Chicago suffered through its worst summer of violence in decades. In August, over 400 people were shot and 80 killed.
Activists and public unions blame income inequality. Income inequality is rising, but very few understand who is to blame. And the tax hikes and pay hikes that unions seek exacerbate the problems and cause white flight.
Many claim education is the answer, but the Chicago public school system is not only financially bankrupt, it is morally bankrupt.
Bloody Chicago Summer
In Chicago, activists confront longstanding issues of inequality and poverty following a long Bloody Summer.
There has been little peace this summer in Chicago — where President Barack Obama began his political career. Last month alone more than 400 people were shot and nearly 80 killed, the most violent month in two decades in the city’s metropolitan area, according to the Chicago Police Department. This violence occurred exactly 50 years after Dr Martin Luther King Jr marched through the city’s south side demanding civil rights for African Americans.
Community leaders cite a vicious circle of poverty when discussing violence in the poorest African American and Hispanic neighborhoods. It is driven by inequality, poor access to good schools and food and has led to an evaporation of hope that they say perpetuates this crisis. This is particularly pertinent in Chicago, which remains one of America’s most racially segregated cities.
Research from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute published this year showed that 40 per cent of African Americans aged between 20 and 24 were either out of work or out of school, compared with 18 per cent for the Latino population and 6.3 per cent for whites in 2014. The rate was higher in Chicago then elsewhere in the US, where the average for blacks was 28 per cent.
Those Who Can, Leave
The most recent US census data show a 3.1 per cent decline in the population between 2000 and 2014 to 842,674. Even African American families are beginning to leave the city.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s solution to Chicago’s plight has been a massive series of tax hikes, not “for the kids” but rather to support pension promises of teachers who cannot teach and police who get to retire early, with sweeteners every step of the way.
Throwing money at the system has not worked. Tax hikes have not worked. In general, liberal policies have not worked.
Why are Huge Numbers of Blacks in Prison?
Part of the answer is Bill Cinton’s 1994 “three strikes” crime bill. Don’t believe me? Would you believe Bill Clinton?
A May 7, 2015 CNN Politics article explains nicely: Bill Clinton Concedes Role in Mass Incarceration.
President Bill Clinton on Wednesday conceded that over-incarceration in the United States stems in part from policies passed under his administration.
Clinton signed into law an omnibus crime bill in 1994 that included the federal “three strikes” provision, mandating life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug crimes. On Wednesday, Clinton acknowledged that policy’s role in over-incarceration in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“The problem is the way it was written and implemented is we cast too wide a net and we had too many people in prison,” Clinton said Wednesday. “And we wound up…putting so many people in prison that there wasn’t enough money left to educate them, train them for new jobs and increase the chances when they came out so they could live productive lives.”
“Keeping them behind bars does little to reduce crime, but it does a lot to tear apart families,” Hillary Clinton said last week. “Our prisons and our jails are now our mental health institutions.”
Union Activists
Union activists are a huge part of the problem. California was strongly supportive of the 3-strikes rule. California prison guards are the most overpaid in the country. The more people incarcerated, the happier the unions are.
Unions are always demanding tax hikes to support their unjustified and untenable pensions.
Circular Problem
- Unions want tax hikes to support pensions, not the school kids.
- Unions make it impossible to get rid of bad teachers and bad police officers.
- Unions like to see as many people as possible in prison.
- Mayors hike taxes to placate the unions.
- Tax hikes exacerbates plight of businesses and individuals.
- White flight (wealthy flight) and business flight ensues.
- To compensate for loss of tax base and loss of jobs, union demand more tax hikes. (start over again at point one).
Solutions
Illinois needs lower taxes not higher taxes that drive away businesses and wealthy individuals. Ludicrous prevailing wage laws ensure that every project in the states costs more than it should. Existing worker’s compensation laws are very punishing on businesses.
Illinois desperately needs to allow municipal bankruptcies. The pension system is broken. The tax hikes required to keep zombie cities and municipalities alive just makes matters worse.
The Chicago public school system is morally corrupt and financially bankrupt. Yet Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s only solution has been a massive set of tax hikes punishing individuals and corporations alike. None of the money is for the kids. It all goes to the pension system.
In Springfield, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s answer is in most respects the same as Emanuel’s. Both want tax hikes. Both want legislation that will drive more businesses out of the state.
Breaking the Feedback Loop
It’s time to break the cycle, but the state is so gerrymandered, it’s extremely difficult to get rid of the politicians responsible for the mess.
At the Chicago city level, unions are so powerful, mayor Emanuel will not do the right thing.
The self-feeding cycle should be obvious. But “liberals” and “progressives” keep voting for those who make their lives worse. Why?
The only thing I can come up with is belief in something for nothing policies, “free” handouts, and blame the wealthy rhetoric of union activists.
All Hail, Michael Madigan
House Speaker Michael Madigan in Power 40 Years
Taxpayer Shakedown Thanks to Madigan, Emanuel
Related Articles
October 28, 2015: Chicago’s Sheep Dogs Approve Mayor’s Tax on Sheep; Quote of the Day “It’s Not a Piece of Art”
February 13, 2016: “Bond Girl” Blasts Chicago Public School Bonds, Says “CPS Genuinely Insolvent”
March 18, 2016: Chicago Public School System Threatens Massive Tax Hikes Via “Backdoor” Bond Guarantee
May 27, 2016: All Hail, Michael Madigan, Dictator of Illinois
July 30, 2016: Chicago Pension Situation Improving Says Mayor: Careful Analysis Uncovers Lies
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
How bad has it gotten in Chicago…. their community organizer refuses to move back after his failed presidency.
You act like there hasn’t been two parties for hundreds of years. I don’t disagree with the post except that I feel like you aren’t recognizing that your solution (vote republican this time) also must be part of what created the problem. Anyway I’m not looking for a reply. I value your work.
I am a Libertarian, not a Republican
I voted neither Republican nor Democrat in the last two presidential elections.
I am likely to vote Trump even though I dislike him
Yes, the murderous horror that is Hillary must be stopped at all cost….
I know it. That is why I was careful to say this time.
Mish — I like that you bring these things out for some discussion. Guess I’m a hard ass businessman (retired) who had to make lots of hard decisions in my day — why does it seem that everyone feels so bad about trying to correct the problem ??
I grew up in Oakland, Ca. and it’s virtually in the same bind as Chicago and spent my last 30 years in Southern Ca. — SAME THING BETTER WEATHER. I’ve coached players in sports, led workers and dealt with all kinds of issues in bad areas while meeting lots of good people of all flavors.
Seems like all of us arm chair analysts feel so bad about facing reality and trying to fix it BUT IT’S ALL GETTING WORSE AND WORSE !! Lets try !! We need a leader to challenge folks and set the pace. Just like a clean out of a company with a CEO change —- just do it !!
To me, Trump is a chance to start fixing things. He can’t do it all and needs help to just getting going but damn it we have to start somewhere and he’s the right kind of person to kick start the moribund state of our nation.
____________________________________________________________________
PS — The act known Mark Cuban is a great example of what’s wrong with our executives. To him this all seems to be a PR game where his big ego feels left out so he wants to make a mockery of the process. Didn’t he float himself as a possible VP candidate to both parties because he is so brilliant ??
The British Empire Roots of American Social Control
564
SHARES
This article was originally published in the August 14, 2015 issue of Executive Intelligence Review magazine.
By Barbara Boyd
Introduction: The Case of Donald Trump
Here we are, already far into the war declared by Wall Street and the City of London against Russia and China, with President Obama marching us step-by-step to early nuclear conflagration. The population which should be on its feet, demanding survival, not just for itself but for the entire human race, by insisting on Obama’s impeachment, is, instead, distracted—restive, agitated, knowing something is deeply wrong, but distracted. The heirs of the great Washington, Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt must create and shape a new great Presidency right now if they are to survive, let alone experience their own actual humanity.
The national debate, however, does not concern the imminence of war and how to prevent it; rather, we are enticed to be preoccupied with the likes of Donald Trump. We are bombarded with police shootings, chaos, the disintegration of our immediate environment. This is not accidental.
By focusing on the methods and history of those who create this controlled and manufactured environment,— namely, the national security gendarmerie in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and related agencies, and their public opinion propagandists,—we could find the keys to defeating the British Empire itself.
This is a short introduction, to what will be a longer article in the EIR next week, about the historical methods of popular subversion used by the FBI against the American population.
The Satanic Roy Cohn
We begin with the case of Donald Trump. He is, as Lyndon LaRouche points out, a product of J. Edgar Hoover’s New York circles, a coterie which included mobbed-up businessmen like Lewis Rosenstiel, along with Cardinal Spellman of the New York archdiocese, and various Wall Street establishment and media figures, all presided over by Hoover’s main New York man, the satanic Roy M. Cohn. Cohn was Trump’s lawyer and best friend throughout most of Trump’s formative years—his mentor, according to Trump.
Those who know their history, know that Roy Cohn was the legal assassin deployed by J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy during the notorious manufactured “Red Scare” of the 1950s, which destroyed the lives of numerous innocent public servants and others, while instilling fear and cowardice in the post-war U.S. population.
When McCarthy was finally discredited in the Army-McCarthy hearings or 1954, Cohn left Washington for New York City, where he became the favorite lawyer and facilitator for New York-New Jersey organized crime, defrauding his clients, bribing judges, and corrupting and blackmailing much of what was New York celebrity, journalistic, and high-society culture in the 1960s through the 1980s. Cohn threw exclusive sex and drug parties at Studio 54, Le Club, and other “hot” night spots. Trump claims that he and Cohn met at Le Club.
At the same time, Cohn was the lawyer and a personal confidant of New York’s Cardinal Spellman, himself an FBI informant and J. Edgar Hoover crony. Roy Cohn did all of this while being protected by Hoover’s FBI and other Wall Street-controlled secret government entities, who gladly accepted the dirt he provided them about those he seduced, in return for allowing his gross and satanic criminality. He was only disbarred on his deathbed, as he was dying of AIDS.
Organized Crime
Donald Trump’s early fortune was inherited from his father Fred, who was a developer of military housing during the war years, and middle-class housing in Queens and Brooklyn after World War II. Like his son, Fred had numerous dealings with New York’s organized crime families, according to accounts by Wayne Barrett, who has written extensively about the Trumps.
Donald Trump’s mentor, Roy Cohn, represented Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, the boss of the Genovese organized crime family, and, it is alleged, Trump met with Salerno at Cohn’s Manhattan offices. Salerno’s company, S&A Concrete, was used by Trump in constructing several of his New York City buildings. According to numerous published reports, Trump’s initial project in Atlantic City, the casino which became Trump Plaza, was built on land which Trump bought at twice its market value from Salvatore Testa, a made man in the Philadelphia mafia and son of Philip “Chicken Man” Testa, who briefly headed the Philly mob after Angelo Bruno’s 1980 killing. The casino was built in part by construction companies owned by the Philly mob. 1
Trump also had a close association with Kenneth Shapiro, a banker for the Nicky Scarfo who became head of the Philly mob after Philip Testa was blown up. Recently, Trump has worked to distance himself from Felix Sater, a fraudster with mafia ties who worked with Trump on numerous occasions. Sater’s ties to American and Russian mobsters have been widely reported, as well as his work as a government provocateur and informant.
Trump’s campaign manager, until his recent “resignation,” was Roger Stone, described by Trump as a longtime close friend and associate. Stone is a long-standing Republican Party dirty-tricks operative who cut his teeth with Richard Nixon’s CREEP. According to Stone, he has Richard Nixon’s picture tattooed on his back.
Nixon’s entire career, of course, was closely associated with, and protected by, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Stone’s most recent publicized antics, other than involvement in his own sex scandal, involved his work for the Bush family in securing George W. Bush’s presidency, by orchestrating a riot which stopped the 2000 Florida vote recount. He also played a central role in the sex scandal which ended the political career of Eliot Spitzer, who was reviled and set up because he had devoted his public career to taking down Wall Street.
Deadly Silence
Everything I have written here about Trump is readily and publicly available. Yet, millions of Americans say they are seriously considering this man for the presidency; all the so-called Republican candidates are silent about this perverse story,—a silence which itself should disqualify them all from the Presidency. And again, this reality-TV escapade proceeds while in actual reality, Barack Obama takes step after step on the path to war.
Next week, we will document the British Empire origins and Twentieth Century backdrop to this operation.
Lost me at Lyndon LaDouche.
It’s NY-NJ in the 70’s-80’s. If you so much as bought a candy bar from a vending machine or a bag of concrete from a store, you were now connected to the Mafia.
A fools argument.
So you intend to vote for the candidate who (does not) regularly expresses libertarian views and backs them up with, among other things, ideas such as:
— protecting individual liberties by implementing stop-and-frisk
— the ability to sue the press for statements about him that he doesn’t like
— starting unprovoked wars over gestures and words
— criticizing the use of grounds troops in (country we’ve sent them into previously), to be rectified by sending ground troops into (insert country we’ve not sent them into yet)
— “extreme vetting” of Muslims, including American citizens who are Muslim
This is grossly inconsistent with any libertarian viewpoints I’m familiar with.
If you could think clearly, Hillary who is far worse, would win.
Secondly, you are presuming how I will actually vote.
Since Trump has no chance in Illinois, I will likely vote Libertarian.
Mish
The DuPage County led GOP establishment is scarcely better than the outrageously corrupt Cook County Democrat machine. I would encourage everyone to vote for Trump just to highlight to that GOP establishment that their preferred “squishy” moderates are the problem and cause for Illinois going deeper and deeper into the blue because of the low quality unelectables they force upon us every election cycle.
In most large cities, including Detroit (1943) and Chicago (1927), there has not been a Republican mayor in DECADES. https://pajamasmed.hs.llnwd.net/e12/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/democrat_urban_monopolies_11-30-15.png
Don’t get me wrong, Republicans would undoubtedly develop the same corrupt habits as these Democrats if allowed to become entrenched in power. The point is without any kind of a viable alternative to keep these scumbag politicians semi-honest, they are free to steal everything that isn’t nailed down to line their pockets and keep power.
And yes I will also vote Trump. Almost every election comes down to which is the lesser of the two evils. I think this year it’s Trump.
Blacks vote for people who give them free trinkets because they have the time preference of small children…..period.
Mish you should erase this IMO
Mish allows anti-semitic comments. Why shouldn’t he allow anti-black comments?
That’s a great idea Cc; we need ever-increasing censorship for those who won’t groupthink!
Say what you mean then…groupthink should be racist. I’m sad for you.
Say what you think. Groupthink should be totalitarianly PC. I think you suck.
If that were the case, then posters would be demanding that Cc be erased.
Mish you should erase this IMO
Unless you disapprove of censorship.
They have a high time preference because they are the cultural descendants of the hunter-gatherers.
Gotta eat what’s in season when nature gives it to them.
CC, like a good SJW you desire to censor truth.
Of the problems that Mish lays out for Chicago the first that came to mind was “Short time preference.”
If you’ll note, white men have longer time preferences, as they were adapted to preserving what nature gave them and preparing for winter. The same applies in the modern era where it is the typical white man that has the income that Mish is referencing. The more they can see that there is no future in Illinois, the more they leave. Just don’t be the last one.
There will always be those of any skin color that reject the “eat your cake now” attitude, and more power to them. They won’t be able to multiply enough in time to prevent the decay and decline.
TL;DR: Race and genetics matter when civilization is at stake.
I see your point, but I doubt genetics is the causality. Anyway, I read the comment as insulting – not scientific. What is a good SJW?
Social Justice Warrior. Seems to fit.
Blacks big problem is low median IQ (80 to 85 w/ a std deviation of 13) that gives them a mental age of about 14 or 15 years old — for life. It is just reality. And it’s not racist, because much of the world has similar median IQs in the range of 75 to 89.
Only Northern Europeans, East Asians and their descendants have IQs of 100 or more. ALL THE REST are much lower. It doesn’t sound like much but 15 point difference is the difference between orderly, prosperous and advanced societies vs high crime, disorder, poverty and dysfunction. The “high IQ” countries have created the most advanced, democratic, prosperous, orderly societies the world has ever seen.
That’s why these open borders policies just create a “clashes of civilization” like we’re seeing with Muslims in Europe or Blacks in America. These people, on average, are unable to function at the level of more high functioning culture. And welfare support worsens their culture and situation. See my blog entitled “Differences in Median Intelligence Causes Clashes of Civilization”
http://gulfcoastcommentary.blogspot.com/2016/01/differences-in-intelligence-causes.html
Why do you think black “leaders” applaud the likes of Fidel Castro? or support Hugo Chavez? It’s because their populations can’t “handle” freedom and self-reliance— the very things that America embodied at our founding.
Your IQ numbers are correct as confirmed by a famous study made in the 1970’s. However you should be aware that the study also compared orphans of all races that were raised in white and black homes and found that IQ results were virtually identical for both races when raised in the same type of homes. This made it clear that genetically that there is no difference between that races however there are clear and major cultural differences which certainly impact your employment opportunities in a high tech world.
Thomas, median IQs do rise with socio-economic status for all races including parental education and parental income. But the 1.2 standard deviation between whites and blacks persists for comparable levels of socio-economic status. In fact, that 1.2 standard deviation racial difference never goes away for IQ tests are any standardized aptitude or achievement test.
It was found that if a orphan white child was raised in a black household that the average IQ was 95. Identically, if a orphan black child was raised in the while household his/her IQ was 95. This cannot be an accident. These results took into account the socio-economic status of the parents. Therefore your last statement “racial difference never goes away” must not be true. I am supposing that families that take in orphans may well be of a typically higher economic class than average which would account for IQs higher than the average IQs of average black people. Respectfully and Best Wishes, TD
Your post made me wonder, as soon many of today’s events do, about 1968,
How do these Stats compare with the summer of ’68 or more precisely Aug ’16 to Aug ’68?
Would very much appreciate your perspective on those two pulse points.
Thanks, David
Just amazing.
Who shot who in Shitcago.
Has to be seen to be believed .
http://heyjackass.com
Check out the “Shot-in-the-ass-o-meter”
Holy cow, what the hell is going on in Chicago?
There’s also a “shot-in-the-junk-o-meter”.
Shot-in-the-junk.
Ha ha ha!!!
Pour me another drink.
You just can’t make this shit up!
This looks like madness from over here in England.
God you yanks are nuts.
Just NUTS!!!
It’s not madness. We have loaded guns around the house, and have never used them except at the range for practice. If we need them, they are there… the real goal is not to have to use them. They don’t have that goal in the inner city areas, they have another goal, that is to rule over each other by force. Our guns are why the inner city isn’t where I live. We keep the inner city out because the criminals have no idea who actually has guns. So, what are the Brits going to use to defend themselves when that time comes? I see the push started a couple of years ago to ban pointy knives…Really? Really You have my sympathy, lol.
America – the most fearful nation on earth.
“…defend themselves when the time comes … ”
Yup Greg, keep living in fear .
You Yanks have created an armed madhouse for yourselves.
Good luck sleeping next to your loaded guns Greg.
LOL !!
Oh yeah – in case you hadn’t heard Greg, the US is no longer # 1
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-23/its-official-america-not-greatest-country-earth-its-28th
Germ, like always, you EU people always miss the point and thats why we had to fight 2 times in the 20th century. You people allow your govetnment to preempt your right to defend yourself. When you lose control of your own destiny next time, we will not be able to come to your aid… we are broke and a good part of our plight is due to the cost of the last 2 interventions to save you.
It’s not just about who the blacks are voting for but who the alternatives are. Keep in mind that many Republicans purposefully resort to quasi racist strategies to court the white vote. Chicago, in particular, has a LONG history of politicians supporting segregation and other things. There was a mayoral candidate in the ’80s who flat out played the race card when running against a black candidate.
Why would any black person vote for a person advocating racist views?
I am not suggesting that this explains the black Chicagoan voting patterns entirely, but it is definitely a contributing factor.
Given the results they have now, would they think they were better off with segregation?
I think you need to be more specific regarding “racist” republican strategies. It is now progressives supporting segregated housing on campus….to isolate minorities from micro aggressions. Or is it racist now to suggest that people compete and actually work for a living rather than simply demanding economic justice?
Every problem is caused by unions?
Minority kids don’t go to school, or disrupt the class room. Is that caused by unions or by the students themselves? There is such a thing as personal responsibility. Parents have to insist that their kids cooperate and value learning. When the parents are unemployed and not even trying, this is what you get. These are not little angels who just need better teachers.
Are the cops bad, or are the people they police bad? Unions may make the cost go up, but unions are not why hundreds of citizens and illegals are killing each other in Chicago.
Unions (organized labor) negotiate with organized government for contracts that other people must pay, while never being held to account. It is a corruption that destroys everything.
The answer to your question “why do people vote against their own interests” is the unwillingness to admit they were wrong. It’s basically the same with Keynesians.
Yup.
And also, the State has now gotten so big, that they are able to do a good job of obfuscating cause and effect. So that they can get people all riled up and voting for or against something utterly mindless, like prayer in school, or condoms there, or whether Trump is sexist or Hillary has Parkinson. While the government, regardless of which “party” is nominally in control, can keep going about their business of progressively enslaving them.
Against that backdrop, the increase in violence, may well be a good thing. As it may be an early sign that the oppressors’ ironhanded control is starting to slip. Or, at a minimum, that more and more people are waking up and realizing how hopeless, useless and utterly worthless America, and with it the rest of the West, really has become for most people by now. And that there really are no other realistic option for resolving the issue, than the one outlined by the Somalis in the 90s, temporarily chaotic as that episode may have been.
I would understand the violence if there were a revolutionary purpose to it, but from my vantage it looks like selfishness at best and nihilism at worst.
While noble intentions certainly makes heinous acts more easy to stomach, in practical realpolitik, intentions doesn’t really matter much. The only reliable way to achieve the goal of being ungoverned, is to be ungovernable. Meaning, being costlier to govern, than the benefits government can squeeze out of you. Do that thoroughly enough, and for long enough, and the cost and pain of keeping you enslaved, just isn’t worth it anymore.
As of current in the US, and most of the rest of the West, those on the bottom of the socioeconomic totem pole, are very profitable for the oppressors. Not necessarily in strict, isolated monetary terms. But the cost of the occasional breadcrumb swiped down onto the ghetto floor, is dwarfed by the reliable support the starving ghetto dwellers offer up in return, at the voting booth. For every penny spent on keeping some washed up single mom and her bastard children alive another day, the oppressors can get a dollars worth of her reliable support in robbing those who still have something left to rob.
Which, to a tee, explains why the socioeconomic distribution in the West no longer resemble the kind of bell curve that is natural, but instead a U, or perhaps hook, shape, with 49.1% completely destitute to the point of doing anything for one more minute of plain staying alive, and 1% solidly anchored in an oppressive class owning it all. With the remaining 49.9% treated as common livestock: Kept in a cage as long as they can lay eggs, slaughtered afterwards. All in accordance with the progressive pagan god of demooocraciiii, of course, as 49.1%+1% reliably results in a member of the oppressive class being reliably demooocraticalliiii eleeeecteed every time.
So, anything that makes the destitutes costlier to herd, is in practice a positive. Some sort of actual awakening on their part, wrt their plight and realistic alternatives, would certainly be preferable. But, absent that, even simple random acts of anything that ramps up the costs faced by the oppressors, in the process aiding in draining their coffers and bringing the day of their ultimate ruin closer, is still an improvement over the alternative status quo.
Why…heh heh heh.
Indeed
Mish, you are a proponent of the free market, isn’t the case here to let things work out. Won’t the cycle you propose pretty much do that, the tax base will leave and then the whole thing will come crashing down?
So the best thing here is to let the politicians and unions just burn Illinois to the ground? We currently are watching market forces at work. No one said it would be pretty letting market forces work.
Isn’t what you suggest exactly what happened in Detroit? Hasn’t Detroit hit bottom and started to recover?
I used to live in The State Where the Governors Make the License Plates. It should be burnt to the ground and given a fresh start. There will be no recovery for IL as long as the corrupt politicians control it. I have always wondered why people keep electing those crooks. I think it is just plain stupidity, and the people of IL deserve what they have.
The Trump supporter understands this, the Clintonista does not, or refuses to do so.
The village needs to be destroyed in order to save the country. Washington, DC is the village the Trump Administration will do a controlled burn of the status quo. The establishment fears this like nothing else you’ve known in your lifetimes.
Why do blacks vote for politicians that make their lives worse? Why do whites vote for politicians that make their lives worse? Because, they believe the lie! Then in 4 years they forget the lie and do it all over again.
Mish, you are a proponent of the free market, isn’t the case here to let things work out. Won’t the cycle you propose pretty much do that, the tax base will leave and then the whole thing will come crashing down?
So the best thing here is to let the politicians and unions just burn Illinois to the ground? We currently are watching market forces at work. No one said it would be pretty.
Miss,
Long time reader first time poster. First thanks for the public forum you have created. I believe a differentiation needs to be made between a union representing employees of a taxpayer supported entity and a private for profit corporation. The first is a moral hazard backstoped by society the other is subject to the market and will only ever payout so long as the for profit company remains viable. A check and balance if you will.
The Airline industry and the employees loss of pensions through the bankruptcy process last decade is a perfect example. They were not subject to a public guaranty of benefits supported through taxes and thus the employees lost the majority of their benefits. I say this with the caveat that the PBGC has burdened the tax payers with a portion of the remaining benefits even thought the airlines have returned to profitability. In fact they are conducting stock buyback programs, paying dividends and enriching the managers that saw them bankrupt in the first place. Another example of capitalism when profits abound and socialism when loss needs redirecting.
I’m not a supporter of public employees receiving a tax payer gaurentied pension. However, if as an employee of a private company you collectively choose a DB plan than I respect that choice but have no sympathy if the plan is ultimately terminated at a loss.
I personally am in favor of a DC sceem, give me the money, it’s mine, it’s portable and it places no burden on society. A capitalist system vs. the socialist leaning backstop we now provide.
Answer: They are argumentative, generally unintelligent and easily manipulated.
Tens of thousands shot and killed in the USA every year. In a society that worships their guns. And no one seems to know what the solution is? Amazing! What did Trump say? He could shoot someone in Times Square, and people would still vote for him! What a strange country you have. At least Mish is right about self-driving cars. You can save thousands of lives that way. Good luck with your election, by the way.
Thanks!
This is only my experience. I’m not making any claim that it applies to the majority of black people. It applies only to the small universe of my personal interactions. So please don’t extrapolate it to anything other than that.
I was raised in a lower-middle class neighborhood. I’d say the area was about 25% black. I went to school with black kids and played on sports teams with black kids. The majority of the black kids had no interest in academics. Their aspirations were to make a living as entertainers or pro athletes. Obviously, that put very restrictive limits on vocational opportunities since relatively speaking the jobs in those endeavors are few and the competition is keen. Few make it big. Now there were a handful of black kids who wanted to go into professions like medicine or law and put more effort into academics but those examples were far and few in-between.
The black kids I was acquainted with had no interest in regular jobs that people work in the economy to earn an income because basically they felt it was selling out to the man.
Now I lost track of most of those kids as we went our separate ways except for a couple. And their lives didn’t turn out so well. Who knows? Many could have gone on and had happy and successful lives. People do change.
But I sensed a culture that greatly limited it’s opportunities for success and gambled on a long shot that rarely pans out for most people.
Now, to take it one step further – perhaps when initial vocational aspirations hit a brick wall people give up. Then they vote for politicians who deliver the most free stuff and enable a carefree lifestyle.
Just my experience and a possible reason why blacks greatly favor democrats.
Take it or leave it.
Sort of along the line of your thoughts LF, I was reading that intelligent and successful people have long term goals they work toward. Not very smart and definitely not successful people only want the quickest possible gratification. I don’t think race matters but what your parents teach you definitely matters.
I’m just trying to figure out why the black teen-age unemployment rate is so high as compared to the other races.
It’s not that hard to land a job at a fast food joint.
My anecdotal experiences may have substance, yet may not.
One way or the other I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.
LF,
Agree to a great extent. However, I don’t see it as a racial problem, more of a cultural issue. And that issue is that poor families that don’t have a history of hard working parents set up the expectations of the next generation. This is common in white and Latino communities also.
If you’re a poor black kid, no father in the home, don’t see your parents and neighbors working, and the success stories you see are athletes, entertainers, and drug dealers, what is the reasonable expectation?
The problem here is that Americans, as a people of all colors, simply aren’t intelligent enough or compassionate enough to help them break that cycle. Though many black folks have. And on their own. I give them great respect.
Haven’t helped them break the cycle? Are you joking? I lived through an affirmative action era that bent over backwards to help racial minorities get a leg up to the disadvantage of more qualified white applicants. This occurred in both the workplace and academia. And we’ve showered the poor with welfare benefits so that they live like kings and queens compared to the poor in other nations. So I’m at odds with that comment of yours.
Otherwise I mostly agree with what you said.
The welfare system in the US is a trap, not help.
“Unions are always…”
Most of the problems cited apply only to public employee unions – not unions in general. Unions in private industry are mainly a problem for the companies their members work for – not so much to taxpayers. The private sector unions do enjoy the benefits of unjust laws passed to protect them but I’d gladly leave them if I could just get rid of the public employee unions.
Oh, how quickly we forget GM.
Unions, ultimately driving their employers out of business, ultimately leave their past members on our welfare roles….remember…the 94 million no longer on the employment roles. I think that would qualify as taxpayer problem.
Private unions invariably kill the host since customers are not obliged to buy their overpriced crappy products and services.
Public unions are a different beast. Refuse to buy their overpriced crappy products & services and eventually men with guns come for you.
The men with guns are the most unionized. And they produce the crappiest and most overpriced product.
Seems like a vicious circle. Big debt drives higher taxes, higher taxes and violence drive people out. Remaining people pay more. Courts and politicians can’t repudiate the debt so taxes go up. It’s only a matter of time before Chicago becomes Detroit or Puerto Rico. (Hopefully not Venezuela – but voters made that mess too) Seems like after a while we may get low on places to move away too.
“Why Do Blacks Perpetually Vote for Politicians Who Make Their Lives Worse?”
That is a really easy one to answer… They do what people with an average IQ of 85 do 🙂
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-17/not-white-problem
“Chicago is 32% white, but they commit only 3.5% of the murders. Over 96% of the murders are committed by non-whites. ”
About the same for the victims. I think that statistics about murders among Black or Hispanic people are similar to what exists in south-american countries line Brazil or Venezuela. For the white it it probably the same as in Europe. We could think that all these people don’t live in the same country.
So the Democrats have a plan to deal with 4% of the murders.
The real reason for 3 strikes your out is private prisons. They give money to politicians to get more laws past to lock more people up. No prisoners, no income. life sentences = lifetime income for prisons. simple.
Why do white people vote for politicians who let that happen?
After working in the HUD projects for 19 years I have a little different take on the problems. I was the modernization coordinator and also supervised the maintenance staff for a medium size housing authority and we also have over 480 section 8 properties. The only people the boys in the hood never laid hands on was the mailman and the maintenance staff. Gangbangers would tell my maintenance guys to leave if something was going to happen. I did respect them for at least doing that.
The children did not have a choice where they lived unlike many of the residents where we have grandmother, mother and grown daughter living in the hood. Generations literally live there. Women basically control the hood. The men just showed up looking for an easy woman to bed. Many women would tell you straight up they would never get married as they would lose their handouts or their rent would go up if they married or moved in their boy friend. HUD’s strictest policy was moving someone into your apartment without reporting it to the local HUD office. We evicted hundreds over the years because of this. We taxpayers actually paid many people to live in the hood. They may pay five bucks a month to live there and we turned around and paid their utilities. Now we taxpayers are going to provide them with high speed internet for free!!
Ninety percent of the women are uneducated, race did not play into this white or black they never finished high school some never made it to high school. They were having children at the ripe old age of 13.
Most of the women in the hood partied into the late hours of the night and slept in the next day. Children had to prepare themselves for school. I have been in the hood at all hours of the night and early mornings only to see 5 year olds playing in the streets, as their mothers partied in the apartment or was out partying with friends, all of them higher then kites. Report it and nothing happens. The Executive Directors do not want undue attention brought upon the housing authority. Hell in some parts of the hood the police dare not tread until daylight.
Children in the hood need a father figure in their lives and someone to help them with their education as they definitely do not get it at home. Children are seen as dollar signs not children. Education is not a priority in the hood. Many smart kids are called uncle tom and looked down upon and many join gangs for the love they do not get at home. Most are obese.
Most crime is black on black as they defend their turf. Drugs are always prevalent in the hood. There are no easy answers until we start holding everyone accountable for their decisions. During my briefing of new residents I told them if they tear it up they would pay for it as income level did not have a thing to do with adult responsibility.
Until we as a society stop putting the poor into certain areas in a city and holding them accountable for their actions and stop paying for everything nothing will change. I literally could type a book about it. Until we can actually get the children to see the value of getting out of the hood nothing will change.
Sorry for the long post.
Don’t be sorry.
That post is spot on, and gives real world insight into the problem.
But just like the Governemt/Fed enables the Banks to be corporate P’sOS, the Government enables (via handouts) blacks to be human P’sOS.
So in that sense — Mish’s constant harping about the downside of government intervention on society is just about right.
So wadda-ya think about that.
Let me summarize, we need to stop paying people to have children. Now we have developed a culture by doing this for 50 years. To change it will result in a very violent period but it will change at some time and as the US spins down the shitter now is as good as any time. Make it short and sweet, Change the culture and the expectations or nothing will change. This applies to all races as well as the handouts to corporate America.
No apologies needed, great post. What you described is absolutely tragic.
There may be many other issues to solve, but unless people vote for a gold standard, public pensions will soon be extinct. Same as corporate pensions.
Nah….don’t worry about that.
The Fed & Banks are willfully taking down pension funds via low rates on purpose….and they know it will take awhile. Insurance co’s as well — speaking of the annuity biz not things like prop/casualty/D&O/E&O/etc.
In the meantime they are preparing for the Federal Govi takeover/bailout of these pension schemes.
Funding will be via perpetual govi bonds. I made the case for eventual govi perpetual bonds many years ago when “on the Street” and was laughed out the room. Time will tell.
The United States only briefly had a gold standard from the 1860s until the 1930s. There were no pensions during that time frame, public or private, so I don’t think we could accurately declare the effect of a gold standard on pensions.
BTW — Google self driving car crash yesterday. First of many many many more to come before that idea is shit-canned.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/29/11134344/google-self-driving-car-crash-report
Meh, It hit a bus doing two miles per hour. I wonder if any non-autonomous cars got into accidents yesterday? Of course they could be shit-canned for just that reason. It’s like 9/11. It is perfectly reasonable to invade and destroy a country that had nothing to do with terrorism and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. It is perfectly reasonable to do away with self-driving cars because one got into an accident at 2 mph, once. People are funny.
If the self-driving system failed at 2 mph it could just as easily fail at 70 mph.
And since there are so few self-driving cars out there this is a significant event.
Put 100,000 self-driving cars on the road and extrapolate the expected results.
If I’m going to die in an auto accident I want it to be as a result of human failure (like it’s been for over a hundred years) – not robot failure in this new technological era of wires and circuits.
Call me old fashioned.
You are old fashioned
Mish,
I see this post as a valiant attempt to tie gang violence in Chicago to public unions. It’s kind of like screaming ” if only we didn’t have public unions, all these ex-con gang-bangers would go out and get good jobs as financial consultants and Uber-drivers!”.
But ultimately it misses the mark. I think you’re missing a few complexities. Good try though, and by many of the comments I see above it is likely convincing to some.
Talk about the killings.
Check out how many the cops murder each year!
We’ve created an ongoing database over here.
You guys are nuts, just NUTS!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database
Miss,
Lots of responses on a touchy subject. First remember that a large number of people in prison would be in mental hospitals if they were not all but shut down fifty years ago. Second remember that we are in our second generation of cracks babies who are dysfunctional on many levels. That said, most people just don’t care enough to make a change. Honestly, if Trump did not get a lot of reality television exposure and was a billionaire he would have been dismissed as a nut. We are sheep and will follow the loudest bell.
Bang! Bang!
https://youtu.be/ZxJrdCIejus
All true, and the cities/states like Chicago/IL will be hollowed out and unrecognizable in 10-15 yrs, not to mention the effect that the coming cooling cycle will have on northern cities.
There is also an emotion/beliefs/bias factor that can never be explained. It’s why there are are sellers at the bottom and buyers at the top of the market, and why so many capitalistic Jews vote democrat. Its why the dollar, stocks, PMs, and rates will all rise together in the near future. Some things make no sense because we don’t see the conectivity of the cycles that control the universe/nature.
Reform gores too many oxen.
Collapse Now And Avoid The Rush.
“Chicago’s Plight: Why Do Blacks Perpetually Vote for Politicians Who Make Their Lives Worse?”
The same reasons US voters do the same at the national, state, and local levels – oligarchy funded propaganda, failure to investigate claims, and, this is the BIGGIE, an apparent lack of the learned skill of critical thought.
Blacks, like most voters, vote against what they see as a worse choice. Until there are third parties who poll at least 15%, they will vote Democrat.
Like most voters, they lack a reasonable alternative with at least a chance of success.
Off topic: Mish did u happen to notice the article n the WSJ yesterday “The Ted Spread alarm is muffled” and if so due u agree with it. They say the VIX is much more important to watch among other indicators for possible stress n the financial system. I have thought that for a long time every time the market has sold off hard someone with very deep pockets has usually come n in the last 30 minutes to hammer the VIX back down to rally the markets-maybe the Fed and the Treasury r behind this this, so what do u think?
Regarding the title of this post: William B. Shockley, provided some insight.
Perhaps a disorderly collapse will teach a more enduring lesson? Then all responsible parties can get their just deserts?
Voters on the southside of Chicago vote as they are told or city services die in their neighborhood. Also, the last time someone tried to organize voters there was in the 1960’s by Martin Luther King … I am sure you know how that ended. The southside is the stomping ground of the Chicago mob and if you mess with them you will get what Martin got.