[This is a paid article so only part of it is available. But this will set a bit of the scene. Jan]

It’s easy to laugh off the notion of somebody calling the United States a Third World country. It sounds like one of those hyperbolic expressions used as political rhetoric, which is probably what makes it easy to dismiss without thinking about it.

After recently taking a step back and objectively visiting several major cities on both the east and west coast of the country, in combination with reviewing our perverted idea of economics and monetary policy in this country, it’s becoming more and more difficult to laugh off these claims as complete nonsense with each passing day.

(San Francisco, via The Guardian)

Living in Philadelphia, I got to witness firsthand the chaos and “social justice” riots of 2020 and the government’s response to the pandemic brutalizing local businesses. Between the government shutting down small businesses and politicians allowing unfettered violence and chaos in major US cities across the country, it is a wonder there any cities in the U.S. that are still considered first world.

(Chicago 2020, via the Chicago Sun-Times)

The effects of business shutdowns are lingering, even though we are moving well into the second half of 2021. Cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and New York have been boarded up and shut down since mid 2020. Many of the businesses that shut down in Philadelphia never reopened, and some of the ones that did closed shortly afterward. There are still large swaths of high foot traffic areas in Philadelphia that were once coveted (i.e. Market Street in Old City, South Street) but remain vacant.

The scene in San Francisco, where I visited last week, was even more frightening. In the four years since I had been to San Francisco, the entire city looks as though it has experienced a nuclear holocaust. Like everybody else, I had read a number of articles describing just how bad the homelessness problem in the city was, so I was semi-prepared to witness the miniature shantytowns throughout the entire center of San Francisco.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-08-27/us-becoming-third-world-country-right-our-eyes