I must say, throughout my tour of the inner city neighborhoods, this was an uncommon site.
Not all the homes appeared in disrepair, some had been maintained, some like the one on the corner sure could use a new roof and some fresh paint. No where in my travels, did I see the evidence of new city water or sewer, which would be marked by new sidewalk, curb and gutter, and roadway...
This was a very common site. There were literally, junk cars everywhere. "Lawn ornaments" abound, some even on the roadways. Tomorrow, we'll look into apartments...
I must say, throughout my tour of the inner city neighborhoods, this was an uncommon site.
Not all the homes appeared in disrepair, some had been maintained, some like the one on the corner sure could use a new roof and some fresh paint. No where in my travels, did I see the evidence of new city water or sewer, which would be marked by new sidewalk, curb and gutter, and roadway...
This was a very common site. There were literally, junk cars everywhere. "Lawn ornaments" abound, some even on the roadways. Tomorrow, we'll look into apartments...
4 comments:
I see some raw materials waiting to be used in that last pic…
Yooper, are those pictures current? We've got snowpiles out here taller than me these days. Or has Michigan somehow been spared the snows of winter?
I'm confused as to how Michigan's unemployment level can be said to be that low. There are four states in the UPL currently leading the charge to dizzying heights of unemployment: California, Michigan, Florida, and Ohio, roughly in that order I think.
Are you familiar with what they call “hedonics”? These are a family of “adjustments” made to various numbers to make them look better .. ie, if price inflation looks bad, just remove food, energy, healthcare, housing, and education costs from the numbers .. the stuff that's left (ball point pens) shows little change, so you can then “show” that inflation is only 2%, even if for most folks their costs have gone up 20% or more in just one year.
The unemployment numbers are adjusted using the Census Bureau's estimates on births and deaths .. and somehow their revisions to the numbers are always drastically downwards. Guess they don't want the sheeple guessing the truth, eh?
Anyway, if you apply the old-style methods of measuring inflation, unemployment, etc (the same methods that were in use in the UPL during the 1930s~1940s) inflation is much higher than they say it is, and real unemployment is climbing towards 18% nationally. So I don't see how they can say Michigan is at “only 10% unemployment”, unless they are either quoting the falsified gov't numbers or lying about it outright.
When the weather improves, I will put up some stuff about the ruined former industrial artifacts in and around the nearby city of Fitchburg, MA, which was a mecca of the old-style industrial world. I am also trying to find a few local elders who're willing to talk about what it used to be like here before the economy got Prole*Mart-ized.
Hey Far! Gee, if you're talking about those cars, that's what I was thinking too. When I got rid of all the junk snowmachines here, there was no shortage of guys who wanted them for scrap! It gets worse to, as you'll soon see..
Hey Nudge! The "photoshoot" was taken in one day, the first part of December.
Heh! I suspect you're right, those numbers don't even come close to representing all those that are able to work but unemployed. Gee, in the county next to mine the unemployment rate is over 20%. Very seasonal here though and has some history to it.
Yes, you're quite right about hedonics and it's how this information is "massaged" before it's deemed presentable to the public. It's not that the information is not correct, it's the way it's presented...Of course, you know this.
This is so important when interpreting any information, correct? Much of the information we recieve today goes through a process of what is deemed apporpriate and what is not, especially if you're using govermental statistical information. My "Continuous Aging of Michigan Forests" went through a number of reviews before it was released and then only to the members of the society and association. I mean, why release information that could be detrimental to our society?
Lets talk about JHK for a moment, do you think he's letting on all of what he knows? Of course not, he's a professional writer, he's only going to release enough information to keep his readership interested, wanting more. I can assure you that "The Long Emergency" is quite different than what this man was writing about prior to Y2K... Does they mean his view has changed? No it does not, what's only changed here, is the way he's delievering the message, that is all. If he "let the cat out of the bag" how long do you think he'd keep his readership? Especailly when that readership cannot take the "full strength" of the information this man likely can deliever? This is why I rarely use the word "die-off" on other people's sites. JHK, learned a damn good lesson over Y2K, that he's not likely to forget...
So, even though we may be amateurs, we have nothing to loose, as if we were professionals bringing across certain information and ideals. Whoa, eh?
I very much look forward to the stuff you'll be investigating about the industrial artifacts in your area!
Thanks, yooper
Nudge, the latest (massaged) stat is that Planet Georgia's unemployment is 8.1% — we can't be too far behind the "leaders" here! Too true about the figures for unemployment & inflation… fortunately, the older figures are still tracked but not listed as *the* stats. I'm also looking forward to the Fitchburg series, too. BTW, the weather between Detroit and where Yooper lives can be vastly different. (Michigan-speak: U.P. = Upper Peninsula, and "U.P.'er" is pronounced "yooper.") Anyway, the ground in Detroit could be bare and he could be digging himself out.
I remember some serious snowpiles in Andover back when we had an office there… they were telling us horror stories all winter & there were still big piles in the shade the following April when I went to visit.
Yooper, JHK is known to make some wild predictions (e.g. Dow 4000) that never happen. It's kind of a running joke on CFN. Personally, I don't consider his predictions reliable although he's mostly right about the current state of things and where they're likely to lead. So is he withholding what he knows, and telling us what he doesn't know? Heheh…
Post a Comment