All over America today, desperate people are doing desperate things. As the economy continues to crumble, the American people are starting to become very frustrated. Millions have lost their homes and millions have lost their jobs. As hopelessness and despair rise, an increasing number of Americans are turning to crime or are lashing out in unpredictable ways. Many parts of America are rapidly turning into lawless hellholes. In some of the areas that have been the hardest hit by the declining economy, police forces are being severely cut back and desperate criminals are being given a lot of freedom to roam. In fact, in some major cities (such as Oakland, California), the police have announced that there are certain types of crime that they will not even respond to any more. For a couple of decades, crime had been steadily declining in the United States, but now we are seeing very disturbing reports from all over the nation of desperate people doing desperate things as they scramble to survive or as they vent their frustrations. If the examples that you are about to read are any indication, then America is headed down a very dark path.

Today, there are a whole lot of young people that feel as though all hope is gone. Less than 30 percent of all teens had a job this summer. Only 14 percent of Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.

As Gerald Celente always says,

" when people lose everything that they have, they tend to lose it ".

The very fabric of American society is starting to come apart, and it is frightening to even think about what is going to happen if the economy gets even worse.

The following are 20 examples of desperate people doing desperate things in America....

#1 As the price of gold has risen to unprecedented heights, thieves have taken notice. This summer there has been an epidemic of gold robberies in the city of Los Angeles. Store owners have felt forced to significantly beef us security. In fact, store owners have added so much security that at this point "parts of downtown Los Angeles now look more like a militarized zone than a commercial corridor."

But it is not just Los Angeles that is having a major problem with gold robberies. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article by Thomas Watkins....

In Oakland, police say dozens of women have had gold necklaces yanked from their necks on the street. More than 100 similar thefts have been reported in Los Angeles, a rash of robberies is taking place in St. Paul, Minn., and police in Phoenix say muggers chatted up high school girls then ripped their gold necklaces from them.

“We’ve never seen this,” said Oakland police Sgt. Holly Joshi.

#2 When the level of trust in society starts declining significantly, people start becoming very paranoid. And when people feel constantly threatened, they tend to lash out in unusual ways. For example, one man wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey actually smuggled a taser into a recent game between the Cowboys and the New York Jets and started zapping people with it.

#3 When people become truly desperate, they also tend to become highly unpredictable. Just consider what Justino Sanchez Diaz did recently during a family dinner....

Before the family gathered for dinner, Sanchez-Diaz soaked the walls of the dining room in gasoline and set cans of gas under the furniture. And when the 13 members of the family sat down to eat, the man came out with a can of kerosene and splashed it all over everyone, then set them on fire with a blowtorch.

#4 When desperation spreads throughout a society, you literally do not know who you can trust. Right now identity theft in the United States is at epidemic levels and it is getting worse. Every time you give someone your information now, there is a chance that your identity could be compromised. Just consider the following example from the state of Texas....

If you have a mind sick enough to rip off desperately ill people, you probably think to yourself, "Cancer patients -- hey, they may die soon, so what'll they care?''

Houston police say Shantel Moore, 29, apparently had that kind of coldhearted and inhumane logic. The Stafford woman worked for Methodist Hospital in Houston, and cops say she stole identity information from cancer patients and used it to get tons of payday loan money.

#5 When thieves get desperate, they also tend to become very bold. A reader named Mark left the following comment on one of my recent articles....

Some tweekers drove up last week looking for scrap metal and one was out of their truck and heading to the shop when I came out of the house. It used to be that strangers would not even cross our bridge or get out of their car wondering about what the dogs would do. Times are changing and not for the better.

#6 In some areas of the country, desperate people are not just searching for scrap metal. As one reader shared recently, there are some parts of the U.S. that are literally being transformed into hellholes by hordes of desperate people....

Here, in the California desert, many vacant houses are being taken over. Fixtures are being ripped out and sold as scrap. Trench latrines are being dug in backyards and water is being pilfered from neighboring pools and hoses. While most of these folks are simply trying to keep a roof over their heads (while they keep their heads down), many are also setting up meth labs and in-door marijuana grows.

I can see the eventual day when the total breakdown of the economy and our society will drive thousands from the cities. A lot of those will be looking for ‘opportunities’.

As sad as it is, if you’re not one of the most unfortunate, it’s time to prepare a defense for your goods, family and self. You are going to be viewed as wealthy, no matter how poor you feel, by someone with nothing left to lose.

Do not rely on police or government authorities. We all saw how that went in New Orleans. Be ready as an individual family unit.

#7 Sadly, family units all over the country are breaking down. The hearts of parents have become very cold. Some people are so desperate that they are even trying to sell their own babies. For example, one grandmother in Florida has been accused of trying to sell her newborn grandson for $75,000.

In another incident, a Vancouver, Washington woman has been charged with trying to sell her newborn baby in front of a Taco Bell. She was only trying to get somewhere between $500 and $5000 for her baby.

#8 What some parents are doing to their children is absolutely horrifying. If you have a weak stomach, you may not want to read this one. In Louisiana recently, a 30-year-old man decapitated his 7-year-old son with a meat cleaver and left his head on the side of the road. What made this crime even more shocking is the fact that his son was suffering from cerebral palsy and was confined to a wheelchair. Reportedly the man had gotten "tired of taking care" of the young child. The following is an excerpt from a Daily Mail report about this horrible crime....

A father has admitted to chopping his son's head off with a meat cleaver and leaving it in the roadside outside his home so that the child's mother would see it.

Keep in mind that the father and son had not had a fight. Rather, the father had just "gotten tired" of taking care of the son.

#9 But it isn't just parents that are becoming cold-hearted. In Georgia recently, a 14-year-old teen stabbed his grandmother and his great-grandmother with a sword. The 77-year-old great grandmother is dead, but it looks like the grandmother is going to be okay.

#10 All over the nation, there are reports of kids killing their parents. A 21-year-old man in the Chicago area is accused of killing his father with a weed trimmer while his father was sleeping in bed.

#11 In one of the most famous cases of parental murder this year, a 17-year-old Florida teen killed his parents with a hammer, hid their bodies in the master bedroom, and then invited dozens of people over for a massive house party.

Did this kind of stuff happen in America 50 or 60 years ago?

#12 Not all desperate people are committing crimes of violence. In fact, some desperate Americans are now purposely committing crimes just so that they can be arrested and receive free medical care.

Yes, you read that correctly. There are 50 million Americans without health insurance and some of them are now purposely breaking the law so that they can go to prison and receive the care that they need. Just consider the following example from an article in the Gaston Gazette....

James Richard Verone woke up June 9 with a sense of anticipation.

He took a shower.

Ironed his shirt.

Hailed a cab.

Then robbed a bank.

He wasn’t especially nervous. If anything, Verone said he was excited to finally execute his plan to gain access to free medical care.

#13 Millions of other desperate Americans are not lashing out or committing crimes at all. Instead, they are just quietly suffering. A reader named Richard recently left a comment in which he shared the desperation that he encountered during a recent trip to the beach....

I was at the beach today, it was almost dark. I watched as a well dressed lady in her 50′s walked onto the public access deck and laid down her things. She looked around to see if she was being observed, felt safe enough to proceed with her shameful task and then she pulled out several small plastic bags. Quickly she went through the trash can and began to remove anything of value, especially aluminum drink cans. That is when I made my way to her. At first she seemed embarrassed, but after I assured her that I sold scrap metal sometimes for extra money, she seemed relieved. She then released a pent up storm of sorrow and hurt as she spoke of her shame and humiliation.

She had recently lost her husband of 32 years and was all alone. She lived in a home she couldn’t afford and was about to lose. Attempts to sell brought only discouragement and despair. “Soon” she said, “I will be homeless.” She said the cans were her insurance, her only means of real survival, since she had already run out of unemployment money. When I tried to offer to help in some way, she suddenly shut me down and refused any help. I told her she wasn’t alone and prayed with her. It certainly made the beach a sad place to be. In the coming months I feel we will all see this same scene played out over and over.

#14 Other Americans have become so desperate that they have given up completely. The following tragic example is from an article posted on MSN Money....

On the morning she realized her husband and son would learn the family was losing their house, Carlene Balderrama, 53, faxed a note to the mortgage company, then went to the basement and shot herself.

"I hope you're more compassionate with my husband than you were with me," she wrote in a suicide note left for the company.

#15 When people get desperate, violence tends to increase. We are starting to see shocking examples of this all over the country. For example, at least 42 people were hit by gunfire in New York City over the Labor Day weekend.

Another disturbing thing that we are seeing is the trend toward mob violence. Previously, I have written about the epidemic of "flash mob" crimes that we are now seeing all over the nation. When large groups of people start banding together to commit violent crimes, that is a very disturbing sign.

#16 When criminals get desperate, they don't care who they attack and they will take everything from you that they can. For example, three young thugs in the Bronx recently beat the living daylights out of a 64-year-old man and took his wallet, his cellphone and even his Bible.

#17 If you are attacked, are you going to call the police? Are you sure that they can be trusted? Even police officers are committing desperate acts these days. Just check out what one police officer in Chicago is charged with doing....

A Chicago Police officer stole $50,000 from his ailing elderly father to pay off his bills and gambling debts and unsuccessfully attempted to swipe his dad’s retirement savings by impersonating him

#18 In the old days, thieves would usually only focus on items of high value. But these days it seems like there is nothing that they will not steal. There have been reports coming in from all over America of thieves stealing air conditioners, drain covers, hair extensions and even embalming fluid.

#19 When people get desperate, they will often do things that they never even imagined that they would be willing to do. In Utah recently, an unemployed 28-year-old man starting running advertisements in which he actually offered to serve as "human prey" for hunters for the bargain price of $10,000. For an additional $2,000, he said that he would be willing to allow hunters to "hunt" him down while running around naked.

#20 When criminals become desperate, they often lose all common sense. In the San Diego area recently, one desperate thief actually tried to rob a 7-11 convenience store while dressed in a Gumby costume. Apparently the clerk thought it was a prank, so the thief tried to pull a weapon but was unable to do so because the costume was too awkward. Police are still searching for the suspect, who is described as being very tall, very green and very thin.

America is quickly becoming a lawless place. Yes, authorities in many areas will attempt to crack down, but what are they going to do when millions of people all start doing desperate things all at once?

A reader identified as El Pollo de Oro recently left a comment in which he summed up the direction that he thinks this country is headed....

The Banana Republic of America, the Third World cesspool that used to be the United States, is a very violent place, but the violence is going to get much, much worse. If the BRA is this dangerous and unstable now, what is it going to be like when our terrible economy becomes even worse and unemployment becomes even higher? It won’t be pretty. As Gerald Celente says, get ready for a lot of violence. We’ll continue to see acts of thuggery for the sake of thuggery (flash mobs), but most of the violence will be profit-motivated: drug violence (hola Sinaloa Cartel, hola Los Zeta y la Familia Michoacana), kidnapping, carjacking, home invasions, armed robbery in broad daylight. Today’s unemployed IT worker is tomorrow’s kidnapper; today’s unemployed construction worker is tomorrow’s drug trafficker or carjacker. The former USA is now a Third World hellhole, and the BRA will have all the violence, poverty, squalor and crime that Third World hellholes are known for.

America used to be the envy of the world.

Now, much of the rest of the world is watching our decline in horror.

When a complete economic collapse finally occurs, what is this country going to look like? Will it be an all-out struggle for survival, or will we be able to handle ourselves fairly well like we did during the Great Depression?

One thing is for sure, this nation is headed in the wrong direction.

So what is the solution to our problems?

One group in Massachusetts thinks that they know what the problem is. Amazingly, they are actually pushing really hard to have the Pledge of Allegiance permanently banned from all public school classrooms in the state.

Apparently the group believes that the Pledge of Allegiance has "no educational value" and that it places "unnecessary pressure" on kids.

This is yet another example of how divided our country has become. We are constantly fighting over really stupid stuff, and meanwhile our nation is rapidly going down the toilet.

Look, our economy is going to get even worse and tens of millions of hurting Americans are going to become even more frustrated.

Something desperately needs to be done to turn this country around.

Do you think that anyone knows the solution to the problems facing America?

If so, please feel free to read comments below, maybe someone is thinking what you are thinking....