.

Friday, February 10, 2012

3rd world cities in USA ?

Thanks to the reader that sent me this link:
http://www.thedaily.com/page/2…..antes-1-5/

Detroit keeps getting worse. While the response time isn’t that bad in some cases and awful in others, at least they are still answering calls. In many parts of Buenos Aires cops simply won´t show up, period, and it happened to me in the rather nice area where I used to live.
As the world keeps “moving” these situations will become more common in USA and other countries where it was unthinkable before.
This is one of the reasons why we prepare folks, why we cover security so extensively in this blog as an important part of modern survival.
Join the forum discussion on this post!
FerFAL

2 comments:

Double Tapper said...

Unfortunately, this is not limited to Detroit, although the Motor City's decline from prosperity to wasteland is astonishing. Virtually ANY small, mid-sized or large city in the US will have a section that is virtually indistinguishable from a third world slum.

When I say slum, I am talking Mogadishu like conditions - feral animals, winos, obviously mentally ill people wandering the streets, small unpermitted businesses dealing in fraud, drug dealing, public drug and alcohol consumption, prostitution, truant children, passed out bums, illegal utility connections, fighting, shooting, burned out cars, abandoned buildings that have become shantys, and domestic arguments spilling into the streets - just to name some of the things you will see daily. I have personally seen these areas in towns ranging from less than 5,000 to over 4 million. The only difference is scale and sometimes drugs of choice - in the urban areas crack cocaine is preferred while in rural areas crystal meth is the drug of choice. Also, traveling health care providers have been raped/assaulted and first responders fired upon. I have actually stood overwatch duty while a friend changed a tire. It is that bad in some areas.

The decay is largely the result of lack of purchasing power. Once the economic base, and in today's culture this is comprised of productive people, leaves, you can be assured that the place will descend into poverty and anarchy. Public services such as street lighting, pot hole road repairs, street signs, traffic signals, litter abatement, grass mowing and public buildings falling into disrepair are the hallmarks of such areas.

Much of what you see in the US is the result of a phenomenon termed "white flight" by sociologists. This means that urban areas are abandoned by more affluent people for suburbs when the city stops providing basic services, acceptable education, and infrastructure needs. Since the US is a large country, you see rings of smaller towns circling traditional large cities. When these areas become untenable, a third and in some cases many more rings of new incorporated areas spring up.

It is a terrible cycle that so far has resisted the best efforts to break. I firmly believe that you survive best by avoiding survival situations. Therefore, your best bet is to steer clear of the ghetto.

Anonymous said...

Well put, Double Tapper. We had a guy move up to our area from Detroit, he had been an engineer at Ford and retired so he could escape with his family. He said that many days while driving in to work he would see bodies hanging from overpasses and bridges, and of course no mention from the media. He also says that it is in essence an undeclared civil war. I do wish that the rest of the state could "divorce" Detroit, and deport the "won't"-ers.
Eric in Michigan