I beg to disagree. During the Great Depression in this country, unemployment was 25%, but the crime was not of the caliber (pun intended) that it is today with a fourth or less of unemployment, but a high level of violent crime.

It is not economic poverty that breeds crime, it is moral poverty.

Take a look at US statistics for marriages and births. The number of cohabiting unwed couples (we used to call it “shacking up”) and illegitimate births is steadily climbing. The number of single-parent homes is skyrocketing. The greatest concentration of poverty is in homes headed by a single woman.

When men abandon wives-girlfriends and their children, when women think like sexual predators, and when children as young as 13 can get birth control – because land sake, we can’t trust them to exercise more control than dogs in heat … well, folks you end up with moral poverty.

I once spoke to a Nicaraguan-born MD. As a teen he and his family barely escaped their country’s Sandinista tyrants (his mother who set up clinics for the poor was outspoken critic of the govt).

I asked the doctor given his background, could he predict if USA would ever drift to collapse like his country. He pondered the question and answered, “when you see the middle class cheating on their taxes … when they start seeing no problem with immoral living … that’s when your country will begin to fall.” That was 20 years ago.

Like I said – moral poverty. And you end up with people who are dependent on the Uncle Sam and his nagging, domineering, snoopy spouse, Nanny State.

And with us independent types who are carefully and discretely piling up food, water, ammo, …

They need to cut the budget, and on the chopping block is either 1 full time patrol officer or the annual fee for the local library. The council is going to keep the library on the budget but put “Public Safety” up for a millage vote. Everyone will pay higher taxes for safety, so the council will get to keep both. They know only 20% of the village uses the library, so it would fail a millage vote.

And taxes keep creeping up.

So with his advice, I acquired a few guns for “around the house” use. I’m trying to stock up on ammunition. I handload for my .38s and rifle rounds- the old .303British- but I need to get more shotshell loads- slugs, Buckshot. I figure I’m fairly well off at the moment though.