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Once upon a time, the people of the United States constructed beautiful, shiny cities from coast to coast that were the envy of the entire globe. We had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen and life was quite good in America. But now all of our prosperity is coming crashing down and many of our formerly great cities are turning into open, festering sores. Unfortunately, we are drowning in so much debt that we can barely even slow down the shocking decline of our cities. Over the past decade, tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of good jobs have been shipped out of the United States. As our economic infrastructure has been ripped out right in front of our eyes, an atmosphere of unemployment, poverty and despair has descended on many of our major cities like a soaking wet blanket. Today, many of our cities that once were considered to be some of the greatest in the world have been transformed into rotting, post-apocalyptic hellholes. When you visit many of these cities and look into the sunken eyes of the residents, you almost get the feeling that something has sucked all of the hope and all of the life right out of them. For a while, large numbers of Americans still believed that the right politician would bring them “hope” and “change”, but now crushing despair is giving way to absolute desperation for millions of people. Desperate people do desperate things, and as our major cities continue to decay they are going to become very dangerous places to be.

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 what one 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.

But in general, San Francisco is doing better than the rest of California is. Down the coast, Los Angeles continues to come apart at the seams. Approximately 40 arson fires were started in Los Angeles in just the last three days alone. That is the highest number of arson fires that Los Angeles has seen since the 1992 riots.

Unfortunately, as economic conditions worsen, we are going to see a lot more arson all over the nation.

Once upon a time, people all over the country wanted to move to California. But today, millions of people have been pouring out of the state as it continues its shocking decline. If you can believe it, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California increased by a whopping 30 percent between 2007 and 2010.

That isn’t just a decline, that is a free fall.

But it isn’t like there are too many areas of the country that are doing that much better. All over the country, our major cities are becoming open, festering sores and child poverty is absolutely exploding.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

Speaking of Detroit, it is almost unbelievable what has happened to “the motor city”….

*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.

Today, Detroit has become a very frightening place to live. 100 bus drivers in Detroit recently refused to drive their routes out of fear for their own personal safety. The head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, said that the drivers were “scared for their lives“….

“Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to get there, in downtown Detroit,” said Gaffney.

Right now, Detroit is a city that is being torn apart by thieves and vandals. Buildings are being literally dismantled as people scramble to find things to sell to keep themselves afloat. The following is from a recent article in the Detroit News about this crisis….

The war to keep the lights on in Detroit is a serious one. Thieves, antiquated equipment and a lack of funding have made it impossible for city officials to catch up to the problem. City officials estimate 15-20 percent of the 88,000 lights in the Motor City are not working, and they acknowledge that figure could be as high as 50 percent in some neighborhoods.

But it is not just Detroit that is having a major problem keeping the lights on. Over in Highland Park, Michigan the majority of the street lights have been repossessed because the city was not keeping up with the electricity bill.

All over the country, cities are going dark and fixtures are being torn out of homes and businesses as thieves search for something to sell. As one of my readers shared recently, there are some parts of California that are literally being transformed into hellholes by hordes of desperate people….

Here, in the California desert, many vacant houses are being taken over. Fixtures are being ripped out and sold as scrap. Trench latrines are being dug in backyards and water is being pilfered from neighboring pools and hoses. While most of these folks are simply trying to keep a roof over their heads (while they keep their heads down), many are also setting up meth labs and in-door marijuana grows. I can see the eventual day when the total breakdown of the economy and our society will drive thousands from the cities. A lot of those will be looking for ‘opportunities’. As sad as it is, if you’re not one of the most unfortunate, it’s time to prepare a defense for your goods, family and self. You are going to be viewed as wealthy, no matter how poor you feel, by someone with nothing left to lose. Do not rely on police or government authorities. We all saw how that went in New Orleans. Be ready as an individual family unit.

In Fresno, California the theft of copper wire from street lights has become a major crisis. At this point, the loss of copper wire and the cost of repairing street lights is costing Fresno about $50,000 a month. So far, approximately 2,500 street lights have been stripped of their wiring.

Over on the east coast, there are some cities that have lost so much industry that many young people feel as though there are not many viable options left other than selling drugs or selling their bodies.

In an extraordinary article entitled “City of Ruins“, Chris Hedges did an amazing job of documenting the nightmarish decline of Camden, New Jersey. Today, it is estimated that the actual rate of unemployment in Camden is somewhere around 30 or 40 percent. For most young people in Camden, there are very few legitimate opportunities for a better life at this point. The following is a brief excerpt from “City of Ruins”….

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.

If the area where you live has not gotten that bad yet, you should be thankful. But the reality is that these economic conditions are spreading and they will get to where you live soon enough.

Disease is also becoming a huge problem in many of our major cities. The combination of poverty and moral decay has created some very frightening conditions in many areas of the country.

This is even happening in some of our most prosperous cities. For example, the rate of HIV infection in Washington D.C. is actually higher than it is in West Africa according to the director of the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration….

“Our rates are higher than West Africa,” said Shannon Hader, the administration’s director, who used to spearhead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work in Zimbabwe. “They’re on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya.”

Up in Canada, they have come up with some very “unusual” methods for preventing the spread of health problems. For example, in Vancouver, British Columbia authorities are actually handing out free crack pipes to addicts in an attempt to slow down the spread of diseases. But there is a limit – only one free crack pipe per day is allowed.

Crazy stuff.

What is happening to this world?

But perhaps we should all be thankful to at least have some place to lay our heads at night. Today, there are more than 700,000 homeless people in America, and that number has grown by about 20 percent since 2007.

After the next major financial crisis, that number is going to go even higher.

The truth is that the economy is in much worse shape than most people think, and the poor in America are rapidly getting poorer.

As Gerald Celente has said many times, when the poor lose everything that they have they tend to lose it.

Desperate people do desperate things, and we are already starting to see signs of this all over the nation. For example, you can watch one homeowner defend his home against four armed invaders right here.

So what are our leaders doing to fix this?

Well, unfortunately there is not a whole lot they can do.

Our federal government is absolutely drowning in debt. During the first three years of Barack Obama, the U.S. government accumulated more debt than it did from the inauguration of George Washington to the inauguration of Bill Clinton.

Of course it would help if the Obama administration would stop wasting money on stupid things and would start spending it to rebuild this country.

For example, did you know that the Obama administration gave a $529 million loan to a U.S. electric car company so that they could manufacture electric cars in Finland?

Talk about stupid.

Is it any wonder that there is such a lack of confidence in the government at this point?

According to one recent survey, 77% of all Americans now believe that there is a leadership crisis in America.

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.

2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country. If we do not get enough Americans to wake up now, we might not get another chance.

If you love America, please make this a year when you take more action than ever before.

Working together, we can make a huge difference.