Posted on 09/01/2010 9:31:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A city does not die when its last resident moves away. Death happens when municipalities lose the industries and vital populations that made them important cities.
The economy has evolved so much since the middle of the 20th Century that many cities that were among the largest and most vibrant in America have collapsed. Some have lost more than half of their residents. Others have lost the businesses that made them important centers of finance, manufacturing, and commerce.
Most of America’s Ten Dead Cities were once major manufacturing hubs and others were important ports or financial services centers. The downfall of one city, New Orleans, began in the 1970s, but was accelerated by Hurricane Katrina.
Notably, the rise of inexpensive manufacturing in Japan destroyed the ability of the industrial cities on this list to effectively compete in the global marketplace. Foreign business activity and US government policy were two of the three major blows that caused the downfall of these cities. The third was the labor movement and its demands for higher compensation which ballooned the costs of manufacturing in many of these cities as well.
24/7 Wall St. looked at a number of sources in order to select the list. One was the US Census Bureau’s list of largest cities by population by decade from 1950 to 2000 with estimates for 2007. Detroit, for example, had 1.9 million people in 1950 and was the fifth largest city in the nation. By 2000, the figure was 951,000. The city was not even on the top ten list in 2007.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Most of these cities have been run for decades by often corrupt Democrat mayors and politicians.
I think our trade deficit with China is in the neighborhood of $250 billion. I you’re planning on making your numbers up, try to be little more accurate.
And look at DISD now. We went to parochial schools so weren’t in danger of being trucked across town, but my parents bought our house because of the reputation and the quality of the neighborhood elementary school. They rightly assumed things would go to hell in a handbasket and property values would follow. They moved far enough north to get out of DISD and the northern suburbs were a much better real estate investment. They stayed in the northern part of the county for years, but now most of my family is in Collin County. I don’t live in the metroplex anymore but do drive up frequently to see family. So you are a twin?
“I am not sure what we are supposed to do for a living”
Vote for them - duh (they wish)
Boston and San Francisco are hardly dead or dying cities. If liberal policies alone could kill these cities then they would have been dead long ago.
Neither of the these cities have ever been dominated by one industry which could be a reason.
Chicago and New York are far from dying.
I can’t speak for other cities but Boston liberals are usually smart enough not to place liberal burdens on the local industry. As they say politicians can be bought for a price.
Well educated us then.
What SPECIFIC policies, incentives and/or legislation has the Democrat leadership deployed to make Boston the glaring exception to the extemely reliable benchmark rule, that liberal policies destroy everything in their path.
EVERYTHING.
I don't support the bureaucracies of police, fire departments or schools.
I belive in protecting myself and my property, and those that have social ties to me. Police interfere with that. I want private, for fee, fire suppression companies.
I want all government schools abolished. The very notion of government warping, shaping, guiding young minds is repellent. Private school, religions school, home school.
Anyways, we give the Chines ever worthless dollars, and they give us stuff. We've done this since the Indians traded land for worthless glass beads, mirrors and junk guns.
You pointed out an error. I should have addressed this as our overall trade deficit, not just our trade deficit with China.
Here is an article from September, 2007. It pegs our trade deficit at around $725 billion dollars.
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/association-news/amtac/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40863
As usual, you’re too cute by half. The issue I was addressing is real, even if it isn’t totally a problem with China.
The issue is, should we be content to allow trillions of multiplier effect dollars escape our economy each year?
Yep...identical.
While you do have a point with public education, I find discussing issues with an anarchist to be futile.
Later.
A majority of the population are poor. Hartford schools are terrible. A 42% high school graduation rate - compared to 95% statewide. Crime is rampant. The Hartford murder rate is 4x the national average. The auto theft rate is 3x the national average. Per capita income is under $14,000. and under $30,000 for families. The once-bustling downtown is gone. As in so many small cities across American, the major stores and small shops have fled to the suburban malls. The Hartford Courant, once a fairly prestigious daily newspaper (two Pulitzer Prizes) is just another liberal rag, aping the New York Times in it's skewed view of the news and always backing Democrat candidates in every election.
It's telling that two-thirds of Hartford's registered voters are registered Democrat and the entire state, long controlled by a government employee union-subservient legislature votes Democrat in every election. Republican governors come and go, but they are always RINOs and can't override the legislature, even if they wanted to...which they usually don't. Oh, the insurance companies still keep their home office addresses in Hartford - and a few buildings, but most insurance company employees work outside of Hartford in 'satellite' office parks where the real work is done. There have been some outrageously expensive taxpayer-funded 'projects' that have brought some nice buildings to Hartford but if the streets aren't safe, schools are abysmal and jobs are few, the city will never revive because the people and the neighborhoods that once made Hartford a pleasant place to live, work and shop is gone - never to return.
Hartford was killed by Democrat politics that drove out the working middle class and brought in the dependent class and all their attendant problems. Constant infusions of taxpayer money to 'fix' Hartford are a scam on Connecticut workers that pay those taxes. The mayor of Hartford, Eddie Perez, was recently convicted on 5 corruption charges and promptly resigned. His successor is Pedro Segarra, an openly gay native of Puerto Rico.
Hartford is a classic example of how socialist policies can destroy a city - and a nation. Let it be a warning.
You don’t know your political theory, political economy, or institutional history.
Pittsburgh has been operating under a state-controlled oversight board because of its impending bankruptcy for the past few years.
The city is trying to figure out whom to tax next to try to fill the hole in their pension funds.
It’s not as bad as Buffalo, but it’s no shining example either.
“I want private, for fee, fire suppression companies.”
####
Hear! Hear!
MUCH of the US would be more than well-served with such a construct or even volunteer departments.
Pittsburgh was always 'diversified' in terms of industry even when the steel industry was booming locally. It always had a mix of high tech, and heavy industry. Companies like Westinghouse, Alcoa, PPG, Gulf Oil, Rockwell, Koppers etc were all headquartered there which gave the area enough flexibility to survive the cutbacks in big steel during the 70s and 80s.
That, coupled with some pretty good universities and medical research has kept the area from becoming a Detriot or Allentown.
You might not approve of the way they return, or the way they "escaped" in the first place, but the moment you start thinking that you can find a way to direct in in one way or the other, you end up causing more problems than you solve. That's the fundamental difference between free-traders and protectionists. The former instinctively know that the government will find a way to screw things up, and the latter is always thinking "well, maybe this time . . . ."
It's why everyone ignores my Caterpillar example: there's no reason why Colombia should by Cat bulldozers from the EU instead of the US. Yet the protectionists argue that signing a free trade agreeement with Colombia will cost high-paying manufacturing jobs.
Much is made of the loss of jobs due to “cheap labor”. In recent interviews I’ve seen on TV stock finance programs, companies that are outsourcing have blamed the high corporate and capital gains taxes and regulation in the U.S.
Another factor that came as a surprise: a shortage of certain job skills and technical ability in the US.
Those dollars that return are nullified by dollars that wouldn’t have to. You are certainly creative in a certain dishonest ignorant sort of way.
I’m not defending liberalism or their policies. I’m just pointing out that there are other factors for these cities decline. Liberals haven’t helped them and Republicans would not be able to save these places either.
Ask most under 25 year olds at any supermarket deli to cut a 1/3 of a pound of anything for you and watch the reaction: DUUUUHHHHHH! Clueless.
And I've had students in Chemistry class that were in nursing programs that have ZERO idea what the difference between an ounce, gram, pound or meter are. That can be a case of what you don't know WILL kill someone.
Yeah, these are the future leaders...and they're going to run the government? National health care? They don't know up from down. Not all, but many of them for sure.
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