Wednesday, August 17, 2011

another one of america's cities of broken dreams in the woods...,

DailyMail | In scenes reminiscent of the Great Depression these are the ramshackle homes of the desperate and destitute U.S. families who have set up their own 'Tent City' only an hour from Manhattan.

More than 50 homeless people have joined the community within New Jersey's forests as the economic crisis has wrecked their American dream.

And as politicians in Washington trade blows over their country's £8.8 trillion debt, the prospect of more souls joining this rag tag group grows by the day.

Building their own tarpaulin tents, Native American teepees and makeshift balsa wood homes, every one of the Tent City residents has lost their job.

These people have been reduced to living on handouts from the local church and friendly restaurants and the community is a sad look at troubles caused as the world's most powerful country struggles with its finances.

'We have been in and out of the camp for a year,' said ex-hotel worker Burt Haut, 43, who lives with his wife, ex-teacher Barbara, 48 in a tent styled like a teepee from the Old West.

'Our financial difficulties since the credit crisis three years ago have caused us to camp on public ground, at the back of churches and down the backs of closed down stores.

'We have had help from our friends and family, but we have run that well dry.

'We are trying to get back on our feet and with help from the camp leadership we hope to get back onto a social security scheme or help with some assisted housing.'

Ravaged by the loss of their jobs and their homes, the residents of Tent City struggle to get by without day-to-day luxuries that we take for granted such as food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Ex-minister Steve Brigham, 50, runs Tent City, which consists of a dirt road running through a two-acre encampment which has flowerpots laid out front of proud tents and homes.

Functioning as near to a normal town as possible, Tent City is governed by democratic rules agreed by all the residents.

They all must agree to no fighting, to clean the camp, to volunteer their time when they have it, and to most importantly keep the noise down after 10pm.

4 comments:

umbrarchist said...

When are people going to get that this DEPRESSION has been caused by our Economists?

Like it is OK for Experts to ignore how reality works.  Like Physicists can't comprehend DEPRECIATION.  Don't physicists buy cars?  Don't those cars wear out.

But Physicists can't notice that the Economics Profession has been ignoring the Depreciation of Durable Consumer Goods for the last SIXTY FIVE YEARS.  Keynes died in 1946.  He didn't live in a world with more than 4 billion people.  That didn't happen until after the Moon landing.  But economists can continue to pretend that planned obsolescence does not happen.  What did Keynes ever say about that?

It's not about JOBS!  It is about distribution of WEALTH and who controls the LAND.  If some people have to pay other people to live on the land then they have to have jobs.  But if accounting had been mandatory since the 50s and everyone taught to concentrate on NET WORTH what would conditions be like now?

Nobody really knows.  It is just speculation.  But if economists computed and reported what was lost to Demand Side Depreciation maybe we would have a better idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5DCwN28y8o

So why aren't the peons sharing good information instead of believing the stupid social engineering that keeps the system running in the same old NAZInomic rut?
.

Tom said...

It's interesting they start with a printer.  Mine whined that it was out of toner in 2009; I covered up a little clear plastic window on the toner cartridge and it stopped complaining.  Ran it all the way through 2010 before we started having problems with the "corona wire"; there was still plenty of toner.  Problem was pages were coming out too dark eighteen months after the printer said the cartridge was empty.  At that point I caved and we bought a new one for my wife; but I'm still nursing the old one in secret when I have a lot of stuff to print out myself.

Dale Asberry said...

When are you going to get that you're sounding like a broken record?

Re-read the posts on dopamine addiction, and self-correct.

You're on the right track - just stopping WAAAAAY short of the finish line.

Big Don said...

@Homelessness:  Business can't flourish and provide more good  jobs with http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_18707661 etc...  

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