My City in Ruins - Without Apology to the Boss

"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."

Stalin Supposedly he said this. Stalin was a butcher, an evil man. But, if he did say this it is quite a profound statement on more than just the subject of death. When Obama left office unemployment was at 4.7%. This is pretty much what we consider to statistically be full employment. In a nation that has over 300 million people a 2%  unemployment rate (unheard of number) still adds up to be a lot of people.

After Trump was elected I was quite stunned how so many people could have voted for him. It did not make any sense to me. I had to take a hard look in the mirror and understand why. We all live in a bubble of sorts. My bubble is that I work in technology as a software developer. It is a profession that pays well. A profession where the demand for people far outweighs the supply of qualified workers. I have been working in high tech for well over thirty years now.

I have remained employed through every recession and economic downturn. I have seen my wages rise over the period I have been employed. My job has never been outsourced or moved somewhere else. I have been fortunate and blessed. It is easy to look at economic statistics and wonder why so many people are complaining. But as I said even 2% unemployment adds up to a lot of people. And my bubble is one where I have not had to feel the pain of even what happened to us in 2008.

I think 30% of both Democrats or Republicans would vote for a turd on a stick over voting for the other party. I think all the racists and xenophobes voted for Trump. But why did such a scourge of a human being flip counties that voted for Obama? That just did not make any sense to me.

Recently I stumbled across a program on Viceland called Abandoned. This show began to provide the answer for me. It prompted me to spend a lot of time and energy researching what has happened to a lot of middle America over the past four decades as jobs have been outsourced in the name of corporate profit. It caused me to look into rural America where the behemoth, Walmart, a company that employees over 1.4 million Americans, the vast majority making minimum wage. A company that has managed to destroy almost every small towns downtown and drive small family businesses out of business in the name of "low prices." It took me back to Billy Joel's Allentown lyrics written in 1982...

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line

And Springsteen's, Youngstown, written in 1995...

To the coal mines of Appalachia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name

In Youngstown
In Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

I started to look at the wreckage of our nation. I went out an saw statistics about how farmers had some of the highest incomes in America. But those numbers did not line up with what I learned in a farming class my wife and I recently took. I dug deeper only to find out that much of that income was made off of the farm. Truth be told most small family farms are just not sustainable solely on the farm income alone.
I got past the statistics and started to look at the scars of our once proud landscape.

Whole sections of Cities in ruins

Suburban neighborhoods left abandoned...

Malls left for dead...

Small towns empty and rotting

...and when you realize that this has been going on for over 4 decades you start to get a glimpse of how a guy who calls Mexicans rapist, talks about assaulting woman, and brings out the worst in human nature proclaiming "what do you have to lose" can get elected even though he is total fraud and bullshit artist. You get a glimpse of what some people are feeling. You begin to understand what "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." means.

As we protest these corrupt bastards and rich elites that have taken over our Government we need to also fight for these forgotten people. Is technology and automation really more important than employment? Is saving a few dollars on shoes and clothes and food worth putting our neighbors out of work or into jobs that do not allow them to feed their families? As much as I loathe that man and what he represents he is correct when he speaks about these people.

These are important questions you and I need to answer.

Our government, both parties, our business and industrial sector has let them down. Like we are standing up for our Muslim brothers and sisters we also need to stand up for these people as well. Their lives matter. They too are our brothers and sisters.