Impact of Foreclosures on Crime

[jmm99]

Hi folks,

Currently, there are at least three recents threads here (SWC) on the "financial crisis", including this one. The other two are:

http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=6089

http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=4283

By now, almost everyone realizes we have a problem - and governments worldwide are reacting. The problem is that reactive tactics may end up being more deadly than the problem itself. E.g., how do you react to an ambush ? We have had no training for this kind of ambush.

By way of general background, a source to linked articles, by those who have been predicting this mess, can be found here "The Depression Reader":

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/recession-reader.html

Kind of telling that the title refers to a "depression" and the url refers to a "recession". Truth is, at present, we simply do not know.

The particular problem here (in this thread) is a dangerous one because we do not know how our population will react today - as opposed to in the 1930's. IIRC, while foreclosures were a problem then (various foreclosure moratoria acts were passed), the overall crime rate did not increase that much - Bonny and Clyde aside. Slap, you may have some stats on that which are more precise; and I will not be bothered that my recollection is wrong.

My point is that the US people in the 1930's were not used to government "safety nets" and, frankly, were used to a lot more privation than my generation which grew up in the 1950's. Just about a mile from here is Quincy Hill (a mining location, which shut down in the 1930's). The people up there had their backs to the wall. So, what did they do (help from Welfare and WPA was not enough) ? They got together and shared their resources (a pig from one, veggies from others, and shine from them with stills). Not a very sophisticated bunch, those folks from Quincy Hill; but they survived.

Whether it will get that bad, I do not know. If it does, we will be into John Robb territory, where he has just posted:

Monday, 13 October 2008
GG RADAR: Early October 2008
Interesting mind food:
.....
Defensive strategies for communities: slow foreclosures/evictions. Chicago has a watered down version of this. Phili is in the lead. The key factor: drive as deep a wedge between the dysfunctional global economy and your community as possible. Keep people in their homes as long as possible. If you don't, you risk hollowing out your community. ....

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/

This ties in with Robb's theory of "resilient communities" as an answer to many problems.

There is another "foreclosure" that is of larger concern - and that is the amount of US government paper that is out there. That ranges from a dollar bill (a Federal Reserve Note), through the range of various Treasury instruments up to 30-year bonds. Now, some of my friends at LewRockwell call this "fiat money" (not backed by gold, etc.); but it is really not. In practical effect, it is backed by the present and future income stream and the present and future assets of the US (not only those owned by the government, but those owned by you and me). That is another, less tangible danger.

Besides the one trillion or so that the US will inject into the system, France and Germany will inject another trillion or so; UK has already moved in that direction; and Iceland is bankrupt - that from the AM news before I got here. So, there will be lots of government paper hanging out there.

PS - Slap. Lew Rockwell and the Mises Institute have offices in Auburn, Alabama. Should that affect my judgment of them ?