From America to Zimbabwe, the coming anarchy

[haggismudpie]

I'm confused. My former hospital, Dominican Santa Cruz CA., just signed a contract with it's nurses. 5%/a year for four years. I'm surprised the public isn't outraged.  Catholic Healthcare West is the second largest healthcare provider in Ca. (Kaiser is first).  Any other nurses negotiating a contract?

[Katie]

I'm confused. My former hospital, Dominican Santa Cruz CA., just signed a contract with it's nurses. 5%/a year for four years. I'm surprised the public isn't outraged.  Catholic Healthcare West is the second largest healthcare provider in Ca. (Kaiser is first).  Any other nurses negotiating a contract?

I dunno.  Nursing is one of the professions that will be useful post PO.  I can see wanting to keep good people in nursing.

[Ayoob]

I'm confused. My former hospital, Dominican Santa Cruz CA., just signed a contract with it's nurses. 5%/a year for four years. I'm surprised the public isn't outraged.  Catholic Healthcare West is the second largest healthcare provider in Ca. (Kaiser is first).  Any other nurses negotiating a contract?

I dunno.  Nursing is one of the professions that will be useful post PO.  I can see wanting to keep good people in nursing.

Nursing is the fourth-to-last thing to go.

Police are #3

The farms are #2

When the plumbers bail and there's no waste disposal or fresh water, it's officially over. 

[Seahorse]

Great read on the American unraveling posted by Zappa on breaking news.

http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/quinn/2009/1111.html

[steelmoon]

He's pointing towards a terrible war in our not-so-distant future and sadly I have to agree.  There will not be any serious mitigation of resource depletion,  nor a restructuring towards a reduced consumption model for the US - at least not a consensual one.

Lot of food for thought here, Seahorse, thanks for posting it.

[Seahorse]

Anytime you hear someone on t.v. saying we're the greatest economy in the world, balance that with the fact that more Americans are going hungry every year, even though the US produces lots of food, has always had a strong agricultural sector with strong lobbyists, more Americans go hungry.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/16/49-million-americans-goin_n_359316.html

I'm not saying this is good or bad, I'm just saying when you hear the US has the strong economy in the world, one has to ask is that true? and if it is, does it matter if its people go hungry?  Does this sound more and more like Zimbabwe, which was the point of this thread?

[Seahorse]

Famed stock analyst Meredith Whitney says US stocks are overvalued and that the current stock market increase is not based on fundamentals. 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/33972133

I think most of us here would agree.  However, what I wonder is if she is missing the Zimbabwe moment.  For example, in 2007, Zimbabwe had the best performing stock market, even though it had unemployment at over 80%.

http://mises.org/story/2532

Time will tell, but all the analyst will either argue classic bull versus bear - there is the third option to consider, which is this may be a Zimbabwe moment in the making.

[Abhaha]

Anytime you hear someone on t.v. saying we're the greatest economy in the world, balance that with the fact that more Americans are going hungry every year, even though the US produces lots of food, has always had a strong agricultural sector with strong lobbyists, more Americans go hungry. 

I saw little kids (5 and under) begging on the streets in India, and people there were saying how great their country was. It made me decide that all such nationalistic talk was complete unadulterated BULLSHIT. Sadly, regardless of what exists in reality, all countries tend to act this way.

[Seahorse]

From the LATOC homepage:

One in six Americans goes hungry.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/16/news/economy/food_insecurity/index.htm

California budget shortfalls will mean cuts in essential gov't services.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget-deficit18-2009nov18,0,7647152.story

[steelmoon]

Alternet: Economic Crisis Is Getting Bloody

We are witnessing a "slow motion bloodbath resulting from the global economic crisis."

Job losses, bankruptcies and foreclosures have led to an increase in murders and suicides.

It's hard to argue that this is happening, although I would always prefer the author offer some statistical data for support in stories of this kind.

[Seahorse]

State and local budget cuts are a time bomb for millions of US jobs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_economy_states_jobs

Keep in mind this means a loss of gov't services that we have become accustomed to.

[Chesyre]

      State governments, too, have had to lay off workers, shedding 26,000 jobs from October 2008 to last month, according to the Labor Department.

         

i think for public sector to catch up with the private sector , around 10 million jobs + need to be lost.  no way can the states take hits to the trough slurp stream via property and sales tax and loss of fees and not stop spending. in short too fucking bad welcome to the real world of unemployment , no health insurance and no retirement savings. 

[Seahorse]

Interesting article on the unravelling of the US economy posted on another thread and reposted here.

http://ampedstatus.com/the-critical-unraveling-of-us-society

[Seahorse]

Tax revenues down in at least 44 states.

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=439457

[Seahorse]

From the LATOC homepage, California campgrounds filled with homeless.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/12/united-nations-us-property-fallout