From Canada: 'Desperate days in small-town America'

[Newsjock]

Source: CBC News
By Neil Macdonald

... If anyone understands what needs to happen for a government to pay its bills, it is the 147 retired employees of the city of Prichard, Ala. Nothing like a little self-interest to open your mind.

Prichard, these days, is uglier than most American cities. Its main street is mostly shuttered, its stores barred and out of business.

Pawn shops and payday loan offices thrive in its neighborhoods. Streets are cracked and neglected. It's easy to see just by glancing at the asphalt where Prichard ends and its more prosperous neighbour, the city of Mobile, begins.

But in many respects, Prichard is also a microcosm of the rest of America — a nation where politicians know that fiscally responsible decisions can cost them their jobs and who, instead, "kick the can down the road," to use one of President Barack Obama's favourite terms.

... A retired fire marshal was found dead in his home recently, his water and electricity cut off.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/01/25/f-rfa-macdonald.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Oh jeez....here is the truth about Pritchard:

It is a tiny little town that is just north of Mobile, and has been falling apart for the last 25 years.
It is heavily infested with drug dealers, there are lots of retirees, poor tax base.
Sad but true.
I used to work in that area, at the Mobile Mental Health Center across the street from the town limits.
We could not keep the center open at night because of all the gunfire around us.
And that was in 1993.
Yes, it went bankrupt.
Again. I think this was the 3rd time.
Yes towns across the country are having hard times, but Pritchard had so many problems before this economy was destroyed, it is hardly fair to use it as the poster child for the collapse of American towns.
Just asking for some perspective, that's all.

[Electric Monk]

3. This is why I love DU

Perspective

[Kurovski]

2. What? These people can't help themselves? Don't they know they live in an exceptional land?

Slackers.
























:sarcasm:

[Odin2005]

4. I grew up in a little, economically depressed town of 500 an hour's drive NE of Fargo.

Small Town America has been in a Depression for 30 years.