Several decades ago, the Sociological Practice Association held its annual meeting in the vicinity to Detroit. We were lucky enough to have one of the city’s councilmen take us on a guided tour of his town. The experience was devastating.
Block after block of this once proud metropolis had been reduced to wreckage. Private houses were degraded into piles of debris, while the population had fled elsewhere. Thanks to wild over-spending, the size of the city had been cut to a quarter of what it had been.
Since then efforts have been made to bring Detroit back from bankruptcy. Some progress has been made. The crime rate, for instance, has been cut. And yet, when the devastation is a great as it was, it takes a long time to recover.
One might imagine that Detroit’s fate would be an object lesson from which other political entities would learn. Sadly, this is not so. A case in point is California. Currently, under the sway of deeply liberal politicians, the once Golden State is headed into a more spectacular episode of decline.
We know that California is now a sanctuary state. It has opened its borders to any and all comers. Not only are they welcome, but they will be protected irrespective of the crimes they commit. This is not just an invitation to live in the state, but to engage in misconduct within it.
The fruits of this policy are already on display in places like San Francisco. Trash litters the streets, strewn there by vagrants who are accorded every right to be homeless. This formerly beautiful city is being turned into a dangerous garbage heap in the name of compassion.
The state has also decided to spend money on projects it cannot afford. Thus a multi-billion dollar rail system to nowhere is in the process of disintegrating. To this, governor Gavin Newsom has promised to add a trillion dollar health system available to all.
This is in a state where the pension commitments are presently unsustainable and where many communities have gone bankrupt. It is not as if there were no warning signs of what may be coming. Actually, pervious governors have already had to deal with financial crises.
For the moment, thanks to the Trump economy, the tax revenues are trending up. Nonetheless, this cannot last. What then of the day of reckoning? Will the current crop of politicians declare “après moi le deluge” and get out of town before the worst takes hold?
The getting out of town has indeed begun. Where once California was synonymous with immigration, it is now notorious for emigration. The middle classes are moving out. Taxes and housing costs have become so exorbitant that it makes more sense to head for Texas.
What is happening is that the population is bifurcating. On the one end are the exceedingly rich. Whether they reside in Beverley Hills or Silicon Valley, they can protect themselves from the growing turmoil around them. Safe in their gated communities, they can fool themselves into believing that their favorite policies are helping the poor.
On the other end, of course, are the poor. They cannot afford new houses with state-mandated solar panels on the roof. Neither can they afford the higher prices for the over-regulated products in the super markets. Instead, they are being forced into squalor—not exactly a democratic outcome.
No state, no matter advantageous its geographical position, can long endure these trends. In the past, liberal theories have destroyed inner cities nationwide. Not just Detroit, but Baltimore, St. Louis, and now Chicago have been blighted by shortsighted efforts to initiate utopian programs.
Will the politicians ever learn? Will the citizens who vote them into office ever notice the consequences of their folly? I doubt it. Hope tends to outrun realism until it hits an impenetrable barrier. This happened in Detroit. Will it someday befall California?
I am not holding my breath. We see the empty-headed liberal generosity not just in California, but also in New York City and Washington State. New York is an interesting variant in that it has had a brush with disaster. Although saved by the prudent Rudy Giuliani, a lavish new mayor once more promises to lead it into perdition.
People seldom learn! They want what they want, irrespective of the aftermath. Most of us must merely sit back and watch the slide into catastrophe. Such is the human condition.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Kennesaw State University
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