Bruce Springsteen - Death To My Hometown and thoughts of small town America
LP - Was in Littleton New Hampshire Friday. A woman was setting up a play date for her child with girl friend's child. She had been picking up more hours at Dunkin' Donuts and talking to a friend who was in there and had a week off. She seemed depressed that she was now working full time at a dead end job and said "What do you expect from a mother who is a single parent."
The town appeared run down. There was big box stores on the outskirts of town selling each other things and people who worked for the tourist industry. When you broke it down what did the town now produce: it didn't appear much. It was just people selling each other shit that had originally been made in China. What did America produce now? Not much. There was no more gold rushes and what was left was charlatan feasting off the bones of public education and privatized jails, that's where the real opportunities currently are. It's in these small towns where you see the ache of the American recession.
It reminded me of being in Lubbock Maine a few years back when the sardine industry went out there and people were left with out work. My wife and I were trading money to go into Canada on vacation, and they were desperate to get whatever they could out of the bank so it wouldn't foreclose on their houses. Go to these small towns. Take their temperature and you'll see the overall health of this country. It's something that the Washington politicians can't be bothered to do.
originally posted at: http://laborspains.blogspot.ca/2012/04/bruce-springsteen-death-to-my-hometown.html
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