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| Stansberry: Detroit's socialist nightmare is America's future |
| 2009-11-03 |
| From Porter Stansberry in the S&A Digest: One of the most important things to remember about socialism -- or coercion of any kind -- is it fails eventually because human beings have an innate desire for liberty and a strong need for personal property rights. In fact, the origins of government lie in the need of agricultural communities to protect themselves from violence and theft. So it is particularly ironic that in more recent times, it is government itself that has more frequently played the role of bandit. When you start taxing people at extreme rates to pay for socialist "benefits," when you start telling them which schools their children must attend, when you start giving jobs away to people based on race instead of ability... you quash human freedom, which bogs down productivity... and if continued for long enough, leads to social collapse. I find it perplexing that only 20 years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the West continues to implement laws that mimic all of the failed policies of our former "communist" foes. In fact, our current president won the election by promising to "spread the wealth around." But... truth be told... we don't have to look to Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union to find a society destroyed by coercion, socialism, and the overreaching power of the State. We could just look at Detroit... In 1961, the last Republican mayor of Detroit lost his re-election bid to a young, intelligent Democrat, with the overwhelming support of newly organized black voters. His name was Jerome Cavanagh. The incumbent was widely considered to be corrupt (and later served 10 years in prison for tax evasion). Cavanagh, a white man, pandered to poor underclass black voters. He marched with Martin Luther King down the streets of Detroit in 1963. (Of course, marching with King was the right thing to do... It's just Cavanagh's motives were political not moral.) He instated aggressive affirmative action policies at City Hall. And most critically, he greatly expanded the role of the government in Detroit, taking advantage of President Lyndon Johnson's "Model Cities Program" -- the first great experiment in centralized urban planning. Mayor Cavanagh was the only elected official to serve on Johnson's task force. And Detroit received widespread acclaim for its leadership in the program, which attempted to turn a nine-square-mile section of the city (with 134,000 inhabitants) into a "model city." More than $400 million was spent trying to turn inner cities into shining new monuments to government planning. In short, the feds and Democratic city mayors were soon telling people where to live, what to build, and what businesses to open or close. In return, the people received cash, training, education, and health care. Balance at the link if you dare. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #4 well, urban farming does have possibilities... |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2009-11-03 20:36 |
| #3 On the other hand, Michael Barone wrote an interesting column that cited the article linked below. He suggests Detroit may be a new frontier. After reading the article and looking up some home prices, it might be a fun place to start a new conservative settlement in downtown Detroit. I do believe Michigan has CCW reciprocity with many states. Pack the wagon! http://tinyurl.com/yk2gvwu |
| Posted by: mjhlaw 2009-11-03 18:54 |
| #1 Check out google or bing for aerial photographs of the city and see hundreds of nearly empty city blocks. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2009-11-03 06:47 |