Someone recently told me that he was going to Detroit. I felt sorry for him, knowing that last trips to Detroit, driving form the Cleveland area, had been through areas that looked as devastated as anything seen in post WWII photos. I had not read of improvement, in fact of deterioration, saying, “I read that the city is selling off the art from the city museum, the art that had been donated by the men who began the auto factories in Detroit from their collections. The money goes to city programs. I wonder what they’ll do when they run out of art? “ What I had recently read was this . The collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts was being treated as a municipal asset. This is a collection built from the donations of philanthropists and benefactors from the auto industry, the Fords, Dodges, and Firestones; it seems appropriate that the collection be plundered for political purposes.
Today brought the news of Detroit’s bankruptcy. This news made me pity Detroit. Then I thought, think how hard it is to govern as a Democrat. Their constituency demands so much of them. When the money is simply not there, what are they supposed to do? They have to pretend that the world is full of unlimited resources for government programs, for “the people”. When economic reality catches up with them, does their constituency say, “Oh well, we were all wrong. We’d better find another way.” No, they never do. They turn to the federal government for help. In this case, even with federal support through a variety of programs (Google “federal funds – Detroit” and see) the city could not stay afloat and accusations of the misuse of funds cannot help their present situation.
John Hinderaker on Powerline, offered this photo gallery of images as a fitting tribute to Detroit. For example:
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