There are no better examples to educate people than something close to home everyone can relate to. I say that because we are constantly being reminded that we are headed toward Greece everyday. They are collapsing under their debt burden and in many respects, the U.S. is already in a worse position than they are. But I don’t believe the majority of Americans take the threat seriously because Greece is such a small island nation and we are a superpower. Apples and oranges. So perhaps a better example is one right here in America. It’s the city of Detroit.
Detroit has been a textbook testbed for progressives for over half a century and has illustrated in the clearest possible terms the guaranteed failure of socialism. It’s fitting that a major plank of the progressives is equality of outcome as opposed to equal opportunity. Detroit has delivered. The following is an article from Jarrett Skorup written for the Michigan Capitol Confidential. He does an excellent job laying out the phenomenal decline of a once great city. With our oh-so-important election coming up, it’s another reminder that we need to change course in America asap.
Detroit: The Triumph of Progressive Public Policy
How did this great city fall so far?
(Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article that originally appeared on July 6, 2009.)
Imagine a city where all the major economic planks of the statist or “progressive” platform have been enacted:
- A “living wage” ordinance, far above the federal minimum wage, for all public employees and private contractors.
- A school system that spends significantly more per pupil than the national average.
- A powerful school employee union that militantly defends the exceptional pay, benefits and job security it has won for its members.
- Other government employee unions that do the same for their members.
- A tax system that aggressively redistributes income from businesses and the wealthy to the poor and to government bureaucracies.
Would this be a shining city on a hill, exciting the admiration of all? We don’t have to guess, because there is such a city right here in our state: Detroit