Survival__ Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation - Charles George Smith [123]
In a similar fashion, local government will attempt to manage the degeneration of their services in such a way that the public does not realize it's being boiled. If the trains and buses all stopped running, people might be angry enough to turn off their TVs and demand some actual, real political change. But if services are slowly degraded over time, the public will sigh and habituate to it.
Meanwhile, the police chief, mayor, union bigwigs, et al. will be driving by in their chauffeured vehicles, making sure "the little people" are swallowing the devolution whole. The politicos' Masters, the Plutocracy who fund their campaigns, will fill their coffers at election time as long as nothing rocks the boat. If the citizenry gets restive, then the politicos will find their funding drying up (Heaven forbid!).
Many examples of devolution are already visible in both households and local government, and we can expect these trends to strengthen as the Depression deepens. Devolution of credit, leverage, assets and collateral lead to devolution of sales, transactions and profits which lead to devolution of income, jobs and thus of tax revenues. These are positive feedback loops, self-reinforcing and cross-reinforcing: income declines feed asset devaluations which reduces credit and business formation which leaves commercial space empty and essentially worthless, reducing tax revenues even further which triggers public-sector layoffs, and so on.
Household/private sector examples:
1. Devolution of "storage nation": Listings on craigslist announcing the selling/giving away of the entire contents of storage lockers will rise.
2. The number of people living in storage lockers "illegally" will rise.
3. The dumping of abandoned clothing, furniture, old computer equipment, etc. on sidewalks and public parks/byways will increase dramatically.
4. Homeless camps will appear in parks and locales which were previously considered off-limits to such public poverty.
5. Spontaneous protests (over evictions, reductions in service, public union strikes, etc.) will increase both in frequency and in the number of participants.
6. Tourism will devolve to visiting relatives and/or car camping; hotels and restaurants in tourist-dependent locales will start closing in ever increasing numbers. Only the top 10% "high-caste" professional and government-technocrat class will be able to travel overseas.
7. Houses that were snapped up in 2009 for $350,000 on the basis that they once sold for $550,000 will be auctioned for less than $200,000 in late 2010.
8. Major rock/pop concert tours will be canceled due to low ticket sales; acts which were "guaranteed to mint millions" will cancel their tours.
9. Veterinarians will demand cash to examine pets; people will increasingly be unable to pay for costly procedures for their pets (teeth cleaning, hip replacements, chemotherapy, etc.). Vets will consolidate/close their doors.
Consider the last example as part of the devolution of America's prosperity-fueled spending on pets. As vets consolidate, they will leave commercial space empty, eventually prompting property-owner bankruptcies and reductions in tax revenues. As people move/are evicted/consolidate, pets will increasingly be abandoned, falling into a public animal-care system which will increasingly dependent on volunteers and private donations (authority and control devolving to communities and small organizations).
State/local government examples:
1. Citizens with numerous outstanding traffic tickets will abandon their vehicles when "booted" (locked) by cities as the cars are worth less that the fines due. Cities will start auctioning/scrapping hundreds of abandoned vehicles.
2. The number of citizens cited/arrested for unpaid moving and parking violations will rise; judges will begin dismissing the amounts due as the citizens