Cities Collapsing Around America

The records begin catching up with the predictions -

In East St. Louis -

East St. Louis has a national reputation for being a city that you want to avoid. The following is from a recent Bloomberg article about the growing crime in that community...

Dodging open manholes where thieves had swiped cast-iron covers, Stephen Wigginton drives the crumbling streets of his hometown, East St. Louis, Illinois, pointing out new landmarks in America’s most violent city.

There’s the shopping mall where a police officer was shot in the face, a youth center that saw a triple homicide in September, and scattered about the city of 27,000 are brightly lit gas stations that serve as magnets for carjackers, hit-and-run robbers and killers.

“It’s the Wild West,” said Wigginton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.

Today, the murder rate in East St. Louis is 17 times higher than the national average, but financial problems have forced huge cuts to the police budget. The number of police patrolling the streets of East St. Louis was reduced by 33 percent between 2008 and 2011. Police in the city admit that they are outgunned and outmanned, but there is not much that can be done about it.

In Camden -

Camden, New Jersey is another city that has experienced huge cuts to the police budget. Their police force shrank by about a third between 2008 and 2011. Today, Camden is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in America and it has a murder rate that is about ten times higher than New York City.

The gangs have a very strong hold over Camden, and kids kill kids on a regular basis in the city. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article about the horrible violence that is plaguing Camden…

And in finally, in the Presidents former hangout, Chicago -

In recent years there have been massive cuts to the police budget in Chicago due to financial difficulties. At the same time, gang activity has dramatically increased in the city.

As a result, Chicago has become known for murders and violence. The murder rate in Chicago was about 17 percent higher in 2012 than it was in 2011, and Chicago is now considered to be "the deadliest global city".

If you can believe it, the number of murders in Chicago during 2012 was roughly equivalent to the number of murders in the entire country of Japan during 2012.

And the primary reason for all of this violence in Chicago is the gangs. As I have written about previously, there are only about 200 police officers assigned to Chicago's Gang Enforcement Unit. It is their job to handle the estimated 100,000 gang members living in the city.

Approximately 80 percent of all murders and shootings in the city of Chicago are gang-related, and as the gangs continue to grow in size the violence in the city is going to get even worse. If Barack Obama wants to do something about violence in America, perhaps he should start with his home city. 

Prior economic activity which attracts unsavory elements. Check

Introduction of 'progressive/liberal' elements to modernize the city. Check.

Runaway 'economic success' that demonstrates the supreme wisdom of the progressives. Check.

Allegations of fudging, double books, and outright fraud resulting in witchunts and expulsion of more reputable citizens. Check.

Urban exodus. Check.

Precipitous drop in property value. Check.

Sudden, violent and 'unforseen' economic contraction. Check.

Further rigging of an already fraudulent system to compensate chosen vendors and corporate shills that utilizes the public treasury to backstop corporate activity. (Bailouts, business 'friendly') Check.

Mass urban exodus. Check.

Complete collapse into an unusable crime infested third-world gang land. Check and Done.

Let's review from the 2012 predictions -

Certain areas that were big on expansion before the crash, begin to resemble (Chinese) ghost towns. Eventually, gangs move into these areas abandoned by the local populace.

The cost of policing goes up substantially due to hazard pay, deaths and low enrollment. (Already starting to happen.) This leads to turf wars - (Black vs black, black vs Mexican, cop vs gang, cop vs Fed)

Of course, the reason why this is so completely and utterly predictable is because the arguments put out by proponents of these theories literally think they can rewrite the rules of physics, mathematics and human behavior every time and then deny they did it in the first place. It's like predicting a man will die when he falls from a few stories. Sure, he just might survive, but he will certainly be the exception and not the rule.

And yet the exhausted chorus rings out - We need worker retraining, educational subsidies, block grants, urban renewal, etc... all the while ignoring the one item that will definitely fix the immediate problem.

Property rights.

No, not coding and taxes. Flat out property rights. If you buy it, you own it.
Not renting via property taxes. Ownership.

In order to compete, we must first be competitive. (Seems simple eh?) And in order to be competitive we must have better than we currently have. And to have that, we must be able to trade and build without government intrusion.