egafd.com

Saw this gobsmacking documentary on the Beeb.

It describes the decline of Motor City, the home of the Model T Ford, from being one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the US to its present condition where about a quarter of central Detroit is in ruins with huge buildings derelict but which the local authority doesn't have the money to knock down and clear.

It's described in the documentary as "a slow motion Katrina".

It's a casebook study of what can go wrong with the world of rampant consumerism.

It's still available on http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

Amazing bit of work.

D

I saw it to. Looked somekind of post apocalyptic nightmare. I liked the work of the artist putting dots on everything.

I am afraid much of the UK is going the same way.

This country grew up quickly during the Industrial Revolution. Much of our infrastructure (Roads, Rail, City layout, Housing etc) was laid down during the late 1800 and 1900s and is now looking old and tired.

Much of our manufacturing has closed and now we import almost everythng from China and the far east.

Cities that grew large on certain businesses (Sheffield, Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham, etc etc etc) have lost that business and are all now looking for a new future.

Many of our inner cities are now slums, and rampant immigration of uneducated people with no skills has produced huge ghettos of ethnic minorities.

A generous benefits system has allowed people with no future to breed child after child, and others to spend there life out of work, knowing the state will look after them.

Crime and drug taking are rampant, making much of the country an unpleasant place to live and work. Criminals are happy to carry on as the state seems to bend over backwards to keep them OUT of prison.

We pay ourselves high salaries, thus pricing ourselves out the world market. Anyone wanting to set up a factory to build anything will do it abroad (Poland or Eastern Europe, Far East etc).

Many of the companies that closed durind this recessoin will never open again, or if they do it will be abroad.

Gordon Brown and Noo Labour have put this country into a massive debt, one we may never be able to afford to get out of.

Sorry to sound so pessemistic, but this country is in for one long slow decline.

Ever thought of emigrating?

[quote]Many of our inner cities are now slums, and rampant immigration of uneducated people with no skills has produced huge ghettos of ethnic minorities.[/quote]

It was the industrial revolution that started slum-living. Today's council estates are holiday camps in comparison to 1800s slums, built around the cotton and steel works of Manchester, Sheffield and Glasgow. Read Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England.

As for people being uneducated: I wonder how many working class kids went to university in the 1800s, right up to the 1970s compared to now? I'd also be really careful about one's spelling of 'pessimistic' if one wants to denigrate others' lack of education, Guilbert.

Have a little read at this: