today. Others, however, are the collateral damage from a government run amok and the decades long unfettered sociopathic thievery of law abiding hard working Americans.
The longevity of homelessness continues to rise. So people are running out of resources. The unemployment runs out. Their savings run out. The family that lent them money does not have it anymore because they are looking at economic hardship. And, before you know it, they find themselves living in their car because they just ran out of all options.
For those whose timetable for economic collapse lies at some arbitrary time in the future, take a serious look at what’s happening around you. Millions have lost their homes. Even more have lost their jobs. Those who are still spending are doing so with the money they have left in their savings or the available credit left on their charge cards. Record numbers of people are living in poverty and the same is true for those seeking food assistance from the government. The collapse is here. It’s staring us in the face. It can’t be ignored. And, it’s not even close to being over.
None of us will remain untouched by the events playing out in the world around us. We can take steps to prepare to the best of our abilities, but circumstances may get the better of us. If and when hard times befall us – and there’s a strong possibility they will – and the seemingly uncontrollable feelings of helplessness and failure take hold, we can only hope to have the strength, optimism and realistic perspective of the 15 year old girl featured in the 60 Minutes story:
It’s not really that much of an embarrassment. It’s only life. You do what you need to do, right?
Progressivism and Keynesian economics has ran its course. The legacy of FDR is causing America to hit bottom. I hope we learn from it.
I’ve been to Las Vegas twice in the last month. Once for work, once for vacation. I’ve been going there on a regular basis for years, sometimes as often as twice a month for busineess, but haven’t been there in a couple.
That said, I have NEVER seen Vegas as bad as it is on the last two trips. LV has always had homeless, but they have always kept them, the hookers, and the open-air drug dealing off the strip.
This time, I have seen it on both trips, even in the Miracle Mile. Downtown on Fremont Street was even worse. Away from the strip, it is much worse, empty homes are everywhere, even the high-dollar areas, and with beggars on many streetcorners, a sight you only saw once or twice in a while, on the interstate ramps.
I would pay good money to see Nancy Pelosi sleeping in a car.
The online Sorosphere of course blames the “Republican Congress”, appealing to the idiot electorate that doesn’t realize the Democrats control the Senate.
I changed planes in Vegas last year. It is shocking when you fly over the area to see all of the unfinished, abandoned housing projects.
Ask my wife. LOL!
Low-skilled transients scurry around the sunbelt chasing jobs in the latest state to be ordained an economic miracle. When times are good they manage when they aren't they don't.
Funny, me and wife were just there for some friends fortieth wedding anniversary festivities and we figured we had never seen it cleaner. I don’t think I saw a panhandler the entire time we were there except for the fruits in bad costumes looking for tips.
Hmmm. This 60min piece was from my county in FL. I think we’re in the top 3 for median income in the state.
Unemployment in the county is at 9% and I read the other day that the state unemployment is at 10.1%, lowest in 28 months.
I’m not doubting the piece, perhaps I’m just trying to put it in perspective myself.
Black Friday’s reported numbers were for gross sales. Stores were offering HUGE discounts to get the people in, which they did but with little profit to show for it.
Sat and Sun traffic dropped sharply and the clear picture of the success or not of this shopping season will not be evident until sometime after the new year begins.
I was looking at real estate postings two months ago in Vegas. You could pick up a house that ran for $400k back in 2007, for about $180k now....plus you could probably deal that down another $10k if you talked tough. Across the whole city...you’ve got several thousand houses that fall into this category.
The problem with Vegas is that they have only one product in the whole city to sell. Unless you are a retiree....there’s no other reason to move there.
“However the same store they are in front of is hiring people to stock shelves or run the floor cleaner overnights for $10.75 an hour.”
Here in the NYC metro area those jobs don’t pay that much, and the cost of living is much higher. Even at $10.75 per hour, you couldn’t rent a small apartment; illegals band together and six will rent a small apartment that a single American would occupy.
Companies see no reason to pay a more experienced worker when younger, cheaper ones are available. In the past the companies placed a premium on reliable, clean staff; now they’ll hire anything (at the lowest possible price). If they have a 30% error rate, compared to a 2% error rate for a better-qualified employee, so what?
“Collectibles” are, and always have been, a terrible investment that rose to prominence during times of a weak stock market coupled with high incomes. In the end, they only have as much value as a prospective buyer puts on them, and the market is not nearly as fluid as the exchanges. In my younger days I collected coins as a hobby; now I won’t touch one that isn’t gold, silver, platinum, or palladium.
“I know that in 2008, the government announced that the recession had really started in 2007, but I think it started earlier.”
If the “Clinton economy” was still all it’s been cracked up to be in 2000, Gore would have demolished Bush. The fact is that there were already problems in the job market, as the “information superhighway” went online and starting sucking white-collar jobs out of the country. On 9/11 many lives were doubtlessly saved by the fact that the World Trade Center had a lot of vacancies; jobs were already leaving the financial district (either for NJ or Asia).
I finished school in the early nineties, and the economy at that point was bad enough to cost Bush I a second term. Fall of 2008 was just when it was decided that the media could finally report how bad things had become (to put Obama into the White House). Why not have a foreign communist tell Americans we’d been reduced to Red Chinese peasants?
That would be the Sanford area: off highway US-27, I live just 40 minutes south of you.
While they are not "living in forests"—you can drive deep into Florida's orange groves, and you will see large groups of "immigrants" living in buses—and large "kitchens" out in the open air.
Those Florida encampments are smaller, but analogous to Texas "Colonias".
When I saw how many had cellphones, I decided maybe I should get one for myself!
:-/
Don’t waste your time. If it is on “60 Minutes”, it simply cannot be trusted as accurate.
‘However the same store they are in front of is hiring people to stock shelves or run the floor cleaner overnights for $10.75 an hour. That’s the part the truly puzzles me.’
Just because you are homeless doesn’t mean you don’t necessarily have a job. Maybe the people parked there ARE working there..and living out of their car. I was homeless for almost 2.5 years. THere are things you notice when you become homeless-because most of the ‘respectable homeless’ try to keep appearances up because they don’t want pity, they just want a job with the hope that things can turn around someday. They did for me, but only after a struggle. I had most all of my stuff in storage, but realistically, 10 bucks an hour these days if you live in a major metropolitan area doesn’t put a roof over your head if you’re by yourself. My own trouble all started for being ‘too honest.’ Try refusing to sign your name to a charge number given to you by an unscrupulous defense contractor [whose name I won’t mention, but whose initials were SAIC] and see where that eventually lands you. They’ll eventually force you out on some BS pretext, and before you know it you’ll have lost your house. Interviewer: ‘Why did you leave your last company?’ ‘refused to lie’ oh. Bye. See ya...that means you might not lie for us either.... [Got by with showers from the San Diego Kroc center - and a place to ‘go’ to be ‘normal’ and exercise. 25 bucks a month there was the best spent money ever.
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