If Our Cities Already Look Like They Belong in “Grand Theft Auto”, What Will They Look Like Once the Economy Implodes?

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—As you will see below, video footage that was just captured on the streets of Philadelphia looks like it could have been pulled out of an extremely violent video game.  If this is what our streets look like now, what are they going to look like once economic conditions become very harsh in this country?  Just a few days ago, I wrote about the tremendous chaos that is erupting in cities all over America.  When I wrote that article, I wasn’t even aware of the drama that had just played out in the city of Philadelphia.  From late on Saturday night through the early hours of Sunday morning, there were multiple clashes with police as authorities attempted to break up a series of illegal street takeovers…

Philadelphia continues its spiral into chaos under Democratic leadership, with violent mobs once again taking to the streets, this time attacking police officers and patrol cars in a brazen display of lawlessness.

According to reports from 6 ABC, hundreds of cars and massive crowds participated in illegal car meetups, causing widespread chaos that lasted from 9:30 p.m. Saturday until 4:30 a.m. Sunday.

At least 11 meetups took place, six of which turned into violent confrontations with police. The mayhem resulted in the hospitalization of one officer, while five police cars were heavily damaged.

These kids are completely and utterly out of control.

One of them even had a flamethrower that he used to create a ring of fire in the middle of one major intersection.

And when the police arrived at these events, these kids were not afraid to attack them at all…

“Everything they do is disruptive, they’re ruining the quality of life. At one point, they had a flamethrower—yes, there’s video with a flamethrower.”

“They’re able to disperse quickly and then reform at other locations. That’s why we have officers dedicated. It’s playing wack-a-mole. We hit them at once, and they move to another,” he added.

“It was the aggressiveness at some of the locations — the incident outside of City Hall was aggressive. They physically went after our officers,” Cram said. “They don’t care about your safety, their own safety. You’ve all seen the videos of their behavior. How much chaos can they cause?”

Isn’t it odd how the word “chaos” just keeps popping up all over the place these days?

As you can see in this video footage, the streets of Philadelphia really do look like they belong in “Grand Theft Auto”…

Of course Philadelphia is far from alone.

At this point, there are millions of Americans that are literally afraid to leave their own homes because violent crime has become so pervasive.

In a “tiny Wisconsin community”, a member of the Tren de Aragua gang was just arrested for “sexually assaulting a mother and abusing her daughter”…

A member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang was arrested in a tiny Wisconsin community for allegedly sexually assaulting a mother and abusing her daughter after he had been arrested and released earlier this year in Minneapolis.

Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, whose grandchildren live less than a mile away from the Prairie du Chien home where the mother and daughter were held against their will and repeatedly victimized, told Fox News Digital that it was only a matter of time before tragedy would strike the community amid the White House’s open-border policies and sanctuary city initiatives.

All of this chaos is going to play a major role in how these swing states vote.

People are afraid of what they see in the streets, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.

If things are this bad now, what is our society going to look like once economic conditions get really bad?

Yes, economic conditions are not good at all right now. This is something that I have documented extensively. But as bad as things are at this moment, the truth is that this is going to look like rip-roaring prosperity compared to what is coming.

Sadly, there are lots of signs that the economy is starting to move in the wrong direction quite rapidly now.

For example, it is being reported that U.S. consumer confidence just dropped by the largest amount in over three years…

Consumers’ view on the economy tumbled in September, falling by the largest level in more than three years as fears grew about jobs and business conditions, the Conference Board reported Tuesday.

The board’s consumer confidence index slid to 98.7, down from 105.6 in August, the biggest one-month decline since August 2021. The Dow Jones consensus forecast was for a reading of 104. By contrast, the index had a reading of 132.6 in February 2020, a month before the Covid pandemic hit.

Each of the five components the organization samples fared worse on the month, with the biggest fall coming among those aged 35-54 and earning less than $50,000.

And banks continue to permanently shut down more branches at a staggering rate…

US banks have closed more than 50 branches in just two weeks, as the march towards online banking continues to decimate local services.

Wells Fargo, Chase, and Fulton were among the banks who closed locations between August 19 and September 7.

Bank of America and Chase gave notice to close the most locations, notifying the regulator that they will shut a further twelve of their branches each.

Every week, more branches are disappearing, and that should deeply alarm all of us.

Of course the exact same thing could be said about retail stores.

Sadly, the very last full-size Kmart store in the continental United States is about to close forever…

The last full-size Kmart store in the continental United States is set to close in October, leaving only one downsized location remaining, reports say.

The department store chain, which once operated around 2,300 locations in the early 1990s, will shutter the full-size store in Bridgehampton, New York, on Oct. 20, Newsday is reporting, citing an employee there.

That means a smaller Kmart store in Miami will become the last one remaining in the U.S. Kmart, which is now owned by Transformco, also has three stores in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As economic conditions deteriorate, millions of impoverished people that inhabit our major cities are going to become extremely desperate.

And extremely desperate people do extremely desperate things.

We are already seeing so much chaos all over the nation, but what is ahead is going to be so much worse.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.