Reader Scott is a volunteer at a California food bank near Palm Springs California. He shares the following comments and video of him driving past a line of up to 150 cars.
Reader Comments
Hello Mish.
I have followed you for 12-15 years (maybe longer). Thank you for all the informative articles you have written over the years. I definitely appreciate you and your work.
I wanted to share a video I took while driving in to volunteer for a local food bank event this morning. I volunteer regularly but for this specific distribution location, it was my second time.
I live comfortably in the Coachella Valley, beyond Palm Springs, the valleys roots are in agricultural. We have a large Hispanic community that work long hours, sometimes in rough weather conditions (heat, wind) to support the valley’s tourism, service and agricultural industries. Although very proud, I would consider many of them as working poor.
I have noticed over the past year that the lines at these distribution events are getting longer. Today, I counted 80+ cars, many which contain multiple families. There were another 20-30 cars that arrived after I drove in. The first vehicles arrive 1.5 to 2 hours before the volunteers start the distribution. Each family checks in and is cleared for receiving the distribution.
The “check-in lead” estimated 150 cars in the line.
The high school and the grounds where this is held looks like a third world set of buildings. It’s sad. We should do better than this.
Scott
Thanks Scott!
I was a volunteer at a food bank for a few years and only recently stopped. What I saw was terrifying. First of all, the competition for the food was intense. They arrived earlier and earlier to jostle and fight their way to the front of the line, and when it opened it was like a feeding frenzy. Many of these people were desperate! Others found out where I loaded the food from the source, and met me there in order to get a leg up on the competition. There was fighting and threats.. it really was very ugly.
One of the most interesting parts of the experience- much of the food was junk. Cookies, cakes, pies, that kind of thing. And we could not give away the junk- no one wanted it. The notion that all that poor families want is junk is flat out nonsense.
Given a regional population of 500,000 people, a line up of 150 cars is not a big line up. If the facility allows people to access in an orderly fashion to pick up food, then who cares if it looks like a third world facility. In what way would it make sense to spend money to make it look like a first world facility?
Yep just keep pretending you don’t live in the USSR. Remember how America mocked the USSR government stores because people were to poor to buy food. This is depression era tier descending graphs. You may be over the line now but rest assured plans have been made to move you over the line.
Your still smug thinking you’re immune.
The pigs are going to come up with a scheme to skim boomer wealth transfer once a financial collapse happens and they need to fund the wars.
Remember seizing the gold. Anything is possible in a fiscally failing over extended government.
Remember everyone:
“they’re planning to kill your kids and steal your money.”
It’s how they roll!
I remember reading about how people lined up for food and bread that’s for sure. I think I thought it was because the government control their economy. Wait a minute…
The Soviet Union had food shortages, hence lineups and rationing.
The USA does not have food shortages per se. There is plenty of food in the store down the street. It does seem to have a fair number of people lining up in their expensive vehicles, streaming Netflix on their smartphones with unlimited data packages, while waiting for free food.
It’s certainly a problem. But there is no valid comparison between the USSR and the USA when it comes to food availability.
It wouldn’t seem like a good idea to make the place look nicer. I agree. Seems like it should be possible not to have anyone anywhere need free food though except for extreme cases of disabilities.
I recommend a timed 5 mile run to qualify for free food. That should take care of fatties living off the system.
Klever. Then you can pay for all the follow-on hip & knee replacement surgeries, too.
Great looking vehicles in line! Remember when being ” poor” included no vehicle, or at best a ” fixer upper”? Not seeing that in this line. What does that say about the standard of living today vrs past definitions of ” poor”.?
Sounds like you spite your neighbor. Very Christ-like.
Ed, How do geniunely poor people afford cars, fuel, insurance and maintenance? Would you not be upset if people who really didn’t need the food were taking it from people who really did need it?
Ignoring the specifics of this item, the US really is bifurcating in terms of haves and have nots. Mish – would be good to see more articles on people with real solutions to the systemic issues. Political parties of all colours aren’t addressing things so it would be good to see independent media (such as yourself) help drive new ideas onto the agenda.
unlimited $ for migrants and things like Ukraine. The govt and it’s leaders are def in business for themselves. I have a bad feeling all of this is going to fly apart soon. You can say all you want about free handouts but enough is enough.
Said another way: Govt’s are extremely inefficient at allocating resources.
The Wheat from the Chaff is definitely being separated on this comment board. It is not the way the boastful or critical portend when seeing their vision of success, and the suffering of others . They look at the misery that their structured manipulated equity success has created and then look in the mirror and all they see is wheat. The Divine sees the opposite. You can pretty much tell what religion a person aligns with by their posts.
Thanks Scott! Appreciate the real world video.
Here in Napa Valley we also have long lines for food banks even if many of the cars are Mercedes, Audis, etc…The local tweakers and homeless arrive promptly with windshield-cleaning gear in-hand like the scene at the border in Tijuana in Up In Smoke.
My Stanford MBA didn’t prepare me for this stage In the cycle😳
Interesting concept spend 2 hours and $5 in gas picking up canned veggies, month old greens turning bad with cheese that’s gross that these people won’t eat anyways.
On the one hand I can see it. On the other…nice cars.
If elected, Trump will be a forgiving president. No revenge. Let the scoundrels fade. The best revenge is success. The French revenge, 250 years ago, sent Louis XVI to the guillotine, after winning the US war of Independence.
Eff that, scorched earth is the deserved approach
Let’s end the leftists for another generation or two
and he’ll mandate more of the Rat Juice vaccines that are killing and maiming ya’ll 🙂
I blame OPEC for some of the inflation problem. I hope the economy dies on the vine.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ar-BB1ntRiK
Mish, can u name the up and down voters
Is that where we are now. Caring about who up votes and down votes you?
You do realize that the damn voting mechanism here or on any website, has one goal and one goal only. To tap into your ego so you keep coming back.
No. I know who votes in repetitions against me. This blog was taken over by a herd, led by a few radicals, who oppose and insult other people’s opinions.
This is how a comments board works on the internet (not saying I approve). You’re gonna run into opposing views. It’s also very easy to be an ass hiding behind a screen. Acting the same way in person can lead to a confrontation and possibly violence.
I welcome opinions opposing mine as long as they are accompanied with a rational argument.
A shill knows he has nothing to win debating facts so they immediately use ad hominem.
There’s about 6 or 7 shills here regularly with maybe 3 different agendas – it could be a single person playing multiple roles.
If you respond with “Fake”
Don’t engage
It only takes a week or two of snubbing – then they leave.
Willie Nelson II is the first down vote.
I can’t speak for anyone other than myself, but I downvote your comments in isolation, not as part of a bot network, and not because I’m stalking you… You just appear in some threads, with dozens of comments, all idiotic.. you say more stupid things on just one topic than most people say about everything in a year
U just repeated what Willie Nelson II said. Thanks. Hiding behind the screen, or face masks. leads to mob behavior, herding and ignorance. I am immune to negative comments. I can take no !
Fake
Go away
Mish, I second that suggestion.
It would be sufficient that the comment poster can see who up/downs their post. I’d like the poster to know about my votes, though they may not correctly guess the reason for my vote. No matter. That they know the vote affords a sense of community and communication. Granted, at the cost of flamers dumping on down-voters. But at the benefit of reciprocity for those who up-vote comments they disagree with. We all do that, right?
It might be interesting to be able to sort by the length of the hypotenuse if up and down votes are treated as the sides of a right triangle. Let comments that draw lots of both up and down votes sort to the top.
Here’s how it goes for me. The Hide function is spotty. So I see your comments after I get out of Firefox and log back in. This time, I decided to find each one of your comments and downvote it. You and Fast Eddy are utter morons — true double-digit I.Q. a-holes with nothing to say — which is saying a lot given how generally low the quality of comments at Mishtalk is.
To me, more than 90% of the reason for being here is for Mish’s close reporting and examination of econometric indicators. If there is a better place on the internet to watch the indicators and look for careful analysis of them, I have not found it. I comment less and less, because there is so little evidence of intelligence in the comments. Even for the internet, most comments here are especially brain dead.
In any case, Moron Engel, you can henceforth assume that one of your downvotes is mine. You have the brains of an earthworm. Same for Fast Eddy. And I will now Hide you, so I won’t see your retort. LOL
Get a life, sir,
I fail to believe the lines got long in the last year. Free stuff brings people.
We serve our local homeless community each weekend. There is so much mental illness and many have problems with addiction. These are generally good people who are down on their luck. They were pretty scattered but the city has slowly corralled them into one tent city. They will have to leave this tent city within a year. Who knows where they will go next.
Drugs have ravaged this community. Lax drug laws are just making things worse. Not sure what the solution is (outside of locking up the dealers) because many of them do not want help. First step is to stop giving money and weapons to countries that bomb the crap out of other countries. We need to provide for our country before we try to “fix” other countries.
Soylent Green tanks…
I was recently thinking the same thing, alcohol, drugs and food addictions are ruining the country.
ruining yes, but keeping the herd tame….
A sick culture produces sick people.
Our culture was infiltrated in the 60’s by an agenda of cultural corruption via ” new think” in Universities that created the rancid selfish stupid immoral evil boomers who destroyed the world and will usher in horrors not seen for 100 years.
ITS NOT GETTING BETTER IN ANY QUADRANT
Health
Education
Economy
Civility
Everything eats everything else in the end stages of decay.
“I got mine” days the boomer.
Sorry to say drug crisis seems solving the homeless crisis. Without drug crisis homeless crisis will be much much worse. 100,000 killed in 2002 alone. That’s why they don’t try to solve the drug crisis?
the drug wars do not work lol. people use drugs because life is hell. the system of capitalism is causing mass mental illness. the family structure is destroyed and people work themselves to death. also any libertarian should support personal autonomy and agency over personal and responsible drug use.
Adam, we’d probably be a bit healthier with actual capitalism. None here have experienced true free market capitalism in our lifetimes. It’s always a matter of how controlled the markets, or the business, or the institutions, and who gets the subsidies and the grant stream funding which favors “the agenda”.
This is also true.
Rare wisdom.
Every single one of those cars is nicer than the truck I drive.
Wonder how they got into this predicament?
One credit card at a time…
26 upvotes as I write this – is this a record?
“Yeah!!! Muh America!!! Another 100 Billion dollar present to Ukraine from Biden, Trump, Johnson and the rest of that scum in Congress. More money for Gaza genocide too!!! Muh Israel, the masters of America!!! Go AIPAC!!!”
Wake up Americans.
The best way to get an up vote is to say : Muh, Israel the masters of America !!! Go AIPAC, Scream free Palestine, Gaza genocide during Israel’s parade on 5th Ave NYC. U got my vote.
Biden is forcing Bibi to accept a very bad deal for Israel.
I wonder why Israel evokes so much enmity on the anonymous internet. Maybe it’s because the Israel lobby so tightly controls what speech is tolerated and labels any criticism of Israel “antisemitism”.
Agreed…It’s ridiculous to conflate criticism of a foreign country’s policy with “Antisemitism”…of course assuming we’re still a free people?
Israel is dead.
It’s atrocities will haunt them forever in 4K
They destroyed the myth about themselves.
The Jews worst nightmare is coming true. The veil of invisibility – the cloak has fallen away from all the exploitative Euro colonialists. Their 900 year reign is over. Same with the US, we are seen as the creeps we are by increasing numbers of people world wide.
Disgusting Euro lordship over the world is collapsing along with the British royals failing health.
“God kill the Queen”
No cred.
Ask a Gen Z or Gen A what they think about Israel or the US. It’s over.
Bernie Maddof model it’s all good until it’s not,
1000 upvotes
WAKE THE FUCK UP
strange
GenZ sees it all
Denial is defense mechanism that frequently comes at very high destructive to fatal cost.
Nobody getting carjacked.
People have observed for centuries that the natural economic condition of man is “impoverished”. So what is “Third World” about what is shown? Odds are good that these people’s condition is a bit better than a few hundred miles or more to the south across the border in the third world. Adam Smith was one of the first to turn the natural question around and ask “How can people prosper?” – The situation presented here raises many moral-economic questions.
What resources does Palm Springs Valley have? For lack of rain not much in agriculture. Thanks to San Gorgonio pass at its head it is a transportation route between the Los Angeles Valley and Yuma Arizona, and hence transcontinental east. The San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountains provide some water at its upper end.
Someone built water works to bring Colorado River water in to irrigate the land and grow more crops. Then the classic capital(-ism) question: Who profits from that? The person who owns/runs the farm, the work-crew boss, or the workers? That can be calculated on a gross basis or a per-capita basis. What could be changed to make it better? In what measures? Should consumers (be made to) pay more for the food grown here? for the services provided? … so that the workers can be paid better?
We ask these questions because we can see contrast between the poor who are naturally here and the better off.
And people who got quite well off in Los Angeles import their riches into this valley. What sort of benefit do they bring to the valley, and what would be lost if they went away.
The food bank is a sort of voluntary redistribution from the foreign better-off people and the poor.
“What resources does Palm Springs Valley have? For lack of rain not much in agriculture.”
If you go to Google Earth, you will see a number of green rectangular plots south of the Palm Springs metro area to the Salton Sea. South of the Salton Sea to the Mexican border, is largely agricultural plots, enveloping communities such as El Centro, which Dr.s Fareed and Tyson serve.
I referred to importing Colorado River water to grow crops. If not for that the valley would grow next to nothing from the water that rains in the valley or the high mountains west and north of it.
BTW, the agricultural plots continue for some distance south of the Mexican border. Same source of water. Are they doing as good a job, better, or worse, of prospering off of it than we are?
The cost in time of waiting in the long line for the free stuff brings the market into equilibrium.
We should give another few billion to the Ukraine.
That’ll fix this.
/sarc
You forgot our “ good friends” on the eastern Med
Shalom!!!
as someone who travels by vehicle from one end of the US to the other?
if the US was a patient:
I’d say it’s in hospice
people who don’t travel around like this assume whatever is happening in their locality is the same as everywhere else
for good reason 99.9% of you wouldn’t walk around a major city downtown unless forced
equity class people live in white enclaves
they don’t rub shoulders with the hoi polloi
I meet with my patent attorney in downtown Seattle every 3ish months
I walk to our meeting place
It offers regular snapshots of a the diseased body
fent addicts are piled up under doorways in every major city
shooting dope while hiding behind ubiquitous umbrellas
meanwhile?
the skyscrapers are mostly empty
outlying areas are filled with tents
Portland Or needs to be seen to be believed 1000’s of tents
rust belt cities in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana or Denver, SF, Venice Beach, Omaha, Casper, Reno, Sacramento, Stockton, Chicago Santa Cruz, Sioux Falls, Spokane,
meth destroyed the previous working all across romantic west Wyoming, of all places
human filth and despondency from Sea to Shining Sea
the physical state of the addicts is becoming observably worse
literal zombies with bandages and open wounds
the mutants own the streets and they don’t like you
your realize of course they have to steal to buy their dope
everyone one of them steals every day
UW college district is unfathomable
food bank the size of a Barnes and Noble
bedraggled mental patients battling invisible demons and aggressive angry blacks sleeping in doorways or slightly menacing the Chinese and other foreign imports rushing off to class, a dichotomy is there ever was one
they used to make moves about a world looking like this
Fast bear when are you gonna stop complaining and figure out how to profit from this? Maybe you should start a private equity or SPAC and buy rehab centers and food banks and turn them in to massive donation, government grants and NGO money printing machines (100% sarcasm)
I’m not complaining
like the video – I’m sharing
caring about others and wanting them to be happy is a fault of mine
its antithetical to the “current American way”
everything in America is consuming everything else in a final orgy of terminal
feasting
narcissist mind virus has turned nearly everyone into insatiable exploitative drooling TV zombie Golem
the only solution is to start over
the founders knew democracy would eventually get to this place
that’s why starting over is featured as a right in the constitution
issue is:
the system will prevent “starting over” from happening
once their manipulations went off the rails on 9/11 they knew A Stasi Police State would be required to protect themselves
coincidentally, one of its features included calls to abolish the constitution?
MAKE NO MISTAKE!
those in power are threatening to
“kill your kids”
they are going to kill the children of the police, the government shills who post here, the government employees, the military, the military families, the teachers, the employees of the surveillance state, the professors, 3 letter agencies
the homeless who will notice few changes in their lives except less fentanyl availability
EVERYONE IS MARCHING LOCK STEP
TO THE SACRIFICIAL WAR ALTAR
none will be spared
it’s a catch 22 when the source of your livelihood is both profoundly immoral but also determined to kill you?
what’s a person to do????
so you smug and seemingly immune participants in the destruction of the US
your day is likely coming
I have the same fault. And admittedly my own offspring and observing/talking to my my nieces and nephews has me ACUTELY aware and in tune with the ghoulish path we are on
Conspiracy theories here are getting nuttier than squirrel shit.
Sounds like you are into slumming.
Median property value where I live/own a company is over 1m.
We have one homeless Alaska Native American woman whom sleeps on our city hall entrance.
If your house is over a million, their houses, those on the food line, are worth about 3/4 million.
1m? You weren’t slumming. You live in one.
So you area trucker?
Would you share pictures or video like Scott?
I agree that your post are thoughtful and interesting.
I also think this post highlights the “2 different” economies that exist in the US.
“I also think this post highlights the “2 different” economies that exist in the US.”
Anywhere where the far and away most significant economic activity taking place is nothing other than just crass redistribution; you will always have two economies: One for those being redistributed from; and another for those being redistributed to.
@Stuki Moi – I am curious,did you mean “class redistribution” or “crass redistribution”?
[a letter can make a difference]
Crass.
Not that the two will differ much in practice. 50+ years of nothing but crass redistribution; can not fail to result in a class divide between those redistributed from, and those redistributed to.
I see lots of newer cars and MessUVs. Not a poor bunch at all. What happened? `
Mish, I have been reading your columns for nearly a year now and I am with Scott: your work and articles are TIMELY, deeply researched and informative.
Thanks SO much!
With who?
Costly pickup trucks and SUV. They get everything for free : canned food, serials, a lot of sugar and salt. It’s cheaper to buy quinoa, potatoes, fruits and veggies than wasting CA gas prices for hours. On Mon they might fill the tank, buying $70/$100 gas plus $20 for junk food and drinks. They f**k Gavin Newsom who f**ked the middle class and the poor. What else can they do.
Many of those folks just want free food—–Noone is vetted at these food banks and many are obese. I lived in the hood for 10 years, I know something about how this goes.
Put free food out, and you’re gonna draw fatties.
Hey…. I resemble that remark.
I’m always skeptical of videos like this because, as you said, the folks in line often aren’t vetted for need.
My wife used to teach at a title one (low income) school. She would constantly tell me stories about kids who recieved free school lunches, but came to school with iPads/iphones, designer cloths, parents who drove Cadillac Escaldes, etc. Everyone from rich to poor is gaming the system. It’s a free for all.
@MISH — have you noticed that the comments are now dominated by people like Michael Engel, Doug78, Avery, blurtman, Jojo, Scott Craig LeBoo and papaDave?
Have you noticed these commenters frequently get significant down votes, yet that only makes them comment more? Like they have no shame. More to the point Soros isn’t paying them to persuade other people with convincing arguments — rather he is paying them to constantly post stupid and divisive hate speech. If these people were honest, and they see they are regularly getting -15, -20 ratings from others, they would at minimum curtail their own comments if not rethink their positions. Instead, they double down on hate speech and divisiveness.
Temporarily blocking them until my next browser or PC reboot is just that – temporary. Pretending these political agitators are legitimate commenters isn’t fooling anyone.
People who regularly get 10, 15, 20 **UP** votes are treated like they are liars. People with 10, 15, 20 down votes are tip toed around like they have credibility. The blog host sets the tone and environment of his blog.
Meanwhile Mish, you keep quoting horrid, media outlets. Some used to be widely respected back in the distant past, but no more. Today they are regularly caught posting half truths and in many cases outright false statements that they know are false but fit their propaganda goals.
You did some great work when you were younger, but its bad for everyone’s mental health not to have a meritocracy. To pretend like hopelessly discredited losers (media sources and commenters) should be treated with the same respect as those who are honestly trying to understand the chaos around them.
You can create better ways to block political agitators. You can stop quoting CNN, NPR, BBC and other propaganda outlets.
.
The last month or so, I would describe your blog as a mental health hazard. if others want to smoke 3-4 packs of cigarettes per day, that’s on them. Their health care costs should also be on them. Restaurants that do not cordon off smokers get patronized less and less. The same applies to our mental health. Some of the more frequent commenters are just plain bad news.
I would guess people who just want an echo chamber — to hear only what they want to hear — would have no reason to come here at all. I suppose some of them no one listens to anymore. Some of them have been ignorant their whole lives and like it that way. Some people figure if they keep pushing the same lies they will, as Goebbels believed, eventually start to believe the lies. And some people really feel Mish is technically right but unusable in the real world. My Rep friends LOVE to be confronted with the other side, so they can use their accumulated facts from the WSJ to strike us down.
Truth triggers cognitive dissonance, and makes the feel angry and stupid. Which is good, because that and a set of manboobs is most of what they are.
I’ll put my manboobs up against your SSRI/estrogen infused bitchtitties any day
Mish and Soros don’t pay me. I provided data for free from top US and British experts. U accumulated more comments and they are longer than most Mish’s articles. If u don’t like my comments ==> f*** u, skip !!
“People who regularly get 10, 15, 20 **UP** votes are treated like they are liars. People with 10, 15, 20 down votes are tip toed around like they have credibility”
Willie, you can’t vote for something to be true. Something is fundamentally true or it isn’t, voting is a popularity contest, not truth detection.
This illustrates why I base my decisions and often my opinions on data, because math never lies, only people do.
Here is a thought experiment for you. Travel to the following countries: Russia, Israel, Turkey, United States, Italy, and China.
In each country ask a local the following question: “What is 2+2?” If you are talking to sane people, the only correct answer is 4. It doesn’t matter how many people upvote or down vote the answer, that’s irrelevant but if the answer 4 gets 20 down votes it doesn’t mean the person is wrong.
Now travel to those same countries and ask another question like, “What religion does God want me to follow” and I’m sure you’ll get an infinite (non-useful) list of answers that are meaningless but they’ll get plenty of upvotes.
Facts are costly (take too long to find) and inconvenient. Relabeling certain opinions as facts is easier and quicker.
Quoting Don Willett (former Texas Supreme Court; now on the 5th Fed Court) “Facts are hostile witnesses”. Hostile to some, friendly to others.
Not going to comment on all but the media.
Not familiar with CNN, and only know NPR from the past.
However, BBC has become a full on propaganda and brainwashing outlet.
In the past, it produced outstanding documentary and drama, up until perhaps twenty years ago.
Now, there is an all-black cast production of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.
You know, for the children.
We should discuss media more, since the media NEVER discusses the media.
Jimmy Saville worked for the BBC right and they reported on building 7 early so I’m done with them
Truly a reasoned course of action…
I like MPO45. I beat him on volume, for sure. Willie Nelson II is taking the ctr stage, trying to run this blog. There was a mysterious econ savant with 180 IQ who thought that I was looking for new friends on Mish. He was gone two years ago, raising pigs and chicks in Idaho.
I like me too Michael, a whole lot. And I really love down votes, the more I get the more I know I’m making a difference.
Gonna start downvoting you to help your score.
Marine oil and vitamin B is an attempt to educate. I knew in advance how people responded. I try to help people before it’s too late for them, before they get dementia, strokes or heart attacks.
Did you see this video? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cXX4iMuwaVQ I agree with your dietary prescription. Also, Fuhrman – to the degree one can adhere to his diet. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U0POEo1cZ2s
I think many of these people work for government agencies or government sponsored or some type of left/right NGO.
You see the same on Zero Hedge. We know who they are over there too.
Mish,
Please block posts from Willie Nelson II. They are cuckoo and he thinks he is kin of country music royalty.
I do not have time to scroll past his spastic drivel.
Thank you.
Freedom of speech…. unless it hurts my tender fee fees.
Exactly the pusillanimity one expects from a trump simp.
Instead of downvoting sock puppets, respond with:
“did not read, fake”
After 15 “Did Not Read Fake” in a row, you will quickly train others to not bother reading their posts and their effect is wholly neutralized.
They failed at their jobs and they will go away.
Someone is paying them, if they can’t do their job they will be assigned to something else.
It’s really that simple.
It’s not free speech if Mish sensors people. Its our responsibility to negate them.
Having had some experience with this, it works. US government hates it when we disempower their “sock puppet’s” many of whom work for DIA Military Intelligence and of course Israel. The Air Force created full suites of Sock Puppet software and are hugely involved in this as well.
All of the propaganda methodologies the US uses on foreign countries, are now freely used on US citizens. If you convincingly express that you don’t like what the US government is doing, you become their enemy, and as in war you have no rights.
Disintermediateing human discourse has always been the goal of the internet.
It’s why they built it. “The Man” is in the middle in everything.
That’s why they are here, there and everywhere.
I miss ol’e Willy, Waylon and the boys.
I wish I could permanently block you, as we used to be able to do in prior iterations of this blog.
Willie Nelson II popped up a few months ago, trying to get approval by the herd, and fade like previous mass holes on this blog.
Mish, can u name the up/down voters
I’ve suggested this before. The DIsqus comment system does this. Probably the cobbled together WordPress code can’t support this.
Don’t like free speech?
90% of US homes has air conditioning. 95% of teenagers has a mobil phone.
Is a household with car, air conditioning and four phones “poor”?
A hundred years ago, the house of President Coolidge didn’t have a bathroom.
Ive been volunteer at a food bank for 25 years in Chicago. It is a mixed bag of emotions. All of our clients are medically sick and poor. And yet the private joke is that they all qualify for food stamps and mostly use us for lean months. They also look perfectly fine when they come in and can be the most fussy people. Yes, the average worker in America hasnt had a pay increase above inflation in 50 years, and all of America’s productivity gains have gone to the rich and the top 20%. On the other hand, there are dozens of way people sabotage their own lives (smoking and drinking and scratch-offs come to mind) because of their bad decisions. So, not black and white.
The Coachella Valley lies between the affluence of Palm Springs (becoming an homeless hotspot) and the environmental and humanitarian disaster of the Sultan Sea. It’s a major agriculture area that relies on farm labor to help feed the entire country, particularly during the winter months. Grocery stores as know them don’t exist in this area, not to mention the exorbitant cost of groceries and gas in California. I doubt many middle class residents are “sneaking” into the food line. It makes sense to help feed the folks who help feed the country. Food lines in urban areas like LA and Phoenix are entirely another matter.
Salton Sea
Make no mistake that most people live paycheck 2 paycheck and the massive 4year compounded inflation has many households short wages with bills/expenses exceeding the inflows with no end in sight to at least make them equal. People are trying anything and everything to just get their head above water. Looting, team looting, food banks, crime, side hustles, borrowing from Mom n Dad, borrowing from the non banks at higher rates, BNPL, etc, etc are all now being exercised.
There probably isn’t a reader/commenter here that can even fathom these realities. In fact it mostly opposite here. Acknowledging it is tough out there for people but primarily begging for rate cuts and for the FED ponzi to keep bubbling “asset” prices higher. Truly a disgusting dynamic when you sit back and ponder…..
Hank, we have eyes (the rest of the readers who to whom you refer in your Comments). WE SEE THE HOMELESS everywhere that we are traveling and we visit 5 western states constantly, between family and friends that have us visiting them. It cannot be missed now so to say that we cannot FATHOM these realities is offensive.
Hell, you cannot even miss these realities in the evening news which we watch ONLY for local weather. There are reports of homeless tent camps all over the damned country.
I grew up with Grandparents who were alive in the 30’s when there were lines of men awaiting handout of Bread, called “Bread lines.”
When My wife’s grandma recently died, we found stale food and expired can foods dating back 20 years. SHE NEVER shook the frugality of those times and LIVED IT.
My wife’s Step Dad (with whom she grew up) came out West from Arkansas and they were referred to as “ARKIES.” HE picked fruit along side adults. He went on to own his own businesses and has never shook those times but he now lives opulently in a huge home in Cal.
So, please never assume the level of exposure that your fellow readers have to the NEW DEPRESSION setting in deeply but denied by Grandpa Biden.
Based on all of your comments, you indeed see it, say it out loud, offer ideas and comments to fix it, admit the extraordinary ponzi and the I’ll gotten beneficiaries of said ponzi. There are probably a handful more off the top of my head that share the same/similar positions and opinions. My comments are NOT directed at you and the handful of others. I should have been clear on that in my original comment.
Tax policy is disgusting at this point. Tax policy is structured to funnel essentially all wealth to the 1% whether interest rates go up or down. Monetary policy is impotent in the face of egregiously bad tax policy. It all leads to despair for many, and eventually homelessness for some.
News flash: People line up for free stuff!
Years ago I lived just outside Palm Springs while engaged in contact work at 29 Palms military base. Palm Springs is a very wealthy {Bob Hope lived there until his death] and I’m astounded at what’s happening as this reader describes. Yeah plenty of migrant workers but they weren’t destitute…amazing.
I grew up in Hemet, not too far from Palm Springs
There have always been elements of poverty and working poor in the SoCal desert, even PS, which became the LA/Hollywood retreat of choice for rich folks a few decades ago. My family moved to the area just after WW2 (before my time) and it’s been that way as long as any of them can remember
The area started getting worse in the 1990s when CA started releasing parolees there en masse and small time meth producers decided it was the perfect home for them
I sure am glad all those folks lining up for free food have such nice cars!
It is a badge for the poor. They will not be able to feed their families but borrow to have nice Trucks. SO TYPICAL.
Cant use rust as an excuse for not having an old car there, either.
Thanks NAFTA!
*laughs in Slick Willie*
Bill Daley was Clinton’s stooge with Chicago unions: “NAFTA, because we halfta.” He was the idiot who jumped out of a limo to run down the street to Gore’s bigger limo late on election night 2000. Found out too late that some of the old chicken soup ladies in Florida who thought they were voting for Gore, mistakenly voted for Buchanan.
You can tell that we are currently in or will be in a serious recession by the kinds of things that people are starting to steal. Normally, people steal items that they can exchange or sell for money. Now, I find that more people are stealing food. In an article in our local newspaper, more grocery stores are reporting theft of groceries, especially meats.
Also, I have had to reinforce both my pantry in my garage and my greenhouse. People are stealing canned vegetables, meats and flour from my pantry. They’re taking my fresh tomatoes from my garden too. Under normal circumstances,you don’t steal foodstuffs unless you’re desperate.
Major props to Scott for rocking out to the Talking Heads. A perfect song to listen to as he drives past the line.
I wonder how many of those people REALLY need that food vs are just lining up for free stuff? During Covid, here in Florida the schools all handed out food 2x a week. It was the food that they had contracted for their cafeterias and so had to take delivery even though all the schools were closed. Friends we know told us they were lining up for that food even though they are solidly middle class (own a home, 6 figure job for husband and stay at home mom) under the guise that it was their taxes that paid for that food. Can’t argue with their logic because that’s true but I asked them how they felt knowing someone might have really needed it when they didn’t and a lot of times they just ended up wasting it (they’d get a couple bags and only eat stuff they liked and tossed the rest).
I hear the same with seniors and medicare. They “paid for it” so why not go and have every procedure and doctor visit done as many times as they want. Socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money. Ditto for SS.
I am on Medicare. My primary care doc is a 120-mile round trip away. I go when I have to, that’s all. My spouse is on Medicare too, and three years ago had open heart surgery just for kicks. Good God, you are a stupid a-hole.
boomers put in nickel and are taking out a dollar
to preserve their existence they are without conscience robbing the future
they contributed nothing of merit to society
they didn’t go to the moon BTW
they got divorced and worked for the government corporate cabal
they supported the zionist take over of the US
a few got rich investing in real estate and stocks
while turning the US into a fascist dystopia
that’s all it is
now they’re going to kill your kids and relatives in a war of zero merit
I suspect they will somehow manage to stop short of nuclear war to preserve themselves
I’m a Boomer and I started out roofing houses in Brooklyn , later built homes on LI and finally in the Hamptons So some of us contributed and never took a cent of handouts so STFU
Isn’t it time for your dirt nap?
Tried-and-true from Romans to Brits: put black ants, brown ants and red ants in a jar, shake vigorously!
I am a boomer. Starting my career was not easy, many looking for very few jobs. Most jobs were short term with little stability. Most boomers worked hard and paid more than their fair share in taxes. Young people now have it easy, Dozens of high paying jobs to pick from after graduation.
Are we to assume that you will deny your benefits when you turn SS Age?
Askin’ for my friends here who do not want to address your stupid comments. I kicked in for once, after we had a meeting about it.
That system will be bankrupt by the time I can start collecting but it’s highly likely it will become “means” tested by socialists so i won’t get any anyway.
But if it is available, I will take it and hand it to my kids because they’d be the ones paying for it.
Makes sense! Why didn’t you say so months ago?
They need to join the militurah for some free procedures, though.
My mom has run up a tab that’s easily 10x her lifetime earnings, let along contributions. Keeping people like her alive is insanely profitable.
I bake 10 loaves of bread a week for the food bank, and grow carrots, beans, onions, and other veggies for it. I have yet to see anything but an old vehicle there. A few weeks ago, I talked with a lady who depended on a food bank for 8 years to feed her kids. She said that, from her observations over those years, about 25% of the people really didn’t need it. I relied that a 75% efficiency rate was enough for me.
And you may say to yourself, ” My God, What have I done?”
Look at all those old, beat up, dilapidated cars. I bet you all those vehicles are uninsured too!
Everyone of those vehicles is nicer than my 24-year-old Ford (175k miles) and my 21-year-old GMC (205k miles).
I guess it is what your priorities are.
I got a 21 year old Chevy Avalanche myself! Nice. 175k on it.
Yeah, but I bet the drivers all get to vote whether they know it or not in Newsom’s gruesome state.
My 15 year old high mileage SUV looks really sharp, but it is on it’s last leg. Appearances are deceiving. Go out and try and buy a used car these days and you will be shocked at what little is available for the budget minded. Guzzlers are some of the best values out there. I can’t imagine being a youngster looking for his first car. Me and my fellow boomers were fortunate, I remember buying awesome cars for $300.
I bought a ’71 GTO in 1978 for $800. Savings from a summer of detasseling corn.
My first: 1962 Chevy Impala SS with Chrome-trimmed Bucket Seats. It was a piece of crap even for $400 – – I had the cash from working from the 5th grade up. I drove it West with a Pal from Cal and never looked back on Illinois, my home state.
Ha, ha. I bet if there is one thing Mish readers agree on it’s, “Drive an old car.” The comments are filled with people whose politics may vary, but who, themselves, are frugal and careful with their dollars.
Corolla. 230k, baby, and good for another dozen years, minimum.
“Bidenomics is working!” -Regime media
The lines were longer under Trump’s disastrous and unwarranted nationwide lockdown in April 2020. And anyone that’s upset with Biden can thank Trump for putting him into office.
Trump won the presidency the first time because things were already bad, and Trump was actually talking about that decline. Remember “American carnage”? The Republican Party didn’t want to make him their nominee for exactly that reason. So the political machine, Republican and Democrat, created the conditions that Trump walked into, and now you irresponsible partisan hacks want to put it on him, run a “lawfare” railroad job, and pat yourselves on the back?
Links please!
There were no Trumpvilles, but there are lots of Bidenvilles. California is a medieval fiefdom of marxist limousine liberals hiding behind walls, sensors and cameras, while the homeless camps like Skid Row need to be added to Google Maps….
There was no national lock-down. Whether or not to lock down was decided at the state level or lower.
its not Bidenomic’s knucklehead, its the greedy banking fascist melding of corporate and government cabal.
THE UNIPARTY
advocate to start anew because?
to continue the system is to advocate for the UNIPARTY
the UNIPARTY is going to kill your kids
to advocate to kill your kids is insanity
Putin said he was grateful Biden was in office
why would he say that?
I hate the fascist dystopia that plans to kill your kids.
Americans failed their government its time to start over
prove me wrong!
Nice report & video by Scott. Sad indeed. The USA is doling out billions of $$$ to other countries and we have trouble feeding our own. Our government is nuts.
Foreign aid is a small part of the USA budget. Lots of foreign aid supports domestic USA industries. I think that foreign aid has bloat, but eliminating all foreign aid would have little effect on federal spending.
Eliminating all foreign aid would be a good start in balancing the budget and reining in runaway deficit spending. USA industries that benefit from strings-attached foreign aid, (formally called conditionality), also lobby heavily for those “deals” which the taxpayer never gets a vote on.
Foreign aid is 1-2% of the US budget. It wouldn’t even be a poor start to reining in spending.
A broader definition of foreign aid should include trade. Nixon opened up China and Clinton gave the nation most favored trade status as a geopolitical tool isolate and weaken Russia. The trade deficits with China and other nations of geopolitical importance should be viewed as a form of foreign aid. If we accept this border definition of aid the cumulative amount leaps into the tens of trillions of $$$ for the past few decades. That’s why the US economy is so dysfunctional and the middle class has shrunk. The economic welfare of the populace has been sacrificed in favor of geopolitical and multilateral interests.
The budget will never be balanced, but $60 billion in food/shelter/aid should be spent here first…
Please, $60 billion in foreign aid isn’t better spent here? Who cares about balancing the budget (a pipe dream if there was any), but $60 billion would go far here where it should be the priority.
Its quite a bit more than they admit too. The Republicans just pushed a 100 billion in military aid because it helped the chosen ones in their genocide.
It’s not just the government. Worldwide, the distribution of aid has become an industry. There are hundreds of organizations in any geographical area focusing on handing out aid or qualifying people for aid like the federal food card program. The SF Bay Area, possibly the wealthiest population area in the world has no shortage of agencies handing out aid to people claiming to be poor and unable to feed or take care of themselves.
Another clear example is Gaza/West Bank, where the UNRWA agency has been handing out free aid to Palestinian “refugees” for 75 YEARS! 500 trucks/day, every day of free food and supplies and few seem to see anything wrong with this!
“When you incentivize something, you get more it” is the operative statement here.
The free shit army rides in style. All new cars and SUV gas hogs.
That’s exactly what I was thinking, I was going to count the SUVs but why bother, it’s at least 60% of the cars. It’s really hard for me to feel sorry for people that spend $40k on SUVs and trucks then have to go begging for food.
I’ll give the guys in trucks a pass because I’ll assume it’s a working truck but the SUVs are ridiculous. Gas, taxes, insurance and maintenance is why they can’t afford food.
Like I said, the future for the ill-prepared is going to be all about tough choices: food, medicine, autos, shelter, or electricity/energy.
You may pick three and no more. Neither Trump or Biden will solve this only you can.
You are correct. NO POLITICAL REGIME can fix THIS BROKEN!
BS. The problem is that you have to replace 51% of Congress with people focused on fixing problems rather than creating them, both political parties. This is the kind of thing that can’t happen gradually over time and instead needs to happen in one election.
Keeping up appearances those car payments with insurance are at least $500 a month.
No one wants to admit this is what the US version of USSR government free stores look like. Of course being America the offering is more diverse.
But the reason they exist and they service it provide is the same.
Hungry and starving people are bad for UNIPARTY’S
USA = USSR
“A hungry man is an angry man!”
These kinds of videos showing this verifiable fact are absolutely forbidden by regime media. Reality is simply not allowed to be shown to the citizenry by our treasonous propaganda outlets. BTW, I noticed the same thing immediately.
In order to show such videos the station and reporters would have to be looking objectively at what was going on and ask the obvious questions like “Is this normal?”.
The used SUV gas hogs are the only inexpensive used cars here in Southern California, the land of five dollar a gallon gasoline
They are not inexpensive if they require $500+ in fuel each month and higher insurance premiums and maintenance costs. But then again, simple math is a challenge for many so not sure how you fix this.
Insurance and fuel won’t be going down in price no matter what anyone does, the cheap easy oil is mostly gone.
Got XOM or CVX? 🙂
I gots BP, DVN, better yield and upside, in theory. BP has green energy play just in case.
I have CHORD and FANG. And a lot of Canadian oil and gas companies. The Canadian firms are ridiculously cheap.
I paid $6 for diesel there last week.
$6/gal. diesel and the video both show that bidenomics is in fact working (just not for Americans).
Duh!
Why would they not, when The free shit army by now has had virtually all of America’s wealth redistributed their way?
And I would bet that if you were to look at the people that got out of those cars, the vast majority would be significantly overweight.
And have the newest iPhones