I’m a life-long Detroiter, and I’ve lived long enough to witness the death throes from the Great Society years through today. I venture into Detroit often in the early morning hours, camera in hand, to record the amazing devastation - and to remind myself and anybody who will listen exactly where the collectivist mindset leads.
One critical piece of this puzzle has been left out of the story - the city’s tax policies. Detroit levied its own income tax, which was the straw that pushed many of the city’s workers out. This was often attributed to “white flight”, but it was a separate issue - an entirely economic one.
After the worker’s exodus, the city decided to levy a commuter tax to make up the deficit. That’s when the businesses started pulling out wholesale.
That tax is still in effect. You actually pay a premium for the privilege of living in Detroit, putting up with non-existent city services, a city hall with a “greater than thou” attitude, rampant crime and entire regions where the police no longer patrol. Is it any surprise that you cannot find a supermarket in the city?
Detroit has been killed by politicians - politicians who arrogantly refuse to recognize the results of their own actions and decisions.
I love Detroit, but the city is beyond life support. There are sparks of life in there still, around the cultural center and in the very heart of downtown; the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and a hanful of other institutions that have managed to survive in spite of the horrific conditions. These are the exceptions, standing in stark contrast to the rest of what remains - a city that was once the industrial center of the world.
To any who do not feel the national political battle worth fighting, I invite you to visit my home town.
It takes the drivers 15 hours or so to go from Livonia to the Dakotas, but they think they are entering another country.
Over the past couple years we have brought here 8-9 semi-loads of manufacturing equipment from Michigan. Our young machinists laugh derisively at the UAW labels on the older tools.
What manufacturing that remains in this country will be done in low tax open shop states like this one where people appreciate risk taking and wealth creation.