When my kids were little, they would sometimes go on “sleep overs” at friends’ trailers, which were sometimes at the edges of affluent suburbs. The trailers were old, shabby, and drafty, often very dirty, and my kids often came home with head lice.

Later, I bought a house in a rural lake community–a rather distressed lake community, with many single-wide trailers, no trash service (unless you paid for it), no water service (water is still hauled in to fill cisterns), no public sewers (everyone is on a septic tank). Some people were even living in camper trailers, where their toilet facilities were the woods, and their water supply was a 50-gallon drum in the front yard.

Many of the people living in the trailers had (and still have) problems with the decaying water and sewage infrastructure. The cost of repairs on this stuff can be monumental.

One of the families that lived near me remained in their trailer while the septic system slowly disintegrated. They were unable to flush the toilet or run water without creating a smelly marsh right next to the trailer. The hot water heater didn’t work, the refrigerator didn’t work. The stove worked well enough to heat two rooms during the winter. The whole place smelled to high heaven. Like many people in the area, they burned their trash on the ground. (Some other people burned their trash in a “burn barrel”–an old rural tradition. Some people buried the stuff that wouldn’t burn. Other people shovelled it up periodically, and hauled it off.)

The family living near me finally fled the area, after the DFS was called in. The evening after the social worker’s visit–and after refusing to let the social worker enter the premises–they took the kids and stayed away (hanging out at Wal-Mart), and then returned late at night to pack. They were afraid that, when DFS returned, their kids would end up in foster care.

I’ve known other families who were constantly without water or heat or electricity.

The trailer parks in urban and suburban areas are just a notch better–where people can afford to keep their utilities turned on.

The stuff described in the article is everywhere in the US–which may already be a third-world country.

I grew up in El Paso, TX and for the last eight months have been living in Brownsville, TX. My wife and I moved here from the Twin Cities, MN because of the low cost of living and near year round growing season. The conditions I read about in the above article sounded appalling, but when I looked at the photos and video I said “hey, that’s not so bad.” Brownsville has 1/3 of its residents living below the poverty line, and I can walk around the corner from my house and see conditions as bad or worse than these. Truth is most US citizens don’t see this type of thing (even though it may be within a few miles of where they live) because they don’t want to.

One thing that’s rampant here in the Rio Grande Valley are “Why Rent? Own your own home for only $600 per month!” types of billboards and newspaper ads. Usually in Spanish, they NEVER discuss loan terms or even the price of the house. Like many places in the US there is a building glut going on here, and many homes have been for sale since I moved here. Some developments are only a few years old and already resemble slums, with accompanying trash, decay, and abandoned properties, some not even finished. Farming has been a staple here for decades and there are “for sale” signs all up and down the area farms. Downtown Brownsville is almost nothing except “Everything’s a Dollar” stores, and empty fronts. Older shopping plazas are mostly vacant.

Meanwhile the traffic is astounding and there are new highways and malls going up like crazy. It makes no sense whatsoever.

The steadily increasing disparity of wealth (10% vs 90%) in the US, corruption of public policy by the ruling class, rampant inflation, steady stream of immigrant labor, and deepening, grinding poverty has begun creating US versions of “favelas”, the massive, insular, and lawless shanty towns found in corrupt and heavily stratified third world countries (favelas is a Brazilian term, but they can be found around the world, from the Phillipines to Vietnam, from Mexico to Togo).

Blighted and decaying urban ghettos have always fallen into this category in their own way, but increasingly large swaths of the US now resemble third world countries. Out of sight and out of mind for most, they represent the future for many here in the US kleptocracy. Those Americans losing their homes today, their jobs tomorrow, and already in deep financial debt will soon be joining these folks.

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=434
http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php?t=966