Photos: Detroit in Ruins
CARPE DIEM
Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
About Me
- Name: Mark J. Perry
- Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
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15 Comments:
Along that same line, here are some photos of "Feral" houses in the Detroit area:
http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2009/07/feral-houses.html
So sad....
And…
Click here to see how Detroit was destroyed.
P.S.) Dr. Perry -- the link to the primary citation is broken (remove the extraneous space in front of the URL).
The real story is why are these conditions present. Primarily due to property taxes, city income taxes, and monopoly (but non-existent) city services.
I know numerous people who've tried to live in Detroit, or tried to invest and/or rent out property in Detroit, and every one of them have simply walked away from their investment. The taxes, the lack of services the taxes are supposedly paying for, and the complete ineptitude of the city's bureaucracy make any investment in Detroit a gauranteed loss.
Unless your name is Illitch, Karmonos or Ford, there is nothing worth pursuing west of Telegraph or south of 8 Mile.
Sorry. Make that "east of Telegraph".
East or West, both are correct.
Here is a video. The building shown is the Detroit Grand Central Station - for those of you who remember the glory era of railroads.
Richard Wagner - Tannhäuser, Pilgerchor
Great link Professor Mark, thanks for posting it...
Of course all those free trade agreements that allowed employers to move outside the USA and import their products into the country without tariffs had nothing to do with Detroit’s problems. Nor is it germane to point out that Detroit had high taxes and liberal government when it was prosperous or that 50 yards across the Detroit River Windsor, Ontario Canada prospers with all the things that supposedly caused Detroit to fail due to NAFTA jobs that were once held by Americans.
Or could it be that these things were left out because of a bias towards free trade and blindness to any problems caused by free trade.
"Nor is it germane to point out that Detroit had high taxes and liberal government when it was prosperous or that 50 yards across the Detroit River Windsor, Ontario Canada prospers with all the things that supposedly caused Detroit to fail due to NAFTA jobs that were once held by Americans."
I wonder if it's germane to point out that manufacturing in Windsor, Ontario has existed for as long as it has existed in Detroit, and didn't suddenly flourish due to NAFTA. Perhaps there's some other cause for the difference in prosperity.
James, I'm surprised to hear that you are unhappy about trade with Canada. After all, Canada is hardly a third world hell-hole with child labor sweatshops and unfair slave labor wages. Are you sure Windsor's prosperity is at Detroit's expense? Perhaps you could provide some support for that assertion.
Free trade is a feckless lass, bestowing kisses and slaps as she flirts about.
Sure GM execs were arrogant, sure labor unions wanted too much.
But if the USA had been an island nation alone in the world, what would happened to Detroit?
In the 1960s, the best architects, the talent etc in the world went to Detroit. It was the tech capital of the world.
Free trade? Why not go whole hog? Why not an all-powerful WTO, a global central bank and a world currency? A UN military and no other?
Open borders for capital, labor, goods and services.
I notice free traders never point to the logical conclusion of their arguments.
Wonderful what socialist housing policies of the '60s and '70s have started...
People speak as if Detroit is entitled to prosperity for an indefinite period of time just because it once had it. The reason it had prosperity was because innovative entrepreneurs started businesses there, which attracted further talent. If no one in Detroit is doing anything innovative anymore, why would they deserve prosperity?
Benjamin, you pose a good question. What if USA was magically transported to a world where there were no other countries.
Would we have had enough oil & natural resources?
What about Detroit exports? Didn't they export stuff? That goes away.
Would the people just have kept buying the mediocre vehicles that Detroit was making?
I don't understand the rest of your post. "Why not an all-powerful WTO, a global central bank and a world currency? A UN military and no other?
Open borders for capital, labor, goods and services."
Why would you need a WTO? That isn't free trade, it's regulated trade.
Global central bank? What are you talking about? The most free trade people I know hate central banks. Free individuals should be able to trade in whatever currency or good they wish to.
UN Military? What does that have to do with trade? I could see having international courts to adjudicate contract disputes, but I'd say you're on your own for enforcement.
Quote from James: "Of course all those free trade agreements that allowed employers to move outside the USA and import their products into the country without tariffs had nothing to do with Detroit’s problems."
So, your argument is that Detroit failed because the rest of America wasn't taxed enough to compensate for their inability to compete with foreign producers? Detroit was the cutting edge of manufacturing, the industry leader, but somehow they needed tariffs (taxes) to compete?
Quote from Benjamin: "Free trade? Why not go whole hog? Why not an all-powerful WTO, a global central bank and a world currency? A UN military and no other?"
How is this the logical conclusion of arguments for free trade. We don't need any supra-governmental bureaucracies to have free trade. Somehow you've confused regulation with freedom.
We could have free trade today. Just end all restrictions, all tariffs, all government controls, and let the products flow. If other countries choose to restrict trade, that's their problem. They're only penalizing their own people to our benefit.
If protected industies here can't compete, then those resources should be doing something else. Subsidizing them doesn't change that fact, it only reinforces waste.
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