Thread: Failing dreams: California faces its own Great Depression

Failing dreams: California faces its own Great Depression

It is less than 20 miles from the pristine surfing beaches of the California coast to a scene of Third World deprivation.


California has only 50,000 job openings a year for people with college degrees, yet 150,000 are graduating annually Photo: AFP/GETTY

By Nick Allen, Los Angeles
9:30PM BST 14 Oct 2011

In Skid Row, a grimy pocket of downtown Los Angeles, the prostrate forms of homeless people lie strewn across the pavements.

The lucky ones have tents for shelter but others make do with a sliver of cardboard for a bed and a supermarket trolley to carry their rags.

At the last police count 1,662 people live on these streets, twice as many as a year ago.

And now amid the drug addicts and the drunks there are families who not so long ago had homes and ordinary suburban lives.

“Los Angeles is re-experiencing the Great Depression,â€

An influx of immigrants could increase demand for property and revitalise urban areas but, amid a lack of low paid labour, existing immigrants are leaving in droves to other states or to go home to Mexico

So now they are simply immigrants not illegal. I wish they would leave, but I don't see it.

The Shyster said he was going to fix the economy and create jobs and no new taxes. Since taking office he's created the fire district tax, the internet tax, the illegal alien college grant tax, and on and on. In the meantime there are no jobs and the Shyster hasn't even come up with a plan despite the fact that he's been in office for over 9 months! But just recently he said he wanted people to pull weeds out by the hand instead of using weed wackers. That way they can save the environment. Maybe that's his jobs plan?