05-20-2021, 01:29 PM
A solution to many of our problems?
This is about a Ponzi scheme. No, it is not Social Security, which really is well funded... but it is far more pervasive and set for a fall. In some places (Greater Detroit may be the most blatant and infamous), public revenues and public costs have gone into a complete imbalance...and you know how that goes.
There's plenty of blame to spread around, some of it undue. Greater Detroit is an anathema to many in rural and semi-rural Michigan, much of it on race (which explains the infamous Michigan Militia). This said, many 'lesser' communities far from Detroit and in no way urban, have much the same problem of urban sprawl (in cities of only 10,000 people). Traffic congestion is hideous, and this is not for some special event. Note well: just as in giant cities, infrastructure costs start small and rise exponentially, and a city needs more growth to offset the rising costs of infrastructure -- whether the city has 5000 people or 5 million.
Ethnic tensions? Economic distress becomes inter-ethnic tensions. Misplaced priorities? Cities having to spend huge amounts of money replacing sewers and streets instead of on educating children. Political corruption? A poor financial condition creates stresses that invite demagogues who become crooks as soon as they take office. I've mocked former Detroit Mayor (and jailbird) Kwame Kilpatrick as "Kwame Crook-Patrick"... but cities not in trouble don't vote for people like him.
So how can one connect urban design, high collision and death rates involving motor vehicles, troubled public finances, soulless development, wasteful use of energy, and pathological government? Oddly, catastrophic decisions in urban planning. Developers get much of the blame here, but so do public officials who saw quick growth but not unwelcome consequences twenty years later. As many people do if given the chance, the ones who made the decisions got rich or improved their career prospects for about twenty years. They expect things to magically take care of themselves when things project to go badly.
Strong Towns looks like a solution. It does require us to rethink how we do many important things in life.
This is about a Ponzi scheme. No, it is not Social Security, which really is well funded... but it is far more pervasive and set for a fall. In some places (Greater Detroit may be the most blatant and infamous), public revenues and public costs have gone into a complete imbalance...and you know how that goes.
There's plenty of blame to spread around, some of it undue. Greater Detroit is an anathema to many in rural and semi-rural Michigan, much of it on race (which explains the infamous Michigan Militia). This said, many 'lesser' communities far from Detroit and in no way urban, have much the same problem of urban sprawl (in cities of only 10,000 people). Traffic congestion is hideous, and this is not for some special event. Note well: just as in giant cities, infrastructure costs start small and rise exponentially, and a city needs more growth to offset the rising costs of infrastructure -- whether the city has 5000 people or 5 million.
Ethnic tensions? Economic distress becomes inter-ethnic tensions. Misplaced priorities? Cities having to spend huge amounts of money replacing sewers and streets instead of on educating children. Political corruption? A poor financial condition creates stresses that invite demagogues who become crooks as soon as they take office. I've mocked former Detroit Mayor (and jailbird) Kwame Kilpatrick as "Kwame Crook-Patrick"... but cities not in trouble don't vote for people like him.
So how can one connect urban design, high collision and death rates involving motor vehicles, troubled public finances, soulless development, wasteful use of energy, and pathological government? Oddly, catastrophic decisions in urban planning. Developers get much of the blame here, but so do public officials who saw quick growth but not unwelcome consequences twenty years later. As many people do if given the chance, the ones who made the decisions got rich or improved their career prospects for about twenty years. They expect things to magically take care of themselves when things project to go badly.
Strong Towns looks like a solution. It does require us to rethink how we do many important things in life.
Quote: ... the local unit of government benefits from the enhanced revenues associated with new growth. But it also typically assumes the long-term liability for maintaining the new infrastructure. This exchange — a near-term cash advantage for a long-term financial obligation — is one element of a Ponzi scheme.
Quote:“Over a life cycle, a city frequently receives just a dime or two of revenue for each dollar of liability.”
The other is the realization that the revenue collected does not come near to covering the costs of maintaining the infrastructure. In America, we have a ticking time bomb of unfunded liability for infrastructure maintenance. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates the cost at $5 trillion — but that's just for major infrastructure, not the minor streets, curbs, walks, and pipes that serve our homes.
The reason we have this gap is because the public yield from the suburban development pattern — the amount of tax revenue obtained per increment of liability assumed — is ridiculously low. Over a life cycle, a city frequently receives just a dime or two of revenue for each dollar of liability. The engineering profession will argue, as ASCE does, that we're simply not making the investments necessary to maintain this infrastructure. This is nonsense. We've simply built in a way that is not financially productive.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.