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Monday, July 29, 2013

Is Detroit making the same electoral mistake yet AGAIN?

  The last week or so a number of news outlets have been performing a post mortem on the city of Detroit and what happened. Some claim air conditioning was a primary reason so many manufacturers and citizens left the north and felt comfortable moving south. Others claim leaded fuel helped drive everyone crazy. Then there's the belief that right to work states stole the north's manufacturing base.
  Stossel had an hourlong special on FNC last night, with one reporter claiming that conditions in Detroit are turning citizens into libertarians who rely on one another because there are so few city services available. Like a 4 hour police response time.
  Wackydoodle Leftists are trying to pin Detroit's demise on conservatives and Republicans, even though no Republican or conservative has been elected in Detroit for 60 years. Other wackydoodles claim government is almost non-existent in Detroit, regardless the details.
  Mayor Coleman Young exacerbated race relations intentionally in Detroit to hide corruption, just as our current POUTUS does. Screaming RACIST is the equivalent of screaming SQUIRREL these days, as everyone looks at the distraction and away from what's happening, although screaming BEAR or ZOMBIE might be more appropriate considering the danger of actually being called a RACIST these days.
  Obviously lots of things got them where they are today, including a minimum wage businesses cannot afford, an uneducated and illiterate "work" force, and some of the highest taxes in the country. Michigan Capitol Confidential:
Specifically, "price theory" predicts that artificially high business costs caused by excessive regulation and above-market labor compensation rates imposed by so-called "living wages" will lead to an increase in unemployment. Detroit's minimum wage is more than $2 above the federal minimum wage; and pressure groups are pushing for more. Additionally, any company contracting with the city must pay its employees $11.03 an hour if they offer benefits or $13.78 an hour if they do not.
  What's sad is that the idiocy continues. Rather than humbled by the deterioration, activists are holding rallies and calling for a $15 minimum wage. 
  Others claim that capitalism is the problem, completely ignoring the deep and cancerous corruption among politicians that voters put in office.
  Let's be honest. Detroit didn't want white people in the city. Coleman Young made this clear. So they left. 
  The Democrats, as always, take care of their cronies; according to records, which have been very badly recorded, 54 retirees are under the age of 20. WSJ:
Local politicians bought union support with generous labor agreements. Pensions were sweetened retroactively. In good investment years, retirement funds issued bonus checks. Until two years ago public-safety officers didn't have to pay a penny to their pensions and could retire at 55 with roughly 85% of their salary, a 2.25% annual cost-of-living increase and nearly free health benefits.
  One has to have sympathy for the 85 year old retiree living on $19,000 annual income but, of course, that's never the end of the story. 
While the average pension is $30,000 for public safety and $19,000 for other municipal workers, these figures are skewed by workers who retire early with reduced benefits or on disability. A quarter of retired officers receive disability pensions, which pay two-thirds of salary. Fifty-four retirees are under the age of 20 and earn pensions that average $23,300, according to a 2011 actuarial report.
  And rather than nurture business, the state under Jennifer Granholm allowed this (WSJ): "Detroit collects 50% more tax revenue per capita than Dearborn and receives four times as much money from the state."
  Most tragic are the citizens like the one interviewed on Stossel's special who mowed the empty lawns next to his neatly maintained house to keep intruders away and give the illusion of more than just his family living there.He matter of factly stated that this is where he lives and he's going to stay there. 
  Stossel also interviewed a city council member, asking why council (known for its irregular and raucous meetings) refused to let a developer demolish old houses and plant trees. He had all the right answers, eh?
On my TV show, I confronted the council's second in command about his refusal to let Detroit sell land. He says he voted against it "because the developer wants to grow trees. We don't need any more new trees in our city." The politicians micromanaged themselves into bankruptcy, and they want to keep digging.

A member of the British Parliament writes that Detroit is like the fictional city of Starnesville in Ayn Rand's 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged" — a car-manufacturing city that became a ghost town after experimenting with socialism. In the novel, Starnesville's demise is the first sign that the entire society is approaching collapse.
  What's disturbing is that it doesn't appear that Detroit has learned any lessons. They're hoarding their wonderful art collection, rather than sell it to pay bills. They won't allow Belle Isle to be handled by developers, claiming it's one of the "city's jewels" and it would be racist to steal it from Detroiters.
  Though Mayor Dave Bing has tried to turn the city around, I have personally spoken with Detroiters who had little more faith or trust in Bing than the previous disastrous and criminal Kilpatrick administration.
  Racist attitudes still run rampant in Detroit, including city council members who openly scream about racism, even though they're in power in the city and racists themselves. In fact, the head of Detroit city council has disappeared in the face of corruption of a minor and other unsavory charges.
  As the race for mayor approaches a primary, more hanky panky is occurring, as usual for Detroit.
  On flagship station WJR, black callers openly admit a white person probably cannot win in Detroit; thus, when businessman Michael Duggan, now endorsed by the Free Press, was disqualified for turning his papers in too early, opposition Benny Napoleon crowed as the field opened with him as a front runner.
  Duggan decided to run as a write in candidate, an endeavor that is not entirely hopeless considering the business support Duggan has around the city.
  Benny Napoleon is Wayne County Sheriff; he is being investigated by the FBI. 61 workers in his office have take home vehicles, paying nothing for their maintenance, even while his office does not respond to 911 calls. Napoleon is over budget, of course.
  Napoleon is one of 80 double dippers who receives a pension of over $90,000 in addition to his current salary. Napoleon's is $111,000.
  Now Napoleon apparently has persuaded a barber named Michael Dugeon who's only voted one time in his life to run for mayor as a write in candidate.
  Leftists are cross-eyed, picking at anything to discredit Duggan.
  Napoleon surely seems like a person who should stay on the periphery of Detroit, certainly not entering into running the city.
  Isn't Detroit finished with questionable politicians yet?

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