Quote:
Originally Posted by Dondilion
Here in Brooklyn the rate is 8.2 but on the surface people seems to be doing well. I notice a lot of late model cars clogging the streets, name brand clothes are still in vogue and the area seems to be attracting more working whites. The big employer here is education and health care services. On almost every corner someone is selling or promoting some health service. However that alone cannot explain the apparent well being of the populace. I suspect that there is a thriving underground economy.
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On one hand the tough times have caused an increase in drug activity and related violence in Philadelphia.
On the other hand, especially in the suburbs, new cars, electronics and nice clothes abound. There's no recovery to see really because the only people hurt by the downturn were the poorest of the poor.
Ironically, most of them are republicans.
There really is merit in the understanding that different parts of the country have been effected differently by the downturn. I live in an area where the only reason you don't have a job is because you haven't been looking hard enough. I just moved home from the Florida panhandle, which is agrarian with no centers of commerce, no infrastructure for the poor to get around, and no service sector to benefit the wealthier and employ the poor. Other than McDonalds and Walmart that is
