Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

Also, even within urban communities, mode of living and social connections have been broken across class, so it's more difficult to know what is going on in your own backyard.

I think to understand the impact of the rootless urban PMC you have analyze their impact on the places they “came” from before their arrival in the urban environment.

I’ve lived most of my life fifty miles or so outside of the PMC mecca of New York City and have witnessed their impacts on my outlying area for decades. They come into the communities to raise their kids in a “safe” environment and are basically just there to have their kids educated at “good” schools. They do not interact with or participate in the local community during the raising of their children in the community. They just shuttle them from home to school to preplanned activities that will look good on college applications. The children who “grow up” in these places have no connections to anywhere except their parents home, the schools they attend and maybe a restaurant or store. After 18 years of education to assemble their college applications the children leave the community. Then once all of their children have left for college the parents will usually leave the community as well either to somewhere in the Sun Belt or to “hip” towns.

What does that mean for these communities? The PMC want good schools and those good schools mean higher property taxes which drive out those with lower income or make home ownership impossible. So you get a temporary population in the higher income areas that resets every 20 years while the lower income is herded into exorbitantly expensive apartments where they can go to sleep after a day of servicing the area’s temporary inhabitants. So no one develops a real culture because they are either only in the place temporarily or they're too poor/overworked to have time for much more than mass culture.

https://www.ecosophia.net/december-2022-open-post/

By PMC, the poster is referring to "professional and managerial class".

[Higgenbotham]

Also, even within urban communities, mode of living and social connections have been broken across class, so it's more difficult to know what is going on in your own backyard.

So you get a temporary population in the higher income areas that resets every 20 years while the lower income is herded into exorbitantly expensive apartments where they can go to sleep after a day of servicing the area’s temporary inhabitants. So no one develops a real culture because they are either only in the place temporarily or they're too poor/overworked to have time for much more than mass culture.

https://www.ecosophia.net/december-2022-open-post/

Review of the nearly identical situation in an apartment complex in Northwest Austin, Texas (about 15 miles from downtown Austin) all the way across the country from New York City, as posted in the first few pages of the Dark Age Hovel.

The Christmas Light Indicator

Tonight while I was driving through my apartment complex, which I would characterize as lower middle class, it didn't take too long to realize that something seemed off this year. As the years have gone by here, I've noticed there are fewer and fewer Christmas displays on the apartment balconies, but it was always comforting to notice at least some. Being a week before Christmas and having been reminded repeatedly today that this is the Christmas season, I realized there was not a single one in sight. Besides the security lights, which are kind of dim anyway, the whole place was pitch black as far as the eye could see. Not even a lit Christmas tree could be seen through a window. So I decided to go off my usual path. I didn't cover the whole complex of 400 some apartments, but went out of my way to see if there was anything at all. I found 3. They weren't ostentatious but nonetheless there were signs of life. I've been here 17 plus years and would estimate that this same drive 17 years ago would have netted 20 or 25 displays, some beautifully done. Last year maybe 5 to 7. The numbers seem to steadily go down as the years have passed. I've also noticed this on July 4th and New Year's Eve. As the years have gone by, there are fewer and fewer indications of anybody celebrating with firecrackers or what have you. Finally, a year or two ago, I heard nothing on one of those holidays except dead silence.

Five miles down the road, there is a subdivision that has unique and beautiful million dollar plus homes. It would be interesting to go over there and take a look. My guess would be that there are the same number and quality of Christmas light displays as there were 17 years ago.

Another thing that's changed here is about 1/3 of the cars in the parking lot have expired registrations. Some go back as far as 2019 with many expired in 2020. The management will put a sticker on any car that has an expired registration more than 6 months past due. After the sticker is put on, the person owning the car can go to the management and request their car be put on the do not tow list.

why don't the owners renew the registration?

A passed inspection is required for registration renewal. Proof of insurance has to be presented at the annual inspection and I've heard many people aren't able to show proper proof. Also, this is a smog test county so it could be that some of the cars have check engine lights that are on and they aren't able to get the check engine light fixed. A check engine light is an automatic inspection fail.

Eviction rates are skyrocketing in Travis County, says HHS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2022 BY SETH SMALLEY

Eviction rates have shot up more than 250 percent of the average in the Austin area, according to Travis County Health and Human Services.

“We have been absolutely inundated with crisis applications,” Kirsten Siegfried, HHS chief deputy, told the Travis County Commissioners Court.

Siegfried said it took HHS six months to get through applications received in just the first two weeks.

“We have been barely able to attend to routine applications, so much so that – it truly pains me to say this out loud – we only finished processing all of those applications received in the first two weeks of March last month.”

Many of the evictions are driven by rising costs, relatively stagnant incomes and the lifting of the eviction moratorium in March, but November has seen an anomalous increase, even since the moratorium was lifted. Rents for one-bedroom apartments in Austin have risen 35 percent since 2019, compared to a mere 8 percent increase in wages.

The number of county households considered “housing cost-burdened” – or households which spend more than half of their income on rent and utilities – has increased 40 percent since 2019. In Travis County, 72,000 households are categorized this way.

“Households in this category cannot afford all that they need including transportation, health care, child care, and even food,” Siegfried explained. “A household that is severely housing cost-burdened is not stable; paying that percentage of your income on rent and utilities cannot be sustained.”

https://www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2 ... -says-hhs/

Out of 12 apartments in this building (in Travis County), I've seen 2 evictions within the past month or two. There could have been some I didn't see. I knew one of the tenants who was evicted and her car registration had expired.

Travis County Households 491,531 (2020)

https://www.google.com/search?q=number+ ... unty+texas

The number of county households considered “housing cost-burdened” – or households which spend more than half of their income on rent and utilities – has increased 40 percent since 2019. In Travis County, 72,000 households are categorized this way.

“Households in this category cannot afford all that they need including transportation, health care, child care, and even food,” Siegfried explained. “A household that is severely housing cost-burdened is not stable; paying that percentage of your income on rent and utilities cannot be sustained.”

This would mean about 15% of households in this county are in an unsustainable situation.

It would be reasonable to estimate that the percentage of households in an unsustainable situation in this apartment complex is roughly double the average of the county as a whole, so 30%. That would explain why about 1/3 of the cars in the parking lot of this complex have expired registrations.

The Christmas Light Indicator

Tonight while I was driving through my apartment complex, which I would characterize as lower middle class, it didn't take too long to realize that something seemed off this year. As the years have gone by here, I've noticed there are fewer and fewer Christmas displays on the apartment balconies, but it was always comforting to notice at least some. Being a week before Christmas and having been reminded repeatedly today that this is the Christmas season, I realized there was not a single one in sight. Besides the security lights, which are kind of dim anyway, the whole place was pitch black as far as the eye could see. Not even a lit Christmas tree could be seen through a window. So I decided to go off my usual path. I didn't cover the whole complex of 400 some apartments, but went out of my way to see if there was anything at all. I found 3. They weren't ostentatious but nonetheless there were signs of life. I've been here 17 plus years and would estimate that this same drive 17 years ago would have netted 20 or 25 displays, some beautifully done. Last year maybe 5 to 7. The numbers seem to steadily go down as the years have passed. I've also noticed this on July 4th and New Year's Eve. As the years have gone by, there are fewer and fewer indications of anybody celebrating with firecrackers or what have you. Finally, a year or two ago, I heard nothing on one of those holidays except dead silence.

Five miles down the road, there is a subdivision that has unique and beautiful million dollar plus homes. It would be interesting to go over there and take a look. My guess would be that there are the same number and quality of Christmas light displays as there were 17 years ago.

Christmas night, 6:30 pm, right to left overlapping.

One of the kids out there is a throwback from an earlier time. She is slender, active and bright. Her teeth are straight and full, whereas many of the kids have crooked teeth with spaces between them. But her 4 year old sister is slightly autistic, can't put her shoes on, isn't potty trained and can barely talk.

I don't know the age of the autistic girl's mother because I've never met her, which brings up another point.

About 70% of the kids out there are never directly watched by their parents. Most of these kids range in age from 5 to 10. When I do see parents who watch their kids, they will invariably say something like, "I just can't send my kids out here without watching them. I don't understand parents who do this. But what really bothers me is that I have never met their parents and these kids are out here all the time. I'd at least like to know who the parents are."

We understand the problem when we discuss the situation. The last parent I was talking to about this works for Doordash and makes low $20s per hour he told me. Obviously, he is not working 40 hours per week to get by. Also, their goal is to bank as much money as they can and then get back to Graham, Texas, where there are few jobs but things are cheap.

[Higgenbotham]

In pre new dark age America, the rule of thumb was a week's wages equals your rent. The numbers in this apartment complex are approximately $800-900 per week in wages based on a 40 hour week and $2,100 in rent. As previously stated, I take my kid over to the play area. I talk to all the parents there and hear their stories. Probably about 10 in total in the past year. They are all working and they are all struggling. Some are quite open about how they are struggling while others put a more happy face on it.

Yesterday I was outside with my daughter and ran into a neighbor in her 30s who has had the flu for 7 weeks and can't shake the cough. She told me she works remote and had been holed up in her apartment for 2 years during the pandemic. She's the second one we've seen in their 30s who can't shake the cough, but the first one was the complete opposite - out and about during the pandemic working in health care.

Anyway, I told her about the Christmas light indicator which seemed to resonate and also mentioned another reason for people being so sick could have to do with not being able to afford as much nutritious food as prior to the pandemic and inflation. She confirmed that even though she is working she cannot afford to eat as well as she could in past years.

Pre-2020, these folks were probably doing better than their counterparts out in rural America, but as the new dark age has tightened its grip there's been a definite observable downward adjustment since that time.

[Higgenbotham]

Michigan was already in a dark age when I was there in 1979.

My number 1 indicator that the world has entered into a new dark age is the decline in life expectancy.

The data shows this thinking to be inaccurate. I was able to find a long term comparison between life expectancy in Michigan and the United States and there is not much difference since 1970 when life expectancy in Michigan and the United States were about the same. Since 1970, life expectancy in Michigan fell a little bit compared to the United States but not enough to say my claim is valid.



https://www.mdch.state.mi.us/osr/deaths/lifeUSMI.asp

[Guest]

The welfare state is dead. Period. With people living longer and stagnating population growth, there are simply not enough people to care for the elderly and to grow the economy to pay for it all. Forget fossil free, equitable etc.

[aeden]

https://disinformationchronicle.substac ... the-people

[Higgenbotham]

The welfare state is dead. Period.

I think this is the more accurate way to look at it.

As long as the transfer payments keep flowing, the collapse of Detroit doesn't dent the life expectancy numbers much. Probably the maps I posted awhile ago on the various kinds of dependencies on transfer payments around the country are more useful than saying this or that area is in a dark age now due to this or that observation or current statistic. Once the transfer payments stop, the collapse will be more proportional to the areas that have the greater dependencies.

Life span for Detroit’s poor among shortest in nation

Christine MacDonald, and Charles E. Ramirez


New research finds that Metro Detroit’s poor not only live shorter lives than other low-income people in the nation’s big cities, but Detroiters die up to 16 years sooner than their suburban neighbors.

The fight to keep and maintain their Detroit home have taxed the health of James and Ronda Yeley. The life expectancy in their ZIP code is 70.
Wayne County had the lowest life span for a poor 40-year-old — 77 years — among the nation’s largest 100 counties, according to the Health Inequality Project, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April. The Metro Detroit area also ranked at the bottom — 95 out of 100 — for the life spans of its poor, which was nearly 78 years.

Low-income people fare better, in Queens, New York, where they are expected to live to age 83, Florida’s Miami Dade County, where they live to 81 and Chicago’s Cook County, 80.

And inside Wayne County alone there are dramatic differences in how long residents live depending on their ZIP code, according to a study released Thursday by the Virginia Commonwealth University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In Northville Township, a baby born today is expected to live to age 85, while 30 miles away, life expectancy in Detroit’s Cass Corridor is as low as 69 years, a 16-year gap.

“We’ve got 69-year expectancy (in parts of Detroit.) That is just a little bit worse than in Russia and North Korea,” said Derek Chapman, associate director for research at the Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health. “That is a sobering look at where our country fits.”

Researchers say the link between a person’s income and how long he or she lives is well established, while the recent studies show a web of other factors can influence life spans, including geography, especially when comparing those of similar economic means. The Health Inequality study separated people into four income categories based on Social Security records, with those making less than $28,000 at the bottom and people making more than $99,000 at the top.

Experts couldn’t say exactly why the life span of Metro Detroit’s poor lags much of the nation, but suggest high levels of obesity, smoking and limited access to mass transit, medical facilities, healthy food and places to exercise could all play a role, as could the stresses from poverty, crime and low education levels.

Neighboring discrepancies

The researchers in the Virginia Commonwealth report found that even bordering ZIP codes can have huge gaps, such as the 11-year difference along the infamous divide between the Grosse Pointes and Detroit. Residents in Grosse Pointe’s 48230 ZIP code live to age 81 on average compared to the neighboring 48215 ZIP code in Detroit, where the average life span is to age 70.

The gap between average household incomes in those two areas is more than $78,000, with households in 48215 making $21,633 and those in 48203 making $99,714, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“They don’t have the stress the people in Detroit do,” said Ronda Yeley, a 56-year-old Detroiter who lives in the east side’s 48205 ZIP code where the life expectancy is 70 years. “How do you keep your home? How do you make the light bill?”

Yeley was hospitalized this spring with a panic attack, suffered from migraines and was repeatedly vomiting while fighting her home’s tax foreclosure, she said. Her 69-year-old husband James Yeley’s blood pressure skyrocketed during that period, she added. They were able to save their home with help from a nonprofit but are still worried about getting money to fix it up.

It has no running water in the kitchen. They use a garden hose in the basement for a shower. The couple lives on a combined $2,100 a month in Social Security disability payments, of which about $600 goes to medical coverage, they said.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... /85325864/

That would also include what I used to call "high class welfare cases" when I was younger - people who depend on a government check who aren't officially on the government dole, statistically speaking.

[Higgenbotham]

[Higgenbotham]

That would also include what I used to call "high class welfare cases" when I was younger - people who depend on a government check who aren't officially on the government dole, statistically speaking.

The Federal government pays out about $100 billion in SNAP benefits annually, while just Lockheed Martin (one defense contractor) gets about $43 billion in government contracts annually, and Boeing gets about $27 billion. But where the SNAP benefits go are a good indicator of where the people are who don't know how to be self-sufficient. Someone who works for Lockheed and has their check cut off might be better able to help themselves.

[Higgenbotham]

All 4 of these maps have overlap.