There is NO free market economy where slave-waged imports are involved

Sweatshop importation made America
poorer.  This is shown in the United
States International Trade Balance
Deficit.  In fact, foreign sweatshop
labor exploitation has been national
economic suicide.

The following was written in 2012.   If I ever get the time to do so, I'll update                the stats on this subject.
____________________________________________________________

In 1986, when the Reagan administration and the U.S. Congress opened trade
with China, the average Chinese wage was 24 cents an hour.   By 2010, it was
75 cents an hour, for a Cantonese worker.  Today, the wage continues to depend
on the region, and ranges from $1.23 in Guangxi to $2.58 in Beijing, according
to the 2013 law that mandated the Chinese minimum wage to equal to 40% of
the average urban wage.  Yet, there are reports, such as one from Business Insid-
er, which mark the average Chinese salary at 80 cents an hour.  Thus, we again
have inconsistent reporting.

What is known is that there have been worker suicides, threats of collective
suicides, rioting, protests, and physically demanding living conditions.  In
addition, Vietnam, with its low wage rate, has become the new China and/or
Bangladesh.  This is because the Chinese nation is beginning to be a "service
economy," as opposed to a "manufacturing economy."  None the less, it's im-
portant to note that the the Russian minimum wage is approximately $1.04.
Thus, it is projected to become lower than the Chinese wage, should the 2013
Chinese law be observed.  Suicides and rioting caused a drastic change in
Chinese labor policy circa 2010/2011, around the time of the Middle East-
ern revolutions and the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement which
had no centralized leader.

The minimum wages of other low-waged nations go as follows:

Sierra Leone: 3 cents an hour.   Mali where the French intervened: 27 cents.
Mexico: 61 cents.  Vietnam: $90 to $128 per month depending upon region.
The Philippines: 61 cents.   Pakistan: 51 cents.   Afghanistan: 57 cents.
Armenia: 65 cents.  Nepal: 45 cents.  Nicaragua:  52 cents.  Bangladesh:
Monthly wage went from $38 to $66 recently.  The Ukraine: 91 cents

Other minimum wages go as follows, per hour:

Australia: $16.88.  Luxembourg: $14.24  France: $12.22   Ireland: $11.09
The UK: $10.02.  New Zealand: $11.18  The Netherlands:  $10.99
Spain: $5.57   Portugal: $4.19  Taiwan:  $3.88.   Poland: $2.97 

End of preliminary notes.
___________________________________________________________________
Americans wear clothing made by overseas sweatshop employees.  Americans
buy appliances made in sweatshop nations.  In almost every American home,
you will find the phrase, Made in China, more often than Made in USA, no mat
ter what be the category of not-very-durable durable good found in an American
home.

Sweatshop people don't have lives.  Nor were they given any appreciable identi-
ty.  As a result, sweatshop employees would be found with slit wrists, time and
time again.  Eventually came the implementation of the suicide net.  Americans
hold  sweatshop workers in a living death, be these the workers in Bangladesh,
China, Vietnam, Guatemala, El Salvador, etc.  Now, some Americans keep these
workers lodged in this state of slavery out of cowardice, while others do so out
of selfish negligence.  Yet, others do so out of greed.

Why would anyone want to rule over a humanity that had its humanity stripped
away from itself?  Who wants to rule over a society of humans-made-robot or 
humans-made-animal ... or even humanity-turned-zombie?   The state of the
people ruled is a reflection on  the rulers.  The makers of ghettos are ghettos
within themselves, no matter how plush be their domiciles and how high be
their bank accounts.  Concerning the greed part ...

The United States does NOT make money from importing merchandise made by
low-waged foreign sweatshop workers.  It has been constantly losing through this
type of importation.  While Communist Chinese merchandise comes to America,
American dollars goes to Maoist China.  So too is this the case with other foreign
nations  whose workforce can't afford to buy American products and/or services,
in any type of appreciable, two-way, fair trade, economic traffic.  No foreign na-
tion pays the United States to take its merchandise.  In fact, Chinese Communist
dictators do not even give Americans a commission for selling their merchandise.  

America is not making out like a bandit in a business practice which constitutes
a crime against humanity.  There is only a small percentage of Americans make
out like bandits, often sending their spoils to overseas tax havens.  Meanwhile,
the rest of America finds itself on the losing end of the steadily diminishing cur-
rency flow, in increments.  This chronic loss has been in the trillions of dollars.
This is the trickle-away effect.

A flow of American dollars goes into Communist Dictatorial China, as well to
each of the NAFTA nations, never to return to the States, without America find-
ing itself in an increasing state of treasury bond debt to foreign entities.  The 
money lost in Republican  Party Economics is called the U.S. Trade Balance
DEFICIT.   The total deficit for the past 10 years has been $5.929 trillion
(2003 to 2012).  The accumulative deficit for the 
past 20 years (for goods & services) has been $7.988 trillion (1993 to 2012).  For goods 
only, the 20 yr U.S. International Trade Balance Deficit has been $9.236 trillion.

That's MINUS $9,839,000,000,000.
          MINUS $7,988,000,000,000.
          MINUS $5,929,000,000,000.

All gone.  Bye bye.  No more.  Au revoir.  Not even a post card.  In addition, sweatshop 
workers threatened suicide, on account of the harsh conditions in the compounds that 
manufacture the products which go to the United States.  This means that Americans  
have become unconscionable slave drivers by proxy, all the while destroying their own 
economy.  

This is 1 yi jiao, Chinese Currency, incidentally

Now, foreign trade is fine, if and only if the foreign workers can afford American pro-
ducts.  That is to say, buying foreign is fine, if foreign occasionally buys American, in
return.  Thus, fair trade is a necessity, in order for foreign trade not to result in disast-
er for one of the two trading nations.  Fair trade requires a reasonably balanced two-
way street of import and export traffic.  

Concerning America, Chinese workers would not have been able to have afforded 
American products anyway, beyond wheat products, in Equitable Foreign Trade, ev-
en if America had not ceased being a manufacturer of household consumer products 
in significant quantities.

Imagine the trade balance deficit money as dollars flowing through a tube into a pro-
tectionist dictatorship or two ... or three.  This costs American jobs.  In fact, this en-
tirely prevents the creation of many American mid-size business start-ups.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/how-china-stays-stable-despite-500-protests-every-day/250940/

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-rice-bowl/chinas-unusual-riots

http://www.globallabourrights.org/reports?id=0649 

http://economyincrisis.org/content/the-worst-in-the-world-%E2%80%93-the-u-s-balance-of-trade-is-mind-blowingly-bad 

http://www.care2.com/causes/olympic-toys-manufactured-in-chinese-sweatshops.html 

The Economic Downside Effect of
Foreign Slave Labor Profiteering

Foreign slave labor profiteering achieves the following results:

- Increases an offending nation's international trade deficit.
- Reduces the same nation's gross domestic product.
- Deceases the offending nation's per capita income.

At this point, view the United States trade balance deficit through
the past ten years, in its trade of goods (not services) with China,
alone:
                  U.S. IMPORTS                        U.S. EXPORTS
              from sweatshop China                to protectionist China
        (This is money paid to China)   (This is money paid to the U.S.A.)

2013            $440 billion                              $122 billion
2012            $425 billion                              $111 billion
2011            $399 billion                              $104 billion
2010            $365 billion                                $92 billion
2009            $296 billion                                $69 billion
2008            $337 billion                                $69 billion
2007            $321 billion                                $62 billion
2006            $287 billion                                $53 billion
2005            $243 billion                                $41 billion
2004            $196 billion                                $34 billion

10yr total: $3.309 Trillion                             $0.757 Trillion       
 paid to Slave Labor China               paid to an acquiescent U.S.A.

The NET equals: MINUS $2,552,000,000,000 - That's only trade with China.
This is goods only.

The Total Deficit, as is charted below, is MINUS $5,929,000,000,000. 
This comprises trade with all nations.  This comprises goods and services.

The hypocrisy is that trillions of American dollars stayed in the permanent posses-
sion of the Chinese Communist Dictatorship, in the name of Democracy and
Capitalism, as well as Republican Party Values.

See:  http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html#2012

Now, view the total 10 yr U.S. trade balance acct, concerning trade with all nations,
from 2003 to 2012:

          Concerning GOODS only        GOODS and SERVICES


2012       minus $735 billion                     minus $540 billion
2011       minus $737 billion                     minus $588 billion
2010       minus $645 billion                     minus $500 billion
2009       minus $505 billion                     minus $381 billion           
2008       minus $830 billion                     minus $698 billion
2007       minus $818 billion                     minus $696 billion
2006       minus $835 billion                     minus $753 billion
2005       minus $780 billion                     minus $708 billion
2004       minus $663 billion                     minus $605 billion
2003       minus $540 billion                     minus $490 billion

Total:   minus $7.088 261 trillion         minus $5.929 trillion 

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/2012pr/final_revisions/exh18.txt                                 
Refer to the following link: 
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/historical/gands.txt 

In addition, the total/aggregate U.S. Trade Balance Deficit for only the month
of November 2012 rose $6.6 billion, to $48.7 billion (for that one month only.)
This means that the Trade Gap Rate rose by 15.9%.  As I have previously stat-
ed, if this Trade Balance Deficit behavior continues, America will be a political
entity in the history books, compared to the Argentina which, at one time, was
regarded a world power.

rt.com/usa/news/us-trade-deficit-percent-827/

https://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/trade/tradnewsrelease.htm

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/trade-deficit-jumps-159-487-billion-november-2012

Thus ends the mystery as to why millions of Americans had the hardest time
finding employment; especially those of a livable wage.

At this point, repeat after me:  "That's a lot of sweatshops."

A Crime Committed upon the Parent
is a Crime Committed upon the Child
and Visa Versa

An injustice thrust upon adults is one that is equally forced upon the children of those 
adults.  Poverty in the home of the parent is poverty in the home of the child.  Sweat-
shop labor imposed upon adults is an evil that also assails children.

See:  http://www.ilrf.org/stop-child-forced-labor/cocoa-campaign/news/as-profits-soar-chocolate-industry-fails-to-deliver-on-p

http://mediavoicesforchildren.org/?tag=forced-labor

'Forced to stand for 24 hours, suicide nets, toxin exposure and 
 explosions':  Inside the Chinese factories making iPads for Apple

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092277/Apple-Poor-working-conditions-inside-Chinese-factories-making-iPads.html

And it came to pass, as the first decade of the 21st Century progressed, that right
wing conservative business entities saw to it that religious objects and Christmas 
ornaments would be made in sweatshops.  The people tagged as the hard work-
ing moral majority negated the purpose for the coming of Christ, doing so in the 
name of sacred rites.  All the while,  they made money on interest-bearing instru-
ments and extremely cheap labor, doing absolutely nothing in the process.

And it also came to pass that no Christmas gift was being made at the North Pole 
by elves.  Rather, they were being made in Chinese and Bangladesh sweatshops by 
severely underpaid workers, some of whom applied razor blades to their wrists, in 
order to kill the pain that the Reaganite Moral Majority were collectively inflicting 
upon them.  

And it furthermore came to pass, as the 21st Century progressed, that millions held 
Christianity in contempt, being that millions were deceived into thinking that Ameri-
can Corporate Predatory Greed was the religion of the Nazarene rabbi who was put 
to a Roman death shortly after he drove Money Changers from the Jerusalem Temple.
When the Nazarene entered Jerusalem, the Jews placed palm branches before him.
Within a week, the Romans ended up driving nails into him.  Today, the right wing
masters of hypocrisy and greed crucify the Nazarene anew.

Humanity then became enlightened as to what the Protestant Work Ethic really is.  
It's the incessant practice of using African slaves, Irish Catholic immigrants, East-
ern European immigrants, Chinese sweatshop workers, and similar victims to do 
the Protestants' work for them.  

In the words of the woman who was once the premier expert in student loan con-
solidation, "Now, that labor's cheap, human life has become cheap." (in the eyes
of right wing moral majority conservatives.)  In the Nineteenth Century, the States
that comprised the Confederate South used local chattel slavery to achieve their
hallowed Protestant work ethic.  In the 21st Century, the same States and other 
ones used Slavery by Proxy, as in foreign sweatshop labor profiteering.  It's the
same Jefferson Davis hypocrisy, done in the name of "States' Rights" and the
"Moral Majority" which is neither moral nor a majority.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/aug/27/disney-factory-sweatshop-suicide-claims

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-29/news/30018487_1_child-workers-factory-toxic-chemicals

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092277/Apple-Poor-working-conditions-inside-Chinese-factories-making-iPads.html
_________________________________________________________________

Historic fact:  In the month of August 2011, the Trade Balance Deficit with
China alone, increased  by 7.42%, to $29 billion.  This is the statistic for one
month of trading, in terms of goods and services.  This was a new record at the
time.   In as much, China came out on top for the 304th consecutive month, in
its trading with the United States.

Furthermore, the United States has not had a trade balance surplus in trading
with the Chinese Communist Dictatorship since April of 1986.  This amounts
to 28 years of money leaking into a dictatorship, by the billions per month.
America is a leaking ship soon to capsize.  It is now the Year 2014.  The
United States has gone over 335 consecutive months accumulating a trade
balance deficit, in commerce with China.

Here is the irony:  In August 2011, corporate greed breaks a new record, to the
detriment of the 90% of the rest of America.  The following month began the
showdown with corporate greed, in the form of the worldwide OWS movement.
FoxNews, in a predictable fashion, defamed the surprisingly peaceful people who
elected to assert their First Amendment Rights.  All the while,  official statistics
prove that the First Amendment people of Zuccotti Park were generally correct.
Greed has been destroying America all along, and sweatshop importation has
been the vehicle doing so.

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/trade-deficit-august-2011-456-billion

Now, the most current news (at the time of this writing) is that the monthly
Trade Balance Deficit,, in trading with China, has decreased (narrowed) in
February and March 2013.  In fact, the total U.S. Trade Balance Deficit de-
creased.  Yet, it was still woefully significant ... detrimental to the US money
supply.   In January, the trade deficit in trade with China was $27.8 billion.  In
February, it was $23.4 billion lost to the quintessential sweatshop profiteer na-
tion.    In March, the amount lost to a China notorious for its civil rights abuses
was $17.8 billion.  Money lost to China, in unfair trade practices, for the first
three months of the Year 2014, in goods alone, was $153 billion.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade


http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0015.html
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

The Laws Against this Type of Profiteering Were
Already on the Books, in United States Federal Law.

It wouldn't have required any courage for any public figure to have stepped
forth and initiate movements designed to end America's complicity with slave
labor profiteering.  This is because laws against it are already on United States
law books, as in Section 307 of the 1930 Tariff Act, along with the May 2000
amendment  to that act.   Both are found in 19 USC 1307.   How much does
NAFTA conflict with this? 

Despite the Law, Sweatshop Labor
Importation Has Been Rampant

There is a loophole in the 1930 Tariff Act.  The law doesn't prohibit the impor-
tation of indentured/slave/convict/forced labor products "which are not mined,
produced, or manufactured in such quantities in the United States as to meet the
consumptive demands of the United States."  In addition, there are recent trade
agreements that don't require the enforcement of morally needed international
labor laws.  This means that foreign workers stand in direct jeopardy of being
brutally abused, due to no present legal recourse, short of the Nuremberg case
law authority.  Plus, there is the allegation that the 1930 Tariff Act is not being
enforced.  

The evidence is publicly evident.  Sweatshop labor, forced labor, and plantation
labor is rampant throughout the modern world in general.  So, is the use of min-
ors as combat soldiers.  Many products made by laborers defrauded of their
wages have been entering American docks and airports for years.  It's equi-
valent to receiving stolen property on a grand scale.  It has robbed America
of its money supply. 

A 2007 National Labor Committee Report on Sweatshop Crucifixes 
http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0014

A 2007 New York Sun Report on Sweatshop Christmas Ornaments 
http://www.nysun.com/business/report-sweatshop-workers-made-wal-mart-ornaments/68008/

A 2007 News Report Issued by Reuters India on the Christmas Ornaments
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-30958720071212

Additional Reading Material of Related Topics Includes:

A 2010 MWC News Article Reporting on the
Findings of the National Labor Committee
http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/862-global-sweatshop-wage-slavery.html

A 2011 News Article Reporting Disney Factory Sweatshop Suicides 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/aug/27/disney-factory-sweatshop-suicide-claims 

A 2011 News Article Reporting 8 Cent Per Unit Pay for NFL Shirts
Sold at $25 per Shirt:  This Translates into 72 to 92 Cents an Hour
http://www.globallabourrights.org/reports?id=0623

A 2012 News Article Reporting on Apple Iphones Being Made by
the Under-aged, in 16 Hour Daily Shifts, at 70 Cents an Hour 
http://www.huliq.com/10282/apple-foxconn-electronics-manufacturer-blamed-chinese-child-slave-labor 

A Sweatshop Table of Contents of multiple reports
http://www.globallabourrights.org/reports

When You Liberate Others, You Liberate Yourself

A properly paid foreign worker has a way of increasing product demand for
Amercan products, even from a third party nation.  For example, properly paid
Chinese workers might only buy from Europe.  Increased European revenue
might result in Europe importing more from America, thereby bringing add-
ed income to America.  Such a thing puts American workers back to work,
assuming that the level of manufacturing will increase in the United States,
so that workers will be in demand.  Such a thing can also enable mid-sized
entrepreneurs to either compete in smaller scaled markets or more easily en-
ter the ranks of subcontractor, simply by virtue of increased demand.

Slave Labor Profiteering is Even an Injustice
to the Citizenry of the Nation that Engages in it 

Foreign slave labor profiteering results in unfair advantages over the citizens
of the nation that practices it.   This is because those who profit from foreign
slave labor steal economic power from the multitudes, and in the process, they
steal multiple advantages from their fellow countrymen.   That is to say, they
cheat in order to get their standing in life, and that is unfair to everyone else.
After all, the average entrepreneur cannot compete with the low wage advan-
tage that these corporations use for their selfish gain, at the expense of the
US Trade Balance Account and the Gross Domestic Product, as well as the
per capita income.  Foreign slave labor profiteering, therefore, is even an
act of violence committed against an offending nation's own citizenry. 

A Coast to Coast Crime 

If you deny that you are part of this practice, simply go into your closet and
read the labels on your clothing.  Then go into your kitchen and read the la-
bels on your appliances.  Go next throughout your house, your place of work,
and elsewhere, reading the labels on the newer merchandise.  If you have any
merchandise from a sweatshop, then the practice of slave labor profiteering
has reached your life.

In addition, if you work for a sweatshop profiteering corporation, you're in-
volved.  You are an accessory to the fact.  This includes what you find un-
der your Christmas tree.

The City of Many Firsts

  Preliminary Note:  Before all else, know that the infamous Pittsburgh accent is
  actually the Clairton accent and is rarely heard around the Pittsburgh area any-
  more.  However, when that accent was more frequently heard, it did make you
  want to run the other way.

  Proof that the accent is almost extinct is simple.  First, call to mind Jeff Goldblum,
  Michael Keaton, Denis Miller, the late Gene Kelly, Barbara Feldman (the original
  Agent 99), the late Andy Warhol, Academy Award winter Shirley Jones, singing
  sensation Jackie Evancho, Super Bowl champion Joe Montana, Heisman Trophy
  winner Tony Dorsett, NY Jet sensation Curtis Martin, Jack Dodson (the actor who
  played Howard Sprague on Andy of Mayberry), best selling author Rachel Carson,
  Mr Rogers, Julie Benz of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, and other celebrities.

  Now, do or did any of them speak in the infamous Pittsburgh accent which is ac-
  tually the Clairton accent?  ANS:  No.  Of couse not.  Case closed.  The infamous
  Pittsburgh accent is almost extinct.  Let us continue:

 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, the region where three major rivers converge, is the site of:

-the world's first wire cable suspension bridge. -the world's first continuous roll
  printing press.     -the world's first Ferris Wheel's design  (the original was put
  on display in Chicago, for the first time.)  -mankind's first long distance use of
  alternating current electricity.     -mankind's first motion picture theater, located
  on Smithfield Street.  -mankind's first commercial radio station, namely KDKA
  Radio.  -America's first drive-thru gasoline station (petrol station), located on the
  corner of Baum Boulevard and St Clair Street.  -the first utilization of air brakes.
-America's first major league base ball stadium, in the form of Forbes Field.   -the
 first road map ever distributed by an oil company; namely Gulf Oil.
                                                                    &
-the Western Hemisphere's first successful oil refinery, located on Seventh Avenue,
-the first indoor zoo, in the form of the Pittsburgh National Aviary.  -the first build-
  ing constructed with liquid-fireproofed columns, namely the U.S.  Steel Tower.
-the invention of the game of Bingo, originally called Beano.  -the world's first pro-
  duction of commercial aluminum. -the first all-aluminum shelled skyscraper, in the
  form of the Alcoa Building.  -the first atomic submarine engine (constructed for the
  U.S.S. Nautilus),  -the first use of Daylight Savings Time,  -the first Zippo Lighters.
                                                                   &
-the world's first nuclear reactor, in the form of the Shippingport Plant.  - the first
 public TV station, in the form of WQED TV.  -the polio vaccine.  -the world's first
 retractable arena roof, namely the Pittsburgh Civic Arena.  -the first university sky-
 scraper, namely the Univ of  Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning which continues to
 be the tallest academic building in the Western Hemisphere.  -the first combination
 liver, heart, and kidney transplant.  -the world's first robotics institute, as well as the
home of:
                                                                 &
---Five Pulitzer Prize winners, ---movie icon Gene Kelly, ---baseball icon Stan Musial,
---baseball icon Honus Wagner, ---music icon Henry Mancini, ---environmentalist and
    author of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, ---Gertrude Stein, ---Billy Eckstein, ---Andy
    Warhol, ---Mr. Rogers, --- academy award winner Shirley Jones, ---Michael Keaton,

---Jeff Goldblum,  ---comedian Dennis Miller, ---comedian Marty Allen, ---the original
    Candid Camera traffic cop, Vic Cianca, whom I once met, ---recording artist Perry
    Como, ---recording artist Bobby Vinton, ---recording artist George Benson, ---TV
    game show host Bill Cullen, ---the original Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon), ---Andy of
    Mayberry's Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson,) ---the original Riddler (Frank Gorshin,
    of the televised Batman series), ---World Series champion manager, Terry Francona,

--- numerous NFL standouts such as -Dan Marino, -Joe Montana, -Heisman Trophy
     winner Tony Dorsett, -Oakland Raider legend George Blanda, -Jet running back
     Curtis Martin, -Jet super bowl quarterback Joe Namath, -all-pro lineman Jimbo
     Covert, -all-pro lineman Bill Fralic, -Super Bowl coach, Bill Cowher, -Super
     Bowl coach, Mike Ditka, --- and others.
                         
    Plus, there's an underground aquifer called the Wisconsin Glacial Flow, located
    54 feet below.  It extends throughout various Southwestern Pennsylvanian areas.

The historic and renovated Smithfield Street Bridge

           Pittsburgh had the largest airport on earth in 1962, and even in the 1970s, the
           Conway Yards (located 21 miles northwest of downtown Pittsburgh) was the
           largest push button railroad in the world.

A surrealistic city preserved in plate glass.
If you don't realize to what this refers,
look at the reflection in the plate glass.

           The most notable aspect about Pittsburgh is that it was the king of steel, even
           when it came to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washing-
           ton Bridge, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the Golden
           Gate Bridge, as well as its own buildings.  Of course, Bethlehem Steel, in the
           eastern sector of Pennsylvania, also supplied steel to the aforesaid architectural
            icons.

River boats docked at the Monongahela at night.

            Pittsburgh was declared the most livable city in America as far back as 1979,
            the year when Pittsburgh won the World Series and the Super Bowl.  Ironical-
            ly, in 1985, when the Pittsburgh steel industry was being destroyed, and when
            the United States became the top debtor nation on earth,  Pittsburgh was once
            again declared the most livable city in the United States.

            A couple decades later, in 2007,  Rand-McNally again declared Pittsburgh the
            most livable city in America, as did the Economist Magazine in 2009 and 2010.
            Forbes Magazine would then declare Pittsburgh the most livable American city
            in 2011.

            Below is a pictorial of Pittsburgh.  The photos here are dated between October
            2012 and July 2013.

The Three Rivers Confluence at Night.

Four Gateway Center

Two PNC Plaza

The view from the Monongahela side of the city.

                                                                       

Steeler Stadium which happens to be called Heinz Stadium.

The view of Heinz Field and the Three Rivers Confluence from Mount Washington

                                                                                 

Fort Pitt Bridge.  Prime Minister William Pitt was known as
the Great Commoner.  He was also the first Earl of Chatham.
Whereas NYC is Gotham City, Pittsburgh is Chatham City.

Historic St. Boniface, on East Street, near route 279.

Forbes Avenue, en route to the world famous Cathedral of Learning.

A photo snapped while standing on the borderline of Gateway Center and Point State Park.

A closer view of the center of the photo above.

In Pittsburgh, the bridges are as close as next-door neighbors.

The Federated Building near the official federal building and the federal courthouse.

One Oxford Center

University of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning.

Entering the downtown from Oakland, where Pitt's campus is located.

Should you be slightly interested in seeing more recent photographs of the former steel capitol of the world ... the city of bridges ... the land which carries the imprint of the Great Ice Age so much so that it conceals the Wisconsin Glacial Flow 54 feet below it ... the multiple Super Bowl trophy depository ... the home of a few Stanley Cups ... and the metropolis of many technological firsts, the following might quench your curiosity a bit more.

                                      The Pittsburgh Three River Confluence in Pictures

Pittsburgh's Three River Confluence & Nearby Area in Pictures

Greetings Earthlings: 

                     This post is a continuation of that post.   ===>   The City of Many Firsts

The actual center point of the Three Rivers Confluence.
Take note of the width when viewing it at point zero range.

Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Confluence at night ... on a winter's night.

The Confluence as seen from the bank of the Monongahela.  This is a side view of it.

Western Massachusetts has a three river confluence comprising the Ware, Quaboag, and
Chicopee Rivers.  A rusted walkway crosses the confluence there, and not much of any-
thing else is nearby.

The famous Triveni Sangama in India isn't a tri-river confluence.  It only consists in the
Ganges and Yamuna Rivers.  The third river is the mythical/invisible Saraswati River.
If it did exist, it ceased doing so in the past 4,000 to 8,000 to 12,000 to 16,000 years.

The Missouri River Confluence in Montana comprises the Jefferson and Madison Rivers
converging with each other and becoming the Missouri River.  This confluence is in a state
park where the nearest town, Three Forks, has a population of 1,869 people.  This means
that there isn't any potential to develop the waterways for engineering innovations, as well
as developing any type of metropolis.

The Trois-Rivières in Quebec comprises two rivers, namely the Saint-Maurice and Saint 
Lawrence Rivers.  An island causes the three rivers effect.

Croatia has a notable confluence in an extremely natural setting.  Such settings are still
needed throughout the earth.  Planet Earth still needs oxygen-producing greenery and
clean water.

Győr, in Hungary, has a three-rivers confluence, comprising the the Danube, Rába, and
Rábca.

There is also the cave river in Slovenia.  Known as the Pivka, it converges with the Rak
Creek and forms the Unica River.  The cave river is a tourist attraction.

In the Sudan, at Khartoum, the White Nile and the Blue Nile make for the starting point
of the world famous Nile River.

Downtown Pittsburgh; the sector near the Confluence ... near the Point.
Beneath this land and throughout the surrounding vicinity is a fourth river.
It's an underground aquifer called the Wisconsin Glacial Flow, 54 feet below.

In the Southeastern German city of Passau, the Inn River and Ilz River converge into the
Danube.  At Passau, there's a notable university founded in 1970 which is actually an ex-
tension of the much older one founded in 1622.  That university is famous for its schools
of Economics, Law, Theology, and Cultural Studies.

Passau was also noted for its craftsmanship of swords so much so that the a weapon
bearing the insignia of the Passau wolf carried prestige during the Renaissance era.
The same town was also famous for the 1555 Peace of Augsburg and the post-WWII
Displaced Person's Camp, American Sector.

The width of the Allegheny River at the point where it becomes the Ohio ... River.
This is only half of the Confluence.  The Monongahela side is behind this scene.

Then came the development and incorporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  As was as out-
lined in another pictorial, Pittsburgh has been the site of many technological innovations, as
well as six Super Bowl trophies and other athletic championships.

Add to this a list of stellar athletes, five Pulitzer Prize winners, stars of sound and screen,
and noted authors ranging from baseball legend Honus Wagner to Gene Kelly to Academy
Award winner Shirley Jones to Perry Como to  Rachel Carson to Gertrude Stein to dance
choreographer Martha Graham to Billy Eckstein to Mr. Rogers to Jeff Goldblum to George
Blanda to Babe Parilli to Joe Montana to Joe Namath to Dan Marino to Mike Ditka to Bill
Cowher to Curtis Martin to Tony Dorsett to Michael Keaton to Andy Warhol to Andy of 
Mayberry's Howard Sprague to the Riddler of the televised Batman series to the original
Agent 99 of Get Smart fame to comedian Marty Allen.

Incidentally, proof that the televised Batman series (starring Adam West) was a designed
to be a comedy is that a rich tycoon in the show was named John Paul Spaghetti, a spoof
on John Paul Getty.  The other proof was when Batman and Catwoman shared a malt in
a malt shop, while sitting at the same table.

Included with Pittsburgh life is the developed craft of occasionally driving up and down
sloped streets during inclement road conditions.  This consists in spinning wheels while
going uphill and sliding past a stop sign or red light, with the brakes in use, while travel-
ing downhill.

This craft additionally includes drivers throughout the city who make room for this type
of thing, thereby preventing accidents.  The occasional brick roads in the city are slippery
in the rain, as well as in snow.  So, snow skidding is not unseen during Pittsburgh winters.
This translates into the Pittsburgh pro-democrat, pro-labor mindset.  It goes as follows:
The Pittsburgh way is to give Leeway and adapt.  This is why the 1990s were an aberra-
tion.  For those not familiar, police abuse was rampant in Pittsburgh in the 90s, and Pitts-
burgh housed one of the most corrupt and ruthless bishops in America, as is outlined at:

www.donaldwuerl.com

Pittsburgh is the City of Bridges.  It was once the Steel City.  In fact, it was even called the
City of Champions after the Pirates and the Steelers won the Super Bowl and World Series
in the same calendar year.  This was also the general time span when the Pitt Panthers won
the NCAA football crown, followed by the Pitt Panther basketball team being a long-term
contender and occasional Big East champion.

Before the Pittsburgh area became the king of steel, it was
heavily engaged in the production of glass, meaning that it
was previously the City of Glass.  However, Pittsburgh is
more essentially the City of hills, inclines, and sharp slopes.
The three rivers which mark Pittsburgh, therefore, comprise
an aquatic valley ... a glacial valley.  The Wisconsin Glacial
Flow makes for the fourth river, located 54 feet below the
Pittsburgh vicinity.

As far as goes the reputation of Pittsburgh being a blue collar
town filled with people who can barely speak English in any
appreciable fluency, Pittsburgh is the home of the prestigious
Carnegie-Mellon University, Pitt Med School, and University
of Pittsburgh Press that publishes the yearly winners of two
major literary awards.

Add to the Pittsburgh education equation Duquesne Univ., Chatham Univ., Carlow
Univ., La Roche College, the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the Cordon Bleu Institute
of Culinary Arts, Point Park College, and the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics,
as well as worthwhile trade schools.

When it comes to the blue collar realm, a Pittsburgh area construction worker needs
added athleticism and dexterity, due to the slopes and inclines of the area, as well as
due to the older parts of the city where one encounters narrow alleys and a closely
knitted infrastructure which makes demolition work and heavy equipment operating
a surgical task at times.  Plus, bridge construction and repair work always requires
added diligence, even though workers are pacing themselves and don't seem to be
working rapidly.

Now, the problem with Pittsburgh is that it's near West Virginia, and therefore, the
rural outskirts are plagued with the Hatfields & McCoys confrontational mindset.
Pittsburgh has its metropolitan culture, its blue collar culture, and an occasional
rural antagonist who is entirely misplaced, quite isolationist, and feisty at times.
They are people locked in the late 18th and early 19th Century mindset.  Plus,
Western Maryland is backward and isolationist, too.  In fact, in the 21st Century,
I saw a Western Maryland billboard, located near a convenience store, telling the
reader that the pope is the anti-Christ.  The interesting thing is that there have been
over 260 popes, but there can only be one anti-Christ.  So, which pope was the
anti-Christ?  None the less, the outskirts of Pittsburgh has its backward mindset.

Below is a pictorial of Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Confluence and the nearby terrain
known as Gateway Center.  When you add the Confluence with Gateway Center, you
have what is referred to as the Golden Triangle.  Here's the Confluence photographed
at a distance close enough to literally touch the Monongahela, Ohio, and Allegheny
Rivers.  Gateway Center is also represented here.

The fountain in the background marks the location of the Confluence of the
Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers.  The underpass seen in silhouette
form will take you directly to the Confluence that Pittsburghers call the Point.

A view of the Confluence when standing on the Monongahela side of the Point.

The Allegheny side of the Three Rivers Confluence.
Behind this bridge is the major league baseball stadium.

Barge traffic still passes through the Confluence regularly.
You can literally sail to New Orleans from here.

When you're at the Confluence and turn around, this is what you see.

One of the operative inclines, on the Monongahela side of the city.
This is the one closest to the Confluence.  It actually does carry passengers.

Riverboat paddle wheel

The same Duquesne Incline at a different angle and closer distance.

Heinz Field, the National Football League stadium of the city.

The Confluence, in relation to Heinz Field.

Docked river boats on the Monongahela River.
Twelve to eighteen blocks further is my place of birth.

After passing through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and Fort Pitt Bridge, this is the greeting you see.

The surreal city in plate glass.
Of the 700 to 900 photos I've taken and posted in the past two years, this is my favorite.

The same building at a slightly further distance.

One of the Gateway Towers, near the KDKA studios.
KDKA was the world's first commercial radio station.

The official marker of the Confluence's central point.  Mention of Point of Conflict
on the marker is a reminder that battles were fought here.  A strategic blockhouse
which was part of an 18th Century fort, still stands near the Confluence.

The Fort Pitt Blockhouse, formerly known as the Fort Duquesne Blockhouse.
It was pivotal during  the "French & Indian" War and Pontiac's 1763 Rebellion.
The British captured Fort Duquesne and the blockhouse in 1758.

At the Three Rivers Confluence, the original colonies
style of American flag is flown, comprising 13 stars.

The front view of the same blockhouse.

Near the blockhouse is an indoor museum.  Here's an exhibit,
placed outside, with a facsimile of Old Glory and its 13 stars.

A different canon displayed outside of the Fort Pitt Museum on a different day.

The other common sight from the Three Rivers Confluence is the entrance to the
Fort Pitt Tunnel.  The hills in the Pittsburgh area are sometimes so steep that a few
tunnels going through the hillsides needed to be built.  This included the Liberty Tunnel
and the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, as well as the Wabash Tunnel which was originally designed for trains. 

  

 

                                                       As a parting reminder, via rote: 
                           The Ice Age's Wisconsin Glacial Flow is situated 54 feet below.

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