“And if you knock down 10,000 homes in Detroit, that’s 10,000 fewer homeowners to remodel their basements, finish their attics, or renovate their kitchens with those custom cabinets.”
...sheeeit!..you ain’t ever been to the inner city!...ain’t nobody there gonna renovate, remodel or finish...they’re too busy trying to survive being shot at...I worked on a Habitat house in Baltimore...what a mess that street was!...on a bright day the gutters sparkled with empty crack vials...there are places in this country where everyday life looks like something straight out of “Escape From New York”...uninhabitable by any standard.
I was thinking about that too. How much of a mis-read is it to assume that people in the inner city of Detroit are going to be spending $20k on a kitchen remodel?
The author is also wrong about wealth creation. Economic good is not created by artists. There is no economic value created by painting a picture. Pretty to look at? Yes. But economic value? No.