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by freejulian85 2453 days ago
Are you kidding me?! Here in Chicago we have enormous financial problems and every year that goes by brings us further away from even attempting to fix those problems. The streets are falling apart, crimes go unsolved, pollution goes unpunished. The candidates for mayor are always first chosen by the elite, then put on stage for the public to select. It’s a joke.

If anything, it’s even easier for the powerful elite to control local governments. Look at all the polluted water flowing through lead pipes across the country — what’s happening about that again? Excuse me, time to print some money and give it to the banks in another nightly “repo operation”.
1 comments
notfromhere 2453 days ago
You probably don't remember Chicago in the 90s if you think things are getting worse.
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maximente 2453 days ago
the financial numbers are clear: both chicago and illinois are done. they are losing people yet adding debt, and they are not sovereign so have limited means of dealing with it. .gov will probably need to step in (federally) but this sets a real nasty precedent for the rest of the US + economy. it's certainly not getting better from a fiscal point of view.
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notfromhere 2450 days ago
Chicago, and by extension Illinois, are too central to the regional economy to go under. But feel free to continue believing that.
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freejulian85 2453 days ago
The improvement in Chicago is due to people fleeing government subsidized suburbia.
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bilbo0s 2453 days ago
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think this is a good illustration of the news dynamic.

Everyone has their own opinion.

Everyone lives in a world where "everyone I know agrees with me on this!"

Everyone is stressed because maybe some others disagree.

And then we all fall into a pattern of engaging in almost meaningless arguments about these issues with each other. Causing even more stress.

I think what the above exchange demonstrates is that unfortunately, "politics", or whatever you want to call it, really is stressful and contentious to the point of being dangerous to society even at the local level. It's amazing how big this problem is.

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