Things really are this bad
With 70% of people saying that more government programs should help those who are struggling, is it any surprise that we’re seeing a rise in crimes of material desperation such as these?
With a Surge in Iron and Steel Prices, Thieves Are Stealing Metal Manhole Covers - NYTimes.com:
“PHILADELPHIA — Francis McConnell is a field supervisor for the Philadelphia Water Department, but lately he is acting more like an undercover police officer.
His mission is to figure out who is stealing the city’s manhole covers and its storm drain and street grates, increasingly valuable commodities on the scrap market. More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100.”
While this is partly a story about increasingly valuable metals, it is also a story about desperation and need in the city I grew up in and will be returning to in 2009. The fact that people can make a few bucks stealing manhole covers is an indication of just how badly they need those few bucks.
