In five years (maybe much sooner) this could be the state of the US of A:
There are now estimated to be more than 50,000 bulletproof cars – blindados – on Brazilian roads. The business has been growing, almost without interruption, over the last decade, with an increase of around 20% per year.
Traders say a market that was once the exclusive preserve of Brazil’s elite is opening up to wealthier sections of the middle class, due to easier credit arrangements and a growing second-hand market. […]
Christian Conde Antonio, the [Brazilian Association of Bulletproofing’s] president, says the growth in the trade is largely because of the fear of violence and robbery in Brazil.
“There is a continuing sense of insecurity, this urban violence in big cities. So once you are using a bulletproof car, you are much safer stopping at driving lights, driving at night,” he said.
Hey, rich people (and semi-rich, too). When you adopt policies (and buy politicians to implement same) which have the effect of eroding the Middle Class away into dust, and turning America back into the land of the free (trade) and the home of the slave (everyone who has to work for the lowest wage possible) this is the inevitable result. Your country becomes dangerous, just like every other 3rd world nation you know. The police become corrupt. You have to live behind bars and security cameras and body guards and bulletproof cars. You never know when you or yours could become a kidnapping or murder victim. You live on a precipice, waiting for the earthquake to drop your lovely life into the sea.
Just sayin . . .
BINGO….
and they think they’re safe behind that glass, you gotta come out sometime ; )
reminds me of an old saying, “people who live in glass houses should be careful of how they get their rocks off”
; )
now we have new investment opportunities!!
We can also invest in the helicopters they use.
I needed to add this from the Guardian
The most affordable and best-selling helicopter in Brazil is the Robinson R44, which can comfortably seat three or four people. It costs about $380,000, or roughly 90 times the average annual income of a Sao Paulo resident. Another popular model is the Bell 407, which seats as many as seven people and costs about $1.5 million.
It is easier for a wealthy person to buy a helicopter than it is for a working-class person to buy a car.
”I can’t stand helicopters,” said Paula Doria, a 21-year-old student, ”because I live next to an apartment building with a heliport, and the noise is incredible.” Still, she said, ”If I had enough money to buy a helicopter I would, because it’s a way to escape from crime.”
Americans are marching into third-world living like blind cattle into the slaughterhouse. The wheels of history keep on grinding.
Bulletproof doens’t make it safe. It is just the illusion of it. Believe me when I say that if the bandits want to find a way they will. Actually they have long time ago. Bank robbers go into the bank, and they find the security guards behind bulletproof glass, armed to their teeth. they just pour gasoline and set them on fire. They might be bulletproof, but not fire proof: they melt like butter. Best thing to do is to give it up without resistance.
Yes, this must be an example of that inventivness and free spirit Dr Phil Graham is yakking about.
That was brilliant. Thank you.
So there will be career opportunities open to me after the Internet no longer connects much of anything.
Anastasio Somoza too thought his armored limo was safe when he was cruising the streets of Asuncion some thirty years ago after pillaging Nicaragua’s economy. I am sure he never thought he might meet up with a bazooka round or two. Does anyone think that a person can’t get the good stuff in the good ole’ USofA if they really want to take out the garbage? Since the folks who can afford armored vehicles also support allowing cop killer bullets to be sold, retribution might come in the most ironic of fashions.
I remember that. However, Mercedes Benz lost a great add opportunity, because after the two bazooka impacts the car was still running!!!