Monty Pelerin's World

Many are in denial that our country is in decline. Not slow decline either, but a relentless slide that produces Escape From New York conditions. A trailer can be watched here. For those who are unaware of this movie, Wikipedia describes it as follows:

[It] is a 1981 American science fictionaction film directed and scored by John Carpenter. He co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Castle. The film is set in the near future in a crime-riddenUnited States that has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into a maximum security prison. Ex-soldier Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is given 24 hours to find the President of the United States, who has been captured after the crash of Air Force One.

Carpenter wrote the film in the mid-1970s as a reaction to the Watergate scandal, but proved incapable of articulating how the film related to the scandal. After the success of Halloween, he had enough influence to get the film made and shot most of it in St. Louis, Missouri.^[3]

The film’s total budget was estimated to be US$6 million.^[1] It was a commercial hit, grossing over $50 million worldwide.^[2] It has since become a cult film.

In a dystopian 1997, crime in the United States has increased 400%, so in 1988 Manhattan was turned into a giant maximum security prison. Surrounded by a 50 foot-tall containment wall and mines on all bridges and patrolled waterways, nobody is allowed in the prison, not even guards.

Other than being a prison, New York is reminiscent of today’s Detroit or other cities moving toward a similar end. According to The American Dream, similar conditions can be found in areas within what most of us consider prosperous cities:

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 whatone 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.

The American Dream mentions several cities in their worthwhile but depressing article including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Camden, Cleveland, Highland Park, MI and, of course, Detroit where the following statistics were cited:

*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.

The economic conditions in this country are not going to get better despite all the government propaganda suggesting a recovery. This recovery has been touted for three years now and failed to materialize. It will not develop before the economy, the Federal Government and many local governments collapse. The size of government is unsustainable and debt levels incurred are too high to ever pay off.

In the meantime, more and more cities will continue to suffer with many areas literally becoming unlivable and uncivilized. To understand, take a close look at Detroit or read The American Dream article which concludes:

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.

 

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