From America to Zimbabwe, the coming anarchy

[Seahorse]

Income disparity in the US growing.

From wiki:

The majority of social scientists believe that income inequality currently poses a problem for American society with Alan Greenspan stating it to be a "very disturbing trend."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29tax.html

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/bg1791.cfm

[Seahorse]

Interestingly, in 2008, Jane's Risk Assessment ranked the US as the 22 most stable country (politically and economically). 

Mr Le Mière said that the US had fallen down the scale, although it still scored an average of 93 out of 100, partly because of the proliferation of small arms owned by Americans and the threat to the population posed by the flow of drugs from across the Mexican border.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3613926.ece

Most Americans would probably be shocked they weren't ranked #1.

[Seahorse]

Steelmoon posted this article on another thread and there is a good discussion of it.  But, it equally applies here as well.  The former Reagan conservative opines that Marx and Lenin were right.  It is a well-written piece.  In effect, it documents Kaplan's thesis as it applies to the US.

If Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin were alive today, they would be leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in economics.

Marx predicted the growing misery of working people, and Lenin foresaw the subordination of the production of goods to financial capital’s accumulation of profits based on the purchase and sale of paper instruments. Their predictions are far superior to the “risk models” for which the Nobel Prize has been given and are closer to the money than the predictions of Federal Reserve chairmen, US Treasury secretaries, and Nobel economists, such as Paul Krugman, who believe that more credit and more debt are the solution to the economic crisis.

In this first decade of the 21st century there has been no increase in the real incomes of working Americans. There has been a sharp decline in their wealth. In the 21st century Americans have suffered two major stock market crashes and the destruction of their real estate wealth.

Some studies have concluded that the real incomes of Americans, except for the financial oligarchy of the super rich, are less today than in the 1980s and even the 1970s. I have not examined these studies of family income to determine whether they are biased by the rise in divorce and percentage of single parent households. However, for the last decade it is clear that real take-home pay has declined.

Article continues:

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10072009.html

[picasso moon]

As i wrote in the other thread, Marx's analysis was of the crisis tendency of capitalism, period, not of "finance capitalism", Lenin's analysis and Marx's analysis were quite divergent, it's a total distortion to make them into some sort of continuum.

[CypherLH]

Flint, Michigan is starting to look like Zimbabwe. How many other places are like this? New Orleans comes to mind.

Parts of inland/central California are getting pretty BAD. Places like Fresno and whatnot, unemployment rates higher than Michigan. California's unemployment rate as a while is hovering at 12.2%

As a Bay Area resident, I can confirm that parts of Oakland are BAD, as bad as any place in the country in some pockets. And there is a corridor from Oakland to Richland that is now called "The Iron Triangle". And I can imagine it getting worse if the traffic/business going through the docks in Alameda declines. Could easily imagine the Bay Area as a whole becoming "Detroit on the Pacific" if the IT industry takes a hit and the remaining industry continue to dry up. (the big NUMI auto factory in Fremont is closing soon)

[Pandora]

Thank you Seahorse for compiling this information into a well written thread.

[leaf51]

Seahorse, thank you for pulling together and posting all this information - very interesting.  I'm fairly new to this site and still catching up on all the reading, so you and the other people posting have provided a lot of links to keep me reading for quite some time 

[Seahorse]

I hope that everyone will also scan the local news for issues of poverty, local gov'ts going broke, laying off cops, judges etc.  and post them here.

[Seahorse]

Nice article on the LATOC news page about cultural differences in the US, white flight, etc.  These problem of racial divide (white flight) has not gone away despite the "progress" made in the last 40 years "in the courts" and as the article points out are real impediments to any transformational social change at the national level (old whites not wanting to give up on medicare and social security) but not wanting to spend on "social programs."  If we are at "peak finances" and peak oil, then I don't see these problems getting any better.

Racially Exclusive Suburbs Across U.S. Dubbed the New 'Whitopia'
By Lewis Beale, Miller-McCune.com
Posted on October 7, 2009, Printed on October 9, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143071/

In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where 95 percent of the population is white, Rich Benjamin saw more Confederate flags than black people. Not that Benjamin was looking for suggestions of racism, but in his forthcoming book, Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America (Hyperion, Oct. 6), he was trying to discover why some of the fastest-growing areas in America are also the most Caucasian.

"There's a long-term harm when Americans accept balkanization as a way of life," says Benjamin, who is an African American. "Segregation can appear to allay social tensions, but it worsens them in the long run. Optimal democracies require more than voting; they require social integration and involvement."

Article continues.

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/143071

[Seahorse]

Kaplan hypothesized that "criminal anarchy" was the real strategic threat to the west due to overpopulation and scarcity of resources.  Now, he didn't say peak oil, but that is certainly the key resource in today's world and will decline, even by optimist' standards, no later than 2030, when my kids will be in the "peak" of their years.  The fun years right?  I say this to point out that even under optimist calculations, PO is a reality facing us.  However, PO is arguably here, right now.

So, what did Colin Campbell, long term PO advocate for change, have to say about the dawn of the second half of the oil age?  It's interesting to revisit his vision of the second half of the oil age - one of a second great depression which would fundamentally change the world's financial and political systems.  Sounds a lot like Kaplan, right?

The Second Half of the Age of Oil now dawns, and will be marked by the decline of oil and all that depends on it, including financial capital. It heralds the collapse of the present Financial System, and related political structures, speaking of a Second Great Depression.

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2008/FinancialConsequences.html

What's even more interesting is that just two years ago, the business people lambasted those that said be prepared for a financial crash.  Fed Chairman Bernanke said the housing bust would be contained.  Now, we are closer to a depression than a recession.  The dollar, the world's reserve currency, is in danger and everything that depends on it - which is everything. The financial pundits don't get it.  But neither do the political conservatives that hate socialism for the poor (healthcare) but turn a blind eye to the socialism for the rich (bank bailouts).  What "no one" gets is what Kaplan and Campbell have said, that overpopulation and scarcity of resources will and are fundamentally changing the the present financial system and related political structures. 

[wordnerd]

From the area where i live:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20091008/NEWS01/910080326/GE%20%2010%20000%20applications%20for%2090%20factory%20jobs

10,000 people show up for 90 factory jobs

In the latest sign of weakness in Louisville-area employment, about 10,000 people applied over three days for 90 jobs building washing machines at General Electric for about $27,000 per year and hefty benefits.

[Seahorse]

"Long lines, empty shelves are sign of times at foodbanks."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/25/thanksgiving.food/index.html

Number of Americans on foodstamps highest since records kept.

http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m9d26-Number-of-Americans-on-food-stamps-highest-since-records-kept

[Seahorse]

Here's a few sample articles on a simple search for budget cuts and empty jails: 

$74 million detention center likely to remain empty due to budget cuts.

http://lapd.com/news/headlines/new_lapd_jail_falls_victim_to_budget_shortfall/

Trustee camp closed due to budget cuts:

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2009/01/24/news/doc497bed8a32fa7634612353.txt

Cincinnati Jail closed due to budget cuts:

http://www.uslaw.com/library/Criminal_Law/OH_Budget_cuts_force_closure_Cincinnati_jail.php?item=331426

Budget cuts force jail to turn away inmates despite open beds.

http://www.wlwt.com/money/21089853/detail.html

Massachusetts to empty jails due to budget cuts:

http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2009/09/massachusetts-to-empty-its-jails.html

Portland jail empty, despite rise in crime.

[url][http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002876560_portlandjail17m.html/url]

[Seahorse]

Do a simple search of the news for budget cuts and fewer prosecutions.

http://www.nmpolitics.net/index/2009/09/da-says-budget-cuts-may-lead-to-fewer-prosecutions/

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/lunsford_budget_cut_may_halt_some_cases/46917/

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2009-02-19/news/budget-cuts-at-the-miami-dade-state-attorney-s-office/

http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/7590/District_Attorney_budget_crisis_means_justice_wont_be_served

[Seahorse]

I would like to get a copy of this political/economic forecast for the US through 2018, but at $800, don't think so.

http://store.businessmonitor.com/bf/united_states_business_forecast_report/