Posted on 07/23/2014 6:35:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
There’s nothing in the United States Constitution stating Americans have the right not to pay their bills. In fact, the Declaration of Independence, which gave birth to our nation, notes the only unalienable rights we have are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Yet thousands of Detroit residents think they have the right not to pay their water bills and demand their water remain on. About 80,000 residential water accounts are past due to the tune of $43 million. The audacity of freeloaders!
Detroit is an $18 billion bankrupt mess, struggling quite literally to keep the lights on and provide basic services to residents like police protection and emergency services. A year ago, about 40 percent of the cities 88,000 street lamps didn’t work and half of the cities 78,0000 abandoned buildings were declared dangerous.
All this thanks to decades of liberals mismanaging the city, growing its debt but not its revenue. Clearly, every penny the city’s Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr can find is critical.
The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department shut off service to a fraction of the non-payers, about 7,000, triggering hoards of protestors to storm Detroit declaring the shutoffs racist and that “water is a human right.”
Having access to water in your home,like owning a home, is only a right when you pay for it. It’s not a human right, neither is owning a car or a cellphone or having Internet access. But it’s no surprise under the presidency of President Barack Obama that many Americans feel entitled not to pay their bills. Since his election in 2008, Obama has engaged in class warfare, vilifying the rich and people who work hard to pay their bills so others don’t have to.
The most obnoxious and ridiculous response has been from the attorney who filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of freeloading residents who haven’t paid their bills and the NAACP. Both cry that the water department is racist because mostly black people have been affected.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund Veronica Joice cried the shutoffs “are being done in a discriminatory fashion; and they should at least take a look at whether there’s a better way to do this that doesn’t affect the most vulnerable citizens — the majority of whom are African American here in Detroit.”
The class action lawyer, Alice Jennings, took things a step further and alleged white owned companies owing huge water bills weren’t paying their bills either but also didn’t get their water cut off. Contrary to this race baiting bluster, according to Detroit’s water department, corporations like Chrysler received shut off notices and ponied up “millions in overdue bills.”
If more blacks aren’t paying their water bills than whites, how is it racist for the water department to demand the bills be paid? Sounds to me like black residents of Detroit expect to be treated differently when they break the rules solely because of their race. How is this fair?
Many black liberals are taking their cues from President Barack Obama and his US Attorney General Eric Holder who always seem to blame racism on the president’s inability to work with Republicans in Congress and get his agenda done. They think, “If it works for them, it can work for us.”
Obama’s policies also have eviscerated any notion of personal responsibility or self-reliance. From mortgage forgiveness programs to student loan debt, if Americans have a financial obligation they don’t want to pay, Obama seems to have a program for it. Policies like these encourage irresponsibility and the idea the government is always there as a back stop to walking away form one’s obligations. That isn’t the American way, where we all are created equal to have equal opportunities, not equal outcomes.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department was forced to increase the water rate by 8.7% due to customers refusing to pay their bills. For those people who genuinely experience financial hardship, the Water department offers a Water Affordability Program to help them pay their bills.
I bet the majority of people in Detroit not paying their water bills aren’t delinquent on their cable and cellphone bills. It’s called priorities. The cold hard truth is someone always has to pay for the people who don’t. That’s what a government subsidy is, money taken from working taxpayers to support others who don’t work as hard or not at all. Compassion and charity should be reserved for people who truly need it. Not every Tom, Dick or Harry.
How long can it be before the state mandates free utilities for ‘minorities’.
Oh. Right. In the Liberal dictionary, "compassion" is defined as forcing responsible citizens to pay for freeloaders and the irresponsible.
"In fact, the Declaration of Independence, which gave birth to our nation, notes the only unalienable rights we have are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
That’s the problem. Utilities are usually a city government monopoly. Once the minority population exceeds the white population, uh-oh........... Nobody left to pay da bills.
“”that doesn’t affect the most vulnerable citizens — the majority of whom are African American here in Detroit.””
Now there’s a new label for them - MOST VULNERABLE CITIZENS!
How so, Mr. Attorney?
“”Mr. Attorney””
Pardon me - Ms. Attorney
“The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money” — Margaret Thatcher
Detroit is 82% black. If white and black water customers had not paid their bills at the same rate, and those chosen to be shut off were selected randomly from the group of non-payers, then >80% of those affected would be expected to be black.
In actual fact, it's probable black people are less likely to pay their water bill than white residents.
...nor the infrastructure necessary to deliver that water, which requires maintenance.
That’s so like 20 years ago dude..........
It’s been basically a de facto welfare system. The city kept raising rates to cover the residents that didn’t pay their water bill and never tried to collect past due amounts. Those who paid their bills were paying for those that didn’t. Looks like it’s now reached the point that the system is unsustainable, the downfall of all socialist schemes.
Well spotted!!
What people are missing (mostly willfully) is the fact that this water fight is a result of good things happening.
Its a result of the department trying to shave down debt to attract more privatization. Privatization of services is nearly always good.
In Atlanta the Water dept seems to be a place where well-connected blacks can get rich through graft while completely mismanaging the water service and racking up millions in federal fines the taxpayers get stuck with.
Some will let their children suffer until you pay. They know you’ll stop the children from suffering...as always.
“Once the minority population exceeds the white population, uh-oh........... Nobody left to pay da bills.”
It’s called “Survival of the Unfit”
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (often referred to as The Theory of Survival of the Fittest) describes the positive effects resulting from any “pressure” on an animal species that removes the least fit among the species and allows only the most fit of the species to reproduce. Many of us are well aware of this “Survival of the Fittest” theory, but few are aware that Darwin also makes mention of the negative effects resulting from unlimited reproduction of a species’ least fit when the weak, the lazy, and the stupid are left unchecked.
We like to think otherwise, but our species, Homo sapiens, isn’t that long “out of the trees” and the same laws of nature that affect all of God’s creatures apply equally to us. If we were to observe any other species that had been allowed to reproduce without limitations, we would know immediately what the consequences will be.
Whenever the weak; lazy; and stupid of a species are allowed to reproduce unimpeded by predators that feed off the weak; lazy; and stupid, they soon outnumber the strong, productive, and intelligent. When the weak/lazy/stupid dominate the gene pool, the entire population becomes weak/ lazy/stupid, and then the population collapses.
In the past, when these collapses occurred within human populations, they have been referred to as a “Malthusian Collapse.” Thomas Malthus, a Nineteenth Century Economist, thought these collapses were caused simply because past civilizations had reached a point where human populations could no longer produce sufficient food supplies to feed themselves, but he never pinned down the exact reason for the food shortages.
We now think these collapses of past human civilizations have occurred whenever the unproductive weak/lazy/stupid greatly outnumber the strong/productive/intelligent of the population. In other words, the majority of the population becomes too lazy to perform the work necessary to provide for themselves and what’s left of the strong/productive/intelligent refuses to continue to do it for them.
These collapses have occurred at frequent intervals throughout human history, and Western Civilization is, in my humble opinion, currently on the cusp of one of these collapses.
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