Be inspired by this video of the Landfill Harmonic Orchestra that shows the amazing creativity, drive, and constructive power of the human spirit in the face of bad conditions:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/aei-ideas/posts/~3/RVIxuzmrMHk/
Yes, there is a lesson. Contrast this with Detroit which shows how this wonderful human spirit and endeavor so natural in the human species can be crushed and disfigured. In the face of failure and horrible human consequences, Detroit's political class continues to produce a constant trend of increasing debt, now at $19 billion with 47 public employee unions with pay scales comparable to the old Autoworkers. Meanwhile, 79% of children are born to unwed mothers, only 3% of 4th graders who meet national standards, unemployed workers who can't read can't get a job, there is wait time of 40 minutes to an hour for emergency services, 62% have fled the city. It would be astonishing to deny that it was the big-government liberal politicians who drove the city to bankruptcy, to its inevitable corruption, to the unrestrained public employee entitlement mentality, and to its moral collapse. How has this big government helped the human spirit? Sure some seem to think Detroit was a victim; it became a prisoner of its dependence on the auto industry. But then why did not the politicians and government respond to the societal problem as people seem to think is the purpose of government? Can we really say Detroit government serves the common good?
So then ask: who kept the same worthless politicians in office? They couldn't have done it without the votes of the citizens. But why exactly would you keep reelecting people who not only fleece the city in every legal and illegal way possible but can't provide basic services? But Detroit is not an isolated case of societal harm by government, so how is it that so many can believe in big government as reflecting the common good, as the means for solving societies problems, as the source of economic growth, as the source of hope…still? Why aren't the history lessons of government large and small, compelling?
Liberals constant hold over Detroit, power unchecked by democracy as it was and continues to be, produces the consequences of such power—incompetence, magical thinking, cynicism and sometimes criminality—so obvious in Detroit but still apparently impossible for its citizens to discern (at least of those who have not fled). We might pity Detroit but is not the same seeds of harm to the common good not at work in other cities, at other levels, in other countries?
Detroit has a PeopleMover largely abandoned, it is building a hockey arena. But Government doesn't produce harmonic orchestras, or the common good, people do. Use government to harm people's constructive activities and take away from them for big government monuments and you harm the common good.
About Me
- Richard Meinhard
- I came up through the elementary and middle school teaching ranks in Iowa and California to land in degree programs at the U of California and U of I. My Ph.D. is in developmental psychology and cognitive systems theory. After teaching at the U of Portland in math and teacher ed, I began my own organization to bring research into the public schools. I also have worked for policy changes such as chartering that would open opportunities for change oriented educators.
