It is probably no coincidence that the location which spawned both Barack Obama’s Presidential bid, and his former Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel who now serves as its current mayor, is suffering a combination of economic collapse and historic violence among its citizens and government agencies. And while liberal diatribe attempts to incorrectly call the mass number of homicides occurring within Chicago a symptom of too much gun ownership, the reality is that the rise in violence can be primarily attributed to economics, and the same type of debt bombs stifling growth in places like New Jersey, Baltimore, and Detroit.
Gabb, like many residents and advocates throughout the city, agree that there are several contributing factors; some old, some new.
What is perplexing is that even the ordinary people are getting it: “I think it’s got something to do with economics,” Gabb says of the continued shootings. As CNN adds, most residents say communities continue to suffer from an economy that is nowhere strong enough to keep at-risk youths from looking for financial support in the wrong places.
“There’s not enough money to sustain certain families and people go into drugs,” Gabb says.
It’s hard for longtime community pastor Ira Acree to watch. He has been serving the Austin community on Chicago’s West Side for 26 years.
“It’s horrifying,” he says. “It’s horrifying to look at the numbers from this winter, because if it’s that bad in the winter, we better brace for a long, hot summer.”
And since it is indeed the economy’s fault, it is about to get much worse. Acree, like Gabb, believes the struggling economy in many communities is a big part of the problem.
“All of the violence is rooted in the illegal drug economy,” Acree says. “Many guys have allowed their economic desperation to cause them to resort to these measures. The economy is terrible, especially in African-American neighborhoods.”
“If you really want to stop this epidemic of violence, the best way to stop a bullet is with a job.”
Which is odd, because according to the BLS, jobs across the US are growing at a brisk pace of over 200K per month. - Zerohedge
And that is the real crux. The man who promised Hope and Change has only delivered deception by issuing flawed economic models such as the one tied to jobs and unemployment, and instead has focused on protecting Wall Street versus the tens of millions of Americans desperate for employment above part time work.
There is a reason why millions are flocking to the $15 per hour minimum wage bandwagon, and it is primarily because there are few jobs out there that pay a living wage, and provide opportunities for tens of millions in poverty to move their way upwards through hard work. But as we have seen over the past two years in the number of paid activists who so easily resort to violence, Americans have reached the end of their ropes and change will come soon than later… either by the ballot box, or by the pine box.
Kenneth Schortgen Jr is a writer for Secretsofthefed.com, Examiner.com,Roguemoney.net, and To the Death Media, and hosts the popular web blog, The Daily Economist. Ken can also be heard Wednesday afternoons giving an weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.