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Thread: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

    from


    (snip)"Even the criminals have fallen on hard times in America's poorest city as the long-term unemployed struggle to keep a grasp on normality

    Richard Gaines is one of the best-known faces on Camden's Haddon Avenue. It is a rough-and-tumble street, lined with cheap businesses and boarded-up houses, and is prey to drug gangs. Gaines, 50, runs a barbershop, a hair salon and a fitness business. He works hard and is committed to his community. But Haddon Avenue is not an easy place to make a living in the best of times. And these are far from the best of times.

    Just how badly the great recession has struck this fragile New Jersey city, which is currently the poorest in America, was recently spelled out to Gaines. In happier times – whatever that might mean for a city as destitute as Camden – local businesses on Haddon Avenue could at least rely on a bit of trade from those who made their money on the street.

    Young men bought flashy clothes and got sharp haircuts and always paid in cash. But no longer. The economy is now so bad in Camden that even the criminals are struggling and going short. "Even the guys who got money from illegal means really don't want to spend it," Gaines said."(snip)

    I suppose the pertinent points are that A. the 'criminal element' is ineligible for unemployment benefits thus their 'incomes' immediately track the economic conditions affecting their 'customers' or 'victims', and B. that those 'customers' and 'victims' are running out of money / objects of value for the 'criminal element' to exploit.

    the same article also made other important points ... in particular about the '99ers'


    (snip)"Though corporations, especially in the banking sector, are posting healthy profits, they are not hiring new workers. At the same time, government cuts are sweeping through city and state governments alike, threatening tens of thousands of jobs and slicing away at services once thought vital. Schools, street lighting, libraries, refuse collection, the police, fire services and public transport networks are all being scaled back.

    America appears to be a society splitting down the centre, shattering the middle class that long formed the cultural bedrock of the country and dividing it into a country of haves and have-nots. "A once unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal," warned Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman in a recent New York Times column. Or, as Steven Green, an economics lecturer at Baylor University, put it to the Observer: "We are really in a tough spot right now."

    There is a new name for those falling down the black hole of joblessness that has opened up in America's economy. They are the 99ers.

    It is a moniker that no one wants. It refers to the 99 weeks of benefits that the jobless can qualify for in America. Government cash helps those laid off keep a tenuous grip on a normal life. It keeps a roof over their heads, pays a phone bill, puts food on a table and petrol in a car. But once the 99 weeks are up the payments stop – as is happening now for millions of people – and they are 99ers.

    For many, that moment, which America's politicians have refused to extend, represents the moment of destitution; a sort of modern American version of the old Victorian trip to the workhouse. There are now more than a million 99ers and the number gets bigger each week.

    Strauss, along with about 50 other 99ers, protested on Wall Street last week, demanding an extension of the benefits that could keep them out of poverty. As bankers and financiers strode into the flag-draped Stock Exchange they chanted: "Shame! Shame!" and told their stories. It was a litany of middle-class lives shattered by the recession. There was Connie Kaplan, a corporate librarian who was desperate to resume her career. "We are not bums, we are hardworking," she said. Or Lori Ghavami, a New Jersey financial analyst in her 30s, who had once worked on Wall Street itself and now was staring at landlords' bills she was scared she could not pay. Or New Yorker Steven Bilarbi, 62, who had worked for the same employer for 37 years, until 2007. He has not worked since, despite refusing to spend daytime hours at home and engaging in a permanent job hunt. He is now living off savings and depleting his pension.

    "I go to job fairs. I don't feel like staying home. What would I do? Watch game shows and soap operas?" he fumed.

    Meeting 99ers is to tap into a deep well of anger at lives that have been knocked off course, shattering the enduring vision of the American dream that many had felt they had achieved. Just take Donna Faiella, a 53-year-old New Yorker who lives alone in Queens. She spent 28 years working in film post-production and video-editing. She was successful and had a career. Now she is desperate for a job, any job. But she cannot find one. "I will do anything. I will sweep floors. You think I look forward to collecting unemployment? It is fucking degrading," she said, almost quivering with anger.

    Faiella is in dire trouble. Joblessness has eaten away at her sense of identity. "I feel like we are worthless. We are lost in the world. I don't know what to call myself. I don't have a title any more. What do we do? What do we do?" she implored. Faiella has one week of benefits to go. Then her 99 weeks will be up. She will have a title again. But not one she expected. She will be a 99er. "I am petrified. Do I become homeless?" she said, adding that she has begun making inquiries at local shelters.

    If the 99ers are coming to symbolise a human segment of society that America is slowly abandoning to its fate, then Camden is the geographic expression of that marginalisation"(snip)

    I'm not sure that the author intended it or not, but the comparison of the 'criminal element' ( who are ineligible for unemployment benefits ) falling on hard times only emphasizes the fact that, via extended unemployment benefits and other gov't social welfare benefits, a whole lot of Americans have been able to postpone their 'day of reckoning' and preserve their middle class lifestyle / standard of living. However, as extended unemployment benefits eventually expire ( even though they were recently extended again just past election day this coming november ) , and as state budget problems force eventual cutbacks in social welfare benefits, that 'day of reckoning' draws closer and closer.


    (snip)"Whether it's the poor of Camden or Colorado Springs or Atlanta, or among the growing throngs of the 99ers, millions of Americans are discovering that working hard, doing the right thing and obeying the rules are no longer enough.

    Back at the 99er rally on Wall Street, Anne Strauss felt that way. During her working life she had refused to claim benefits to which she was entitled as she thought she was doing just fine. Now, as a newly minted 99er, she was looking for help from the country that she had always believed in. But the help was not forthcoming. It is hard to see how the version of the American dream that Menendez described could now ever apply to her. For Strauss, living on credit, desperate to work, but with no job in sight, that dream looks a thing of the past, not the future. "This is not the country I grew up in," Strauss said."(snip)

    The obvious take-away from the last section circles back to another economic fact frequently discussed in Dollar Den ... that the actual ability of many Americans to generate 'added value' through their skills and work efforts simply no longer offers enough 'value' to pay for a middle class lifestyle. And as the last bastions of workers that have been 'overpaid' relative to their actual 'value' generation capacity i.e. gov't employees, union workers etc. face job elimination and eventual expiration of unemployment benefits, America's traditional 'middle class' paradigm will officially die.


    Also, for what it's worth, I'll point out that this arguably honest assessment had to be found in foreign media !

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 08-15-2010 at 07:24 AM.

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    Default Re: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

    and this article follows on the same theme from a similarly foreign perspective ...

    from

    (snip)"Local government in the US has traditionally been leaner than its British equivalent, with minimal public healthcare, patchy public transport and an ingrained culture of contracting out to private operators. The worst recession since the war has caused a triple-pronged slump: unemployment has eroded income tax takings, a dive in house prices has hurt property tax and weak consumer spending has reduced sales tax. Funding is stretched to breaking point.

    The National League of Cities estimates that US municipalities, which had revenue of $398bn last year, face a fiscal hole of between $56bn and $83bn over the two years to 2012. States, which fund broader services such as schools, prisons and highway patrols, are in a worse jam — they grappled with a $192bn shortfall in 2010, equivalent to 29% of their budgets, according to the Washington-based Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    "We're seeing drop-offs in revenue that are breaking all records," said John Shure, deputy director of the CBPP's state fiscal project. "The irony is that people's needs are going up but the resources to meet them are going down."

    Putting up taxes in a recession is politically unpopular and risks hampering a recovery. And borrowing money is not an option as most US local authorities are prohibited from going into debt. Shure says: "They're required by their own constitutions to have a balanced budget. There's no good answer."

    The draconian nature of some cuts would cause even Britain's austere chancellor, George Osborne, to blanch. In Georgia, the county of Clayton, which encompasses down-at-heel suburbs south of Atlanta, axed its entire public bus service to save $8m, leaving 8,400 daily riders high and dry. Faced with a hole in its education budget, Hawaii's Republican governor simply shut down the state's schools on Fridays, moving teachers and pupils onto a four-day week.

    Struggling to pay for upkeep of asphalt roads, counties in Michigan and South Dakota have been converting paved country roads to gravel, turning back the clock of modernisation. Then there are trivial, yet eye-catching examples — Miami has dispensed with the services of its chicken catcher. The California city of San Diego disbanded its 27-year-old mounted police force. The state of Washington scrapped its board on geographic names, deciding it could do without a body overseeing the historical and cultural consistency.

    Colorado Springs, a city of 360,000 people on the edge of the Rocky Mountains asked voters to approve a tripling of property tax in November. They voted no. So the city switched off a third of its streetlights, removed litter bins from parks, put its police helicopters up for auction online and halted many bus services at 6.15pm. City employees have been asked to stump up more for their own healthcare, while community centres and pools are looking for private money to stay open.

    Residents of Colorado Springs are being encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to trim the grass in public spaces.

    And anybody who strongly wants lighting can "adopt a streetlight‚" for $75 a year.


    Barack Obama this week signed a federal aid package of $26bn for cash-strapped states, some of which will filter through to cities. But many argue this is not enough.

    Christiana McFarland, an expert at the National League of Cities, says: "Local authorities are in a serious situation at this point. In years past, we've been down to the bare bones in terms of budget. They're now cutting critical services such as public safety."

    Back in Philadelphia, deputy mayor Everett Gillison says it is a "lie" that fire station "brown outs" compromise safety, blaming unions for a cynical campaign to protect overtime. But in a nation where firefighters are held in the top echelon of public esteem, the spectre of darkened firehouses is prompting anger. "That's right – you take pictures of it!" yelled resident Darren Braxton, pulling up in his car as the Guardian visited a shuttered fire station.

    Braxton, a maintenance contractor, had some advice for the city authorities: "If you're trying to save money, do something else. You don't mess with the trash men because we'll become Filthadelphia. You don't mess with the police because young people round here don't value life and they be shooting people left, right and centre. And you don't mess with the firefighters because they put out fires."(snip)


    Again the major point would appear to be that state and city gov't employees are one of the last bastions of US workers who are (over)paid to the point of being able to genuinely afford maintaining a 'middle class' lifestyle / standard of living. However, and increasingly, states and cities can no longer afford to borrow additional money to keep funding their paychecks. And, also increasingly, states and cities have hit the practical ceiling in regard to raising income / property / sales taxes to keep funding their paychecks. Thus other than the recently announced US federal money printing to provide additional federal funds to state and local gov'ts, there is now no alternative except for states and cities to start permanently eliminating many of their employees. As with the first article, this will accelerate the 'day of reckoning' and with it the death of the American 'middle class' paradigm. And as the last guy in this article, Darren Braxton, points out, other profound changes will undoubtedly stem from these state and local gov't cutbacks.

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    Default Re: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...american-dream

    (snip)"Even the criminals have fallen on hard times in America's poorest city as the long-term unemployed struggle to keep a grasp on normality
    There is still plenty of money around- these street criminals just have been going about it the wrong way:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100814/..._stock_options

    Goldman Sachs CEO makes $6.1M on stock options

    NEW YORK – [COLOR=#366388 !important][COLOR=#366388 !important]Goldman[/color][/color] Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein has reaped a $6.1 million gain by cashing in more than 90,000 stock options before they expired in November.
    Blankfein realized the windfall Wednesday by exercising his right to buy 90,681 at $82.875, according to a Friday regulatory filing. He then sold the stock at prices ranging between $149.49 and $152.
    Goldman shares closed Friday at $148.08.

    Two other officers did likewise and pulled out a total $8 million.

    (snip)
    "According to previous filings with the SEC, Blankfein earned $862,657 in 2009, down from $42.9 million in 2008."

    The poor guy went from $42 million to just $862,000 after government involvment regarding Goldmans part in the financial crash, other cases of fraud and the governments assertion that bailed out banks shouldn't be paying such high compensation.

    Posted this to illustrate; A)there is still money floating around B) Government regulation isn't always a bad thing.

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    Default Re: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

    ^^^ that only works if the 'street' in question is Wall St !!!

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    Default Re: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

    ^^^^
    Exactly, the money is not even filtering down to where hard-working criminals can make a living.

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    Default Re: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

    some criminals are just too dumb/greedy/psychopathological to make money in any legitimate way. But the remainder of them are smart enough to adapt to almost any situation.
    I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.

    Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.

    NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.

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    Default Re: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !

    Quote Originally Posted by threlayer View Post
    some criminals are just too dumb/greedy/psychopathological to make money in any legitimate way. But the remainder of them are smart enough to adapt to almost any situation.
    Indeed. It is very rare to meet a rich criminal. And the ones who do manage to live beyond subsistence think gaudy gold pendents a sign of "wealth." (What they and a lot of stuff they buy are nothing but costumes sold to them by the real players in this country.)

    These people got played by Madison Ave. hard. Told they deserve it. (They don't.) Told everyone else has it. (They don't.) Told they want it. (Without even thinking why.)

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    Default Re: Even the 'criminal element' is now going broke !



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