M.D.,
I have been reading your website for a few months and have learned and am applying a few things for an uncertain future. (much more serious garden this year, storing safe water, food pantry and defensive measures). You provide very useful information and insight. Thank You.
I live in northeast Ohio and we recently had a 20″ snowfall that crippled the nearby town where I live. The local economy has shed close to 1,000 jobs over the last few years and the City Council seems to have failed to anticipate the shortage of funds through taxes from the business and workers that are no longer here. The town could scrape the roads but had NO SALT to apply to the roads. My children missed an entire week of school as surrounding districts were able to miss only a day or two.
Last summer, we received a notice by mail that the city had failed to treat the water properly at the water treatment plant, just a month before. Great, we had been drinking, cooking with, bathing in and doing laundry in water that was not properly treated. Seems we are approaching some sort of a “tipping point” here.
My question to your readers is:
Do your readers see the same decline in their own towns or cities ability to provide just basic services? (Police, Fire, road crews, safe drinking water, etc.) If so, what do they think is the cause of it in their town or city.
Thanks,
Jim
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The cause is simple. A politian large time or small time only beleieves the answer to all problems is spend. Never worry about where to get the money or just stop spending. They are all the same and with the upcoming elections we to to vote them all out. It's too late elected officials,liberty strikes back.
YES I CAN SEE A DECLINE IN BASIC SERVICES.ITS FUNNY HOW MONEY CAN BE FOUND TO BUILD A FRIGGEN INDOOR SWIMMING POOL,ROUGHLY 25 MILLION,BUT THEY, THE CITY, CANT FIND THE MONEY TO HIRE 100 POLICEMAN.WE VOTED IN A NEW MAYOR,A WHITE GUY,HE STARTS BY ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT MONEY IN A BUDGET ON NON-PROFIT SPENDING AND GETS CALLED A RACIST BY A BLACK COMMISSIONER.WITH THIS KIND OF SO CALLED LEADERSHIP NO WONDER THERE IS A DROP IN BASIC SERVICES IN OUR CITIES.FROM JAY IN NC
In the towns surrounding me in central Missouri we have lost over 50% of our police force and the ones that remain have lost all their benefits. Snow removal on main roads has taken a hit a well. I would not be suprised to see entire police stations completley closed down by the end of this year. City Hall personel sure haven't voluteered to lose any benefits or jobs. They are all still happily employed.
I know our police department is taking donations
for a new pistols for police officers. What I can't figure out is, why don't they buy their own weapon? That way they won't lose it like Homeland Security does.
Nothing makes sense to me anymore in the government and their employees. State or Federal.
PREPARE FOR THE WORST AND PRAY FOR THE BEST
No doubt the services are declining. We have several bridges in our county that have been condemmed and closed with no repairs being planned any time soon. Our snow removal is dismal unless the snow falls between 0700 and 1500, Monday through Friday. Outside of that time frame we are on our own. Our state police are on mileage restriction of 100 miles per day and I haven't seen a sheriff deputy patrol my road in the last six months. I had the occasion to call the police a few months ago about some one hunting my property and I was told that only two deputies were assigned to patrol the entire county that evening and I should make the police report over the phone and they would get to it as soon as they could. What a joke. But the town nearest to me received a $20,000 federal stimulus check for a skate board park.
In nearby Phoenix, Arizona, the city is threatening to lay off 10-12% of the police force. In a bid to save our cops, we may be coerced into accepting a special 2% tax on FOOD. What's really biting is that a 1% city sales tax was approved a few years ago to hire the extra cops in the first place. As you can imagine, that tax increase is still in effect, but now we can't afford the cops we hired! Meanwhile, our county sheriff, Joe Arpaio, "The
Toughest Sheriff in America" is being hounded and harassed by the Justice Department because of his enforcement of existing Immigration laws. Imagine, he dares to ask people involved in criminal activity if they are in the state legally, and there are a LOT here who are not, and for this he's under heat from the government. Not surprising, Janet Napolitano, or Ex governor, and now head of Homeland Security, carried her grudge against our hard working, and much loved Sheriff back to Washington with her. She wouldn't protect our state border, but now she's in charge of protecting the whole friggin country!!?? Are we all going nuts that this is happening??
Sorry for the rant, but it's a lot of stuff like this that we are all seeing that is making us feel the need to prepare. I think most of us no longer feel the government will look after our best interests when the chips are down, so we'll have to depend on our own ingenuity and preparedness.
It's the same all over the country.
That is how the bureaucrats (tax leeches) get back at the unwashed masses (tax payers).
"Won't give us more of their hard earned money,eh? Well we'll show them, cut the police and fire department by 20% and lay off some teachers, that will show them"!
Lest we forget, how many paper pushers, tree trimmers, step and fetch it porters are still on the payroll because their job is more esential than, say a police officer?
But these personnel are "VITAL" to the smooth functioning of your city/state/federal gub'ment.
The problem is we never raise a stink about it, not because we're lazy, but we have no access to the list of these employees, even after a FOIA request, how many names are "redacted" or missing? How many are listed as "part-time" with a salary over 45K a year with FULL benifits?
Government employees are great at protecting each other. Sometimes it seems that IS their job, simply to protect their fellow tax feeder.
I have to ask, how many of you stumbled down the hallowed halls of academia in a drunken stupor for 4 years in order to secure a "government job" as street sweeper that REQUIRED a B.A.?
I would challenge all of you to look at a list of available goverment jobs and see how many of them require a minimum of a B.A.
Ask yourself "why such high educational standards for such low level jobs"?
retorical question, the answer is like minded, fully indoctrinated persons are the only ones (for the most part) that will support our agenda.
Sorry about the rant, I know most of you here are awake, eyes open and the indoctrination attempts by whatever P.S. you attended failed.
Many Americans are starting to wake up, but far too many still wear blinders.
J
In parts of Northern California's Bay Area The City has been not cutting police, fire and EMR teams, but cutting thier hours so the City does not have a big labor check to pay. The result to this is that these "safty" personals are taking longer to get the people that really need them. Im happy to say I do not rely on these groups to "save me".
Where there was once a strong police force patroling, you now can walk the downtown and see a overwhelming increase of "hang-abouts" homeless and day-labors all just waiting.
Our private schools are in no better shape then the public. With Families losing jobs the private education in missing funding. Because City Officals have used money from school funds, public schools are now going under.
Im prepared and I am just waiting for the Cities next move into something that can not be changed overnight or bought with more money.
up here in southern Ontario people like to complain about the public services, but overall things are going pretty well. The province and the country are both running deficits this year, and likely will be next year. However, neither are running a debt like America. My county is still managing to keep it's books balanced more or less
-K
I honestly think that the decline is coming everywhere but that it's being felt the hardest right now in areas that were over spending during the good years. I live in a really conservative state. We work hard and let our legislature know what we think about being fiscally conservative. Luckily it has helped out and we currently have the second lowest unemployment rate in the US. The only problem is that that little factoid has been blasted my the lame-stream media and we are now being invaded by people from other more economically depressed areas.
I understand that people are seeking more opportunity, but, just because we have low unemployment doesn't mean anyone is hiring new employees – they're not. They're just doing their best to hold on to those that they have. Meanwhile, all of these people are moving in looking for work and when they are unsuccessful they apply for welfare HERE. Go back home and apply for welfare. We have worked really hard to maintain our state in as good of condition as it currently is. We can't pay for every out of work person that mistaking thinks that this is some kind of job Mecca. If this population upswing continues, along with the upswing in the welfare roles, our state will end up worse than the ones they left. Every time I see a car with Arizona or California plates sitting out side the local welfare office I wanna scream – GO BACK THERE! STOP RUINING OUR STATE TOO! It hasn't effected our unemployment rate yet because unemployment % is managed through the state that you worked in, but our underemployed number is rising-quickly.
I dearly hope that my opinions about what is going on in Washington and how it will devastate our country are totally, completely wrong. However, I prepare for the worst, and pray for the best every single day.
Same accelerating slide thing in my area.
While the local .gov have never been good at providing 'services' anyway -other than extracting an ever-expanding chunk of taxes and regulatory blood from an ever-diminishing tax base- they are now even frigging up the little that they've managed to do.
Local life nevertheless marches blissfully on 'cause for the time being Uncle Sugar has managed to keep the checks flowing to their local serfs on rock candy mountain but…
…The day their dependents start feeling the limits of their dependence is not going to be pretty…From the top of the looter heap to the very lowest parasite buzzing around the pile…Or for any one else for that matter.
Anyway, for as long as I can remember, my only choice has been to not need them and every week I get closer to needing them even less; With the goal being not needing them or their corrupt system of progressive theft at all.
Independence I think it's called.
Anyway, family bonds help for those some few times when we may really need each others helping hands and it works out pretty well for us that we'd all rather have teeth pulled than ask each other for help.
;^)
I drive a truck and I've noticed that in a lot of places around the country, it's rare to see a cop any time of day, so that tells me that they're cutting back on budgets in a lot of places, but others are writing tickets like crazy for anything. I know that in the more liberal states and cities, mostly in the NE, the roads are getting horrible, and there are a lot of empty buildings everywhere I go. I get the feeling that in a lot of places, government will cease to function in all but the most rudimentary aspects.
I Live in Belgium (Europe) and the picture you paint is very much the same as to how conditions are here.
Big cities are everywhere in the western world experiencing decay.
Jobless ( imigrants), detoriation, crime & vandalism are on the rise everywhere.
worst of all, there is no sign of any improvement- there is just the prospect of more of the same, and worse.
It is not just so in America, Europe is feeling the sting too !
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