10 Signs That America Is Decomposing Right In Front Of Our Eyes
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The decay of society is so much harder to quantify than economic decline is. The government keeps lots of statistics on things like unemployment and inflation, but it really does not keep track of how sick and twisted people are becoming. Most of us recognize that the character of the American people has changed dramatically over the decades, but unlike the national debt, you can’t easily point to a chart or a graph to show exactly how bad things are getting. In this article, my approach will be to point you to various “signs” of social decay. Signs tell us where we are at now and where we are headed. Some of the signs that I will use will be statistics while others will simply consist of anecdotal evidence. Yes, anecdotal evidence is not perfect, but when you put enough of it together it starts to paint a pretty clear picture of what is going on out there. America is becoming a truly frightening place. Our cities our decaying, thieves are becoming bolder, you never know who you can trust and everyone seems depressed. America is decomposing right in front of our eyes, and it is time that we all admitted it.
In the old days, if you met a stranger out on the streets you knew that you could almost certainly trust that person. But these days if you let your child wander one aisle over while you are shopping at Wal-Mart there is a chance that someone will try to abduct her.
Something has changed.
In our major cities, if you walk up to someone at random there is a decent chance that person will be a pervert or a sicko, and most Americans know that this is true at a gut level. Almost everyone is very leery of “strangers” these days. It has gotten to the point where we are all afraid of one another.
Just try this some time….
In a major U.S. city, walk right up to people on the street, look them in the eyes and try to introduce yourself.
What will happen when you do that?
In many instances, people will literally run away from you.
We are scared to death to interact with people that we do not know, and the reality is that those fears are way too often justified.
The character of the American people is decaying at a rapid pace, and the evidence of this is all around us.
The following are 10 signs that America is decomposing right in front of our eyes….
#1 As the economy crumbles, in many U.S. cities desperate people are increasingly resorting to violent acts in an attempt to survive. So far this year, violent crime in Washington D.C. has risen by 40 percent. Robberies at gunpoint have more than doubled compared to the same time period last year.
And as I wrote about recently, justifiable homicide in Detroit rose by a staggering 79 percent during 2011, and the rate of self-defense killings in Detroit is now 2200% above the national average.
#2 But it is not just in the cities where you will find crazies. A recent Daily Mail article described a very disturbing incident which took place recently in North Dakota. Two crack-fueled perverts abducted and murdered a 43-year-old math teacher named Sherry Arnold….
Spell and Waters had left Colorado days before the crime claiming they wanted work in eastern Montana and western North Dakota’s oil fields.
After smoking crack cocaine over the entire trip, Waters allegedly told Spell the drug ‘brought the devil out in him’ and began talking about kidnapping and killing a female, AP reports.
After they spotted Arnold, Spell claims that Waters told him to ‘grab the lady’ and pull her into their Ford Explorer as she jogged by.
After they got Arnold into the car, they choked her to death and then buried her body in a shallow grave in North Dakota.
Why would anyone do something like that?
#3 Unfortunately, sickos will even be found working for the government. Just as so many of us feared, TSA workers are actually purposely selecting attractive women to go through the body scanners so that they can admire their naked bodies. The following are actual quotations from official TSA complaints….
-“I feel I was targeted by the TSA employee to go through the see-you-naked machine because I am a semi-attractive female.”
-“The screener appeared to enjoy the process of picking someone rather than doing true random screening. I felt this was inappropriate. A woman behind me was also “randomly selected.”
-“TSA staff ‘trolling’ the lines looking for people to pull out was unprofessional.”
-“I know he went to that room to see my naked body through the machine with the other guy.”
-“When I looked around, I saw that there were only women that were “told” to go through this machine. There were no men.”
One woman was recently forced to go through the body scanner three times because the TSA workers wanted to get a really good look at her “cute figure“.
Isn’t about time that we admitted that the TSA is a massive failure?
#4 The American people seem more depressed than ever. So are we the most depressed nation in the entire world? The U.S. has the highest percentage of women taking antidepressants of any country in the world, and kids in the U.S. are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than kids in Europe are.
#5 The gang problem in the United States has never been worse. According to the FBI, the number of gang members in the United States has risen by 40 percent since 2009 and there are now a total of 1.4 million gang members living inside this country.
#6 Millions of other young people are not able to find jobs once they finish school and end up financially dependent on their parents. Today, record numbers of young adults are living at home. Many of these young people end up very disillusioned and very frustrated. Right now, more than 30 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 34 age bracket are currently living at home with their parents. That is not good news for the future of this country.
#7 All over America, criminals are becoming bolder and more desperate. The following is a report about one serial home invader from the Washington Post….
A housekeeper was tied up and sexually assaulted and a mother and teenage son were tied up during a home invasion in Bethesda early Wednesday morning that Montgomery County police say involves the same suspect as in a home invasion Tuesday in Wheaton.
As the economy gets even worse, home invasions will become even more common. You might want to learn how to defend yourself.
#8 These days thieves will steal literally anything. Each night in cities all over the nation more street lights are going out as thieves strip the copper wiring right out of them. In the San Francisco area, one very ambitious group of thieves actually swiped a copper bell that weighs 2.7 tons.
#9 One of the clearest signs that America is decomposing is the stunning decline of major cities such as Detroit. In response to my recent article about the death of Detroit, a reader identified as Bill posted the following….
Seeing what is happening to Detroit makes me want to cry AND scream.
I’m a native Detroiter myself – born in Harper Hospital on the east side & was one of those 2 million plus counted in the 1950 Census. I left Detroit in the early 70s for work reasons and had not gone back there since 1984.
When I drove through there on my way to Port Huron last September I “made a lap” around the city – got off I-75 downtown, made a loop around the downtown area (the 2 new stadiums look nice as does the RenCen) then went out Michigan Avenue to 12th and up through the 1967 Riot area to Grand River and out to the northwestern part of town where I grew up and went to school.
What a depressing trip. All my old haunts are gone, boarded up or burnt to the ground. The car dealer where I bought my first car (the old “Redford Rambler” on Grand River just west of Evergreen) is nothing but a slab. All the car dealers along the Grand River strip from Evergreen to McNicoles (6 Mile Rd.) are gone, the 16th Precinct Police Station at GR & Mc Nicholes is abandoned and the high school where my cousin graduated is all boarded up (Redford High School, across Grand River from the old police station). My old house on Lasher just north of Grand River is there but the stores in the area are all gone. One would think space aliens had come and taken all the life out of the area.
On that same article, another reader identified as “Disappointed” shared his thoughts on the decline of that once great city….
I worked in Detroit for a few years a while back. I was fascinated by the crumbling ruins, drove around to see a lot of them after work (a couple of times I drove through neighborhoods that I can tell you now I would not go near, even in the daytime). It was sad and fascinating at the same time. I would not even THINK of doing that now, it would be highly dangerous. I would not even work in Detroit now.
#10 But it isn’t just Detroit that is falling apart. This kind of thing is happening all over the country. A reader identified as Golden Child recently left the following comment on my website….
Much of America is like Detroit. America is rotting from California to West Virginia to Baltimore. It’s the same song across the United States. High unemployment, falling rent and or house prices, massive police lay-offs, giant spikes in crime accompanied by a rising cost of living and fewer job opportunities. Vallejo and Oakland, California are very much like Detroit. Vallejo ranked as the ninth most miserable city in America according to Forbes. Oakland and Vallejo have laid off nearly half of their police forces. You can get an apartment in Vallejo or Oakland for $200-600 a month although the median monthly rent in California is well over a thousand dollars with Bay Area rent being generally higher. There is a reason why rent is so comparably dirt cheap in those cities. San Francisco-Oakland-Vallejo collectively make up the car-theft capital of the United States. Northern CA cities like Oakland, Richmond and Stockton are regulars on the top ten most dangerous cities in America list. Baltimore, MD is also very much like Detroit with its thousands of abandoned rowhomes, high concentration of Black poverty, drugs and violence. Camden, NJ, East St. Louis, Gary Indiana are all no different from the D. Even large sections of wealthy world class cities like DC, NYC and San Francisco are impoverished quasi-third world hellholes. Southeast DC has the highest unemployment rate of anywhere in America despite the fact that DC is the richest city and metro in America. NYC has the widest income inequality gap of any metro area. Massive swaths of NYC are dangerous towering project buildings packed with working poor minorities. SF is home to some of the most sub-standard public housing in America in neighborhoods like Hunter’s Point, Sunnydale and Potrero Hill. America has been rotting from the core since at least the 70′s.
Sadly, this is just the beginning.
As the economic decline of this nation accelerates, people are going to become much more desperate.
And desperate people do desperate things.
So where do all of you think America is headed? Please feel free to post a comment with your opinion below….
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11:22 am
THE DECAY IS JUST ABOUT AT THE BEGINNING FOR SOME AREAS AND FURTHER AHEAD IN OTHERS.
12:24 pm
First of all, America is far larger than the United States.
I certainly voted with my feet (and wallet) and left in 2003 because I knew the US was history even before the disaster "Insane Hussein" hit the stage.
Wish your children and your grandchildren good luck and Godspeed!
10:08 pm
Luck for you. Any suggestions on where to go?
12:35 pm
I believe people are finally waking up to what has become of this once great nation. I came here as an immigrant and loved what I found, but am now very afraid it is all going down the drain. I think social issues matter, family values, being frugal, a good work ethic, yea, even religion matter. It looks like the left is hell bent on making values irrelevant. Well, they are not!
12:51 pm
What are we feeding our children in terms of television and entertainment? Nothing but a steady diet of violence, criminality and its glorification, all in the name of "free speech". Our dependence on drugs, the outsourcing of jobs, the refusal to spend on our infrastructure, and the gradual reduction of the United States into a "two-tiered society" based on a tax code that favors the well-off who can buy the weak poluiticians to pass any laws that favor them, coupled with a media that is corporate-owned and no longer serves the common good. We are seeing the United States as it was during the turn of the 19th Century with massive worker strife, poor housing, and monopolies that ran over whole sectors of the economy. The new "global economy" has brought a loss of real American nationalism, where the new executive loyalty is to international monetary gain, and the American economy used for whatever purpose is convenient.
1:08 pm
The Left destroys everything it touches. I cry for what has happened to my beloved country in my lifetime. May
God Bless America.
3:41 am
The US is to polarised. People have this black-and-white view. That hinders understanding and compromise. Why is a company a union shop or not? It should be left to the individual to join a union or not. Companies should not fight unions but work with them. To many people go for these slick expressions like: If you are not for me you are against me. Sounds so clear and yet it is so wrong.
Bring back civility!
2:55 pm
Who knew George W Bush was a part of "The Left"?
1:28 pm
There is only ONE SOLUTION to this dramatic decline in Western "Civilization". Going back to the Pre-Globalization period, forcing all or most of the companies, especially manufacturers who wen to China, India, etc., as the industrial base is the most essential part of a healthy nation.
This is so clear even to the ordinary citizens, (let alone to the economists and politicians,), that without a strong industrial base there is no future nor any kind of security, nor incentive for those that aspire to higher standards, as there will be no work worth their while left. This decline is unstoppable, unless we stop the outsourcing and revert to the old ways, or at least to their more contemporary versions. I don't think any sane person can or will argue with that.
3:31 am
Agree to much of it. You have to have production to create value. Service is just moving money around with leeches skimming off profits for themselves.
1:39 pm
There was a leading economist on The Today Show yesterday and he said that we are being misled and the true number of unemployed/underemployed in this country is 30 million, or about 1 in 5 in the work force. Assuming two adults per household, that means 2 in 3 homes are relatively stable and "normal", yet 1 in every 3 homes have severe economic issues leading to dependencies on family, government or criminal activity just to survive. In our case, even after paying into the system my entire life, I was denied unemployment and my income went from six figures a year to zero. We lost $250k on our home. Lost our cars. My wife lost her job of 20 years with a Fortune 50 and she was the regions "Employee of the Year" two years prior.
1:40 pm
Main reasons for the decline? A central bank. The Federal Reserve. They are manipulating our currency and creating asset bubbles, including most the last recessions (which were created by banking and not natural cycles), the housing bubble, tech stock bubble. Alan Greenspan is to blame for much of it, as is now Bernanke. Government deficits. A trillion dollars is spending $1,000,000 more than you have every day for 1,000,000 days. Yes, $1 million a day for one million days. Our deficit isn't $16 trillion. The total unfunded future mandates and entitlement benefits are $120 trillion. That is $1,000,000 million a day deficit for 120,000,000 days. Yes, $1 million a day for 120 million days. We are SCREWED. Our currency is already worthless, meaning your $200k in your 401k or your $80k equity in your home are just worthless numbers on paper and not real. Third, trade deficit. We are importing cheap foreign goods and exporting U.S. wealth in exchange. Fourth, free trade. Once again, sharing U.S. exceptional wealth with the Third World, in turn making America Third World.
1:40 pm
Fifth, excessive immigration, legal and illegal. 15 million illegals here, 2 million legal immigrants each year. They all have to work or use up our resources as a dependent. Sixth, highest corporate tax rate in the world. This incentivizes businesses to produce goods and services "anywhere but in America". Seventh, a tax system based on selective income with 70,000 pages of IRS code of tax breaks for cronies. It punishes the productive and gives a free ride to half. The tax should be on consumption, not production.
12:15 am
In 2010 Congress increased legal immigration to 38 million annually.
2:58 pm
I see you have nothing listed about outsourcing and the income inequality brought on by years of wage and benefit theft by the one percent. I've watched rich ceo's make women dependent upon welfare because they could get the work done for $1 an hour in India. Those women now have no other choice because there is so much competition just for one job thanks to outsourcing, which by the way, was incentivized no by corporate tax rates being too high, but because George W Bush gave them a tax credit if they outsourced.
1:41 pm
Easiest way to begin to fix this is a Federal balanced budget amendment (based on CBO and not cooking of the books). Wars included. Second, limit legal immigration to less than 100,000 people a year and export illegals until the U6 unemployment rate is 5% or less. Get rid of NAFTA and other free trade agreements. Start a trade war with China. Put tariffs on most everything and get things made in America and bought by Americans. Dump the income tax for a national flat tax/sales tax on consumption. Cut the corporate income tax in half at the same time, eliminate inheritance taxes too. At a minimum, return to the gold standard. If possible, eliminate the Federal Reserve all together.
The urban plight and decline are surface blemishes created by these underlying macro problems.
10:51 pm
Unfortunately, shameless, you are right on the mark. Awesome analysis..
2:11 pm
There is only ONE SOLUTION to this dramatic decline in Western "Civilization". Going back to the Pre-Globalization period, forcing all or most of the companies to move their factories back to the U.S. especially manufacturers who went to China, India, etc., and facilitate this return by raising tariffs, encouraging the return of capital with a low taxation, withdraw from the World Trade Association, etc., etc. There are many incentives to do it successfully, and I believe this will have to be done sooner or later. We all know now, that the Industrial base is the most essential part of a healthy nation.
2:11 pm
I weep for the children.They are the benificary of all this man made misery.
12:17 am
Get off your duff and make a difference.
3:13 pm
America is going nowhere – FAST!
3:32 pm
It's not just America! It's the whole world. Look what's going on around the world. Welcome to the New World Order, err, New World Disorder!
3:53 pm
@smdares44: That's all well and good, but where the hell did you go? How old are you? What is your profession? For those 65+, it doesn't really seem feasible to move out of the country even if we would wish to. It isn't particularly easy to learn a new language. I'd love to move to, say, Ecuador but my wife has nowhere near the ability at languages that I do. I'd love to move to Germany, but I don't see Germany, let alone Europe, as particularly immune to social upheaval. For us 65-plusers it's probably best to just stock up on ammunition and non perishable food.
3:27 am
No country is immune. But the Germans are largely honest and law abiding people. Europe is so much fun. Most countries have good health coverage and not all the administrative obstacles that makes the US such a miserable place.
4:21 pm
I've got a one-way booked to Bangkok. SE Asia is very dynamic (and safe)!
America has become a Narconomy and a police-state.
5:23 pm
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. WoW Smile Big thanks for the useful info i found on Happy Earth Day! Custom CRM
6:59 pm
My oh my, on the one hand I hear we are the greatest nation on earth and on the other that we are despicable. Which is it? I suspect we are neither. The article is nothing but hogwash.
12:22 am
My personal experience is fairly positive. Of course, I don't watch television. I use the internet a fair amount, but focus on all the wonderful information available and ignore porn, etc. Life is what you create inside the circumstances you are dealt. My money isn't there anymore, but in turning my son's house into a duplex, we have strengthened our family ties. I am politically active, working against the corporate corruption damaging our economy. I believe we will throw off the bankster yoke and rebuild our country in a saner way. I think part of the drug problem is that our lives, as designed by corporations, are unfulfilling. As more people turn away from being "consumers" and to creating their lives, we will see a resurgence of happiness and productivity.
12:20 pm
At least in the good ole USA you have that right to say so without someone coming to your door and tdragging you off to a prison.I for one disagree with you, but I respect your right to have your own opinion.
7:01 pm
the decline of judeo/christian values, yes religion. A terroristic president , yep I said it ! ( unsustanable spending and the left, and Obama with the aid of george soros ( having personally been responsible for 5 countries economic break down for his own personal wealth) is trying to bring down the U.S. economy. WAKE UP AMERICA OBAMA IS A TRAITOR ! He should be tried for treason ! VOTE FOR A PIG BEFORE VOTING FOR THIS O_B_A_M_A_M_A_N_A_T_I_O_N AGAIN !
12:21 pm
Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
4:01 pm
You are a joke!
3:25 pm
the joke is on you !
7:50 pm
It used to be that the only time you heard of someone's AC unit stolen was if the house was vacant.
Now I am hearing that people are coming home from work; or the unemployment line; to find that the AC unit is gone. A growing business today is one that sells security cages to put around the AC units.
8:41 pm
I was born Canadian and lived in the US from grades 1 -7 and then back to Canada. It once was a wonderful country but I hardly recognize it anymore. What matters is not the strip malls and franchise restaurants along the streets, it is the people. The kindest, most generous people that exuded their personal character have disappeared and replaced with weirdos, petty criminals and street people that all seem to have some kind of personal problem issues.
12:36 am
We all agree the problem is there. However, we disagree on the reasons, and therefore on the solutions. In healthcare, whether prevention or treatment, we know there are multiple reasons for a disease to occur. There are various forms of the disease, and even mutations of that disease. Then, we know that there are multiple kinds of prevention, early intervention, and treatment. The economists and business people have tried to run the country since the 1970s. Let's turn it over to the people who know about social engineering, and how to change society. No I am NOT talking about socialism. I am talking about change. The U.S. (and thank you to the comment regarding America being much bigger than the US) needs to go to "it takes a village to raise a child" and neighborhoods look out for each other, the belief that any person can only be free (or healthy or wealthy) to the extent that all others are free (or healthy or wealthy) and so on. People have to work together and look out for each other. Since the Reagan years it has been look out for #1. Now it is time to look out for all others. If you wish to be religious, you must guarantee that same freedom of religion to everyone, yes everyone, else. You must be tolerant, even of those that are intolerant (and yes, I know, that is a hard one).
12:43 am
Shameless has it right. Put a duty on evrything from foreign countries. We will never get out of this mess until our tax base returns and it will never return in large numbers if people are working in minimum wage jobs. If you want to outsource jobs pay a penality for it. Vote out all incumbent politicians.
3:23 am
Let me add an old, old anecdote. In the early sixties I was a sailor on freighters. At one time I came to NY where a girl from my neighbourhood in our home country was an au pair. I had a crush on her and we went to dinner and then I thought of having a nice stroll through Grand Central Park. There were scary creatures around and she did not want to go any further. Needless to say I brought her to a safer place.
My impression is that something is wrong with the psyche of US people. Why are 5% of the world population consuming 50% of the worlds pain pills? Why are so many people seeking and taking drugs? Why do so many people think they need guns? Why is it that US people do not like to obey to laws? In the city where I live (pop <100k) I believe there are more STOP signs than in all of Europe. There are millions of speed bumps on the roads at tremendous cost because people don't have the sense to go slow where needed or desirable.
Could it be that all the fast and processed "food" is poisoning the brains? Or is it that the pressures of having a miserable life (poor health insurance, etc.) are just causing counter pressure? The US is not a great place to live.
12:43 pm
I would agree America has ,and is continuing on its decline into Third World Country status…
No offence to the writer of this post..this would be considered ‘Doom And Gloom”..
and the examples are good,yet they point to part of the problem..
and the problem has many ,many ,attributes.
as the soulition also has many..
i’de rather post on part of the solution..
My experience with many Folks,but in this spicific case
American Folk..is part of there psychological adverision to doom and Gloom .
presenting attainable realistic goals..
Now wherein lay the responsibilities,if it fall under that..
I prefer a capitolist nation,and the American Constituitional law ..
I have a difficulty in writing as it seems my goverment has the same short comming..
“trying to deal with far to many issues” Many of which deal with” none american issues”
it seems part of this American government at this point in history is a greater exspence than need be..
and those resorces could be better used here in America.than Abroad..
Is the writer of this post correct in his view of crime in america..yes
it is getting worse and will coutinue.If we Americans cut resorces in our Law enfocement agencies..you can be sure
the criminalpsychology will take advantage..
enough for now…
and in the midst of the doom and gloom there are many,many americans working in a healthy direction..
High Honorable Hail to them all..
4:16 pm
When Obama declared that this is NOT a Christian nation, I sincerely believe that his statement was the beginning of the downfall for the United States. His dissing of Israel was next. God will not be mocked. Scripture says that we are to support Israel and stand by her. Obama has done everything possible, including not allowing the gas pipeline to be built, ($5.99 in some places at present) spending our taxpayer money like a drunken sailor (we owe trillions of dollars) and bringing into the White House socialist thinkers using the rules of Marvin Alanski. Again God will not be mocked.
10:36 am
I agree with you completely.
4:07 pm
Who the fuck is Marvin Alanski?
4:44 pm
The American public does not wake up until there is a complete disaster right in front of them. We also capable of tremendous self-delusion and denial.
11:38 am
The key step for USA is a balanced budget amendment. That will force politicians to be realistic about living within our means, which in turn will force them to focus on growing the economy for real. Right now they borrow heavily so they can avoid tough decisions and get re-elected, and this insulates them from reality.
11:48 am
Fall River, Massachusetts, was a great place when I was a toddler there in the 1940s.
I recently went back to see the house we lived in and the general area.
I was depressed for several days afterwards.
The sections of Boston I lived in in the 1950s, Roxbury and Mattapan, are much too dangerous to drive to now, if you're white.
12:08 pm
The sixties play a large role in the changing attitudes in this country.Rebel against God, marriage,raising our own children,sex with anybody and everybody.No wonder our children have so many problems.Women were told that their roles as a wife and mother were boring,unfulfilling,without merit.Then came the beginning of the destruction of the American family. .We wanted more "things"Had to have a bigger houses,two new cars,had to keep up with THE JONES'.So, who suffered?The children were left to their own deviceswhen no one else was around.Men saw an attractive women in the work place and became discontent with the wife they had at home and vice-versa.So the families started spliting up, we had stepfathers and stepmothers,or Mom or Dad's new "Girlfriend or Boyfriend" moving in.We reap what we sow.No wonder so many people are taking depression meds these days.Life has gotten so out of balance.
7:30 pm
If we (and we have a lot of dumb, uneducated liberals about the decline of America who have their hands out for a free ride all their life), reelect the curent leaders, you'd better sit back, get drunk permenantly, as inevitably you will attend the final hours of this once great and miraculous nation, while we watch the rise of Islam along with China like this world has never seen. They are like the Nazis were, except that they doing it more intelligently…
9:13 am
Many of the preceeding commentators were asleep during the abominable George W. Bush presidency? Did a great job liberating Iraq while sinking the United States. No wonder W. was the perfect predecessor to usher in America's first ever African-American president of the United States.