American Hellholes
The
U. S. economy is
dying and we are heading for the next Great Depression.
The talking heads in the mainstream media love to spin the economic
numbers around and around and they love to make it sound like the
economy is improving, but the truth is that it doesn't take a genius
to see what is happening to the U.S. economic system. All
over the nation many of our greatest cities are being slowly but surely
transformed into post-apocalyptic wastelands. All over the
mid-Atlantic, all along the Gulf coast, all throughout the "rust
belt" and all over the entire state of California cities that once
had incredibly vibrant economies are being turned into rotting,
post-industrial hellholes. 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 that you drive into them. It
is almost as if all of the hope has been sucked right out of those
communities. If you live in one of those American hellholes you
know what I am talking about. Sadly, it is not just a few cities
that are becoming hellholes. This is happening in the east, in the
west, in the north and in the south. America is literally being
transformed right in front of our eyes. If you
still live in an area of the United States that is prosperous, do not
mock the cities that you are about to read about. The cold,
hard reality of the matter is that economic decline and economic despair
are spreading rapidly and they will come to your area soon enough.
Right now we are still talking about "American hellholes", but
if the long-term economic trends that are destroying this nation are not
turned around eventually we will just be talking about one gigantic
"American hellhole". In the end, no area of the
country will completely escape the economic hell that is coming. Let's
take a closer look at what is currently happening in some of the worst
areas of the country.... Detroit,
Michigan In the
city of Detroit today, there are over 33,000 abandoned houses,
70 schools are being 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. During
the boom days of the 1950s, Detroit was a teeming
metropolis of approximately 2 million people, but today the current
population is less than half that. The city of Detroit, once a
shining example of middle class America, is now a rotting cesspool of
economic decline and it actually saw its population decline by 25
percent during the decade that recently ended.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Detroit lost a resident every
22 minutes between the years of 2000 and 2010. So why
are people leaving Detroit so rapidly? There
simply are no jobs. At
the height of the economic downturn, the mayor of Detroit admitted that
while the "official" unemployment rate in Detroit was about 27
percent, the "real" unemployment rate in his city was
actually somewhere around 50 percent. Since
there are not enough jobs, that also means that not enough tax money is
coming in. Detroit is essentially insolvent at this point. Detroit
officials are trying to implement some austerity measures in a desperate
attempt to get city finances under control. For
example, the state of Michigan recently granted approval to a plan that would
shut down nearly half of the public schools in Detroit.
Under the plan, 70
schools will be closed and 72 will continue
operating. It has
been estimated that the remaining public schools will have class sizes
of up to 60 students. Detroit
Mayor Dave Bing also wants to cut off 20
percent of the entire city from police and trash services in
order to save money. Essentially
that would mean abandoning 20 percent of the city of Detroit to the
gangs and to the homeless. The
mayor of Detroit has also discussed a plan in which authorities
would bulldoze one-fourth of the city in order to
save money on services. So
with all of this going on, is Detroit a pleasant place to live at this
point? No
way. Today,
Detroit is considered to be the
third most violent city in the United States. 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. If you
want to see what the future of America looks like, just take a few hours
and go driving through Detroit some time. But please only do this
during the day. Do not do this at night. Detroit is not a
safe place anymore, and you cannot count on the police to help you in a
timely manner. Detroit
was once one of the greatest cities in the world. But
today it is an absolute hellhole. Camden,
New Jersey So is
there any place in America that is worse than Detroit? Well,
many would nominate Camden, New Jersey. Many
years ago, Camden was actually thriving and prosperous. But today
the city of Camden is known as "the second most dangerous city in
America". In a
recent article entitled "City
of Ruins", Chris Hedges did an amazing job of
documenting the horrific decline of Camden. Hedges estimates that
the real rate of unemployment in Camden is somewhere around 30 to 40
percent, and he makes it sound like nobody in their right mind would
want to live there now.... Camden is where those discarded as human
refuse are dumped, along with the physical refuse of postindustrial
America. A sprawling sewage treatment plant on forty acres of riverfront
land processes 58 million gallons of wastewater a day for Camden County.
The stench of sewage lingers in the streets. There is a huge
trash-burning plant that releases noxious clouds, a prison, a massive
cement plant and mountains of scrap metal feeding into a giant shredder.
The city is scarred with several thousand decaying abandoned row
houses; the skeletal remains of windowless brick factories and
gutted gas stations; overgrown vacant lots filled with garbage and old
tires; neglected, weed-filled cemeteries; and boarded-up store fronts. Gangs
have stepped into the gaping void left by industry. In
Camden today, drugs and prostitution are two of the only viable
businesses left - especially for those who cannot find employment
anywhere else. The following is how Hedges describes the current
state of affairs.... 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. But
before we all start judging Camden for being such a horrible place to
live, it is important to realize that this is happening in
communities from coast to coast. All over the United
States industries are leaving and deep social decay is setting in. Even
the criminals in Camden are struggling. Things have gotten so bad
in Camden, New Jersey that
not even the drug dealers are spending their money
anymore. So
where are the police? Unfortunately,
there is very little money for police. Authorities in
Camden recently decided to
lay off half of the city police force. So now
the gangs and the drug dealers have more room to operate. Sadly,
this is not just happening in Camden. It is happening all over New
Jersey. Of
315 municipalities the New Jersey State Police union recently surveyed, more
than half indicated that they were planning to lay off police
officers. So why
doesn't the state government step in and help out? Well,
the state of New Jersey is in such bad shape that they still are facing a
$10 billion budget deficit for this year even
after cutting a billion dollars from the education budget and laying off
thousands of teachers. New
Jersey also has $46 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and $65
billion in unfunded health care liabilities. Nobody is quite sure
how New Jersey is even going to come close to meeting those obligations. Meanwhile,
cities like Camden are rotting a little bit more every single day. New
Orleans, Louisiana New
Orleans had a struggling economy even before Hurricane Katrina struck
back in 2005. But that event changed everything. It is
now almost 6 years later and virtually the entire region is still a
disaster zone. New
Orleans permanently lost 29%
of its population after Hurricane Katrina. There are many areas of
New Orleans that still look as if they have just been bombed. 21.5
percent of all houses in New Orleans, Louisiana are
currently standing vacant. Many of those homes will never be
inhabited again. What
made things even worse for New Orleans (and for residents all along the
Gulf coast) was the horrific BP oil spill last year. The
mainstream news does not talk about the oil spill much anymore, but those
living in the area have to deal with the effects every single day. Some
of the industries in the Gulf region were really starting to recover
from Hurricane Katrina but the BP oil spill put a stop to that. Before
the oil spill, Louisiana produced more fish and seafood than
anywhere in the United States except for Alaska. But
now the seafood industry has been absolutely devastated.
It has been estimated that the cost of the BP oil spill to the fishing
industry in Louisiana alone could
top 3 billion dollars. Some
local shrimpers in the region are projecting that
it will be about seven years before they can set to
sea again. New
Orleans keeps trying to bounce back from all of these disasters, but
times are tough down there. Today,
New Orleans is the 13th
most violent city in America. That is actually
an improvement. Before Katrina New Orleans had even more violent
crime. The
truth is that other areas along the Gulf coast are doing a lot worse
than New Orleans is doing. A ton of big corporate money has flowed
into New Orleans. Officials are trying to clean up the city and
make it a huge tourist destination once again. But in
the surrounding areas things are not looking so bright. There are
areas along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the
panhandle of Florida that are some of the most depressing places in the
nation. It is
almost as if there are hundreds of thousands of people that time forgot.
In some rural areas along the Gulf coast the poverty is absolutely mind
blowing. There are very few jobs and there is very little hope.
Meanwhile, large numbers of people in the region continue to get
sick from the toxic dispersants used to clean up the oil spill. Let us
hope that we don't see another major disaster in the Gulf of Mexico any
time soon. As it is, it is going to take decades for that region
to fully recover. There are a lot of really good people that live
down there, and they deserve our prayers. Vallejo,
California
(And Virtually The Rest Of The State Of California) Almost
the entire state of California is an economic disaster zone.
Austerity measures are being implemented in city after city as tax
revenues have nosedived. The
following is an excerpt from
a recent New York Times article that describes the
brutal austerity that has been implemented in Vallejo, California.... Vallejo
is still in bankruptcy. The police force has shrunk from 153 officers to
92. Calls for any but the most serious crimes go unanswered. Residents
who complain about prostitutes or vandals are told to fill out a form.
Three of the city’s firehouses were closed. Last summer, a fire
ravaged a house in one of the city’s better neighborhoods; one of the fire trucks
came from another town, 15 miles away. Is this America’s future? Sadly,
that is what the future of America is going to look like. Public
services are being slashed all over the nation due to budget crunches. Unless
there is a major jobs recovery, the situation in California is going to
continue to degenerate. The truth is that the state of
California needs millions and millions of new jobs just to get back to
"normal". For example, near the end of last year it
was reported that 24.3
percent of the residents of El Centro, California
were unemployed. Not only that, as of the end of last year the
number of people unemployed in the state of California was approximately
equivalent to the entire populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and
Vermont combined. Businesses
are closing in California at an astounding pace. At one point
last year it was reported that in the area around Sacramento, California
there was one
closed business for every six that were still open. As a
result of all of this, home prices in many areas of California have
completely fallen off a cliff. For example, the average home in
Merced, California has declined in value by
63 percent over the past four years. California
also had more foreclosure filings that any other U.S. state in 2010.
The 546,669
total foreclosure filings during the year means that over 4 percent of
all the housing units in the state of California received a foreclosure
filing at some point during 2010. Sadly,
things don't look like they are going to turn around in California any
time soon. Forbes recently compiled a list entitled "Cities
Where The Economy May Get Worse". Six
of the top seven spots were held by cities in California. California
is becoming a very frightening place. When you combine high
unemployment with unchecked illegal immigration what you get is rampant
poverty. 20
percent of the residents of Los Angeles County are now
receiving public aid of one form or another. In
particular, the number of children that are considered to be in need of
public assistance is truly scary. Incredibly,
60
percent
of
all the students attending California public schools now qualify for
free or reduced-price school lunches. Poverty
and illegal immigration have also caused a tremendous health care crisis
in the state. The hordes of illegal aliens taking advantage
of "free" medical care at hospital emergency rooms have caused
dozens of hospitals across the state of California to completely shut
down. As a result, the state of California now ranks dead
last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency
rooms per million people. The
bozos in Sacramento keep passing hundreds of new laws in an attempt to
"fix" the state, but the truth is that for the poorest
residents of the state all of those new laws don't make a shred of
difference. The
following is how Victor
Davis Hansen describes what he saw during his recent
tour of the "forgotten areas of central California".... Many of the rural trailer-house compounds I
saw appear to the naked eye no different from what I have seen in the
Third World . There is a Caribbean look to the junked cars, electric
wires crisscrossing between various outbuildings, plastic tarps
substituting for replacement shingles, lean-tos cobbled together as
auxiliary housing, pit bulls unleashed, and geese, goats, and chickens
roaming around the yards. The public hears about all sorts of tough
California regulations that stymie business - rigid zoning laws, strict
building codes, constant inspections - but apparently none of that
applies out here. Hansen
also says that he observed that people in these areas are doing whatever
they can to get by.... At crossroads, peddlers in a counter-California
economy sell almost anything. Here is what I noticed at an intersection
on the west side last week: shovels, rakes, hoes, gas pumps, lawnmowers,
edgers, blowers, jackets, gloves, and caps. The merchandise was all new.
I doubt whether in high-tax California sales taxes or income taxes were
paid on any of these stop-and-go transactions. In
two supermarkets 50 miles apart, I was the only one in line who did not
pay with a social-service plastic card (gone are the days when "food
stamps" were embarrassing bulky coupons). Are
you frightened yet? You
know what they say - "as goes California, so goes the nation". What
is happening in California now is eventually going to come to your area. Right
now California is also having a huge problem with gangs. 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. But
instead of ramping up to fight crime and fight illegal immigration,
police forces all over California are
being cut back. For
example, because of extreme budget cuts and police layoffs,
Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts has announced that there
are a number of crimes that his department simply will no longer
respond to due to a lack of resources.
The following is a
partial list of the crimes that police officers in
Oakland will no longer be responding to....
Not
that Oakland wasn't already a mess before all this, but now how long do
you think it will be before total chaos and anarchy reigns on the
streets of Oakland? Today,
Oakland is considered the
5th most violent city in the United States. Will
it soon become the most violent? But
Oakland is not the only major California city that is facing these kinds
of issues. 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." Already
the police force in Stockton has been stripped down to almost nothing. A
while back, the Stockton Police Department dropped
this bombshell.... "We
absolutely do not have any narcotics officers, narcotics sergeants
working any kind of investigative narcotics type cases at this point in
time." Do you
think drug dealers will be flocking to Stockton after they hear that? California
was once the envy of the world. Now it
is becoming one gigantic hellhole. During
one recent 23 year period, the state of California built
23 prisons but just one university. So
is there any hope for California? No,
unfortunately there is not. In
another article, I wrote about some of the reasons why millions of
people have
been leaving California for good.... Meanwhile, the standard of living in
California is going right into the toilet. Housing values are
plummeting. Unemployment has risen above 20 percent in many areas
of the state. Crime and gang activity is on the rise even as
police budgets are being hacked to the bone. The health care
system is an absolute disaster. At this point California has the
fewest emergency rooms per million people out of all 50 states.
While all of this has been going on, the state legislature in Sacramento
has been very busy passing hundreds of new laws that are mostly about
promoting one radical agenda or another. The state government has
become so radically anti-business that it is a wonder that any
businesses have remained in the state. It seems like the moving
vans never stop as an endless parade of businesses and families leave
California as quickly as they can. But
this is not just a "California thing". The truth is that
what is happening in California, in Detroit, in Camden and in hundreds
of other communities is also going to happen where you live. The
U.S. economy is slowly dying. Only 66.8%
of American men had a job last year. That was the
lowest level that has ever been recorded in U.S. history. People
are getting desperate. There are ten percent fewer middle class
jobs than there were a decade ago and the competition for good jobs has
become insane. More than 44 million Americans are now on food
stamps and that number grows every single month. Millions more
American families fall into poverty every single year. It is
time to face the truth about what is happening to America. Our
economy is not growing and becoming stronger. Rather, the cold,
hard reality of the matter is that our economy is very sick and it is
dying. The seemingly boundless prosperity that we have enjoyed for
decade after decade is coming to an end. Our communities are being
transformed into absolute hellholes. Those
that are telling you that the U.S. economy will soon be better than ever
are lying to you. The U.S. economy is going to go down and
it is going to go down hard.
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