Why Detroit Won’t Have a Second Act…and the U.S. May Not Either.

I borrowed the first part of the title from a somewhat surprising post from Reason Magazine.  The author says you can put a fork in Detroit (it’s done) because every mayor since the 1960s has stomped on small entrepreneurial businesses in favor of the big and the flashy.  There has been a constant transfer of wealth from the little guys to the big ones, and it’s nearly killed the city.  He makes a very good case, and the examples are both tragic and infuriating.

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In case you wonder if these are just stories, Don Wilkie tells what happened to him.

“Until 1984, I was a business owner in the city, employing about 20.  I moved my business 60 miles away.  I didn’t want to leave, but I was, in effect, forced to.

“Government — federal, state, and local — made this happen. I know this from experience. Government corrupted the Detroit work force. That corruption drove away my company too.”

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In short, leftist regulations intended to “protect” the worker from rapacious business-owners have made it impossible to run a business in the city.  It’s not crime…..it’s not the lousy educational system….it’s not even the brutal tax regime.

“What really killed Detroit and what drove me away was the government deciding it knew how the market should operate better than the market did.  The market operates on a simple concept, “An honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.”  If an employee doesn’t think he is being paid enough, he can leave.  If an employer is unhappy with an employee’s performance he can fire him.”

The difficulty is, Detroit has a work force containing a minority of individuals who are actually prepared to be good employees, and it’s become almost impossible to fire those unable to give a day’s work for a day’s pay and stay in business.  When fired, the former employee files for unemployment benefits;  when those run out s/he’s off to the worker’s comp office to complain about a bad back…..and the coup de grace for Don was the “Wrongful Discharge” claims at the local Civil Rights office.  He left.
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Those who remained were finally shot in the head (figuratively, folks; only figuratively – but the result was the same, a very real death) by the Environmental Protection Agency, that came in (late 1980s) and by regulatory fiat made the site of almost every manufacturing plant (large and small) worthless because of “pollution”.
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The final article in this trio on Detroit is one that points out what a PERFECT issue this is for the GOP – a real-life trial of the leftist economic plan…in fact, President Obama’s economic plan for our nation…that has gone on long enough to see where it ends.  Remember the speeches Mitt Romney made about Detroit’s troubles, pointing out how they’ve had Democratic administration for over fifty years, resulting in nothing but failure?  And how he explained his economic agenda and how it would cure the problems there?
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Me neither.
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Because of course he did nothing of the kind.
“Mitt and his campaign agreed with Obama publicly on his handling of the automaker bailouts. Romney knows better, with his deep background in business in general, and Detroit auto making specifically. Moreover, Paul Ryan, who also knows better, agreed with Joe Biden on national TV in the VP debate that poor ole Joe and Obama had “inherited” a mess from Bush and the Republicans. Ryan even let Joe “Bite Me” get away with taking credit for saving Detroit! Check the videotape in case you’ve forgotten. “Yes, in typical establishment fashion, the official GOP campaign shied away from the big and confrontational philosophical arguments about liberal versus conservative economic realities — and instead ran to smooch up to the voters of Michigan in a careful and focus-group-tested way so as not to offend. In other words, in an absurd attempt to try and save Michigan electorally, and to make soccer moms in southern Ohio comfy, a strong message that would have resonated across the other 49 states was jettisoned in favor of “don’t rock the boat” messaging.”
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And keep in mind:  If you vote for an establishment Republican, because “the Tea Party candidate can’t win”, you’re part of the problem…..you’re voting to turn the entire U.S. into what we see in Detroit.  Do NOT tell yourself that if we can just suck up to the “moderates”, or to the “uncommitted”, or to the “Hispanics”, or to some other constituency that will enable the GOP to win the Presidency, then we can turn it all around. The establishment GOP is not going to “turn it around”…they are part of the problem.

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Tell yourself the truth — we are on a slippery slope to a Dependency State where more voters are taking than making.  We have to turn it around NOW, or the chance will be gone.