They're putting a big arena here in Sacramento, too. I don't really get it. Just reminds me of the saying "breads and circuses". The homeless are running out of places to sleep around here...

China manipulates it's currency= unfair advantage= the death of
American manufacturing and the decline of the middle class.
US trade agreements give foreign goverments an unfair advantage. It is not a level playing field.

Somehow, most people dont understand what happened in Detroit. They think it was the effect of foreign competition on the auto industry.. The real story today is Venezuela, where its pretty clear that the socialism there has killed their economy

The federal tax rate on industry has to turn around and be lowered to a level equivalent to Europe. BHO thinks he can squeeze every nickel and dime from the every industry in the US. This is all to subsidize the trillions of dollars deficit.

It started out at about $12/year, but has now worked its way up to about $50/year. I have about 1/5th of an acre. I purchased it in the 1970's for $1000, thinking that I was making a good investment, Clear Lake being <3hrs from the Bay Area.

Nope. No investment, and it is now to expensive to keep as a watch fob.

Jan

Sorry to hear that, Jan. Out of curiosity - what kind of tax do you pay for a small lot out there?

I have driven through there many times for some of the work I've done on the Lost Coast area - I'm in the Sacto area. I often marvel at the beauty of the place. I really like the look of it. But, the poverty confuses me and saddens me as I drive through. "America's Switzerland..."

I have a small lot in Clear Lake - I can't find anyone who wanted to buy it from me, even for a few hundred dollars. I have just stopped paying the property tax on it...

Jan

Capitalism is taking hold in Detroit. Dan Gilbert is investing millions into the Woodward corridor from downtown to Wayne State University. The new Red Wings sports arena will be awesome. The revival of urban areas will be its transformation into recreation and entertainment venues. I defey anyone to find a condo in this area. We are looking and can't find one. Yes, there are areas that are bad news in Detroit. But if Whole Foods thinks its ok, then others will. Whole Foods is on the corner of Martin Luther King Blvd and Woodward. So, while there is some truth to the Crowder piece, there are areas than are being reborn - with capitalism, not government programs.

For America's future, I largely see economic desolation, for at least a few centuries. Those who speak and write fluent Mandarin might do a lot better.
China is hard to beat - they seem to have blended the most effective parts of capitalism with the most effective aspects of authoritarian government, to become a virtually unstoppable economic juggernaut.
America's future lies in an export commodity which until now it has been unable to supply - cheap labour. The mainstream American population will soon appear to the rest of the world very similar to how the Native American population appeared to the invading European colonists - heart, spirituality, utter poverty.
Living outside America, it's amazing to see a country in so much denial. The Cold War is still in full swing, and America is copping one mother of an ass-whoppin', from which it may never recover.

I grew up in the Upper Midwest and got to see a lot of this first hand. We traveled a lot and went through Detroit to go see relatives that were in Toronto at the time. Before the riots in 67-68, Detroit was vibrant and still a nice city. After that time frame, it was in it's downward spiral and you could see the deterioration happening as most respectable people left the city. The biggest problem is that everyone points to Detroit, but it is happening everywhere up there. Gary, Indiana or Cleveland or Youngstown, Ohio or any other former industrial city in the Midwest and the same thing is happening, even the south side of Chicago. I am sorry to see it happen but I have moved on from that scenario and now live in the High Plains of Eastern New Mexico. Not exactly a hotbed of industrial manufacturing, but an agricultural and railroad town. I will eventually leave here and go find my Gulch somewhere. It is looking as if that Gulch will outside the US though, as I do not like the way this whole mess is going and that is a big Thank You to our current resident on Pennsylvania Avenue, who has increased the debt to twice as much as he started with and he still has 2 more years to improve on that record.

Everything is becoming so depressing. I know what I would do if I found myself in the Gulch. It would be so cool.

Ring freaking true it did.

detroit is the future of america!

all here like to equate the story Atlas to what took place in detroit. however, if you look all over the country you are seeing the same events taking place that will allow what happened in detroit to happen all over the country. things have gotten so bad that the process can not be stopped. i suspect the crime rate is actually climbing regardless of government statistics. why because there are no jobs for the masses that are here now and our illustrious government which is run by incompetents is encouraging and hence allowing more of the uneducated to come here. when it becomes obvious to them that they can't find a job they become what they were where they came from criminals. it took 40 years for detroit to come to its end and at the rate things are deteriorating all over the country by 2040 i suspect the country will be in shambles just like detroit. I for one could not watch more than 3 minutes of the video.

I think this is the future of America, I really do. We are getting our passports up to date, researching other places to live - traveling light, so to speak.

Tomorrow night I'm slated to speak at our school board meeting about a proposed totalitarian law they are contemplating supporting. I find that my efforts are wearing me out. Going Galt is looking better each week. People, in general, just don't get that these leftist/statist policies are ending a great nation. Here in California you can see the Detroitization occurring before your eyes. I've been in this state most of my life. There are many towns that are just bleak now. You can go somewhere like Clear Lake, a place with really great natural beauty, and see nothing but tweakers walking around like zombies, and dilapidated structures. It's really something... My buddy's dad was murdered in Clear Lake last year, trying to stop a guy from knifing his wife or girlfriend at a gas station...

Yes. I remember that scene very well and was disappointed it wasn't in the AS1 movie. I leaned over to my wife as we watched it in the theater and said, "Watch this next scene." But, it wasn't there. Powerful scene in the book, I thought...

I knew that this would ring true here. I also posted this also to my FB, always trying to wake up as many as possible. Thinking I may play it in my classroom soon.

Exactly, the area around the former 20th Century Motor Co.
Has anyone found Ayn's time machine yet?

Freedom, it reminded me so much if the book. Remember when Dagny saw the woman she thought was 60, until she noticed she was pregnant?

Stephen Crowder is a young man, and he gets it. I actually think a lot of people get it, but our rulers don't care. A lot of fortunes are being made in "redistribution" activities.

Looks like a place to shoot part of the AS mini-series.

I wished I could say that suppressed me. A bit tough to watch but a good post. Thanks

A sad, rather pathetic, commentary on the welfare state, the global economy, and unions. The three make a volatile concoction that dissolved what once was Americas crown jewel.

** this is why I used it in my book