At present, our manufacturing jobs have mostly been shipped to other countries. Our last hope, the auto industry, due to our economic recession and credit crunch, has also received a death threat in the form of bankruptcy. Now billions of dollars in the form of bailouts to the banking industry and Wall Street have been virtually tossed to the wind by our Treasury Department. Hopefully, we will see good results on these bailouts. Home foreclosures are in the millions. From the brightest economists, warnings were given but ignored. Those persons involved big time in contributing to the current crisis never got so much as a slap on the wrist, let alone charges brought against them. Why?
As our own assembly lines sputtered and stalled due to this financial crisis, crooks prevailed. They (the crooks) seem to be mass produced in presumably one of the few factories that really survive, located in Crookdom, USA. These plants turn out many types of crooks. They seem to be in every segment of society including government, banking, Wall Street, real estate, religion and sports. It certainly doesn't end at just these sectors as there are many, many crimes and scams in all locales and professions. From the high brow to the low brow, crime exists - from petty crimes to Ponzi-like schemes and even open Senate seats for sale! Crooks are amongst us in great force. Due to this recession and financial crisis, they are growing in numbers as their main ingredients of greed and fraud are added to their product line and shipped where needed. These bad guys and gals seem to thrive on our ailing economy with no regard for people in general, but only their personal gains and ambitions with no remorse. Money is their game and gain.
I think our recession created a very noticeable upturn in crime rates. Perhaps the most notable cause is our negative state in the housing and mortgage market. Loans should be more affordable, allowing homeowners to stay in their homes. The foreclosures produce vacant, unattended homes that always attract criminal activity such as gangs, prostitution and drugs. Unemployment is the cause of almost half of all foreclosures on most conventional mortgages. Those who are unemployed are also tempted to delve into petty crime. At present, there are 4.3 million people collecting unemployment. The bright part to all of this is that due to the increase in crime there will be many openings in police departments across the country. These new opportunities could mean an increase of 17 percent in new police officers in the next few years, or 97,000 jobs. It's a shame to say, but an economic downturn and crime go hand and hand. Fraud alone is costing U.S. companies $994 billion annually.
There are white collar crooks and blue collar crooks, career criminals and first-time offenders, and many burglar type crooks. Last year alone there were more than 2.1 million burglaries. Those accounted for 21.2 percent of property crimes. All this resulted in an average loss of $1,725.
I know this has been a very gloomy picture for you going into a brand new year that should be full of much hope for our future. I certainly don't have the answers for getting employment, housing loans, credit and the auto industry humming again. To take a big chunk out of crime, we, as a united country, must return to making things here at home - now. Our once proud work force has been depleted as the greedy got richer and our great middle class suffered a severe blow. The middle class is what made this a great country and has prospered since the 1950s. We must get back to manufacturing and assembling products. We cannot afford to manufacture crooks only.