Ghost towns: Rural America accounts for just 16% of population

Πηγή: The Coming Depression
28/7/2011

In 1950 the countryside remained home to a majority of Americans, amid post-World War II economic expansion and the baby boom. However, once busy areas have been abandoned, in South Dakota for example, the town of Scenic is up for sale for $799,000 as today just eight people live there.

Vast swathes of the U.S. countryside are emptying and communities becoming ghost towns as rural America now only accounts for just 16 per cent of the population.

The 2010 census results suggest that by 2050 many of these areas could shrink to virtually nothing as businesses collapse and schools close.

This dramatic population implosion is the culmination of a century of migration to cities, as in 1910 the share of rural America was at 72 per cent. 

These soon to be ghost towns never get it. Instead of cutting services and expenses for a dwindling tax base/population they raise taxes. Instead of consolidating schools, they build new schools. Ron Parsons live in one of the ghost towns. His town’s population has declined by 30%, the demographics are skewed to an aging population, they floated a bond for $14-million to renovate a relatively new school. They have more cops than during our hay day. They have municipal employees for every conceivable function from street sweepers to parking meter cops.

As with all government, it takes on a life of its own. These local politicians can mull over a budget for months and not find a single dollar it can cut. They have repeatedly refused to give tax abatements to anyone who may want to use the abandoned industrial sites. Rural American is even worse because it’s must have projects are even bigger and grander for the people who will be long gone before the projects are completed.

We’re going to become a ghost country pretty soon if we don’t create sustainable middle class jobs. Corporations that have been outsourcing the labor to cheap foreign labor markets for 15-20 years are now seeing that they can’t have it both ways. They wanted the cheap labor abroad, but still sell goods to a vibrant U.S. consumption economy. The well has run dry, and many Americans have stopped consuming anything that isn’t critical to survival. I guess these historically U.S. corporations that have reaped all the benefits of being here for decades or more than a century may consider moving everything to China, Mexico, India, etc. etc. Its’ simple economics folks: if the bulk of the purchasing power is not with the majority of the people, then the economy can not sustain. We need a financially healthy middle class, that has some money left over to spend once the mortgage, utility, and grocery bills are paid.

World Population Predicted to Hit 7 Billion This Year

Πηγή: Time

By: MEGAN GIBSON 

30/7/2011

If this keeps up, things are going to get crowded.

A new study shows that the earth's population will hit 7 billion in 2011, which is double what it was in the 1960s, according toDiscovery News. What's more, researchers predict that another 2.3 billion people will be added to our planet over the next 39 years. In case you were wondering, that's a lot of people in not a lot of time.

Worryingly, the study adds:

"Over the next forty years, nearly all (97%) of the 2.3 billion projected increase will be in the less developed regions, with nearly half (49%) in Africa. By contrast, the populations of more developed countries will remain flat, but will age, with fewer working-age adults to support retirees living on social pensions."

Which means the coming population explosion will be bad news all across the globe, putting strains on space, labor and the environment. And, if estimates turn out to be true, things are going to get far, far worse: by the year 2100, the earth could be home to a staggering 15.8 billion people.

Third of the world infected with hepatitis: WHO

Πηγή: Reuters

GENEVA | Tue Jul 26, 2011 5:19pm EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - Around one third of the global population, or 2 billion people, have been infected with one of the viruses that causes the liver disease hepatitis, which kills about a million victims annually, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

And although most of those carrying hepatitis do not know they have it, they can unknowingly transmit it to others and at any time in their lives it can develop to kill or disable them, the United Nations agency warned.

"This is a chronic disease across the whole world, but unfortunately there is very little awareness, even among health policy-makers, of its extent," WHO hepatitis specialist Steven Wiersma told a news conference.

The conference marked the first U.N. World Hepatitis Day, called by the world body to raise awareness of the viral disease, largely spread by contaminated water and food, blood, semen and other body fluids.

Wiersma said the disease - which has five main viruses - produced a "staggering toll" on health care systems around the globe and had the potential to spark epidemics, as well as being the main cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer.

Of the five viruses dubbed A, B, C, D and E, a new WHO document says, B was the most common and could be transmitted by mothers to infants at birth or in early childhood as well as through contaminated injections or injected drug use.

The E virus, transmitted through infected water or food, is a common cause of outbreaks of the disease in developing countries and is increasingly observed in developed economies, according to the WHO.

The WHO says effective vaccines had been developed to combat the A and B viruses and could also be used against D. A vaccine for hepatitis E had been developed but was not widely available, while there was none for the C virus.

Vaccination campaigns had scored considerable success in many countries, with about 180 of the WHO's 193 member states now including the B vaccine in infant immunization programs, the agency said.

But more needed to be done to prevent or control the disease. It was vital to ensure that people already infected could be tested and given quality care and treatment without delay, the WHO document declared.