Baltimore, MD: A City With No Future

I met a couple once years ago that had traveled to Obscurity, MA where I live. They had previously lived in Baltimore. They had left because of the crime, the poverty and lack of jobs. And this was in the 1980s.

They didn't have two nickels to rub together and she was pregnant and the story they told of their treatment at the hands of Baltimore's Social Services Department and the squalid conditions they had to endure made me vow never to set foot in the place. They finally resorted to packing one suitcase each and heading for the highway. They literally stuck out their thumbs on Interstate RT 95 to get out of town and when the trucker who picked them up and drove them to the Massachusetts line dropped them off, he drove off with the rest of their suitcases, which was what was left of their worldly possessions. It's a story you never forget. 

Baltimore was NEVER a good place to live as far as I could tell. Never wanted to go there and I didn’t even like to drive by it on my way to somewhere else. 

Baltimore represents all that is wrong with the welfare state. Like any of the crappy big cities like Philadelphia, PA, Cleveland, OH, Camden, NJ or Washington, DC, they'll give you what you need to survive but that ain’t living. And in order to get the money to fund these respective welfare states, they tax and regulate away real opportunity. Then they wonder why nobody wants to open a business in Baltimore. The money has to come from somewhere. It’s a Socialist Paradox. They take your opportunity and give you welfare and food stamps because, well, you can't find a job but there are no jobs so you quit looking and just take the short money and lump it. 

There are plenty of stupid people in Baltimore. They have voted for the Social Democrats for decades and nothing ever seems to get better and they can’t figure it out. It must mean that they aren't throwing enough money at the problem. It must mean that GOVERNMENT is not doing enough!

Anyone who stays in Baltimore and thinks it’s going to get any better is a FOOL. It hasn't and it won’t. If you stay there the odds are very good you will never get anywhere in life. You have to get your ass out of Baltimore or you will only ever get what the government gives you. You’re a slave to the State. What’s the difference who your Massa is? You still have a Massa!

No opportunity, no future. The government can’t give you a future. They can’t manufacture a job without taking from others with jobs and putting the burden on THEM to support you. Without self-reliance, you can never be free. You own yourself so now what are you going to do with yourself? You going to go loot a chain drug store? That’s your future? You're just waiting for the bullet. 

And it looks like the local police force are all too happy to help you out with that final exit. Yes, it seems that one of the six policemen or perhaps ALL of the six policemen tried to twist poor Freddie Gray’s head off for being, for the most part, a wise guy. It is not up to the police to decide the Mr. Gray’s fate like that, it’s for the courts and all six of them should be arrested and tried. Only in this fashion will the truth come out.  Will it happen? Most likely no, since we still have an unapologetic unaccountable police force and this is starting to lead to some big problems nationally.

But that has nothing to do with why Baltimore is a DUMP.  A dump made worse by recent lawlessness permitted if not condoned by the Leftist Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who mistakenly believed that by letting these home-grown Hooligans run rampant in the city streets unchecked that it would somehow lessen the damage in the long run. Did you see all those cop cars burning? With all the technology in those cruisers, they must cost $70,000 apiece. Where is the money to replace them going to come from? Oh, they’ll just raise taxes on businesses and property owners so no worries there.

And people are calling the cops and none are coming. If the mayor let’s this sort of mayhem happen when unrest breaks out, who is going to invest in Baltimore? Like we will see in Ferguson, businesses and people will be on the move…out of town.

And it will be a good move. Life is too short to hang around waiting for change that never comes. Better to walk away and seek opportunities elsewhere. Or they can stay and take the short money and waste their lives on a Baltimore street corner, dealing drugs and “Fightin’ the Power”.

Good luck with that. 

Vote for Obama, Get a Phone

Although NPR and other media outlets on the political left manage to trot out the “young single mother of two holding down two jobs but just can’t seem to make ends meet” type person to represent the 47% of the population that are on public assistance programs, we all have seen the other 46.975% that are not only gaming the system but are the decedents of people who have gamed the system.

And let’s be fair, it’s not just a black thing, a white thing, an immigrant thing or a Hispanic thing. People from all walks of life are receiving government giveaways. And it’s not like it used to be either, it’s just not that hard a game to play anymore .

It’s a lot like going on a TV game show and winning a TV. It’s just the Government perpetuating itself.  Now that it’s all Federal dollars doled out by the nameless and faceless, all one has to do is apply. Or, using what just happened to me this week as an example, one doesn’t even have to apply. I received from the State two cards that ENTITLE me to discounts on prescription drugs up to $150.00 per year. They don’t even have my name on them and the letter says they are fully transferable. I can just give ‘em to somebody else and they can use them too.

And how did I manage to weedle this perk out of the State? I requested a list of medical plans that the State offers people who don’t have a medical plan through their work. I got the list last week very well and then the discount cards show up out of the blue. What a country!

Perhaps you’re saying that $150.00 isn’t that much money to give away per year but imagine how many cards the State must give out. Add this to all the other giveaways, the EBT cards, the MassHealth cards the Section 8 housing subsidie and whatever else is offered that we never hear about.

Makes me wonder why they don’t advertise this discount like they do Food Stamps. I’ll guess that the State will need to be getting this money from somewhere to cover the increase in use of these programs. That means either increased health premiums for people who do pay or higher taxes. 

But with the current tax burden putting pressure on small business and big business alike, how will they respond to increases? They’ll have to lay people off which leads to a downward spiral of State dependency. This has become one hell of a voting bloc and it will be hard to overcome for a candidate that wishes to do something about the staggering deficits and the coming inflation. It’s a hard sell to say we’re going to cut your Welfare. Of course, this is what the current regime desires.

People will vote for their benefits. Heck, people will march and destroy to keep their benefits. Just look at Greece and Spain! These people either don’t believe or don’t care if their economy crashes and burns just as long as they get their check. Their political leaders are as much to blame or more so since they’re the ones who voted to give pensions to people retiring at 50 years old without thought to the economic consequences. How responsible does it look to join a new consolidated currency and immediately give it all away? I mean, that's what government does, right?

But look no further than the United States. With the Federal Reserve now buying mortgage debt with borrowed and printed money, can our bureaucrats manage to keep our economic house of cards up much past the 2012 election?  An ambitious idea, buying debt with debt but will it work? It is apparent that the only goal of all this economic 3 card is to make it past the election. After that, who knows. 

Wonder what excuses we’ll hear then.