Third World America: 'Fast-Tracking to Anarchy'

American Slums (Detroit)

My last post about Arianna Huffington’s new book, Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream talked about the Great Recession, the Great Bailout, and the Great Cover-Up of financial crimes.

Among the future consequences of not fixing our national problems will likely be an increase in social unrest and an increase in crime. A look at Chicago’s problems may serve as a call to action for America’s middle class. Chicago’s city budget is in dire straits. That’s also true of the state of Illinois, California, New York and other areas. In Chicago, the same mismanagement that deepened our fiscal crisis has caused a crisis in essential city services.

The police department provides just one example. Sunday’s Chicago Tribune reported that in 31 days, there were 303 shot and 33 dead:

“Crime has been holding steady in Chicago in recent years. Through July, there have been 1,089 shootings in the city, a 2.4 percent decrease over last year.”

According to the newspaper, it’s a “typical” July. Yet there is nothing typical about it when you look beyond the numbers. The first problem is that the numbers are flat-out unacceptable in any year in any city in the U.S. It is inexplicable that citizens of Chicago have tolerated this situation in poorer neighborhoods for decades. The second problem is a new problem. Years of complacency by Chicago’s middle and upper classes have brought the crisis to their doorstep.

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Related Article:
10 Signs the U.S.is Becoming a Third World Country