Rock solid post on Chicago Boyz about left-ish economic policies and the decline of Detroit. I think the poster steals an intellectual base or two, but there are a few unarguables, IMO, that can be taken away:
- Detroit collapsed. Crashed. 'Sploded. Ceased to exist. The numbers from CBz are staggering. Back in 1950, roughly 35% of the world's GNP was produced in the Minnesota-Pennsylvania corridor. That's more than anything you currently see in SE China. Just 30 years later the region was a blighted "Rust Belt".
- Unions choked their golden goose. Through their anti-modernizing and anti-competition policies, UAW (as an example) managed to force the Big Three into untenable pensions and exorbitant salaries, which in turn made the automakers cut back in quality and innovation in production.
- The creeping statism of the Left. As a guy who's grown up in Texas and Colorado, two of the more libertarian anti-union states in the US, it was astonishing to see the size of governmental bureaucracy in Michigan. Whether it's a ridiculous bottle deposit scheme or the constant bombardment of "public service" announcements from the state government on how to "be healthy", the left's view of government creates a culture of enfeebled citizenry, men and women dependent upon state officials for welfare, direction, and instruction.
As a cautionary note to those conservatives who see the prospect of disaster in Obama's administration as a chance to rebirth freedom-based policies, look at Michigan. Although the state is a walking billboard for the inadequacies of Left economic policies, the state Democratic party has been able to stay in power by blaming Republicans. Jennifer Granholm, by any standard of judgment, should not be in power, but 2006 was able to retain her governorship by claiming that, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost not withstanding, she was merely trying to recover from the disastrous GOP policies of the 90's.
A word to the wise is sufficient...
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