Some Shocking Signs That Poverty is Hitting America - Hard

Oakland Police facing deep cuts

There is no doubt about it, the economic situation in our country is getting worse. Although there has been some hopeful signs in regards to jobs and customer spending over the holidays, our Federal and State governments have been facing huge budget cuts and funding shortages. As anyone who has been out of work, looking for a job or has had their salaries or benefits cut can tell you, it is tough out there. We, as Americans have had it good for a long time and we often look at other countries that are struggling with national poverty and budget cuts and think that it couldn't happen here. But, it is happening, and I was shocked to see an article on BusinessInsider that showed some of the ways that budget shortfalls are forcing city and state governments into a situation where they are forced to cut out desperately needed services for the communities they serve.

Here are some of the signs that poverty is hitting our country hard:

• Detroit Public Schools wants to close half of all of its city schools, which would cause the schools to have class sizes of up to 62 students and cut 642 jobs.
  
  

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  Abandoned Factory in Detroit

  The Mayor of Detroit recently proposed a plan that will stop services like garbage pickup and police patrols to 20% of the city. They already have stopped trying to prevent people from vandalizing abandoned factories in the city and have left them to the gangs.
  
  
• In California, state workers are being required to turn in their government cell phones.
  
  
• New York Gov. Cuomo is trying to completely get rid of 20% of the state's agencies by combining several agencies.
  
  
• Mayor Bloomberg has closed 20 fire departments at night in NYC and is proposing layoffs in every state agency. The cuts included stopping services for seniors, libraries and cultural centers.
  
  
• In Prichard, Alabama, the city recently just stopped sending pension checks to their retirees. Even though it is a violation of state law, hundreds of retired firefighters, police officers and other city workers aren't receiving their pensions.
  
  
• The state of New Jersey has cut their budget by 26%, and laid off thousands of teachers. They also eliminated 1,3000 state jobs and reduced funding to cities and still are dealing with more that a $10 billion deficit.
  
  
• The city of Newark has been forced to cut its police force. As a result, they have seen a huge crime spike.
  
  

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  Neighborhood in Camden, NJ

  Camden, NJ has the title of the second-most dangerous city in America and they have been forced to lay off half of their police force.
  
  
• Philadelphia, Baltimore and Sacramento have started shutting down city fire stations on a rotating basis causing people to have longer response times and costing lives.
  
  
• Clayton County, GA has been forced to eliminate their public bus system in order to save $8 million.
  
  
• Oakland, CA police will now stop responding to several types of crimes in an attempt to save money. The crimes considered “not important” are car accidents, grand theft and burglary.

It seems that across the country, jobs and budgets are being cut and citizens are being forced to go without some of the valuable services that we all rely on. No one can argue that police, fire departments, teachers and libraries are important but, without the money to finance pay for them, cities are being forced to make tough choices.

What do you think about these signs that our country is in a serious financial crisis. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for PhillyJobsBlog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.