Terse Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 You think we've got problems? Detroit today has an unemployment rate of 28 per cent, higher even than the worst years of the Great Depression. The murder rate is soaring. The school system is in receivership. The city treasury is $300 million (£182m) short of the funds needed to provide the most basic services such as rubbish collection. In its postwar heyday, when Detroit helped the US to dominate the world’s car market, it had 1.85 million people. Today, just over 900,000 remain. It was once America’s fourth-largest city. Today, it ranks eleventh, and will continue to fall. Thousands of houses are abandoned, roofs ripped off, windows smashed. Block after block of shopping districts lie boarded up. Former manufacturing plants, such as the giant Fisher body plant that made Buicks and Cadillacs, but which was abandoned in 1991, are rotting. Unburied bodies piling up in the city mortuary — it reached 70 earlier this year — is the latest and perhaps most appalling indignity to be heaped on the people of Detroit. The motor city that once boasted the highest median income and home ownership rate in the US is today in the midst of a long and agonising death spiral. The American dream seems to be turning into a nightmare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD4ELI Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 The American dream seems to be turning into a nightmare. Very true - a country in moral decline. I should visit Ohio in May 2010 but will do everything I can to not visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back to the Future Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 The American dream seems to be turning into a nightmare. Very true - a country in moral decline. I should visit Ohio in May 2010 but will do everything I can to not visit. I was in Ohio (near Cleveland) a couple of months ago and in the motor industry areas there is definitely a feeling of despair among the workforce - house prices have dropped and unemployment is rising at a remarkably fast rate. Perhaps not surprisingly I was told the crime rate is rising - mainly alcohol and drug related felonies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La_Dolce_Vita Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 The American dream was never a reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macmannin Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 Pot calls the kettle black ass.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hboy Posted November 22, 2009 Share Posted November 22, 2009 You think we've got problems? The most revealing point of that article to me was this. Detroit today has an unemployment rate of 28 per cent, higher even than the worst years of the Great Depression. So much for America's booming economy that is rapidly emerging from recession. When will we learn that this nation has absolutely nothing of value to look up to in any progressive society. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rog Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 As long as the economic health of a nation is judged by what is happening to the GDP the true picture of it’s real economic health will never be clear. As with the UK, the US is stuffed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buggane Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Similar statistics equally apply to the UK where currently the youth unemployment rate is running at 20% When I was young UB40 did their 'I am a 1 in 10' and that was pretty shocking (the statistic not the music ), now its time someone did 'I am a 1 in 5', but I can't imagine any current pop acts giving a flying one - too busy combing their hair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.K. Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 When will we learn that this nation has absolutely nothing of value to look up to in any progressive society. You've not heard of NASA then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
censorship Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 When will we learn that this nation has absolutely nothing of value to look up to in any progressive society. You've not heard of NASA then... I have, its an organisation with an annual budget of roughly $17.5 billion. On an unrelated matter, the same country has an Environmental Protection Agency tasked with small matters like making water safe rather than big things like dreaming an empire on the Moon, with operates with a budget of roughly $10.5 billion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.K. Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 But the NASA spin-offs are the point. There is also a firm called Texas Instruments. The clue is in the name... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.