Depression and Crime

POLITICS - People are becoming so strapped for cash in the Post Bush Depression they are turning to illegal activities.

Its not just lying on their income taxes. People are also bartering with drugs, sex and stolen property.

“You know, it looks like this recession’s gonna kill more folks than Al Queda ever did,” says a woodcutter in Oregon (where the unemployment rate is 12.8% and rising) who was recently offered sex and drugs in exchange for firewood. See Hard Times are Fatal Times.

According to Statistics Canada its also a workforce in which women may surpass men as the breadwinners, something which hasn't happened since the 1940s during the height of WWII. Women typically are willing to work for less money and the majority (two thirds) of layoffs right now are jobs filled by men.

Manufacturing is always the worst hit in every recession, says Walid Hejazi, professor of International Business at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. "And men are taking a hit. It's terrible," he said. "It happened in the past (1982 and 1992) and it is happening again."

The jobless rate in Canada is now 7.2%. In Ontario, it's 8%. In Toronto (where one out of every 6 Canadians lives), it is hit a whopping 8.5%.

Yesterday a group of smart thieves in Toronto robbed an armoured truck while the guards were inside a bank refilling the ATM. By the time the guards came back outside a short while later, the truck's back door was open and millions were missing. Its believed the thieves hacked the security keypad on the back of the truck.