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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The 12 consequences of unemployment

So we talked about unemployment but what about the not so often discussed consequences.
Unemployment is bad enough, but what really changes the world around you for decades will be the consequences of such a situation, if high unemployment perpetuates itself enough to cause serious damage like it did here and in other countries.

More poverty


Of course. Should be obvious enough but something most people don’t think of is where these poor are coming from. During an economic crisis and with +20% unemployment, those new poor are you. It’s the middle class society, the large social cushion that keeps good life standards in 1rst world countries. We’re talking about you, your family, friends and neighbors, people from your social circle. They can no longer afford to live in the kind of places they did, can no longer the car they used to have, the medical care.

Crime

Less jobs means more desperate people looking to survive and while the majority of people are overall good guys, desperate people do desperate things and the smaller percentage of bad people still exists.
As times get worse, more and more people get involved in criminal activity of all kinds to survive. The worst kind is of course violent crime such as armed robbery, kidnapping and murder.

Hatred

Remember those ex middle class folks? They are people, and the mass psychology involved here is pretty complex. Why am I poor? Why does that guy have what I’ll clearly never will?
The misery creates an entire population of young adults and teens that simply hate they lives, hate themselves and have no hope in the future whatsoever. And believe me its MUCH worse than the bleeding heart rap BS you may already be familiar with. Its totally different when there really is no hope in the horizon, and you understand you may not live long enough to see a positive change.
This means there’s not just more crime, the hate combined with such crime is the worst part. 12 year old kids thinking its much easier to pick a corpse clean so they just shoot you without remorse. Armed robbers rapping the victims during home robbery, torturing them in other way too.
We’ve never seen such hatred towards senior citizens either. They just trick them into opening the door and brutally beat them to death.
We’ve never seen such a predisposition to shoot the victim just because, simply for a pair of shoes or 20 pesos.

More drugs

Along with the social degradation comes drugs. No hope, more drugs. Its also good business for many so its understandable that a large amount of people find drugs and drug dealing as a mean to make money during the crisis.
There’s sure going to be more than enough customers.

Corruption

Here its kind of accepted that cops ask for bribes whenever they can because salaries are too low.
The problem isn’t just dirty cops, the problem is that corruption becomes socially accepted and spreads like a cancer.
Corrupt cops, corrupt politicians, judges gov. officials. It get to the point where you have national Senator Luis Barrionuevo with his infamous quote: “If we stop stealing for 2 years, we solve every problem this country has.” Notice he includes himself in the quote.
http://www.elojodigital.com/politica/2009/07/21/1688.html

More suicides


It happened often enough, I remember cursing them for ruining my day. ”Cant they kill themselves any other way? At least don’t choose rush hour to jump under the damn train!” Ashamed to admit so but you eventually lose a bit of sensitivity when it happens often enough.
During the worst of the crisis you would have 2 or 3 suicides in Roca railroad branch alone. For some reason they usually did it early in the morning, maybe a desperate attempt to attract some attention in their final moment.
Don’t remember the exact percentage but suicides had gone up significantly along with phobias, stress and mental disorders.

Spreading of cults and pseudo religions

Seems silly but the more desperate people are, the more willing they are to believe in false idols or pagan rituals no one sane would believe.
Umbanda churches became terribly prolific along with a huge variety of cults.
People still believe in this, they have their witch or pai that does “jobs” for them, mostly for money, love and revenge.

More prostitution

The oldest trade in the world they say. The amount of prostitutes increases significantly.
There’s also more perversion as well: More transvestites, more pedophilia and “white” slavery: Girls, even children getting kidnapped, moved to some far away province and forced into prostitution in some brothel.

More gambling

Gambling has gone up from 500% to 800%, heard that on the news a couple days ago.
I know, makes no sense that people have even less and waste more. Well, again, its complex. People become more desperate and do more stupid things, and it goes along well with the general social decadency: More gambling, more drugs, more prostitution.
This isn’t some “big city” problem either. It occurs and becomes evident in small downs as well. As a matter of fact, most brothels where kidnapped girls end up are usually in small towns with the complicity of local police.

More diseases

Poverty means less people have access to medical care, have enough heat at home to stay healthy during the winter, have no money for repairs at home or have no home entirely.
Less money for proper hygiene, and the poor education means the population has less knowledge on common sanitation measure too.
All this means that diseases and viruses, everything form Dengue to flu, along with sexual transmitted diseases, it all spreads easier now.

Less education

Why even study if you’re ever going to get to college? Why study if you’re going to end up a criminal anyway?
Add to that the amount of good kids that have to stop going to school to work either as “cartoneros”(paper and cardboard scavengers), or on the fields in the country. The parents don’t make enough money so they have to work too to put food on the table.

Lower life standards

This entire situation means there’s social degradation, social decadency in all aspects of life.
Even if you do make a better living, manage to have better finances, the world you live in is still the same.
The more money you have the more you can isolate yourself by moving to gated communities, guards, even bodyguards and armored vehicles if you have the money for it.
All that does not change the fact that the rest of the country is very different from your personal bubble.


These are the medium and long term consequences of the crisis.
Some may become more evident than others, some may not develop as much, but there's no other way, these are things that will happen to a greater or lesser degree and have an impact on everyone's life.

FerFAL

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesus man, that's pretty depressing stuff.

Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg

Shambhala said...

It happened the same way in Nicaragua.

I guess these are typical ways humans behave.

Anonymous said...

no doubt more disease, as the poor unfortunates get turned away and out to the streets...

but then the 'patent medicines' the well to do aren't much better.

Unknown said...

More migration. People move when they come across hard times, the grass always appears greener on the other side of the country, or even beyond their own borders, like rats leaving a sinking ship.

Anonymous said...

In the USA, you can see people slowly getting more and more desperate. After this Christmas, several more big retailers will go under. I think the "oh shit" feeling will really start to sink in, and lots of marginal folks will resort to increasingly violent means of survival.

All the more reason to get your everyday carry gear in order. Absolute minimum: flashlight, pepper spray, shoes you can run in, and a knife. To be used in that order!

PRCalDude said...

Girls, even children getting kidnapped, moved to some far away province and forced into prostitution in some brothel.

What is a good defense for this?

Lamb said...

I have involvement with a few organizations that help the homeless. One thing that is being noticed (across the US) is that the "new homeless" are heading for warmer climes in more massive numbers than has been seen previously. Florida, along the Gulf Coast, Southern California, Arizona, etc are seeing an influx of indigent people that they simply do not have the social services infrastructure to deal with.
It stands to reason that those areas will see higher crime, higher disease rates, etc,., in the coming months. I suggest to anyone living in those areas to *beef up* security now. The next year (at least) will be a hairy ride!
Some people can adapt to changing circumstances and sudden unemployment...others, not so much. Unfortunately, the ones that are ill-prepared to adapt--physically and mentally, will FAR outnumber those who are prepared...that much is apparent.
Those people that *feel desperate* will act desperate. At first, they will struggle to keep up *polite, civilized* appearances. They will go to soup kitchens, attempt to find jobs and utilize shelters and whatever social services are available. For most, 6 months of this is the breaking point (from what I have observed). The civilized veneer starts peeling away and the gloves come off at that point. Some, out of despair, began abusing drugs or alcohol. Many women (and some men) try to get into what are called "survival relationships"...becoming a partner of whomever they can find that can provide any sort of stability. A person with an apt. or even just a car can appear to them to be their *ticket out* of homelessness. This is usually the last step before prostitution.

As far as turning to crime (other than prostitution), most of the homeless that turn to crime usually *fall into it* the first time. A purse left unattended in a grocery cart for a few moments or absently sat on a bench beside you in a park can prove irresistible to the homeless person that hasn't had a good meal in a week. The drug or alcohol addicted may take advantage of a clerk in a store turning their back to grab money out of an open register, or to snatch a donation jar off a store counter.

When the homeless become violent, it gets very ugly, very fast. It may be due to substance abuse, or it may be due to the stress of desperation or may just be that they had violent tendencies all along and only now feel the inclination to act upon them.

The homeless generally do not fall into gangs (in my experience) UNLESS they are young and have an ethnic, familial or cultural connection to the gang. Unfortunately, especially here in a Gulf Coast area, we have a lot of immigrants that fall into gangs, as well as local African-American youths, etc. In my area there has been a sudden increase in home invasion type attacks. The attackers generally number 3 to 5 and are armed. They are also robbing pizza delivery people, people out for walks, etc. The one thing linking all these crimes is that they always strike at dusk or after dark.
Any out there that think that crimes such as those reported by Ferfal in Argentina couldn't happen in the US are very wrong. It not only can, it already IS.

Loquisimo said...

Lamb, Nevada is attracting a large number of those people, and not just Vegas. Reno has 20% unemployment, but people keep streaming in because once upon a time it was easy to get a job in Reno. That is no longer true, but the people keep coming, straining Washoe County. And Reno winters are brutal-single digit (F) lows are common in winter.

Most of the time, except in the summer, it is very cold there. Also, virtually everything is imported, same goes for Arizona, Los Angeles, Florida, etc. The riots will likely start in those areas.

Also, Elko is seeing huge numbers of people moving there, due to fast spreading rumors that jobs are easy to find. That's not true, the low unemployment rate is generally due to most people working long term jobs in mining and cattle ranching. But so many people have packed in that they're living in cars in the desert. Elko's HIGHS rarely get above freezing in winter. Likewise, all food is imported, Elko's habitability depends exclusively on trucking. Stuff like this is why I decided not to move to Nevada.

The areas seeing the greatest influxes generally have few jobs and no way of creating jobs. Their economies depended on real estate. Look for the article Fernando posted about "California Not Dreaming" about just how bad it is in Los Angeles. Instead, I'm moving to an area with agricultural potential but extreme weather-rainy and cold winters, 115 F summers. Horrible, yes, but a little safer.

Julia said...

What's frightening about all of this is that the veneer of civilization is so thin. And, most of us have no experience with this. Perhaps our grandparents could handle it better without breaking down....

Leftists have no idea how fragile civilization is...

Kracka said...

With casinos seeming to do well in this environment does being a card and dice dealer sound like an opportunity to weather out a USA Financial meltdown?