But today the streets of both cities look like something out of a post-apocalyptic horror movie.  If things are this bad while economic conditions are still relatively stable, what will those streets look like two years from now when economic conditions are far worse?

New York City has seen some pretty rough times in the past, but the Big Apple has never had as many homeless people sleeping in shelters than it does right now…

New York City’s homeless problem does not appear to be getting any better.

According to the Coalition for the Homeless, the numbers have actually hit an all-time high. They claim the average number of people sleeping in a shelter every night climbed to nearly 66,000 in October.

It is far more preferable to sleep in a shelter than it is to sleep in the streets, because violence in NYC has escalated to very frightening levels…

Fatal stabbings and slashings are up an alarming 37% in the Big Apple this year.

The NYPD has logged 96 blade-involved killings so far in 2022, compared with 70 for the same period in 2021, according to department stats obtained by The Post.

Stabbings and slashings overall are up 10% in 2022, with 4,344 compared to 3,954 last year, the stats show.

Meanwhile, the downward spiral that we are witnessing in San Francisco is incredibly alarming.

I recently watched footage of what downtown San Francisco currently looks like, and afterwards I was truly at a loss for words.

This is what the kids in San Francisco are forced to walk past everyday.

Hard drug use, drug deals, feces, needles, adults slumped over with exposed wounds and addicts suffering from mental illness screaming in the streets.

The streets are truly scary to walk down. pic.twitter.com/F9xSNJod4m

— Savanah Hernandez (@sav_says_) December 15, 2022

Have things really gotten this bad?

Part of the problem is that the office buildings downtown are much less occupied these days thanks to the “work at home revolution” that began during the early stages of the pandemic…

Today San Francisco has what is perhaps the most deserted major downtown in America. On any given week, office buildings are at about 40 percent of their prepandemic occupancy, while the vacancy rate has jumped to 24 percent from 5 percent since 2019.

Another major factor is drug addiction.  Right now we are witnessing the worst drug crisis in the history of the United States, and it just keeps intensifying every year.

In fact, the number of drug overdose deaths among our teens actually “doubled from 2019 to 2021”…

Drug overdose deaths among US teens doubled from 2019 to 2021 – even as use of illicit substances declined – as fentanyl fueled a nationwide crisis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today that teenage overdoses increased 109 percent over the two years. Deaths caused by fentanyl alone increased 182 percent.

Once upon a time, the United States was such a lovely place to be.

But now our communities are degenerating into rapidly decaying hellholes and our streets are filled with violent predators.

Have you heard about a new trend called “jugging”?

From coast to coast, predators are patiently watching potential victims and they strike as “they juggle smartphones and car keys in parking lots or at home”…

A new crime trend is targeting the distracted and the elderly, with police warning about it from Alabama to California.

The big picture: Jugging involves thieves staking out unsuspecting victims at banks or retail stores before following and robbing them while they juggle smartphones and car keys in parking lots or at home.

But of course not all predators will be satisfied with just robbing you.

When a 20-year-old pregnant woman was taken in by a 36-year-old man after being kicked out of her home, she was initially relieved to have a place to stay.

But that sense of relief didn’t last long…

A 20-year-old pregnant woman was kicked out of her house around Thanksgiving. Her luck appeared to be make a holiday rebound when a stranger offered her a warm meal and a place to stay. However, this was anything but charity.

Michael Barajas, 36, is accused of subjecting the young woman to unimaginable depravities over the course of three weeks.

It turns out that this particular predator actually had his teeth filed down into sharp points.

He literally looks like he is insane, and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson is describing him as “a monster”…

According to the Tri-County Times, Barajas has been charged with human trafficking, kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, possession of methamphetamine, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and felony possession of a firearm.

“This guy is a monster,” said Swanson. “If you look at the teeth that are filed down and the threats of ripping out a throat, I will say no more.”

Anyone with any sense never would have gone with him.

But other predators can look completely innocent.

For example, one 33-year-old man recently thought that he was pulling over to help a woman that was in trouble on the side of the road.

But once he got out of his vehicle, two men jumped out from their hiding spots and viciously attacked him…

Shortly before 11 p.m. on Wednesday, an unnamed 33-year-old man was driving along near the intersection of Hutchinson Road and South George Washington Boulevard, a rather rural area just outside Yuba City, about 40 miles north of Sacramento, when he spotted a woman standing near a black SUV on the side of the road. She flagged the man down, indicating that she was in some kind of distress.

The man pulled over and exited his vehicle to see how he could help. However, once he left his vehicle, two seemingly armed men jumped out of the woman’s SUV. One appeared to have a gun, the other had a knife. Under threat of violence, they zip-tied the driver’s legs together and stole his wallet and car keys. The three con artists then poured gasoline all over the victim and lit him on fire before they left, driving away in their own SUV and taking the victim’s car too.

This is what our country has become.

We are rapidly evolving into a “Mad Max society”, and that is because we have rejected the values that this nation was founded upon.

And if we stay on the path that we are currently on, things are only going to get worse.

Ignoring what is happening is not going to make it go away.

Social decay is systematically eating away at the foundations of our civilization, and at this point America’s decline is really starting to accelerate.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.

I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.

I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Article cross-posted from End of the American Dream.