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
That is the title and subtitle respectively of a recent U.K. Guardian article that is rather long but interesting and I offer an excerpt here:
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.
As I indicated above the piece is rather long but it also generated many comments. I like many others peruse the comments to get a feel for the readers take on any one article or its author and every now and then a gem appears and wish to share that as well.
It comes from a commenter going by the name jColes :
The whole premise of the story -- death of the American dream because of the current economic downturn -- is simply silly.
Yes, millions of folks are discouraged.
Yes, millions of folks are having a hard time.
Yes, millions of folks lived too high and over-indulged for far too long.
Yes, millions of folks are being adversely affected by the accumulated effects of incremental economic and social destruction wrought incrementally by Progressive legislation.
Yes, the current occupant of the White House and the Leftist loons now in the majority in the Congress have turned a bad credit/fiscal problem into the second-worst recession in a century, and getting out of the morass their Marxism-based economic strategy has created will take years.
But...
The American Dream does not die easily because Americans are a resilient people. We've been through bad times before...we've endured and gotten beyond bad -- ever perverse -- political leadership before. The electorate have several times made poor electoral choices in selecting our senior leaders...the poorly chosen have screwed things up before, and when they do the people correct their mistakes, put new leadership in place and then do what is necessary to overcome damage done to the Republic.
And so it will be again. A wave of discontent and distrust toward the Progressives in government is building and it will soon sweep over and wash away the vermin now soiling the halls of our capitol and White House.
But then the real work of undoing the damage, restarting the private sector, and digging out from the piles of debt and bad decisions the Left will have left begins...recovery will take some considerable time, but recover we will and the naysayers, the prophets of America's demise, will again be proven wrong.
I hope that helps out in making your Monday better.
