From a commenter on Rich Lowry's
article about Detroit:
About time somebody just laid it out about Detroit. I've seen Lefties try to blame it on conservatives, free trade, and "white flight". Of these, only white flight comes the closest, but they wrongly attribute it to racism. White Detroit didn't leave because of skin color differences, it left because of riots. Crime. As you say, a murder rate that went from 13 per 100k to 51 per 100k in just 9 years. I guess that in instances like this, where white people are needed to fund the spoils system and corruption of a Coleman Young, said white people do not have a "duty to retreat" to someplace where they are less likely to be mugged, burgled, vandalized, raped, assaulted or murdered. Far from having a duty to retreat, in the liberal mind they have an obligation to stay, out of guilt or penance. Detroit marks one of those rare instances where an entire area was racially gerrymandered in favor of black voters by white voters leaving, and they are despised for it.
Well, when you lose 60 percent of your population, it behooves you to adjust your spending, services, and pensions to reflect the new reality. If you continue to spend as if that 60% is still there, eventually you're going to resemble Pyongyang.
5 comments:
I would offer that a lot of that "white flight" wasn't white, and it had to do with jobs.
I lived in Houston in the 80s, and the number of people that had moved there from Michigan to find work was astounding.
Valerie
Except that Pyongyang can extract resources from the rest of the nation to prop up its illusion of... er, "wealth." No bailouts for Detroit!
The Liberal mantra.
Potentiated by another Liberal mantra ("borrowed," as only a Liberal can, from a more honorable use): "You can run, but you can't hide."
Or "Gimme, gimme, gimme."
Eric Hines
Plenty of other people in America to rob still. They'll be floating around soon enough. If not Detroit, then Chicago. If not Chicago, then New Orleans and Detroit. If not even those cities can suck the life blood out of slaves, then Atlanta and San Fran are good enough, for now.
Valerie, your point is valid,but the bulk of the population decline was in Detroit City proper.
From 1960 to 2010, the population of the Detroit metropolitan area was essentially stable, during a time the population of the US increased by about 2/3.That indicates a relative decline in population in the Detroit metropolitan area compared to the rest of the US. This would reflect the decline of the auto industry.
From 1960 to 2010, the population of Detroit City went down over 50%, which is an absolute decline.
Which also points out that the decline of Detroit cannot solely be blamed on the decline of the auto industry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit
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