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Remake Detroit, or Empty It
National Review ^ | 07/22/2013 | James Pethokoukis

Posted on 07/22/2013 7:36:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

If Detroit were its own city-state — a bizarro version of prosperous Singapore — it would be a place the U.S. State Department would regularly issue travel warnings about, where “long-term, protracted conditions make a country dangerous or unstable.” Detroit’s murder rate, for instance, would be higher than that of all but a handful of other countries. The Democratic Republic of Detroit would also be relatively poor, with annual per capita income of around $15,000, making it a middle-income country like Mexico.

Except Detroit would be a nation in decline rather than on the rise. Detroit would be a nation literally dying off, its shrinking population abandoning territory the central government could no longer afford to supply with basic services. Oh, yeah, its disastrous public finances. Well, maybe those would be a minor bright spot in this alternate reality: Detroit could always pay creditors, at least for a while, with devalued Fords, the local currency named after one of its founding fathers.

Eventually, however, this shrunken, crime-ridden, impoverished city-state — with no one willing to bail it out — might be forced to make a choice: capitalism or collapse. Out of options, it might just make the China choice. A key part of Deng Xiaoping’s pro-market economic reforms in 1979 was the creation of four Hong Kong–inspired “special economic zones” of liberalized labor laws and tax incentives to attract foreign investment. One of these little pockets of economic freedom, Shenzhen, located just north of Hong Kong itself, is now a center for technology manufacturing and one of China’s richest cities. The stunning success of China’s economic experiment showed economist Paul Romer how better rules and institutions could work wonders for economic growth. Romer has proposed that developing nations allow the creation of “charter cities,” where the host nation would provide a large, uninhabited piece of land to be governed by market-friendly rules and perhaps run by a foreign government. Workers, businesses, and investors from anywhere could move in and out freely. Basically, Hong Kong in a box, ready for delivery. For example, instead of giving foreign aid to some poor African nation such as Mauritania, New Zealand and Norway might partner together to run a charter city there. With good governance in place and cheap land and labor available, the theory goes, private investment would pour in.

Although Romer’s concept remains just a fascinating thought experiment — a deal with Honduras fell through in 2012 — and was intended for what used to be called “Third World nations,” why not turn abandoned Detroit into New Detroit, a business-friendly charter city where taxes are low and regulation light? Governance could be guaranteed by some outside entity. Although neighboring, well-run Canada is an obvious choice, maybe an American city could play the role in exchange for a cut of future tax revenue. Reason Foundation analyst Shikha Dalmia suggests Houston as a candidate.

All this may sound like it could be the plot from next year’s remake of the 1987 film Robocop, in which a bankrupt Detroit sells itself to a private company with plans to transform the city into an enclave for the 1 percent. But no one would be forced to live (or invest or create jobs) in New Detroit. As Romer said in a TED speech addressing criticism that charter cities are a neo-colonialist plot, “This model is all about choices, both for leaders and for the people who will live in these new places. And choice is the antidote to coercion and condescension.”

And what’s the alternative? A decaying urban core surrounded by reclaimed farmland? As Edward Glaeser documents in Triumph of the City, Detroit spent decades trying to counter the decline of the auto industry by building things — a monorail, sports arenas, office complexes — rather than “trying to attract smart, wealthy, entrepreneurial people.”

If Detroit can’t fix itself, maybe Washington could help, with an idea proposed by economist Enrico Moretti, author of The New Geography of Jobs: People living in areas of high unemployment, such as the Motor City, could receive part of their unemployment check in the form of a relocation voucher. The idea might even inspire a film, Escape from Detroit.

— James Pethokoukis, a columnist, blogs for the American Enterprise Institute.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: bankuptcy; detroit
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To: Progov

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Barack Obama

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/barack_obama.html#VpVsMHHdWeII41kS.99


21 posted on 07/22/2013 8:00:02 AM PDT by blackdog (There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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To: SeekAndFind
“The Democratic Republic of Detroit would also be relatively poor, with annual per capita income of around $15,000, making it a middle-income country like Mexico.”

Almost all the “income” in Detroit is money confiscated from honest, hard working taxpayers in other parts of the country. If Detroiters could no longer live off other people's handouts and had to support themselves Detroit would look like Somalia or Zimbabwe full of starving children with distended bellies and flies on their faces,

22 posted on 07/22/2013 8:00:33 AM PDT by detective
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To: SeekAndFind
Romer has proposed that developing nations allow the creation of “charter cities,” where the host nation would provide a large, uninhabited piece of land to be governed by market-friendly rules and perhaps run by a foreign government. Workers, businesses, and investors from anywhere could move in and out freely. Basically, Hong Kong in a box, ready for delivery.

It's been tried before. It's called "colonization". The end-game is when there are assets that can be seized, the natives rebel, take over what the colonists have built up, party for a while, and the place goes down-hill again (see Rhodesia).

It only works when the colonizers have the willingness to exterminate entire populations in order to ensure their claim to the area they have built up.

23 posted on 07/22/2013 8:04:41 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"might even inspire a film, Escape from Detroit"

No, it already did:


24 posted on 07/22/2013 8:04:44 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: IamConservative
One interesting solution would be let the city default on it’s debt and then auction remaining holdings to the highest bidder and let capitalism rebuild it.

Capitalism can only operate in an environment where private property is defended against expropriation.

The only thing that would work for Detroit would be to forever bar residents from receiving any sort of means-tested government assistance. No welfare, no food stamps, nothing. If you need means-tested aid, you would have to move elsewhere. Wait a year for the Democrat constituencies to leave, and then you could start to rebuild.

25 posted on 07/22/2013 8:08:17 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Tell the people to leave. All of them.
Bulldoze the buildings. All of them.

Sell the land by the acre to anyone who has real money.
Rebuild from the ground up.
No debt. No pensions. No unions. No criminal class. No aging infrastructure.

It is the equivalent of “taking off and nuking it from orbit”, and it’s the only thing that makes sense.


26 posted on 07/22/2013 8:08:20 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: SeekAndFind

In China, they understand the concept of work for pay. I don’t they do in Detroit.


27 posted on 07/22/2013 8:09:02 AM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: SeekAndFind
The Democratic Republic of Detroit would also be relatively poor, with annual per capita income of around $15,000, making it a middle-income country like Mexico.

Before the deluge Detroit had the third-highest per capita income in the country. And it was more than that in 1960 dollars.

The author has some interesting ideas - an economic free zone with low corporate taxes and incentives for hiring. But I'm afraid trying capitalism in the United States is just a little too radical for the current administration.

28 posted on 07/22/2013 8:09:36 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: SeekAndFind
DOD should buy it and train MILITARY OPERATIONS IN URBAN TERRAIN operations on it. It truely would be the largest MOUT lane in the world (other than Grozny).

The military could run brigade, or hell, division size operations on Detroit with hundreds of square miles of "free fire" and impact zones for mortars and artillery. Some parts of Detroit already look like that!

29 posted on 07/22/2013 8:12:39 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!!)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

RE: The emptying part seems to be taking care of itself.

Another 750,000 left to empty.


30 posted on 07/22/2013 8:15:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The problem with rebuilding Detroit after the crash is that you are starting fresh with the same cast of characters.


31 posted on 07/22/2013 8:16:14 AM PDT by umgud (2A can't survive dem majorities)
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To: SeekAndFind

Things could be done via a market-friendly gov’t...if that’s possible. For example, get the trade unions in Detroit to open up their apprenticeship programs to unskilled, unemployed youth. (Restricting labor supply in Detroit has no effect on local wages.) Have the city donate abandoned properties worth rehabbing and construction materials. The unions and new apprentices then fix up the properties and the local gov’t sells them, placing them back on the property tax roles. The funds from the sale could then be used to finance more rehabs. The unions get more new members in the long run, the city gets more tax base, and unemployed youth have a shot at a good job. Seems like a win-win to me.


32 posted on 07/22/2013 8:20:32 AM PDT by econjack (I'm not bossy...I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: IamConservative

They are in Bankruptcy which is a form of default. The court can order the city to liquidate many of its’ assets and probably should.

The biggest ruling would be a forced end to the Union contracts and elimination of the pension liability. If the retirees complain, tell them what happened to the Steel Workers Union Retirees. When the host dies, the parasites do as well.


33 posted on 07/22/2013 8:21:37 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: SeekAndFind

The idea might even inspire a film,look for the union label.


34 posted on 07/22/2013 8:23:42 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: All

Interesting concept. Think Hong Kong under the British.

Go through the federal laws and create an exception for Detroit in as many as possible, instead of a federal bailout. With the exception of Social Security pensions, stop all federal dollars at the city boundary. (That should clean out the parasites running the place now.)

Once Detroit again becomes a thriving city, as it likely would if the right regulations were jettisoned, move on to the next city on the long list of those currently being bankrupted by Democrats in charge.


35 posted on 07/22/2013 8:25:00 AM PDT by Norseman (Defund the Left-Completely!)
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To: econjack

Main problem with your suggestion is its reliance on “local government” officials and unions. These are the two culprits that are primarily responsible for Detroit’s condition today.


36 posted on 07/22/2013 8:28:09 AM PDT by Norseman (Defund the Left-Completely!)
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To: SeekAndFind
Hey, wait.

I thought that an influx of hipsters was going to save Detroit.

LOL.

37 posted on 07/22/2013 8:30:08 AM PDT by SIDENET
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To: SeekAndFind

Perhaps Detroit residences could be convinced that Zimbabwe beckons them to a life of comfort, ease and pleasure.


38 posted on 07/22/2013 8:33:37 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: SeekAndFind
di i really have to say it???

39 posted on 07/22/2013 8:35:06 AM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: SeekAndFind

Emptying Detroit is a pure fantasy. I’m no fan of urban areas but they are vital infrastructure. In the case of Detroit its still a major port city and the second busiest freight crossing on the continent. (Likely to take top slot again when the new bridge goes up)

There is obviously money to be made in Detroit. If there weren’t, there wouldn’t be Grand Prix racing, powerboat racing, or air racing. Those are sports that tend to attract high dollar crowds. There is big money in Detroit but its largely kept tied up safe from excessive taxes and corruption.

To fix the corruption in Detroit you need to start right at the bottom and threaten prison to department and union heads with prison unless they roll over on the next guy up the line. Don’t stop till you can indict virtually every single city council member. Former council president Charles Pugh is already under investigation including an audit at the hands of the new city council president.

Local taxes and regulations need to be brought down to a manageable level. Those are the primary weed killers of small business.

We also need true conservative leaders on the streets and in the churches of Detroit to espouse conservative views like rebuilding the family and true freedom through free markets. We’ve got to break the social justice teaching in the churches. I call it my 3 F plan. Family, Faith, and Free markets.

There have been good conservative moves into the city like the AFP sponsored Frederick Douglass day celebration with the union conservatives. Rev. C.L. Bryant from Runaway Slave was a speaker at the event.

Detroit is just the canary in a big coalmine of America and if America is to be saved conservatives need to nut up and start taking these democrat strongholds away and showing what conservatism can do. No one is asking us to refill the city. It needs to be pared down and made to operate efficiently. I’m not Rick Snyder’s biggest fan but he’s right when he says the city should be run like a business and made to serve and attract customers.


40 posted on 07/22/2013 8:35:32 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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